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Before the
Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D.C. 20554
In the Matter of )
)
Twenty-One Sound Communications, Inc. ) File No.
EB-03-KC-082
)
Licensee of Radio Station KKAC in ) NAL/Acct. No.
200332560030
Vandalia, Missouri )
Florissant, Missouri ) FRN: 0006-1497-93
NOTICE OF APPARENT LIABILITY FOR FORFEITURE
Released: October 6, 2003
By the, Enforcement Bureau, Kansas City Office:
I. INTRODUCTION
In this Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture ("NAL"),
we find Twenty-One Sound Communications, Inc., (?Twenty-One?),
licensee of FM radio station KKAC, Vandalia, Missouri, apparently
liable for a forfeiture in the amount of seven thousand dollars
($7,000) for willful and repeated violation of Section 73.1125(a)
of the Rules.1 Specifically, we find Twenty-One Sound
Communications, Inc. apparently liable for failure to maintain a
main studio presence.
II. BACKGROUND
1. On April 22, 2003, an agent from the FCC Enforcement
Bureau's Kansas City Office (?Kansas City Office?) attempted an
inspection of KKAC during regular business hours. The studio
building was locked with no indication of any persons present,
and had no posted business hours or telephone numbers to contact
station personnel. The local telephone directory contained no
listing for the station. From Commission antenna structure
records, the agent obtained a contact telephone number for the
owner of the station's antenna structure. The agent called this
number and spoke with Twenty-One's President, Randy Wachter, in
St. Louis, Missouri. The agent arranged with Mr. Wachter to
conduct an inspection on the following day at the KKAC
transmitter and studio in Vandalia, Missouri.
2. On April 23, 2003, the agent conducted an inspection of
KKAC's studio and transmitter. The KKAC studio was closed to the
public and no station employees were present except Mr. Wachter
who met the agent at the studio. The station operated unattended
and employed no staff at the studio or transmitter site.
3. On July 22, 2003, the agent went to the KKAC studio in
Vandalia, Missouri during regular business hours. The agent
found the studio building locked and no persons present. A sign
displayed a telephone number as a contact number for the station.
That telephone number connected to a mobile telephone number in
St. Louis, Missouri.
III. DISCUSSION
4. Section 73.1125(a) of the Rules states that each AM,
FM, or TV broadcast station shall maintain a studio at one of the
following locations: (1) within the station's community of
license; (2) at any location within the principal community
contour of any AM, FM, or TV broadcast station licensed to the
station's community of license; or (3) within twenty-five miles
from the reference coordinates of the center of its community of
license as described in §73.208(a)(1). In adopting the main
studio rules, the Commission stated that the station's main
studio must have the capability to serve the needs and interests
of the residents of the station's community of license.1 To
fulfill this function, a station must, among other things,
maintain a meaningful presence at its main studio.2 The
Commission has defined a minimally acceptable ?meaningful presence?
as full-time managerial and full-time staff personnel.3 The
licensee need not have the same staff person and manager at the
studio, as long as there was management and staff presence there
during normal business hours.4 Although management personnel
need not be ?chained to their desks? during normal business hours,
they must ?report at the main studio on a daily basis, spend a
substantial amount of time there and ? use the studio as a home
base.?5 On April 22, April 23, and July 22, 2003, KKAC's main
studio in Vandalia, Missouri maintained no staff or management
presence during normal business hours. On each day, the main
studio was locked and unoccupied.
9. Based on the evidence before us, we find that
Twenty-One willfully6 and repeatedly7 violated Section 73.1125(a)
of the Rules by failing to maintain a presence at its main
studio.
10. Pursuant to Section 1.80(b)(4) of the Rules,8 the base
forfeiture amount for violation of the main studio rules is
$7,000. In assessing the monetary forfeiture amount, we must
also take into account the statutory factors set forth in Section
503(b)(2)(D) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (?Act?),
which include the nature, circumstances, extent, and gravity of
the violation, and with respect to the violator, the degree of
culpability, any history of prior offenses, ability to pay, and
other such matters as justice may require.?9 Considering the
entire record and applying the factors listed above, this case
warrants a $7,000 forfeiture.
IV. ORDERING CLAUSES
11. Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED THAT, pursuant to Section
503(b) of the Act10 and Sections 0.111, 0.311 and 1.80 of the
Rules,11 Twenty-One Sound Communications, Inc. is hereby NOTIFIED
of its APPARENT LIABILITY FOR A FORFEITURE in the amount of seven
thousand dollars ($7,000) for willful and repeated violation of
Section 73.1125(a) of the Rules for failure to maintain a
presence at the KKAC main studio.
12. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED THAT, pursuant to Section 1.80 of
the Rules, within thirty (30) days of the release date of this
NAL, Twenty-One Sound Communications, Inc. SHALL PAY the full
amount of the proposed forfeiture or SHALL FILE a written
statement seeking reduction or cancellation of the proposed
forfeiture.
13. Payment of the forfeiture may be made by mailing a
check or similar instrument, payable to the order of the Federal
Communications Commission, to the Forfeiture Collection Section,
Finance Branch, Federal Communications Commission, P.O. Box
73482, Chicago, Illinois 60673-7482. The payment should note the
NAL/Acct. No. and FRN referenced above. Request for payment of
the full amount of NAL under an installment plan should be sent
to: Chief, Revenue and Receivable Operations Group, 445 12th
Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20554.12
14. The response, if any, must be mailed to Federal
Communications Commission, Office of the Secretary, 445 12th
Street, SW, Washington, DC 20554, Attn: Enforcement
Bureau-Spectrum Enforcement Division, and MUST INCLUDE THE
NAL/Acct. No. referenced above.
15. The Commission will not consider reducing or
canceling a forfeiture in response to a claim of inability to pay
unless the petitioner submits: (1) federal tax returns for the
most recent three-year period; (2) financial statements prepared
according to generally accepted accounting practices (?GAAP?); or
(3) some other reliable and objective documentation that
accurately reflects the petitioner's current financial status.
Any claim of inability to pay must specifically identify the
basis for the claim by reference to the financial documentation
submitted.
16. Under the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of
2002, Pub L. No. 107-198, 116 Stat. 729 (June 28, 2002), the FCC
is engaged in a two-year tracking process regarding the size of
entities involved in forfeitures. If you qualify as a small
entity and if you wish to be treated as a small entity for
tracking purposes, please so certify to us within thirty (30)
days of this NAL, either in your response to the NAL or in a
separate filing to be sent to the Spectrum Enforcement Division.
Your certification should indicate whether you, including your
parent entity and its subsidiaries, meet one of the definitions
set forth in the list provided by the FCC's Office of
Communications Business Opportunities (OCBO) set forth in
Attachment A of this Notice of Apparent Liability. This
information will be used for tracking purposes only. Your
response or failure to respond to this question will have no
effect on your rights and responsibilities pursuant to Section
503(b) of the Communications Act. If you have questions
regarding any of the information contained in Attachment A,
please contact OCBO at (202) 418-0990.
17. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED THAT a copy of this NAL shall
be sent by regular mail and Certified Mail Return Receipt
Requested to Twenty-One Sound Communications, Inc., 3418 Douglas
Road, Florissant, MO. 63034.
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
Robert C. McKinney
District Director, Kansas City
Office
Enforcement Bureau
Attachment A
_________________________
1 47 C.F.R. § 73.1125(a).
1 Main Studio and Program Origination Rules, 2 FCC Rcd 3215,
3217-18 (1987), clarified, 3 FCC Rcd 5024, 5026 (1988).
2 Id.
3 Jones Eastern of the Outer Banks, Inc., 6 FCC Rcd 3615, 3616
(1991), clarified, 7 FCC Rcd 6800 (1992).
4 Id., 6 FCC Rcd at 3616 n.2; 7 FCC Rcd at 6800 n.4.
5 Id., 7 FCC Rcd at 6802.
6 Section 312(f)(1) of the Act, 47 U.S.C. § 312(f)(1), which
applies to Section 503(b) of the Act, provides that ?[t]he term
`willful', when used with reference to the commission or omission
of any act, means the conscious and deliberate commission or
omission of such act, irrespective of any intent to violate any
provision of this Act ?.? See Southern California Broadcasting
Co., 6 FCC Rcd 4387 (1991).
7 Section 312(f)(2), which also applies to Section 503(b),
provides: [t]he term ?repeated?, when used with reference to the
commission or omission of any act, means the commission or
omission of such act more than once or, if such commission or
omission is continuous, for more than one day.
8 47 C.F.R. § 1.80(b)(4).
9 47 U.S.C. § 503 (b)(2)(D).
10 47 U.S.C. § 503(b).
11 47 C.F.R. §§ 0.111, 0.311 and 1.80.
12 See 47 C.F.R. § 1.1914.