It looks like Good News Broadcasting Network will secure a construction permit for a new noncom educational station in Gallup, N.M.
The organization owns several TV stations, mostly in Arizona, and wants to broadcast Christian programming on a 3 kW signal on 90.9 FM in Gallup. It had filed an application in the 2021 NCE filing window.
But its application ended up in one of the 231 groups of mutually exclusive applications from that window. After the original tentative selectee was dismissed for a rule violation, the FCC ran a new point system analysis and named New Hope Baptist Church of Artesia, N.M. as the tentative selectee in Group 152. It awarded New Hope Baptist two points for diversity in ownership while Good News received one point for best technical proposal.
But Good News then filed a petition to deny. It said New Hope Baptist’s application had been signed by Jason Perry, its pastor, but said Perry was not identified as an officer on the church’s application nor on the New Mexico secretary of state’s website. The FCC’s signature rule requires an officer or director to sign an application if it is a corporation such as New Hope Baptist Church.
The commission now has agreed that New Hope violated the signature rule. It said it has made clear that it will “adhere strictly” to the signature rule requirements and that violations “are not curable.”
Because Perry is neither an officer nor director of New Hope Baptist, its application is dismissed and Good News Broadcasting Network’s NCE CP was accepted for filing.
There is a 30-day window for filing a petition to deny.
