KALV-AM Alva OK had a big swing and a miss when it came to renewing its license back in 2005. It missed the application due date, then it went past the license expiration date, and finally over a year after that it was deleted from the FCC database. In the end, the station did not go away, and the fine isn’t going away either.
The application for a license renewal is due four months prior to expiration. In this case, the date was 2/1/05 ahead of a 6/1/05 expiration date. On 7/7/06, the FCC deleted the station’s calls and told it to cease operations. The station finally filed its application after that, on 7/16/06.
The station was operating without authority upon expiration of the license, and the fine that misdeed carries is generally $7K.
The station licensee, MM&K of Alva Inc., eventually tried to get the fine canceled on grounds that payment would be a financial hardship. Many licensees make this request but fail to document their financial situation. MM&K, however, supplied federal tax returns for the station for the years 2003, 2004 and 2005, indicating annual gross revenues of approximately $394K, $233K and $175K respectively. The FCC held that the $7K fine was such a small percentage of revenue that it could not justify a reduction or cancellation
