Live Radio

Why is it forbidden for radio stations that webcast to include local commercials?

I listen to a number of commercial radio stations live via Internet webcasting. Whenever it's time for local commercials on the broadcast station, the webcasts always go to other "commercial free" or certain other commercials produced for the webcast. It's pretty much every commercial station that does this. If a station is airing a nationally syndicated show (such as KROQ's "Loveline" and "Out of Order"), the national commercials included with the syndicated show are webcasted but the local ones are pre-empted. It makes me wonder if there's some FCC legislation forbidding this or a business reason such as the station having to pay bigger fees for commercial webcasting. Anyone know the reason?

Public Comments

1. I'm sure the main reason is because these webcasts are aired nationally. If a station is based in Chicago and you are listening to their online steam in California, that's misleading to hear about places or products only available in Chicago.
2. There's no bar to broadcasting local commercials, it's just that the bandwidth would be wasted on them. Better to target a wider audience. Ad revenues are based on the size of the target audience. A small local business isn't going to pay national rates since their target audience is the same size either way. It's all down to simple economics. The FCC has no control or authority over internet broadcasts. There are plenty of internet "radio" stations that don't broadcast over-the-air at all.