Christian Family Radio network got a license renewal for expired station DWOLY(AM), Battle Creek, Mich., shot down recently, as was a request for an STA to run the station temporarily. The FCC told CFR that operating the station is unauthorized and must stop at once. Any necessary tower painting and lighting must be maintained until the tower is dismantled.
What led to this point was the station’s renewal application should have been filed by June 1, 2004, four months before the license was going to expire on Oct. 1, 2004. It wasn’t, so on June, 13, 2006, the commission wrote to CFR telling them the license had expired, authority to operate the station ended and the calls were purged from the FCC’s data base. Any further station operation was unauthorized and had to end immediately, the agency said it told CFR.
CFR didn’t stop operations and the FCC fined them $10,000; that was later knocked down to $5,000 based on CFR’s inability to pay.
More than two and a half-years later, on Jan. 15, 2009, CFR its license renewal application and sought authorization through an STA to continue operating pending action on the application. The licensee provided letters it said were its attempts to contact the agency.
The FCC said CFR didn’t respond to its original License Expiration Letter and the agency can only respond to a request to reconsider a decision within 30 days. It dismissed CFA’s request as untimely and said CFA did not show it experienced “extraordinary circumstances” that prevented the station from filing for renewal on time. The agency said there was no basis under which it could grant the STA request.
