An apparent lack of good engineering practice at two AM
stations has contributed to proposed FCC fines totaling $42,000 against a Kansas broadcaster.
Problems in their public files didn’t help the cause, according to RadioWorld.
The Enforcement Bureau issued two Notices of Apparent
Liability to Steckline Communications for operations at AM stations KQAM and
KGSO in Wichita .
Each is for $21,000.
The case apparently started when the FCC got anonymous word
of alleged overpower operations. An agent visited in the fall of last year.
KQAM, the FCC said, had failed to maintain proper
directional patterns, operate within its power limits, and maintain and make
available a complete public inspection file. The station is authorized for
1,081 watts at night but the agent found that the transmitter operated at 155
percent of that. “In addition, when testing the station’s transmitters in
daytime and nighttime modes, the agent observed that some of the sample current
ratios of its antenna for both modes of operation deviated by more than 5
percent from authorized values,” the FCC wrote.
Further, station management was unable to bring directional
parameters into tolerance for the nighttime setting; and its automated
equipment did not produce an alarm when power and directional parameters were
out of tolerance. The agent also found problems with the public inspection
file.
The commission said that the company did not deny the
violations but claimed, among other things, that its antenna monitor was
malfunctioning; that its engineer had resigned some months before and that
there had been no regular maintenance of the equipment; and that it did not
realize that the missing information was required to be included in its issues
programs lists.
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