FCC Denies Reconsideration of Emmis Renewals

RADIO ONLINE | Sunday, July 27, 2014

The FCC has denied a petition seeking reconsideration of the Commission's April 12, 2013, Memorandum Opinion and Order, which denied two Applications for Review (AFR), one filed by David E. Smith, and the second filed jointly by Smith, Peter LaBarbera, Kathy Valente, Illinois Family Institute and Illinois Chapter of the Concerned Women for America. The AFRs sought review of Media Bureau's decisions granting the license renewal for Emmis Radio's WFNI-AM, WLHK-FM and WYXB-FM/Indianapolis, WWVR-FM & WTHI-FM/Terre Haute and WKQX-FM/Chicago.

The Commission said that the Bureau was barred from considering Smith's indecency complaints against Emmis by the terms of a consent decree. It also said that the Bureau did not need to consider the civil lawsuit filed against Smith by Erich "Mancow" Muller, who hosted a program that was broadcast by Emmis, because the lawsuit was a non-broadcast activity not regulated by the Commission and not involving Emmis.

The Petitioners based the reconsideration on "facts or arguments which relate to events which have occurred or circumstances which have changed since the last opportunity to present such matters to the Commission." Petitioners stated that they "are Christian and seek to defend traditional Judeo-Christian morals and virtues." They also "argued that the Commission had violated their right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution" because it did not "investigate Emmis for its apparent violations of federal criminal statutes," but did "consciously investigate and/or impose civil forfeitures upon Christian organizations for relatively minor violations [of the Rules]."

The FCC found that the Petitioners have not demonstrated that there has been a change of circumstances warranting review of the MO&O and had merely identified several enforcement actions against allegedly Christian affiliated licensees which occurred following the filing of the AFRs. The agency denied the reconsideration since the Petitioners did not present any facts to support its contention that these actions demonstrate a change in Commission policy.