Forever gets a break on tower lighting fine

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Many stations have been found guilty of an FCC infraction of one kind or another, and in almost every case, the FCC calls it a willful violation of the regs. Many have said in no way was there any willful intention to violate a rule, and the FCC always explains its own interpretation of the term willful and upholds the fine. Forever Broadcasting is on the list of licensees, although it didn’t come away from the proceeding entirely empty-handed.


The veteran radio group was hit with a $10K fine for having failing to comply with the antenna structure lighting, monitoring, and reporting requirements specified for an antenna structure located in Holidaysburg PA.

Specifically, back in 2006, the tower’s top beacon light was out, a fact that was not reported to local airplane authorities nor to the FCC.

Upon  being hit with the $10K fine for a willful violation, Forever tried to duck the fine. It said the problem was not willful and was corrected immediately. As usual, the FCC said failure to run according to the rules is always willful, the way it uses the word, and that fixing the problem to come into compliance is a requirement, not an action to be rewarded.

However, Forever also asked for a reduction based on its history of compliance with FCC rules, and apparently it has a very clean record, because the FCC was willing to give it a $2K discount on those grounds. So the final fine is only $8K.