KSNQ-FM Twin Falls has FCC approval to pass from James E. Martin, Jr. to Patricia S. Woods, who also is approved to send the station even further, to Samuel Weller’s GAP Broadcasting, over the protest of Astounding Productions, Inc. API lost a bidding war with Martin’s Intermart for the CP was back in FM Auction No. 25. API subsequently charged that Intermart was a proxy for Clear Channel, which was the real party in interest in the CP, and in fact, Clear Channel used to LMA the station. But there was never any proof that Clear Channel owned an interest in it, so API’s petitions were denied. It is currently challenging the FCC’s prior ruling in the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, and argues that until the lawsuit is decided the FCC should not take any action on the sales proposals. However, the FCC countered that there is no court stay or injunction, so the FCC’s grant of the applications are warranted, since they both comply with the rules and regs. Both transactions have been granted, conditioned on the results of the court case.
RBR/TVBR observation: Clear Channel is long gone from this situation, and GAP has bought most if not all of its stations in the area. This particular deal will result in a modest one-AM, three-FM cluster in a market containing 25 stations. That doesn’t sound like much of a threat to competition and the public interest to us.
