FCC smells a rat at KRAT

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KRAT(FM) Altamont OR has been shown the door by the FCC. Its license is history and its call letters are cancelled. It was supposedly licensed to George J. Wade, but that fact came as a major surprise to Mr. Wade when he found out about it from the IRS. He had nothing whatsoever to do with the station.


Apparently, the station was in fact being run by Sandra Soho, who had simply hijacked Wade’s identity for her own purposes. The FCC said that in State of Oregon v. Sandra Soho, “… Other evidence adduced at trial established that Soho was at all times the owner and operator of KRAT(FM), and used Wade’s name fraudulently as the purported owner of KRAT(FM), as well as for the purpose of concealing income and assets from the State of Oregon while fraudulently obtaining public assistance and food stamps. Sandra Soho was subsequently convicted of eight felony counts of unlawfully obtaining public assistance, five felony counts of first-degree theft, four felony counts of unlawfully obtaining a food stamp benefit, and one misdemeanor count of second-degree theft, all counts on which she was charged.”

She has been in jail since early in 2009.

For the purposes of bringing the existence of the station to an end, the FCC is citing the lack of regulatory fees from the station, its lack of a license renewal grant and the expiration of that license on 2/1/06.