An AM-FM combo in Salmon ID was a little late filing for a license renewal – if one considers five years to fall into the “a little late” category. When a license is not renewed, the station becomes legally non-existent, and if it goes on the air anyway, that’s unauthorized operation. Here’s how it played out.
The stations are KSRA AM & FM. Salmon is in unrated territory in the center of the non-panhandle portion of the state, and the combo is licensed to Salmon River Communications Inc.
The licenses had an expiration date of 10/1/05, and the rule is that an application for renewal has to be submitted to the Commission four months prior, or by 6/1/05 in this particular case.
Nothing was received by the Commission and the licenses both expired as of 10/1/05.
However, they continued to operate, and the licensee finally got around to addressing the situation 10/5/10, more than five years late.
The FCC hit each station with a notice of apparently liability for $13K, or a total of $26K.
