Two Texas Radio Stations Enter FCC Consent Decrees Over Public Inspection File Issues

Two Texas radio stations entered consent decrees with the FCC after each station failed to comply with certain portions of the FCC’s station public inspection file obligations. 

The FCC said Hightower Radio, Inc., licensee of KMOO-FM Mineola, failed “to affirmatively certify compliance with its public file obligations” as part of the station’s 2021 FCC license renewal.

Section 73.1943(a) of the FCC’s rules requires stations to maintain and make available for public inspection information about all requests for broadcast time made by or on behalf of candidates for public office, and section 73.1943(c) requires stations to upload such information to their online political files “as soon as possible,” meaning “immediately absent unusual circumstances.”

Hightower Radio agreed “to implement a comprehensive compliance plan to ensure future compliance with its political file obligations and to submit periodic compliance reports to the Media Bureau.”

The FCC said B & H Broadcasting Systems, Inc., licensee of KZRB-FM New Boston, did not meet its obligations under Section 73.3526 of the commission’s rules which require radio stations “to maintain an online public inspection file and to upload certain documents to the commission’s public inspection file database throughout the year.”

The FCC said it “is crucial that stations maintain online public inspection files that are complete and up to date because the information in them directly affects, among other things, the public’s ability to be informed about a station’s compliance with its obligations.”

KZRB agreed, among other things, “to implement a comprehensive compliance plan to ensure future compliance with its online public inspection file obligations and, one year after entering into the Consent Decree, submit a compliance report to the Audio Division.”

Questions? Contact TAB’s Michael Schneider or call (512) 322-9944.