San Francisco's Pride Parade loses its live broadcast

People who couldn't attend San Francisco's Pride Parade (or those who were too lazy to deal with the crowds) have long had the option to watch it live on KRON-4, a station with a history of community involvement and local programming.

This year, however, KRON won't be broadcasting the Parade live. Instead, it will air the parade later in the evening, while also offering a live feed on a digital local access cable channel, as well as online. The station, currently a MyNetwork TV affiliate, says that since their FCC license is up for renewal this year they're facing additional scrutiny. Having seen revenues drop in past years, the station is still reeling from a 2004 indecency fine and any further fines could easily put the station out of business. The station hopes that they've found a reasonable compromise between risking another indecency complaint while still making the Pride Parade available to their viewers.

My first reaction is that KRON-4 recently aired the Bay to Breakers race live. Bay to Breakers is best known for the creative costumes worn by its participants, the drinking that goes on during the race (some participants have even pushed floats that doubled as a traveling bar) and nudity. I wonder, if KRON didn't worry about their license in broadcasting Bay to Breakers live what makes Pride different? Was there an incident at Bay to Breakers that put them on alert for future events overall? Is there a double standard going on that would make them more worried about an incident at Pride generating a complaint than at an incident known for public consumption of alcohol and nudity?

Additionally, Congress is currently considering new broadcast rules that could put cable under the same indecency standards as broadcast channels. If that bill were to go through, I wonder if KRON could make this compromise in the future.

Still, this could make the San Francisco Parade more available to audiences. Since (from the sounds of it) the Parade won't be blocked by region, audiences worldwide will be able to watch it. We queers in the Bay Area have the luxury of finding the Pride Parade too inconvenient or too commercialized to attend; I wonder if it could have a different impact on people who live in places where they have to fight just to have a parade.