Unless emergency interim action is taken by the FCC by March 30, four AM radio stations serving the St. Louis market — and an FM translator assigned to one of these AMs — will be “irretrievably lost.”
That’s a take given by the President Emeritus and Senior Advisor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC), who wants the Commission to do what it can to preserve the stations and grant them a reprieve from certain death.
Why is David Honig so interested in the matter?
“The loss of four radio stations and a CP in the nation’s 24th radio market would be unprecedented and devastating,” he said in a letter sent Monday (3/2) to the FCC’s four Commissioners and Chairman Ajit Pai. “Facilities such as these are entry points for new talent and entrepreneurship. They often serve under-represented, minority, multilingual, and religious constituencies. Faithful listeners rely on them to ensure public safety when emergencies arise.”
Because of the stations’ perceived value in a market with a large African American population, MMTC “is prepared to help the Commission save” them.
Honig notes that, because of the situation involving Entertainment Media Trust in St. Louis, “there are only two potential routes” as a distress sale and divestment of bankrupt facilities can’t be had.
EMT is the licensee of KZQZ-AM 1430 in St. Louis, KQQZ-AM 1190 in Fairview Heights, Ill.; daytime-only WQQW-AM 1510 in Highland, Ill.; and KFTK-AM 1490 in St. Louis. As RBR+TVBR reported on Feb. 20, 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 been issued by the Commission’s Administrative Law Judge.
This all but guarantees the license revocation of the four stations, and an FM translator. This is dependent on a final Commission ruling, hence the MMTC’s plea.
With no sale possible, what does MMTC propose? An involuntary transfer of control of KZQZ, KQQZ, WQQW and KFTK to a nonprofit subsidiary, MMTC Broadcasting, is the goal of Honig and the MMTC.
“MMTC Broadcasting’s purpose is to facilitate diverse ownership of broadcast stations,” Honig explained in the letter. “Since 2008, three donors have given MMTC Broadcasting a total of nine AM radio stations; subsequently, MMTC Broadcasting incubated new entrants at these stations, trained them to become owners, and then gave them a head start into ownership.”
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 “respectfully volunteers to assume ownership and operating responsibility for the stations.”
MMTC would operate the four St. Louis AMs as “radio incubators, generally along the lines of the incubator plan approved by the Commission in 2018 but delayed from taking effect due to the same ‘eligible entity’ issue that has currently de-activated the Distress Sale Policy,” Honig said.
To execute this plan, MMTC Broadcasting would 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.
Roberts, led by Steven Roberts, in October 2011 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and at the time owned WRBU-TV (MyNet) in St. Louis; WZRB-TV (CW) Columbia, S.C.; WRBJ-TV (CW) Jackson, Miss.; and WAZE-TV (CW) in Evansville, Ind.
When looking back over the last three decades, one can see that Roberts has owned upward of 15 radio and TV stations. The company also created the first cellular and tower company owned by a multicultural/minority group.
ROBERTS TO THE RESCUE
“As an operator, MMTC Broadcasting would provide quality service in the public interest and would strictly comply with all Commission regulations,” Honig asserted.
His argument also cited the operation from 1969-1980 of WLBT-TV in Jackson, Miss., by the non-profit Communications Improvement Inc. as proof the Commission could transfer the EMT quartet to MMTC and allow Roberts to run the stations.
“During Communications Improvement, Inc.’s tenure at WLBT-TV, the station rose to first in the ratings, doubled the size of the news staff, and hired the first African American general manager, news director, and news anchors in Mississippi television,” Honig said. “The WLBT-TV scenario is not precisely identical to the current dilemma in St. Louis, since comparative hearings are not held anymore. But it is close: it shows how a nonprofit interim operator can heal an ailing facility to the great benefit of the general public.”
It’s now up to the Commission to decide if Honig’s arguments have merit, and must do so before the month is over.
RBR+TVBR RELATED READ:
