Three nailed for late renewal filings

KYDS-FM Sacramento CA, WTTU-FM Cookeville TN and WKCL-FM Ladson SC were all hit with $1.5K fines by the FCC for the simple fine of not getting paper work to the Commission in time to properly process their license renewals. All three are school-owned radio stations.

KYDS is licensed to the San Juan Unified School District; WTTU to the Tennessee Technological University; and WKCL to Chapel of the Holy Spirit Church and Bible College.

In KYDS’s case, the licensee said that they were working on the renewal in April 2005, but became confused and put it off until the following school year began in September, by which time the deadline had passed. The FCC did not buy this argument.

WTTU said that its engineer had a background in ham radio and therefore thought he was working with much shorter lead time to license expiration than is the case for an FM station. Again, the FCC wasn’t buying.

In WKCL’s case, the licensee said the person responsible for the application left the station. Again, the plea fell on deaf FCC ears.

RBR-TVBR observation: The fact that you are a small broadcast operation does not relieve you of the responsibility to both know and understand the rules. If anything, the fact that you’re small makes it that much more important to avoid silly $1.5K expenditures over something as basic and – you’d think -- easily complied with as a license renewal.