A noncom FM radio station on Santa Catalina island in southern California will need to get its online public file straightened out if it wants to keep its license.
The Audio Division of the FCC has renewed KCFH(FM) in Two Harbors, Calif., for one year instead of the usual eight.
The station is licensed to Common Frequency Inc., which usually is in the news for helping other organizations launch community, LPFM and college radio stations but which is also is the licensee of five stations in California and Oregon.
The short-term renewal of KCFH is granted on the condition that Common Frequency reconstruct several missing issues/program and donor lists.
The commission also will be watching to see if the station stays on the air. It noted that KCFH had been off the air for more than half of its license term since Common Frequency acquired it in 2015.
Even though the station had special temporary authorization for those silences, the commission says it “has repeatedly fallen short of that which would warrant routine license renewal” because of the extended periods of silence. The fact that KCFH has been on the air full-time for the last 10 months “does not offset its failure to broadcast during the majority of its stewardship.”
The FCC also took Common Frequency to task for certifying that it had met the public inspection file requirements. It said the station file is missing issues/programs lists for many quarters, and that others “were not timely and some were reconstructed almost two years past their due dates.” Further, lists for later quarters “appear to reflect programming aired only on two other stations operated by the same licensee” or describe segments of a single syndicated program.
“Although there is insufficient evidence to support a finding that licensee’s false certification of public file compliance is due to any deliberate misrepresentation or lack of candor, the file’s deficiencies clearly demonstrate gross negligence and make it impossible for us to determine that the station met its obligation to provide public service programming for its community, even during the portion of the license term it was on air,” the Audio Division wrote.
“Moreover, we are concerned that licensee certified it had met the requirements when it clearly had not.”
So the FCC has issued an admonishment and a conditional short-term renewal.
KCFH must bring its OPIF into compliance by March 1. “This limited, conditional renewal period will afford the commission an opportunity to review the station’s public service performance, as well as compliance with the act and the commission’s rules, and to take whatever corrective actions, if any, that may be warranted at that time.”
Under FCC rules, Common Frequency can challenge the conditional grant within 30 days. The organization did not immediately reply to an email inviting comment.
