After months of threatening radio broadcasters with license revocation over unpaid regulatory fees, the Federal Communications Commission has followed through again, revoking the license of KBOQ Lima, MT (100.9) after its owner failed to pay more than $6,700 in outstanding debt.
The FCC says Southwest Montana Media failed to pay regulatory fees covering fiscal years 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023. As of Aug. 7, the outstanding debt totaled $6,754.80, including amounts connected to KBOQ along with the former KANA (580) and its related FM translator — even though the licenses for both were surrendered in in August 2023.
The Commission not only revoked KBOQ’s license in an order released Tuesday, but ordered the station to cease operating immediately, deleted its call sign and dismissed a license renewal application that had been pending since December 2020.
The decision comes after Southwest Montana Media was given several opportunities to resolve the debt.
In April, the FCC issued an order that gave the company 60 days to provide evidence that it had paid the outstanding fees or explain why they should be waived or deferred. The FCC says the broadcaster did neither.
But the Commission didn’t immediately pull the plug when the deadline passed. FCC staff contacted Southwest Montana Media again in July to tell the company that neither payment nor a response had been received. According to the order, company principal Ted Austin promised that the balance would be paid within a week.
After nothing came and the date that Austin said the payment would be made, FCC staff sent a final warning that failure to pay or respond would result in KBOQ’s license being revoked. The Commission says no payment was received in the weeks since.
“We revoke the station’s license,” the FCC says in the order. “In these circumstances, where licensee has failed to pay its regulatory fee debt and does not dispute that it is obligated to pay the debt, we conclude revocation is appropriate.”
The $6,754.80 debt includes $3,460.62 associated with KBOQ, consisting of $1,273.18 for FY 2019, $1,374.94 for FY 2021 and $812.50 for FY 2023. The remainder is tied to KANA and K264CZ. Southwest Montana Media surrendered the KANA license and K264CZ construction permit in 2023, but the FCC says cancellation of those authorizations did not eliminate regulatory fees that were already owed.
Losing KBOQ also doesn’t erase the bill. The FCC specifically notes that revocation doesn’t relieve Southwest Montana Media of its obligation to pay the regulatory fee debt or any other financial obligations owed to the Commission.
The action represents the endgame of the regulatory fee enforcement campaign the FCC has been pursuing against delinquent broadcasters during the past few years. The Commission has issued a steady stream of pay-or-show-cause orders warning station owners that they have 60 days to settle outstanding regulatory fee debts or potentially lose their licenses.