FCC agents paid a visit to Daniel D. Smith’s KANR-AM Belle Plaines KS and found a small laundry-list worth of problems. Station systems involved included EAS equipment and the tower, and both involved related public file violations. The total tab for the failure to follow FCC rules and regs is $25K.
The station’s trouble began when the agents noticed that EAS equipment was not plugged in. Smith said that it became inoperable somewhere between 2000 and 2006, and that efforts to find an engineer to make repairs were unsuccessful. The agents also noted that the tower was in need of paint – according to Smith, it had not been painted since before its erection in 1996, and had numerous light outages.
The station’s logs had no mention of EAS tests or tower inspections; there was no automated lighting verification system, nor had anybody been making the daily inspections to assure that lights were working.
The FCC explained the forfeiture tab, which could have been $30K. And that is despite the fact it took the fine for EAS up from the base of $8K to $9K due to the lengthy history of that problem. The $2K base for failure to monitor the tower and $10K base for failure to repaint were assessed without adjustment. But because other elements of the public file other than those related to the immediate violation were properly in place, the $10K standard public file fine was reduced to $4K, resulting in the $25K total.
