By Carl Marcucci and Adam R Jacobson
STAHLSTOWN, PA. — For drivers heading west on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, exiting the Allegheny Mountain Tunnel signifies two things. First, they are close to Shanksville, and the Flight 93 memorial site. Second, they are 90 minutes from Pittsburgh’s city center and the Golden Triangle.
For radio listeners, most Pittsburgh stations can be heard loud and clear. So can a 630-watt Class A FM licensed to Meyersdale, Pa., whose owner could soon lose his license, as he is a convicted felon. Listeners are aware of this, and a pastor who appears on the station each Sunday is now advocating on the owner’s behalf.
As the clock struck 11am on Thursday (12/23), WQZS-FM 93.3 was heard playing what is best-described as light classic hits and some Oldies. RBR+TVBR detected no breaks in the music — no announcers, commercials, or station identifiers — while traveling through the northern portion of the station’s signal contour, which includes the small city of Somerset, Pa.
Upon reaching New Stanton, the WQZS signal is lost, as a McKeesport, Pa., FM translator creates interference. What is clear is that WQZS is, in middays at least, on auto pilot.
That’s not the case at other times of the day, or on other days of the week. As previously reported, the station’s licensee, Roger Wahl, was on the air December 3, claiming he had lost his voice to laryngitis over the past couple of days. According to a local source, his daughter, Wendy Sipple, recorded the morning newscast.
Wahl and Sipple are central characters in a matter that come January 13, 2022, will involve the Federal Communications Commission’s Administrative Law Judge, Jane Hinckley Halprin. On that date, as previously reported, an initial status conference to be conducted virtually as part of a Hearing Designation Order handed to Wahl by Halprin’s office.
The virtual meeting is the first step in what could lead the Commission in 2022 to cancel Wahl’s license for WQZS and delete its call letters. That’s because Wahl is a convicted felon. As the FCC’s Media Bureau noted, Wahl’s convictions of a felony and multiple misdemeanors alone “raise the question under the Commission’s Character Qualifications Policy Statement whether he possesses the requisite character qualifications to remain a Commission licensee.”
To say that Wahl is involved in a simple felony may be somewhat of an understatement. The details surrounding Wahl involve rape solicitation, identity theft and invasion of privacy and are largely tied to acts that led to his September 2019 arrest by Pennsylvania State Police. The acts date to 2017.
Specifically, Wahl was accused of attempting to solicit men to engage in unwanted sexual acts with an unnamed woman who he later admitted he impersonated through the creation of a phony online dating profile. According to State Police, Wahl hid a trail camera inside the 62-year-old woman’s house several years ago. Images from the camera were allegedly accessed by Wahl and then used by him to lure men into her home, with Wahl making the arrangements.
To exacerbate matters, Wahl was also charged with tampering with physical evidence. As noted by Trooper John Wogan, pictures were deleted from Wahl’s phone as were text communication from the dating site, apparently after Wahl discovered State Police were investigating. And, as Wahl’s residence is be the same as that of WQZS, Wahl used a computer on the radio station’s premises to conduct the illicit online communications via the dating website, Wogan’s report stated.
On July 8, 2020, Wahl was scheduled to plead guilty to a felony. A day earlier, it became known that Wahl on June 1, 2020 filed a Form 314 form with the FCC seeking permission to transfer WQZS to Sipple, for $10. An FCC approval came. But, on July 13, 2020, the Commission reversed its approval of the license transfer, likely upon learning of Wahl’s legal predicament.
Wahl’s attorney, David Flower, went to action on behalf of his client. He lobbied for a lessening of the charges against the WQZS owner. Somerset County District Attorney Jeffrey Lynn Thomas acquiesced, with the plea change an indication that minus the rape solicitation admission of guilt, there would be no concern about losing the license of the FM radio station. It now appears this possible assumption was faulty.
While much of the local press reports on Wahl’s predicament have painted a negative light, one advocate has stepped forward to his defense. On Sunday, December 12, “Pastor Sam” used his donated air time to share that Wahl has made his apologies and deserves to retain control, or at least let his daughter become WQZS’s owner.
The clergy member spoke for nearly 10 minutes, informing listeners that Wahl needs to keep WQZS and that he has started a petition allowing listeners to tell the FCC he should maintain ownership of the radio station.
The petition appears on a blog created by the pastor, Sam Coughenour, and his wife, Margie. On the website, WQZS’s 31 years of community-oriented service is noted, and how it is “because Roger Wahl has been a major part of our lives.” Wahl hosts the morning show.
The blog also confirms that, since 1996, Wahl has given free air time to Coughenour, associated with The Abundant Life Christian Center in Berlin, Pa., to conduct a weekly church program. As “Pastor Sam” and Margie see it, this no-cost Sunday Morning Camp-Meeting Hour program has had a multitude of benefits to local listeners.
Finally, Coughenour makes his plea that Wahl has atoned for his sins.
“About two years ago Roger Wahl made a terrible mistake,” the website states. “I was with him at the Somerset County Court House for his court proceeding. He apologized to the judge and all that were present. He understands that he has made a terrible mistake that he must live with. But, he also has 31 years of excellent broadcasting and serving our community in his favor. He has paid greatly for his mistake but he has complied with the courts sentence 100%. He has paid for his mistake and we believe he should be able to pass the radio station down to his daughter, Wendy, and allow our community to continue to be blessed with the service WQZS provides to its listeners. The FCC asks of its radio stations to serve their communities well. WQZS gets an A+ in fulfilling that responsibility.”
Furthermore, the Coughenour blog concludes, “There are those who want the station to lose its license and go off the air at the expense of those of whom the station serves well. The problem can be easily solved. Those who don’t want to listen to the station can do so by simply turning the radio dial to another station of their choice. That way those who want to listen to WQZS can still do so. This will satisfy everyone. It is our prayer that WQZS will be able to continue to be our hometown radio station serving our community as it has for the past 31 years.”
The prayers of “Pastor Sam” may not be enough, however, to convince the Commission that a felony conviction, which prohibits an individual from holding the license or allowing them to transfer the station to another party — in particular the convicted felon’s daughter — can be overlooked in this case.
On Sunday, December 26, Wahl’s commitment to serving the local community remained undeterred. RBR+TVBR heard him delivering a hyperlocal newscast, offering those in Somerset County, Pa., something they can’t get from the big Pittsburgh FMs owned by such entities as iHeartMedia and Saul Frischling.
For FCC ALJ Halprin, a decision to keep that community voice in Wahl’s control or give another operator the right to do so in the future is coming.
Until then, local listeners can count on Wahl to continue to do what he’s doing, until he’s ordered not to do so anymore.
