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If you need the complete document, download the WordPerfect version or Adobe Acrobat version, if available. ***************************************************************** FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20554 August 9, 1999 In reply refer to: 3-B443-KB 98060070 Released: August 11, 1999 CERTIFIED MAIL, RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED Family Stations, Inc. Licensee, Station KUFR-FM, Salt Lake City, Utah 4135 Northgate Blvd. #1 Sacramento, California 95834 Attn: Mr. Harold Camping, President Dear Mr Camping: This letter constitutes a NOTICE OF APPARENT LIABILITY FOR A FORFEITURE against Family Stations, Inc. ("Family"), pursuant to Section 503(b) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, for violating Section 73.1125 of the Commission's Rules by failing to maintain a meaningful management and staff presence at Station KUFR-FM's main studio. This action is taken under authority delegated to the Chief, Mass Media Bureau, pursuant to Section 0.283(c)(3) of the Commission's Rules. In early December 1997, the FCC's Denver Field Office received a complaint about receiver overload from KUFR-FM to nearby radio receivers. An agent from the Denver Field Office investigating the complaint was unable to reach anyone from KUFR-FM by telephone and recommended that the station be inspected. On December 8, 1997, two agents from the Denver Field Office visited KUFR-FM's main studio location at 136 East South Temple in Salt Lake City and found no one present at the station and no business hours posted. On two subsequent visits to the station on February 5, 1998, and May 21, 1998, field agents again found no one present at the station and no indication as to when KUFR-FM staff would be present. Employees in an office on the same floor as KUFR-FM's main studio told a field agent during the May 21, 1998, visit that someone is generally present at the station only once or twice a week. A note on the door of KUFR-FM's main studio listed a telephone number to reach station personnel in case of an emergency and a toll-free telephone number for Family's corporate office in California. During the May 21, 1998, visit, a field agent tried the emergency number, but the number was incorrect and the call could not be completed. The agent then called Family's corporate office using the toll-free number and was given a local telephone number for the station's operations manager, Roger Crawford. Mr. Crawford, who resides approximately 40 minutes away from KUFR-FM's main studio, agreed to meet the agent at the station. Upon his arrival at the station, Mr. Crawford admitted to the field agent that neither he, nor anyone else, had been at the station since May 18. When asked how the FCC might gain access to the station during normal business hours, Mr. Crawford replied that one of the telephone numbers listed on the door could be used to reach station personnel. In a letter of inquiry dated July 21, 1998, Commission staff requested additional information regarding the staffing of KUFR-FM's main studio. In your August 24, 1998, response, you conceded that KUFR-FM's main studio has not been open to the public during normal business hours at all times since Family began operating the station in 1989. However, you noted that Family is a not-for-profit corporation and that KUFR-FM is a noncommercial station that depends primarily on listener contributions to support its operations. You stated that when the station went on the air on December 14, 1989, it operated with several volunteers and one full- time paid employee. As time went on, however, Family dismissed the paid employee for financial reasons and attempted to staff the station solely with volunteers. You reported that KUFR-FM currently has two volunteers at the main studio -- Mr. Crawford, and Dennis Burke, who assists Mr. Crawford as needed. You indicated that these volunteers generally work two to four hours per week at the main studio performing assigned tasks, such as recording and producing public service and promotional announcements; recording, producing and editing a local program; opening and processing mail; checking the telephone answering machine; scheduling the program automation computer; and providing emergency staffing in case of satellite failure. In addition, you indicated that the station maintains a local telephone number and that a telephone answering machine is on at all times when the studio is not staffed to refer callers to an 800 number which is staffed during normal business hours. You also stated that Family was examining the station's compliance with respect to "meaningful management presence" in light of the Commission's inquiry. By letter dated September 17, 1998, Commission staff directed Family to provide a written statement describing the steps that have been taken to ensure KUFR-FM's compliance with Section 73.1125 of the Commission's Rules regarding the staffing of its main studio. In your October 16, 1998, response, you stated that Family hired a full-time operations manager to work at KUFR-FM on October 6, 1998, and was conducting a search for a staff person to work at the station. In a follow-up letter dated December 21, 1998, you stated that Family hired a full-time staff person to work at KUFR-FM's main studio on November 16, 1998. Prior to October 30, 1998, Section 73.1125 of the Commission's Rules required that a station maintain its main studio within the station's principal community contour. Effective October 31, 1998, this rule was amended to allow a station greater flexibility in the location of its main studio. See Review of the Commission's Rules Regarding the Main Studio and Local Public Inspection Files of Broadcast Television and Radio Stations, 13 FCC Rcd 15691 (1998). In either case, the main studio must serve the needs and interests of the residents of the station's community of license. To fulfill this function, a station must, among other things, maintain a meaningful management and staff presence at its main studio. See Main Studio and Program Origination Rules, 2 FCC Rcd 3215, 3217-18 (1987), clarified, 3 FCC Rcd 5024, 5026 (1988). In Jones Eastern of the Outer Banks, Inc., 6 FCC Rcd 3615 (1991), clarified, 7 FCC Rcd 6800 (1992), the Commission defined a minimally acceptable "meaningful presence" as full-time managerial and full-time staff personnel. It further stated that there must be "management and staff presence" on a full-time basis during normal business hours to be considered "meaningful." 6 FCC Rcd at 3616 n. 6; 7 FCC Rcd at 6800 n. 4. Moreover, while management personnel need not be "chained to their desks" during normal business hours, they must "report to work at the main studio on a daily basis, spend a substantial amount of time there and use the studio as a 'home base.'" 7 FCC Rcd at 6802. Finally, the main studio requirements extend to both commercial and noncommercial educational stations. Main Studio and Program Origination Rules, 3 FCC Rcd at 5026-27. Based on the information before us, it appears that from at least September 29, 1997 (the date KUFR-FM's last renewal application was granted) until November 16, 1998, Family willfully and repeatedly violated Section 73.1125 of the Commission's Rules by failing to maintain a meaningful management and staff presence at the main studio for KUFR-FM. According to your August 24, 1998, response to the Commission letter of inquiry, KUFR-FM had only one full-time employee at its main studio when it went on the air on December 14, 1989, and Family subsequently terminated this employee and attempted to staff the studio with volunteers. These volunteers generally worked at the main studio only two to four hours per week performing assigned tasks. Family hired a full-time operations manager to work at KUFR-FM's main studio on October 6, 1998, and a full-time staff person on November 16, 1998. Thus, it appears that KUFR-FM did not have either a full- time management or a full-time staff presence at its main studio from at least September 29, 1997, until October 6, 1998, and did not have a full-time staff presence at its main studio from at least September 29, 1997, until November 16, 1998. While you stated in your August 24, 1998, inquiry response that KUFR-FM is a noncommercial station that depends primarily on listener contributions to support its operations, as noted above, the main studio requirements extend to both commercial and noncommercial stations, and Family has never sought a waiver of the main studio rule with respect to KUFR-FM. Therefore, pursuant to Section 503(b) of the Communications Act, and in accordance with the forfeiture guidelines set forth in the Commission's Forfeiture Policy Statement, which provides for a forfeiture of $7,000 as the base amount for willful or repeated violation of the main studio rule, Family is hereby advised of its apparent liability for a forfeiture of $7,000 for failing to maintain a meaningful management and staff presence at the KUFR-FM main studio. In regard to the forfeiture, Family is afforded a period of thirty (30) days from the date of this Notice "to show, in writing, why a forfeiture penalty should not be imposed or should be reduced, or to pay the forfeiture. Any showing as to why the forfeiture should not be imposed or should be reduced shall include a detailed factual statement and such documentation and affidavits as may be pertinent." 47 C.F.R.  1.80(f)(3). Other relevant provisions of Section 1.80 are summarized in the attachment to this Notice. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION Roy J. Stewart Chief, Mass Media Bureau Attachment cc: Alan C. Campbell, Esq.