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Before the
Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D.C. 20554
In the Matter of )
)
Alpine Broadcasting Corporation ) File No. EB-08-KC-0351
Licensee of Radio Stations KCTO and KCXL )
Facility ID #1162, Liberty, MO and ) NOV No. V200932560001
Facility ID #136386, Cleveland, MO )
)
)
NOTICE OF VIOLATION
Released: November 7, 2008
By the District Director, Kansas City Office, South Central Region,
Enforcement Bureau:
1. This is a Notice of Violation ("Notice") issued pursuant to Section
1.89 of the Commission's Rules ("Rules") to Alpine Broadcasting
Corporation ("Alpine"), licensee of radio stations KCTO, Cleveland,
MO and KCXL, Liberty, MO.
2. On October 30, 2008 and November 3, 2008, agents of the Commission's
Kansas City Office of the Enforcement Bureau inspected radio station
KCTO located at Cleveland, MO, and co-owned station KCXL, Liberty, MO
and observed the following violation(s):
a. 47 C.F.R. S: 73.1125(a): "... each AM... broadcast station shall
maintain a main 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..." "A station must equip the main studio with
production and transmission facilities that meet applicable
standards, maintain continuous program transmission capability, and
maintain a meaningful management and staff presence." The Commission
has defined a minimally acceptable "meaningful presence" as full-time
managerial and full-time staff personnel.
At the time of these inspections, station management stated that the
main studio for station KCTO was located at the office of an accountant,
3001 N. Hwy 291, Suite 6, Harrisonville, MO. However, no signage
designating that location as the KCTO main studio was made or posted until
after the inspection began, and that signage was a small piece of paper
taped to the door window where it was not clearly visible to vehicles
passing that location. According to station management, the main studio
was staffed by the accountant/manager from 10 AM - 5 PM or 9 AM - 4 PM,
Monday through Friday, but the main studio had no posted business hours.
No other station employees staffed the main studio.
b. 47 C.F.R. S: 73.1125(e): "Each AM... broadcast station shall maintain
a local telephone number in its community of license or a toll-free
number." On October 30, 2008, according to station management, the
licensee did maintain a toll-free telephone number for station KCTO.
However, according to senior management, the toll-free number was not
available through directory assistance, was not posted in local phone
books, was not aired on KCTO, and was not published in media where it
would be available to the public. When the agents called that number
on October 30, 2008, it was answered at the Liberty, MO studio for
station KCXL, not at the KCTO studio. When the number was called
again on November 3, 2008, it was answered by the accounting office
in Harrisonville. According to the accountant, who is also the KCTO
station manager, he has no way of determining if the incoming call is
to the KCTO phone number or for the number associated with his
accounting business, so he answers all calls as if they are for his
accounting office.
c. 47 C.F.R. S: 11.35(a): "... EAS Participants must determine the
cause of any failure to receive the required tests or activations ...
Appropriate entries indicating reasons why any tests were not
received must be made in the broadcast station log..." At the time of
inspection, the separate station logs for both KCTO and KCXL for the
period of 5/1/08 to 10/30/08 documented several weeks where only one
of the two required weekly tests or actual EAS activation had been
received by the station. No entries were found documenting the
reasons why no test or activation had been received from their second
monitoring source during those weeks.
d. 47 C.F.R. S: 73.1870(c): "The chief operator is responsible for
completion of the following duties... Review of the station records
at least once each week to determine if required entries are being
made correctly. Additionally, verification must be made that the
station has been operated as required by the rules or the station
authorization. Upon completion of the review, the chief operator or
his designee must date and sign the log, initiate any corrective
action which may be necessary, and advise the station licensee of any
condition which is repetitive." At the time of the inspection on
October 30, 2008, the station's chief operator had been reviewing the
station logs for both stations for EAS activations, and had signed
and dated the logs, but had not taken necessary corrective actions.
The EAS logs clearly indicated that on several weeks during the
period of May 1, 2008 through October 30, 2008 only one EAS
activation had been logged, when two or more should have been
received. The chief operator did not note the missing EAS activations
and took no corrective action to determine why some EAS activations
were not being received. It is further noted that this violation is
repetitive as the last inspection of Alpine-owned station KCXL,
conducted on 12/13/96 found that no station operator was reviewing
the KCXL logs or taking corrective actions.
e. 47 C.F.R. S: 73.3526(e)(9): "All written comments and suggestions
received from the public regarding operation of the station, unless
the letter writer has requested that the letter not be made public or
when the licensee feels that it should be excluded from public
inspection because of the nature of its content, such as defamatory
or obscene letter. Letters and electronic mail message shall be
retained [in the public inspection file] for a period of three years
form the date on which they are received by the licensee." On October
30, 2008, the KCXL public inspection file did not contain any letters
or emails from the public. A folder containing that material was
later found in another location in the KCXL studios, but those were
not provided upon initial request to view the entire public
inspection file. On November 3, 2008, the inspection of the KCTO
public inspection file found no folder containing letters or emails.
f. 47 C.F.R. S: 73.49: "Antenna towers having radio frequency
potential at the base (series fed, folded unipole, and insulated base
antennas) must be enclosed within effective locked fences or other
enclosures. Ready access must be provided to each antenna tower base
for meter reading and maintenance purposes at all times. However,
individual tower fences need not be installed if the towers are
contained within a protective property fence." At the time of
inspection of station KCXL, the gate to the tower fence had a large
gap underneath it allowing unobstructed access to the tower base.
According to the station manager, a piece of the fencing, found
nearby, must have been knocked off recently and the manager was able
to resecure the fencing at the time of inspection. However, it was
noted that the overall condition of the fencing around this tower was
severely deteriorated and providing a minimally effective enclosure.
3. Pursuant to Section 308(b) of the Communications Act of 1934, as
amended, and Section 1.89 of the Commission's Rules, Alpine
Broadcasting Corporation, must submit a written statement concerning
this matter within twenty (20) days of release of this Notice. The
response must fully explain each violation, must contain a statement
of the specific action(s) taken to correct each violation and preclude
recurrence, and should include a time line for completion of pending
corrective action(s). The response must be complete in itself and
signed by a principal or officer of the licensee. All replies and
documentation sent in response to this Notice should be marked with
the File No. and NOV No. specified above, and mailed to the following
address:
Federal Communications Commission
Kansas City Office
520 N.E. Colbern Rd., 2nd Floor
Lees Summit, MO 64086
4. This Notice shall be sent to Alpine Broadcasting Corporation at its
address of record.
5. The Privacy Act of 1974 requires that we advise you that the
Commission will use all relevant material information before it,
including any information disclosed in your reply, to determine what,
if any, enforcement action is required to ensure compliance. Any false
statement made knowingly and willfully in reply to this Notice is
punishable by fine or imprisonment under Title 18 of the U.S. Code.
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
Robert C. McKinney
District Director
Kansas City District Office
South Central Region
Enforcement Bureau
47 C.F.R. S: 1.89.
Main Studio and Program Origination Rules, Memorandum Opinion and Order,
3 FCC Rcd 5024, 5026 (1988).
Jones Eastern of the Outer Banks, Inc., Memorandum Opinion and Order, 6
FCC Rcd 3615, 3616 (1991), clarified 7 FCC Rcd 6800 (1992).
47 U.S.C. S: 308(b).
P.L. 93-579, 5 U.S.C. S: 552a(e)(3).
18 U.S.C. S: 1001 et seq.
Federal Communications Commission
4
Federal Communications Commission