FCC Denies Kentucky AM Silent Resurrection

WEKC owner missed 2020 renewal filing deadline; commission cites history of rules violations

The FCC has denied a request by silent station 710 WEKC(AM) in Williamsburg, Kentucky, to reinstate its license and resume broadcasting. The back-and-forth over two license renewal cycles includes a case that went to the U.S. Court of Appeals last year.

The saga with station owner Gerald Parks began during the 2012 licence renewal period. WEKC applied for renewal, but the Media Bureau suspended processing of the application due to the station’s delay in paying the renewal fee and its failure to maintain question and public affairs program listings in its inspection file. WEKC, as was the case with all applications filed during the 2012 period, asked to have its licence renewed for the full eight-year term.

The commission placed the renewal on “red light” status, which remained in place until the next license renewal cycle in 2020. All stations, including those with pending applications from the previous renewal cycle, were required to reapply by the April 1 deadline. Even after a subsequent notice was sent to Parks in July regarding a pending cancellation, no renewals were filed. On August 6, 2020, WEKC’s license was cancelled.

In March 2022, Parks’ attorney asked the Media Bureau to grant WEKC’s renewal for 2020, some 18 months after the original deadline.

Surprisingly, the board then granted the original 2012 renewal application following Parks’ petition, which he said was flawed. Parks followed up in April with a petition to the board arguing that because the 2012 renewal was granted, the station’s license should be reinstated. He also argued that because the 2012 renewal was still pending, he did not need to file an application for the 2020 cycle.

But the commission disagreed. In response to Parks’ latest petition in March 2023, it upheld its decision from earlier last year.

In the letter, the commission said that “Parks’ failure to comply with the rules exempts it from filing a timely renewal application in the next renewal cycle, which would reward licensees who fail to meet their financial obligations and comply with the rules.”

The erroneous 2012 renewal would not have had an impact today, the commission said, because the license term had already expired. WEKC was able to continue broadcasting for the full eight-year term under red-light pending status, the commission noted in its findings. “A station that violates the commission’s rules by failing to pay the required fees should not receive an indefinite license term after failing to file, pay the filing fee or provide local public notice of the renewal application,” the Media Bureau said.

Parks even tried to take the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in September 2022. But the court sided with the commission, noting that Parks “failed to timely file a renewal application in 2020.”

Parks bought the station in 2000. In the FCC’s appeals court case, it noted that from the beginning, “Parks struggled to comply with the commission’s rules,” including inadequate monitoring of emergency alerts, multiple public inspection record violations and failure to register an antenna structure.

Summarizing the situation, the commission told the court that after failing to file a renewal application for 2020, Parks “ignored repeated warnings that his license would expire and slept on his rights for 18 months after his license was canceled.”

WEKC was a gospel music station and broadcast 4.2 kW ERP during the day.

(Read the commission’s rejection.)

(See our Business and Law page)