ALJ Halprin Dismisses LPFM Hearing Proceeding
Marion Education Exchange’s license hearing proceeding was dismissed with prejudice and the low-power FM broadcaster will likely lose the license of station WWGH(LP) Marion, Ohio, according to an order of dismissal from FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin in docket…
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22-76 in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. Halprin previously warned MEE the broadcaster must secure an attorney for the hearing to proceed (see 2206240060). “MEE’s representatives have consistently evidenced an inability or unwillingness to familiarize themselves with Commission rules and procedures in a way that would allow this case to move forward,” Halprin wrote. “When a licensee that bears the burden of proof does not fully participate in a hearing, it forfeits its opportunity to show that grant of its application is in the public interest.” The MEE hearing proceeding stems from allegations the broadcaster repeatedly failed to respond to FCC inquiries and gave the agency false information about the make-up of its board, including the names of deceased board members on filings, and changing board members without informing the agency. Halprin also ordered that a July letter from station manager Shawn Craft asking the FCC to impose a fine and spare the license (see 2207270047) be stricken from the record as an improper ex parte submission. “There is no mechanism in the Commission’s hearing rules to ignore the MEE HDO and turn back the clock so that MEE can be more forthcoming with the Media Bureau,” Halprin wrote. MEE didn’t comment.