$17,500 Settlement for LPFM Underwriting Violation
Low-power FM broadcaster Tri-Cities Broadcasting Foundation agreed to pay a $17,500 penalty for violating the FCC’s underwriting rules and airing commercials, said a consent decree and order Tuesday. Tri-Cities’ station WAWL-LP Grand Haven, Michigan, broadcast the ads for over two…
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years, from 2018 to 2020, Tri-Cities admitted to the agency. The allegations came to light due to a petition to deny the station’s renewal application filed by another broadcaster, WGHN. The Media Bureau rejected WGHN’s petition to deny, including arguments that WAWL’s content wasn’t educational. “The Commission has made clear that it defers to a licensee’s editorial judgment as to what constitutes ‘educational’ programming, unless that judgment is arbitrary or unreasonable,” the bureau said. Under the consent decree, WAWL will be granted a short-term license renewal until 2024, and must implement a compliance plan and file a compliance report with the FCC.