FCC fines Texas AM $8K

The FCC fined Bravo Broadcasting Company, licensee of KIRT-AM Mission, $8,000 for “willfully and repeatedly” violating “Section 11.35(a) of the Commission’s rules by failing to install
and maintain operational Emergency Alert System (EAS) equipment.”

According to FCC documents, an agent from the Houston field office , acting on a complaint, inspected KIRT on Nov. 16, 2011 and “observed no EAS equipment installed at its main studio.  The station also did not have any EAS logs or any evidence that it ever had operational EAS equipment.”

The FCC issued a letter of inquiry in February to which Bravo Broadcasting “admitted that station KIRT had been without operational EAS equipment since August 2009, and stated that it had purchased new EAS equipment on March 20, 2012.”

KIRT has been directed to submit within 30 days, a signed statement stating that EAS equipment has been installed and is operational.