FCC Proposes $20,000 Fine Against Noncomm Applicant

Proposes Fine

IGLESIA JESUCRISTO ES MI REFUGIO, INC. has been assessed a proposed $20,000 fine by the FCC for failing to report changes in its applications for noncommercial FMs in four TEXAS cities but has granted the company's application for a new station in QUEMADO, TX.

The applications were challenged by competing applicant RADIO BILINGUE, which alleged that a move by IJR that changed the members of the board of directors of the applying subsidiary companies before the applications were filed and then changed them back to the IJR principals, members of the GOMEZ family, afterward showed that the transactions were a "sham" to allow IJR to circumvent FCC rules, letting the parent company and the two affiliated companies apply for 10 stations each.  RADIO BILINGUE also alleged that IJR failed to disclose a pending civil suit and misdemeanor drug conviction against IJR's ROBERTO GOMEZ.

In its action, the FCC ruled that the GOMEZ family's return to control of the subsidiary companies warranted dismissal of all twenty applications by the affiliates.  The Commission did, however, grant the QUEMADO application, and dismissed the allegations about the civil suit (which was settled and not adjudicated, putting it outside the Commission's scope) and the drug conviction (more than 10 years earlier).

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