A noncommercial Class A television station airing religious programming has agreed to a consent decree with the FCC’s Media Bureau that officially absolves the station’s owner of the sin of having missing or untimely filed documents in its online local public inspection file.
The consent decree allows the FCC to move ahead with the TV station’s license renewal — provided that the station owner makes a settlement payment of $2,000 to the U.S. Treasury within 30 calendar days of Oct. 21, the date the consent decree was issued.
RBR + TVBR OBSERVATION (Appears In Full Below, for subscribers) : This settlement payment could have easily been avoided. As many of our Media Information Bureau columns from featured columnist Ken Benner have noted, the FCC isn’t up to a “slap on the wrist” for something so seemingly minor as an incomplete public file.
Trouble started for Life of Victory TV‘s KVBI-CD, licensed for Channel 42 in Clarkston, Wash. — across the Snake River from Lewiston, Idaho, in September 2014. On Sept. 24 of that year, Life Of Victory filed its license renewal application.
A review of the station’s electronic local public inspection file by Media Division staff revealed the deficiencies, and Life of Victory was contacted. The station owner filed and uploaded the missing public file documents and amended its license renewal application, to disclose its violations and provide a comprehensive explanation of its wrongdoing.
Life of Victory explained that prior to May 2010, its Children’s Television Programming reports were prepared and placed in the station’s physical public file but not filed with the commission as required.
Since that instance, five additional reports were filed late.
KVBI’s owner also admits to having failed to upload a majority of its TV issue/programs lists to the station’s “e-pif” in a timely manner, and says it is guilty of failing to prepare in a timely manner TV issues/programs lists for Q2, Q3 and Q4 2012 and in Q1 2015.
Lastly, Life of Victory discloses that before Q4 2015 it failed to timely prepare and upload to the station’s “e-pif” copies of its commercial limit certifications and Class A eligibility certifications for the entire preceding license term.
Staff has taken steps to ensure future compliance and created a “quarterly checklist to help remind and guide staff members, Life of Victory said.
RBR + TVBR OBSERVATION: This fine could have easily been avoided. As many of our Media Information Bureau columns from featured columnist Ken Benner have noted, the FCC isn’t up to a “slap on the wrist” for something so seemingly minor as an incomplete public file. By reading this story, we hope everyone in the C-Suite learns how to avoid an involuntary donation to the Commission. A $2,000 fine for some may be written off as a “cost of doing business.” For religious nonprofit Life of Victory TV, such a penalty could highly impact operations. Whatever the case, the FCC should not be taking your money for things that can easily be prevented from occurring. We also note that, in this instance, KVBI’s license renewal has been obstructed by this public file blunder. Thus, we remind all radio and TV management that an incomplete public file is not a minor problem — it could delay or even prohibit your license renewal from occurring.
