AZ Radio: City Wants A-G To Investigate KOFH

The Nogales, Arizona City Council has approved sending information about La Maxima KOFH 99.1 FM to the state Attorney General’s Office in hopes of spurring a criminal investigation of the radio station.

Their beef: negative news coverage, according to Nogales International.

However, a media law specialist and the head of a national journalism group said lawsuits against news media rarely result in civil penalties, let alone criminal charges.

“The chances of the Attorney General being interested in pursuing this, I would think would be extremely remote,” said Phil Higdon, a partner with the Phoenix law firm Perkins Coie who has practiced media law for 40 years.

KOFH 99.1 FM (6Kw) 60dBu Coverage

At the July regular meeting of the Nogales City Council, Mayor Arturo Garino pointed to the $27,000 spent by the previous administration at La Maxima, compared with the $800 his administration has spent since he took office in early 2011, as a possible reason for La Maxima’s ongoing criticism of City Hall.

He made a motion to “send all the information in reference to Maxima 99.1 to newspapers for publication so the general public can form their own opinions and for all information to be sent to the Attorney General and the Federal Communications Commission for criminal investigation.”

The motion passed by a 5-2 margin.

The mayor and council also voted to send allegations against La Maxima to the Federal Communications Commission citing FCC rules about the responsibilities of broadcasters, which state “rigging or slanting the news is a most heinous act against the public interest.”