Station Ordered Off The Air By FCC

The FCC is ordering Oldies KRAT (97.7 THE RAT)/ALTAMONT-KLAMATH FALLS, OR to get off the air, the culmination of a bizarre series of events that include a licensee who claims not to have known that he was the licensee.  The Commission has deleted the station's calls, notified the station that its license expired in 2006, and served notice for the station to go dark immediately.

The Commission issued a license for the station (as KCHQ) to GEORGE J. WADE after a deal for the station in 1997; WADE's name was also on a license renewal filed in 2006 that was dismissed due to nonpayment of debts owed the Commission. However, WADE testified in a court hearing that he was not aware that the license was in his name until the IRS informed him of the fact, and, in the trial, evidence indicated that the actual owner and operator of the station was SANDRA SOHO, who was subsequently convicted of several felony counts of theft and food stamp fraud and sentenced to 38 months in prison and 30 days in county jail.

More FCC Actions: One Late Renewal App Fine, One Fine Rescinded

In other FCC actions, the commission fined WAYNE KOWALSKI $500 for a late license renewal application for FM translator W251AD/ALPENA, MI; rescinded a $7,000 fine for a late license renewal application on PERRY BROADCASTING CO. for KDLS-A/PERRY, IA, based on the Commission erring by not notifying the licensee of a problem with the filing fee, and imposed a 25% late fee instead ($187.50); and rejected CHESAPEAKE CATHOLIC RADIO's appeal of the denial of its application for a new FM in CHINCOTEAGUE, VA, which the applicant asserted should not have been deemed mutually exclusive with another application that was ultimately granted.

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