The FCC has proposed fines to a pair of FM translator operators in Tennessee and Mississippi for untimely license renewals and continuing to operate the stations four years after their licenses expired.
The licensees were each proposed a forfeiture of $6,500.
The first is in Tennessee. Carolina University operates religious-formatted 980 WDYN(AM) in Rossville, Ga.
In March 2020, the FCC granted WDYN a license to cover for a 94.7 FM translator, W234CZ, licensed to Chattanooga. The FM translator — the second approved for WDYN — was to serve areas northeast of the city. In 2012, WDYN had added a 94.9 FM translator just south of the city’s center. All three of Carolina University’s licenses were up for renewal in April 2020. It successfully renewed the primary AM and the 94.9 translator but failed to include a renewal application for the 94.7 translator. The license thus expired on August 1, 2020, but the translator has continued to broadcast for some four years afterward without operating authorization.
In February of this year, Carolina University filed for W234CZ’s renewal after being informed by the FCC’s Media Bureau of its expiration during the process of transferring the stations to a new board. The university cited the short interval between when its license to cover for the translator was originally granted and its subsequent license renewal date as the reason for its oversight.
Heading south, in the Jackson, Miss., market, Marion Williams operates R&B and gospel-formatted 1150 WONG(AM), “Soul 1150,” licensed to Canton. WONG added a 105.5 FM translator, W288DU, in 2018. The two licenses were up for renewal in March 2020. While, the primary AM signal was renewed, the FCC said Williams failed to file for the translator, and its license expired in June of that year. The signal has continued to operate unauthorized since.
Williams filed for the translator’s renewal this April. He offered no explanation for the years-long tardiness.
The Media Bureau granted Carolina University’s late translator license renewal; however, Williams’ translator renewal is still pending.
In each case, the commission decided to assign monetary forfeitures of $6,500 to each of the operators through respective NALs. It said that, typically, the amount proposed would be $13,000, factoring in a $10,000 base fine “for the station’s extended periods of unauthorized operation.” Because the translators are operating as a secondary service, however, the commission reduced the forfeitures.
Each of the stations has 30 days to either pay the fine or submit a letter seeking reduction or cancellation of the forfeiture.
(Read W234CZ’s NAL and W288DU’s NAL.)
