A Kentucky radio owner managed to get through an entire license term without putting a single issues/programs list in its public file. The station was hit with a pricy NAL for the omission, and appealed.
The station is WEKC-AM Williamsburg KY, licensed to Gerald Parks.
The standard fine for a public file violation is $10K. The FCC decided that scoring a zero on the issues/program lists requirement warranted increasing it by half again, upping it to $15K.
Parks asked for cancellation of reduction of the fine.
In essence, Parks pleaded ignorance. He said that station management was “previously unaware of the importance of staying current” with FCC regs. He noted that the station has since made amends.
The FCC rejected this argument, as it always does. A broadcast licensee is expected to know the rules, and there is no reward for fixing a wrong that the FCC has pointed out.
Parks also said the fine was beyond the station’s ability to pay, and said if forced to come across with the $15K, WEKC would have to be shut down.
A lot of times, licensees will claim poverty but fail to support the claim. Parks was not one of them – he supplied the FCC with relevant tax returns and the FCC agreed that the station was not in great financial shape.
The NAL was upgraded to a forfeiture order, but the penalty was knocked all the way down to $1.5K.
WEKC is a Class D on 710 kHz with 4.2 kW-D, ND. It is located in unrated territory south of Lexington KY and north of Knoxville TN. It reaches both markets, but only with its outermost fringe contour.
