Life At Its Best Inc. (LAIB), licensee of LPFM station KLBG-LP in Glide OR, thought its first attempt to renew the license back in the Fall of 2005 went through. And when its application to modify the station was approved on 5/7/08, it confirmed its underlying assumption that everything at the FCC was hunky-dory. But it wasn’t – the renewal app didn’t go through and the license expired 2/1/06. Topping it all off was the fact that the FCC didn’t get around to notifying the station that its license had expired until 7/7/09.
The FCC, a great lover of candor, showed that it is capable of candor too, when it has been less than perfect. It wrote, “We acknowledge that the staff erroneously granted an application for modification of the Station’s facilities after its license had expired but prior to issuance of the License Expiration Letter.”
However, that did not erase the fact that LAIB failed to file a required form, normally a $3K fine, and was operating for quite some time – three years and five months — without benefit of a license, normally a $10K fine. However, the FCC took into account the fact that the station has not engaged in a “pattern of abuse” and is a secondary service, and reduced each fine to $250 for a $500 total. It also renewed the license.
