In August 2023, the FCC’s Video Division Chief, Barbara Kreisman, issued county administrators in rural Colorado a monetary forfeiture in the amount of $6,000 for being six weeks late with the license renewal applications for four low-power TV stations.
The leaders in this rural area of the Rocky Mountain State responded. And, the fine has been erased by the Commission.
Bent County’s K29JL-D, K25LE-D, K23KN-D andK27KX-D, all LPTV facilities in Las Animas, Colo., should have filed application for the renewal of their respective licenses by December 1, 2021. The application was not filed until January 10, 2022, with no explanation.
A Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture was issued on May 20, 2022. There was no response, and the fine was all but sealed.
To investigate why the Colorado county has not responded, or why it was 41 days late with its LPTV license renewals, RBR+TVBR attempted to contact Bent County Treasurer Kathy Brown. A phone call yielded a continual ring, with no voicemail. A second call, to the Bent County Commissioners office, yielded a generic voicemail.
Fast-forward to Friday (8/2), and Kreisman announced that it has cancelled the fine and instead admonished Bent County.
What happened? On September 14, 2023, Bent County responded to the FCC with a request to cancel the fine, on the grounds that it had an inability to pay it. As the stations were operated using County Tax Revenue, the forfeitures would present a “harsh burden” on Bent County.
Kreisman agreed, the municipality serving a “very rural agricultural community” was erased.
“We take this opportunity to caution the Licensee that future violations of a similar nature
may yield a different result, including imposition of a forfeiture,” Kreisman warned in cancelling the fine.
