Courts Can't Transfer FCC Licenses, Rules Pennsylvania Superior Panel

The FCC, not a court, has “the exclusive right” to approve the transfer of a broadcast license, said a three-judge panel in the Superior Court of Pennsylvania Thursday in the latest ruling in a long-running and convoluted matter stemming from a low-power broadcaster’s entanglement in a “Nigerian prince”-style online scam. Philadelphia Television Network (PTNI) principal shareholder Richard Glanton used the company’s assets as collateral for a loan he took out to finance payments to the scammer but then defaulted on the loan, eventually leading to PTNI’s assets --including WEFG-LD Philadelphia and its physical facilities -- being transferred to a court-appointed receiver by lower courts in California and Pennsylvania in 2018. That transfer was reversed after the lower court said the receivership order was erroneous and didn’t follow court procedure. However, the station hasn’t been transferred back to PTNI in part because of opposition filings from the receiver and Newport Investment Group, which had acquired Glanton and PTNI’s debts from the original loan. A lower court also ruled that though the assignment to the receiver had been in error, it was outside the court’s authority to transfer the license back to PTNI itself. PTNI appealed that ruling, but in Thursday’s order the Superior Court of Pennsylvania upheld it. “Pointedly, any attempt by this Court to return the license would impugn the authority of the FCC,” the ruling said. The FCC’s power doesn’t extend to the station’s physical assets, however, and the receiver must turn them over to PTNI, the opinion said. “PTNI’s request to return the physical assets, including the tower broadcasting equipment, tower lease, station records, and programming files, does not raise a substantial federal question.” The asset return will be stayed pending an FCC decision on the license, the order said. “PTNI must now turn to the FCC to obtain a determination of possession of the license before it can enforce its possession of the broadcast assets.”