The FCC has fined American Family Association, licensee of non-commercial KBMP(FM), Enterprise, Kansas, for apparently violating the main studio rule by not meet location requirements and not maintaining enough personnel at the main studio. The commission states in its decision AFA didn’t respond to an FCC inquiry that told the licensee to produce information about the situation.
When AFA acquired the CP for the unbuilt station in 1999, AFA asked for a waiver of the rule in order to co-locate the main studio of KBMP(FM) with that of its co-owned Station KCFN(FM), Wichita, Kansas. The station went on the air in 2000 staffed with volunteers from First Christian Church. An attorney with the station told the FCC it wasn’t able to get enough volunteers for the required staff presence, so the station again sought a waiver of the rule.
The agency approved the waiver but the commission is penalizing the station for violating the main studio rules from the time it went on the air in March of 2002 until it received the waiver in Oct. of that year and for “failing to respond in full to a Bureau Order.” The fines are $7,000 and $3,000 respectively, for a total of $10,000 which the station must pay within 30 days.
American Family Association Fined $10,000
American Family Association Fined $10,000
