Roger Wahl To Face FCC In ‘HDO’

In mid-March, the septuagenarian owner of a Class A radio station serving a rural portion of Western Pennsylvania returned to the airwaves after a short absence. His return was controversial: on November 16, 2020 this individual was placed on a three-year “restricted probation” for a series of criminal sexual acts at a sentencing hearing that most believed would save him from a FCC license revocation hearing.

Seven months later, the Chief of the Commission’s Media Bureau has spoken up. Roger Wahl is on notice that he could loose control of WQZS-FM in Meyersdale, Pa., as a Hearing Designation Order has been sent to his attention.

FCC Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey on Tuesday issued the Hearing Designation Order, Order to Show Cause and Notice of Opportunity for Hearing to Wahl. The goal: to determine whether he is qualified to be and to remain a holder of WQZS’s license.

The Bureau’s action is a response to a judge’s decision to place Wahl on a three-year “restricted probation” for a series of lurid criminal sexual acts and voyeuring.

Wahl’s troubles began on September 7, 2019, when he was arrested by Pennsylvania State Police on charges of rape solicitation, identity theft and invasion of privacy. Specifically, Wahl was accused of attempting to solicit men to engage in unwanted sexual acts with an unnamed woman who he later admitted he impersonated through the creation of a phony online dating profile. According to State Police, Wahl hid a trail camera inside the 62-year-old woman’s house several years ago. Images from the camera were allegedly accessed by Wahl and then used by him to lure men into her home, with Wahl making the arrangements.

To exacerbate matters, Wahl was also charged with tampering with physical evidence. As noted by Trooper John Wogan, pictures were deleted from Wahl’s phone as were text communication from the dating site, apparently after Wahl discovered State Police were investigating. And, as Wahl’s residence appears to be the same as that of WQZS, Wahl used a computer on the radio station’s premises to conduct the illicit online communications via the dating website, Wogan’s report stated.

On July 8, 2020, Wahl was scheduled to plead guilty to a felony. A day earlier, it became known that Wahl on June 1, 2020 filed a Form 314 form with the FCC seeking permission to transfer WQZS to his daughter, Wendy Sipple, for $10. An FCC approval came. But, on July 13, 2020, the Commission reversed its approval of the license transfer, likely upon learning of Wahl’s legal predicament.

Wahl’s attorney, David Flower, went to action on behalf of his client. He lobbied for a lessening of the charges against the WQZS owner. Somerset County District Attorney Jeffrey Lynn Thomas acquiesced.

Fast-forward to September 2021. Thomas, 36, was accused of having attacked a woman in her home. He was charged with rape, indecent and simple assault, strangulation and criminal trespassing; Thomas’ hearing was scheduled for 1pm today (10/19).

With Thomas now mired in a rape controversy, the lesser charges against Wahl could be reexamined. For the Media Bureau, however, his convictions of a felony and multiple misdemeanors alone “raise the question under the Commission’s Character Qualifications Policy Statement whether he possesses the requisite character qualifications to remain a Commission licensee.”

A QUESTION OF CHARACTER

With so many lurid tales of Wahl, Michelle Carey makes it clear: A character defect is something that would warrant the Commission’s refusal to grant a license, or revoke one.

As Carey explains, Wahl’s guilty plea to criminal use of a communication facility, a third-degree felony, by itself, raises the question under the Commission’s Character Qualifications Policy Statement whether he possesses the requisite character qualifications to remain a Commission licensee.

Further, the Media Bureau also finds that Wahl’s multiple misdemeanor convictions support its decision to designate this matter for hearing.

What’s next? Wahl or his attorney, if one is retained, must file a written appearance within 20 days of the mailing of the HDO to his address in Pennsylvania.

This will begin the process on a consolidated proceeding, conducted as a written proceeding, with the FCC’s Administrative Law Judge, Jane Hinckley Halprin, serving as presiding officer.