In February 1996, Art Modell moved his National Football League franchise to Baltimore, abandoning Cleveland. “Hollywood Madam” Heidi Fleiss prepared to begin a seven-year jail sentence. Radio station WYNY-FM in New York changed its call letters, bringing WKTU back to the Big Apple.
Speaking of the radio business, Royce International agreed to sell a Class B 50kw New Rock station serving Sacramento for $25 million.
The Ravens have won two Super Bowl matches. WKTU remains a popular station. Fleiss is largely forgotten. That radio station sale in Northern California? The seller is still trying to reverse it … and has failed yet again, this time at the Supreme Court of the United States.
That February deal some 22 1/2 years ago saw a station then carrying the KWOD call letters heading to Entercom — today the No. 2 radio broadcasting company in the U.S. by revenue.
In September 1999, Royce head Ed Stolz attempted to stop (or reverse) the license transfer of KWOD. He sued Entercom’s now-President/CEO David Field, alleging violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO).
The battle dragged on to July 2002, when the FCC dismissed the original Form 314 filing proposing the transfer of control of KWOD to Entercom.
In May 2003, a new Form 314 filing was granted by the Commission, pursuant to “the interlocutory judgment issued by the Superior Court for the State of California” in Entercom v. Royce International, which ruled that the sale of KWOD was valid and should be consummated. The original February 1996 FAX from Entercom outlining the terms of the deal, which was dismissed in July 2002, was then resubmitted to the Commission.
Stolz argued that California state court went beyond its authority when it ordered him to surrender the license of KWOD to Entercom.
This is the fight that Stolz has waged for 16 years, even with significant changes to Entercom’s holdings in California’s capital city—namely, the voluntary surrender of the license of KDND-FM 107.9.
The February 2017 decision was designed to expedite Entercom’s estimated $1.49 billion tax-free merger with CBS Radio, announced Feb. 2 of that year.
Today, the 107.9 MHz signal is vacant. The station’s branding, “The End,” was moved to KUDL-FM. That would be Stolz’s old station, the former KWOD.
Since the early 2017 disappearance of KDND, Stolz has continued his quixotic quest to negate KWOD’s license transfer to Entercom. This includes the Oct. 10, 2017 Petition for Reconsideration (PFR) filed by Stolz pertaining to the license renewal of KUDL. Based on the ruling made May 8, 2018, by FCC General Counsel Thomas Johnson Jr., Stolz needed to extend the long duration of his fight — or finally call it quits.
Stolz sought reconsideration of a Commission memorandum opinion and order dismissing, and on alternative and independent grounds denying, an earlier petition for reconsideration he had filed.
Johnson said no, based on several issues including lack of standing, and not acting in a timely manner, although the standing issue is far greater in this matter.
This denial for Stolz followed a March 20, 2018 setback by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in response to a rehearing en banc of his long-standing case against Entercom.
The denial quashed the hopes of Stolz that the D.C. Circuit would reexamine its decision to uphold the 1996 sale of “The End” to Entercom.
What did Stolz do? He turned to his counselor of record, Dariush Ghaffar Adli of downtown Los Angeles-based ADLI Law Firm, and on June 18 appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. It was docketed on July 3.
On July 26, the government waived its right to file a response to the petition in this case,
unless requested to do so by the Court—a sign that Stolz had a monumental battle ahead.
Finally, on Monday (10/1), two words he has been accustomed to seeing from a court of law arrived: Petition DENIED.
This seemingly puts an end to Edward R. Stolz, dba Royce International Broadcasting Company, Petitioner v. Federal Communications Commission.
Or, it sets the wheels in motion for the next chapter in Stolz’s Cervantes-like quest to become the radio industry’s Don Quixote, forever seeking justice despite repeated defeats in nearly every jurisdiction of the U.S.
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