Al Shuldiner isn’t the only Media Bureau leader seeking to bolster the Commission’s coffers by handing out more Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture letters to broadcast stations for a failure to follow the agency’s rules.
Barbara Kriesman, the Video Division Chief who works alongside Audio Division Chief Shuldiner, has been plenty busy with her own NALs to over-the-air TV operators.
In fact, two were released today to none other than the biggest licensee of TV stations in the U.S.
The company is Nexstar Media Group, and it could fork over $12,000 to the Commission for a pair of public file violations.
One forfeiture is valued at $9,000, and involves ABC affiliate WDHN-18 in Dothan, Ala.
What did Kriesman’s team discover? “We find the Licensee apparently willfully and/or repeatedly violated the Commission’s rules by failing to timely file the station’s quarterly TV
issues/programs lists in violation of section 73.3526(e)(11)(i).”
Oops.
The trouble for WDHN started on December 1, 2020, when Nexstar filed its license renewal application. A staff inspection of the station’s OPIF revealed that WDHN uploaded 5 lists more than one year late, 4 lists between one month and one year late, and 5 lists between one day and one month late.
Nexstar had no explanation to offer for the tardiness.
It seems staff at WYCW-62 in Asheville, N.C., an affiliate of The CW Network, was similarly late with its quarterly TV issues/program list uploads. After a staff inspection of the WYCW OPIF, it was discovered that WYCW uploaded four lists more than one year late and three lists between one month and one year late.
Nexstar Media Group wasn’t alone in getting a NAL for failing to timely file a station’s quarterly TV issues/programs lists. Broward County Schools-owned WBEC-TV, licensed to Boca Raton but based in Davie, faces a $3,000 fine for uploading 1 list more than one year late, 6 lists between one month and one year late, and 2 lists between one day and one month late.
