In what Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) President Emeritus and Senior Advisor David Honig calls “a big victory today for the public interest,” the FCC’s Audio Division Chief has moved forward with the expected deletion from existence of four AM radio stations serving the St. Louis market.
There’s a specific reason why Honig is pleased with the decision, which eliminates a quartet of facilities the Commission discovered were actually controlled by an individual convicted of felony offenses for obstruction of justice and bank fraud — and not the individual listed in all FCC filings.
“If the Commission entertains interim, rather than permanent applicants, we would consider helping the winning applicant(s) build and operate an incubator program,” Honig says.
But first, the Commission will need to decide whether it want an interim as opposed to immediate permanent applicants.
“It didn’t need to render that decision today, however,” Honig explains.
That’s because Audio Division Chief Al Shuldiner “did today what it needed to do today — reclaim the spectrum, protect it from potential upgrade applications in other markets, and make sure the towers are lit and painted to protect air navigation.”
Shuldiner’s decision does all of that, as Entertainment Media Trust has been ordered to immediately cease operations at KQQZ-AM 1190 in De Soto, Mo.; daytime-only WQQW-AM 1510 in Highland, Ill.; St. Louis-based KZQZ-AM 1230; and East St. Louis, Ill.-based KFTK-AM 1490.
The call signs of all four facilities have been deleted.
But, language in the ruling specifically states that the owner of the stations’ towers must maintain them under federal regulations.
Shuldiner’s actions were expected, as an Order of Dismissal of the license renewals, Chapter 7 asset liquidation plan and Construction Permit application for a new FM translator in Highland, Ill., was issued in late February by the Commission’s Administrative Law Judge, Jane Hinckley Halprin.
This put into motion a scenario that saw “The Grim Reaper of Radio,” Bob Romanik, essentially face the Grim Reaper of the FCC.
Problems for EMT began to mount in 2012, when the company filed renewal applications for the four stations.
A petition to deny those applications from “local resident and listener” Mark Kern.
Kern is the Democratic County Board Chairman in St. Clair County, Ill., and served as Belleville, Ill., Mayor from 1997-2016.
It is Kern who alerted the Media Bureau that the stations were actually controlled by an individual other than Watkins. That individual would be Romanik, a shotgun-toting former police chief of Washington Park, Ill.
He is also a convicted felon who served time in a federal penitentiary.
Romanik wasn’t exactly secretive in sharing his ties to the four stations. The Bureau’s investigation found that Romanik identified himself as a radio station owner on various forms disclosing his political contributions.
The Bureau also found that Romanik purported to assign EMT’s beneficial interest in the radio stations to his longtime girlfriend, Katrina M. Sanders, and directly participated in negotiations involving the 2016 Local Programming and Marketing Agreement initially signed with former KFTK-FM in St. Louis owner Emmis Communications for KFTK-AM.
There’s more: the Media Bureau investigation showed that EMT’s 2012 trust instrument was executed after EMT acquired the stations and does not appear to contain provisions insulating Romanik from ownership of the stations as required under Commission rules.
Further, Romanik provided EMT with the initial $500,000 it used to acquire WQQW, and some $1.2 million was given by Romanik to EMT to purchase KZQZ.
That amounts to 100% of the funds.
It was also discovered that Romanik gave EMT $450,000 to acquire KFTK-AM, and $600,000 to buy KQQZ.
These actions were purportedly done so that Romanik’s adult son, Stephen Romanik II, could fulfill his dream of entering the radio broadcasting business.
This saw the creation by the now-deceased Stephen Romanik of “Insane Broadcasting,” which would operate and manage the EMT stations. But, this didn’t exactly remove Robert Romanik from the mix, as Kern’s claims note that Romanik appears “to exercise control over the hiring of personnel and management” of the stations.
With the the September 17, 2015 death of Stephen Romanik, a power of appointment contained in EMT’s Trust Agreement tied to Insane Broadcasting was given to Robert Romanik.
EMT asserts that Romanik declined this appointment and later decided to
assign his rights in the Trust. But, a key issue stood out for the Media Bureau: EMT did not explain who exercised control over the stations in the year between Stephen Romanik’s death and Romanik’s purported assignment of his beneficial interest in EMT to an individual with the surname of Sanders.
The Hearing Designation Order for EMT was dissected in detail in a June 2019 column authored by retired Foster Garvey of counsel Erwin Krasnow and Jacksonville-based attorney John Wells King.
MMTC AXES ROBERTS PLAN
The MMTC in recent weeks had taken an active interest in the future of the Entertainment Media Trust stations.
Given the calls for the restoration of a minority tax certificate by many multicultural radio broadcasters and the FCC’s radio incubator program currently not effect due to the Third Circuit appeals court remand of its cross-ownership rule changes, MMTC Broadcasting on March 2 said it “respectfully volunteers to assume ownership and operating responsibility for the stations.”
This would have involved an involuntary transfer of control to the MMTC’s nonprofit subsidiary, with operation of the stations as “radio incubators.”
To execute this plan, MMTC Broadcasting proposed to LMA the stations to Roberts Radio Broadcasting, an African American family-owned broadcaster that is based in St. Louis and is the licensee of WRBJ-FM in the Jackson, Miss., market.
As of Tuesday, the MMTC abandoned the proposal. “Legal and policy concerns” expressed by the FCC were cited as reasons. However, Kern insisted that the stations be auctioned off.
This, in essence, will offer equivalent facilities to a new licensee.
