St. Louis Radio: FCC Designates Hearing For 4 Stations

The FCC’s Media Bureau has called for a hearing to determine if Entertainment Media Trust “committed serious violations of the Communications Act and the commission’s rules” and would thus have its four licenses cancelled, reports RadioWorld. Dennis J. Watkins is listed as the trustee on this and other EMT-related commission documents.

The alleged violation stems from an assertion that EMT is actually controlled by a felon, who under the Communications Act and the commission’s rules is ineligible to hold these licenses. Robert S. “Bob” Romanik was convicted of obstruction of justice and bank fraud.

The commission was alerted to the issue when listener and former St. Clair County Chairman Mark Kern filed a petition to deny EMT’s 2012 renewal applications for KFTK 1490 AM, Silent-WQQW 1510 AM, KZQZ 1430 AM and KQQZ 1190 AM.

The Bureau claims that Romanik provided EMT with the initial $500,000 it used to buy WQQW, $1.2 million to purchase KZQZ, $450,000 to acquire KFTK and $600,000 to pick up KQQZ. But in its response to a Letter Of Inquiry last year, EMT didn’t provide the Commission with any documents reflecting the formation of the Trust in 2006. Instead, EMT said “all correspondence” about forming the 2006 trust “was verbal and therefore there are no documents to provide.” The trust agreement EMT provided the Commission shows the formation of EMT wasn’t put in writing until December 2012 – after the four stations had been purchased.

Romanik calls himself 'The Grim Raper' during his talk show on KZQZ-AM.

A multiyear investigation by the Media Bureau was recently completed and it unearthed evidence that Romanik established EMT, provided the funding to purchase the stations and “exercised de facto control,” despite not being listed as a party in the applications.

However, Romanik did identify himself as a station owner political disclosure forms, but indicated Katrina M. Sanders, his longtime girlfriend, was recipient of the stations’ beneficial interest. Romanik also was found in 2016 to have participated in negotiations for KFTK to enter into a local programming and marketing agreement  with Emmis Radio.

While a trust instrument was executed in 2012, the investigation indicates that it did not properly insulate Romanik from the stations (and also was not created in a timely manner, since the stations were acquired between 2006 and 2010).