The Federal Communications Commission said an LPFM applicant south of San Antonio was not forthcoming about the directors listed on its 2023 application. Following a letter of inquiry earlier this year, the FCC’s Audio Division has now dismissed the filing.
Ministerio Olas de Milagros is a nonprofit formed in Jourdanton, Texas just prior to the opening of the 2023 LPFM filing window. It sought to broadcast from Pleasanton with 24 watts ERP on 106.3 FM from a location along Texas Route 173, approximately 35 miles south of San Antonio.
The FCC Audio Division said it noticed irregularities in the ministry’s filing and sent the applicant a letter of inquiry in February. The division wanted to confirm whether the ministry had site assurance to use the location specified in its application as both a transmitter site and a studio.
But most pertinent to this case, the commission’s inquiry focused on the makeup of the three directors that the ministry listed on its application.
Details
Under FCC rules, an LPFM station may be licensed only to a nonprofit organization, a state or local government entity or a tribal applicant. As a result, an applicant must disclose its board members and directors.
The commission asked Ministerio Olas de Milagros for documentation verifying that, as the ministry listed, Maria Arana, a U.S. citizen, held an 80% voting interest, while non-U.S. citizens Carlos Figueroa of Mexico and Axume Roca of El Salvador held 10% each.
The commission also wanted to clarify several typographical errors in the filing, including the spelling of the organization’s name.
An attorney representing the applicant responded to the division in March. The ministry also filed an amended application at that time, indicating that the location specified for its transmitter and studio was also Roca’s residence.
According to the Audio Division, the ministry reattached a copy of its original Texas certificate of formation. But that wasn’t the documentation the FCC sought verifying that Arana, Figueroa and Roca were the sole directors with those specific voting shares.
The commission explained in the rejection letter that if it had to assume the voting interests were distributed equally among directors, the two-thirds control held by non-U.S. citizens would violate its foreign ownership limits.
Furthermore, the division noticed that Figueroa and Roca were missing from its March amended filing.
“Rather than providing the information requested by the audio division, Ministerio attempts to sidestep the question by deleting the two non-U.S. directors from its application,” the FCC wrote.
Texas state law also requires nonprofit corporations to maintain a minimum of three directors, and FCC rules state that LPFM applicants “must be incorporated or otherwise organized in a form recognized under state law.”
Instead, the division argued that the applicant “has simply changed the information provided to the commission in order to give the impression that it complies with the commission’s foreign ownership restrictions.”
“Such sleight of hand begins to raise questions as to whether the applicant has been fully forthcoming with the commission or whether it has demonstrated a lack of candor (or made a potential misrepresentation) that raises questions as to its fitness to hold a broadcast license,” the Audio Division concluded.
As a result, as of Sept. 23, the application has been dismissed.
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