MEYERSDALE, PA. — Until today, the American Militia Association‘s key fight was to protect the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms, through schools and efforts designed to promote and enhance the welfare of communities in Somerset County, Pa.
Now, the non-profit group has a new battle it’s waging. It wants the FCC to prevent Roger Wahl from keeping his Class A FM serving the region, as the embattled radio station owner faces a license revocation due to his felony conviction.
The association happens to be the licensee of low-powered FM radio station WHYU-LP, at 102.3 MHz. It has 100 watts of power and covers the town of Meyersdale.
It also happens to be the only other station sharing the same city of license as Wahl-owned WQZS-FM 92.3. As RBR+TVBR has extensively reported, Wahl faces the cancellation of his license and the deletion of the WQZS call letters following his conviction of charges tied to voyeurism, rape charges and solicitation of third-party individuals to carry out sexual acts.
Wahl has opted to serve as his own legal counsel in his license revocation hearing. That alone has put FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Hinckley Halprin on the hot seat, with warnings to Wahl that he must treat the hearing with the utmost seriousness, completing every procedural need or risk losing his license by default.
On WQZS, Wahl has received vehement support from a local pastor who benefits from Sunday morning airtime, going so far as to appeal to the Commission to allow Wahl to continue running a station that has provided a local voice to a region with few to offer.
The American Militia Association wants the exact opposite action to occur, and has filed a petition to deny the renewal of the WQZS license.
How this impacts, if at all, the license revocation hearing is not clear. But, what is clear is that WQZS’s license is set to expire on August 1. And, the association is lobbying new claims against Wahl, including its belief that he is operating “an unauthorized facility.”
The petition to deny WQZS’s license renewal is also in the interest of the American Militia Association as it also happens to be the permittee of a new full-powered noncommercial station at 89.1 MHz, which would take the WHYU-FM calls, matching its LPFM operation. Should WQZS go away, the association would be the only other radio operation in Meyersdale.
This likely fueled the association’s decision to file a 180-page petition to deny with the Commission. The petition alleges the defectiveness of the renewal application; multiple rule and public notice violations; technical violations; and fraud against the FCC and
public. This is based on the attempt by Wahl to transfer WQZS to his daughter, Wendy Sipple, for a token value of $10.
The petition also addresses “potential ownership issues” involving an entity named Target Broadcasting Inc. and original partners and investors in the radio station WQZS.
Wahl had continuously reported to the FCC that he was the only person with any ownership interests in the station. As RBR+TVBR previously reported, another party emerged, suddenly claiming their original ownership stake in WQZS was falsely transferred to Wahl; this claim has not yet been independently verified.
The goal: to dismiss the license renewal application for WQZS or let it expire. Again, there is no reference to the Hearing Designation Order and current proceedings in the petition from the association.
Meanwhile, the association’s petition calls for “significant fines” and even criminal charges against Wahl for his alleged extreme lack of candor with the FCC and what the association calls his “extensive history of rule violations.”
IMAGE-CLEANSING ACTION
Robert Kluver, who serves as President of the American Militia Association and director of WHYU, says the primary reason for filing the Petition to Deny “was to repair the image of broadcasters,” especially in a community “tarnished” by Roger Wahl and his actions.
Further, he wants his petition to seemingly take precedence over the license revocation hearing, slated to last through the remainder of 2022. That’s too long for Wahl to be removed as a licensee, he believes.
As of today, Kluver believes WHYU will be on the air by August. As such, Meyersdale will have a community voice in place, and one that won’t disappear with a WQZS deletion and license revocation.
Whether or not Kluver and the American Militia Association have standing on the matter is now in the hands of the Media Bureau.
You can read the entire petition at the FCC’s website by clicking here:
https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/public/tv/pleadingDetails.html?pleadingFileNumber
=0000190791
