FCC Consent Decree Fines WTHE/Long Island Operator For Unauthorized Resumption Of Broadcasting But Reinstates License

Fine And Reinstatement

UNIVERSAL BROADCASTING OF NEW YORK, INC. has been hit with a $5,000 fine under a consent decree with the FCC over the silence, temporary resumption of service, and sale of WTHE-A/MINEOLA, NY, but the Commission also reinstated the station's license, paving the way for its sale.

After being evicted from its longtime licensed site, WTHE went silent on JANUARY 25, 2018. The station got a Silent STA and was to resume operation no later than JANUARY 26, 2019, but the JANUARY 3rd government shutdown delayed WTHE's attempt to get approval for an STA for a longwire antenna, for which it filed an application on JANUARY 15th and got a grant on FEBRUARY 1st, but the station, which resumed broadcasting before the approval was issued, came off the air on the 5th after the municipality declared the longwire a violation of residential zoning. WIN RADIO BROADCASTING CORP. filed an opposition to the subsequent sale of WTHE to CANTICO NUEVO MINISTRY, INC, arguing that WTHE had not resumed operation in a timely manner with authorized facilities, its license thereby had expired, and the station could not be sold because there would be no license to sell. UNIVERSAL responded that the resumption should be considered under the particular circumstances and allowed for reasons of fairness and equity, and noted that WIN had itself entered into an exclusive lease of WTHE's licensed site.

The Commission agreed with WIN that the unauthorized resumption of broadcasting did not automatically stave off license expiration, but reinstatement, the Commission decided, was appropriate under the unique circumstances of the government shutdown and the WIN lease. Still, the consent decree included a $5,000 fine for unauthorized resumption of broadcasting.

Washington State Noncomm Move Nixed Again By FCC

The FCC also denied CHEHALIS VALLEY EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION's appeal of the rejection of its proposed move of noncommercial Religion KACS/CHEHALIS, WA to RAINIER, WA and upgrade from Class A to Class C3, which the Commission said would result in a move into the OLYMPIA-LACEY market and thus not a first local service to RAINIER under priority rules. CVEF had contended that the relevant principal community contour should be 70 dBu for noncommercial stations, but the Commission said that the 60 dBu contour is proper, leaving KACS covering 53.6% of the OLYMPIA-LACEY urbanized area and 13% of the SEATTLE urbanized area for purposes of the urbanized area service presumption.

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