WJTB fined by the FCC?

[johnbasalla]

A friend of mine copied and pasted this article and said it was from Radio Info.  I haven't seen it on this site.  Is this recent or old news?  What's the truth?  Where would he get the money to pay this large of a fine? 
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From Radio Info

Nobody was home, when the FCC called on Cleveland-area WJTB (1040). Here’s the FCC’s description of what happened on March 30, 2010 – agents from the Detroit office arrived at the main studio of black gospel/Spanish WJTB in Elyria, Ohio and “found the door to the main studio locked and, through the front window, observed that the studio appeared to be empty. The agents knocked on the door several times, but no one answered.” Attempts to reach the owner of Taylor Broadcasting were unsuccessful. The licensee later said that “station personnel do not have specific days and times that they work, but rather are scheduled as needed.” Taylor said the FCC folks didn’t get in because they didn’t push the door buzzer. So the agents paid another visit on August 19 – and couldn’t find a door buzzer anywhere. Since it wasn't able to inspect the “main studio” during regular business hours, the FCC has issued a $10,000 fine, for “failing to maintain a management and staff presence at the main studio.”

[almaniac27]

From the "Ethnic Programming", coutesy of xmusicmatt:

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2012/db0213/DA-12-197A1.pdf

Looks like it was released on Monday and they $10,000 fine must be paid within 30 days, so I guess we'll find out within that time frame. If the fine isn't paid, does the FCC then have the ability to pull the license, or is there another step between this and that?

[w9wi]

Chances are the next step is that WJTB appeals the forfeiture.  If they submit the right documentation they can probably get it reduced, quite likely by quite a bit.  I think there's a better than even chance the final fine will be less than $2,000. 

If they were to ignore it I think the next step would probably be a lawsuit to try to recover it.

Can't say I've heard of a station losing its license for failing to pay a forfeiture.  Seems to me either the station decides they don't want to stay in business (and voluntarily surrenders the license) or they give in & pay the fine.

[HHH]

John:

See if BW would like to add an AM station 

[TomT]

If the fine isn't paid, they can't file their license renewal. License renewals for Ohio due by June 1st.

[Tim]

Tuned across the AM band yesterday afternoon and WJTB was in fact on the air.

With 5,000 watts, non-directional on 1040 on the AM dial...they SHOULD have a great daytime signal for at least 40 to 50 miles in all directions....but not WJTB.

However, for more than a decade WJTB severely under modulates which makes their signal sound like there's something really wrong with their transmitter.

The fact that it's been allowed to run this way all these years shows you how few people must listen, and how greatly reduced the FCC field engineering staff must be.

[johnbasalla]

Isn't it a blessing in disguise for other area broadcasters that this station is non-competitive?  Since 2008, economic times have been tough, and some say the Lorain/Elyria area has been particularly hard hit.  So, it's too the advantage of AM 930 WEOL and WDLW/WOBL not to have the added competition of another operator aggressively chasing the hard-to-come-by ad dollars.

[HHH]

Isn't it a blessing in disguise for other area broadcasters that this station is non-competitive?  Since 2008, economic times have been tough, and some say the Lorain/Elyria area has been particularly hard hit.  So, it's too the advantage of AM 930 WEOL and WDLW/WOBL not to have the added competition of another operator aggressively chasing the hard-to-come-by ad dollars.

But the point is that, unlike the other stations that you mentioned, 1040 has coverage in a great deal of the Cleveland market, not just Lorain county.  At least potential coverage, if someone buys it and restores the engineering to what it was when they first signed on.  Back then, they reached into a portion of Lake and Geauga Counties, and were rock solid in Cuyahoga, Medina and Lorain counties.

This is the biggest waste of an pretty significant market frequency that I have seen in years.

Are you SURE BW can't make him an offer? 

[Tim]

HHH: When you say "BW"...forgive my ignorance but what does that mean?

If you mean Baldwin-Wallace, why in heavens name would they want WJTB or any radio station (even if they gave it to them)? The costs to maintain terrestrial radio stations is high, and the benefit/return for them would be, what??

For most any college or tech school in 2012 looking into the future, why educate/train more and more young broadcasters in an industry that's falling all over itself to automate and eliminate people in order to cut expenses/overhead?

Many, many smaller colleges are dropping terrestrial stations for streaming stations, anyway. Much, much lower cost (practically no cost, in fact), and that's the way radio and TV is heading anyway: away from transmitters & towers to on-line stations for radio and cable-delivered for TV.

[johnbasalla]

Over-the-air radio has gotten significant competition from new and expanded technologies, however I take issue with the idea that radio is heading away from transmitters and towers at this time.  On radio-info I went to the webcasting board and asked about profitability and internet-only stations.  There are very very few.  Meanwhile over-the-air radio has seen a little uptick in their general profitability.  I've been following the stories of college stations trading in their FM frequencies and going internet-only.  I have noticed that they all have had takers, people or groups who wanted the FM station.  Nobody that I can recall just shut down and left the frequency empty.  If over-the-air radio is going under, why is there almost always somebody who wants the frequencies?  Why is the FCC intent on cramming the non-commercial part of the band with more and more licenses, such as the recently minted 25,000 watt religious station licensed to Brunswick at 91.9 FM?  As for the education and training aspect, remember that there's more to broadcasting then just radio.  TV is a big one, but there are related careers that can be just as fulfilling, and since there are many radio stations out there, they too need well-versed employees.