KRAM is no more.
The Audio Division of the Media Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission has ruled in a dispute concerning the license of that nondirectional daytime AM at 1070 kHz in West Klamath, Ore.
Sandra Falk was licensee until she passed away in 2006; her beneficiary managed her estate until the state of Oregon petitioned for her removal, saying she had been involved in a fraudulent real estate transfer of Falk’s property. The court then appointed Scott MacArthur as representative of Falk’s estate, according to the FCC summary.
The commission says that after more than three years of silence, MacArthur reportedly returned the station to the air on July 15, 2009, and from a location other than what was listed on the license.
MacArthur, seeking to keep the station going, filed a request for STA to remain silent as well as an application for license renewal. Robert Wynne, the president of Wynne Broadcasting Co., then filed an appeal of the license renewal, complaining about the lengthy time that the AM had been off the air.
The FCC now rejected the license renewal. Its rules state that if a station fails to transmit for a 12-month period, the license expires. Further, precedent dictates that licensees can’t avoid the statutory deadline by using non-conforming facilities. And the FCC found no reason to extend or reinstate the license despite those limitations, as it is allowed to do in some circumstances.
The commission said it will modify its databases to show that the license expired in July 2007 and it has deleted the call sign KRAM(AM).
