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Missing Programming Lists Mean Fines for Two

FCC upholds two public file fines

The FCC has upheld two $10,000 public file fines.

The public file violations concern WWNQ(FM), Forest Acres, S.C. and WTXR(FM), Toccoa Falls, Ga.

When Double O South Carolina Corp. filed to renew the license for WWNQ last July, the broadcaster admitted several quarterly programming reports were missing from its public file. Double O reconstructed the missing reports and added them to the file and asked the FCC to cancel the fine.

The commission upheld the $10,000 fine, saying the station had 10 missing reports over a 10-year period. The purpose of the public file is “to provide the public with timely information about the station,” the commission noted.

Double O has 30 days to pay.

Toccoa Falls College, too, admitted WTXR had items missing from the station’s public file on its license renewal application. Specifically, quarterly program reports were missing from March 2006, when the station was first licensed, through June 2010.

The agency originally fined the licensee this May. The school appealed, telling the commission sanctions imposed on student-run stations should be less than for other licensees and that it should get credit for admitting its mistake.

Finding those arguments unpersuasive, the FCC upheld the fine and told the school it has 30 days to pay.

In a tower fencing case, the commission fined Alaska Integrated Media $7,000 for not having a secure, locked fence around the tower for KOAN(AM), Anchorage, Alaska. During an inspection at the Knick, Alaska tower site in March, Enforcement Bureau agents saw several planks were missing from the fence. A home was within 500 feet and a public road was within 300 feet of the structure, according to the agency’s account.

That’s why the agency fined the licensee $7,000 and told AIM it has 30 days to submit a sworn statement testifying that the fence is fixed and either appeal or pay the fine.

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