The Federal Communications Commission has officially erased the former KJOJ-FM (103.3) allotment from the FM landscape, permanently deleting the signal on the fringes of the fast-growing Houston market after determining it can no longer legally or technically support a future station.
In an order released Wednesday, the Media Bureau formally deleted the Freeport, TX channel, ending a proceeding that began earlier this year after FCC engineers concluded the frequency could not comply with the Commission’s minimum spacing rules. No comments were filed opposing the proposal.
The decision closes the final chapter on a signal that for decades played a strategic role as a rimshot into the Greater Houston market. KJOJ-FM signed on in 1987 and over the years cycled through several formats and ownership groups before spending most of its later life simulcasting the Regional Mexican programming of “La Raza” KTJM Beaumont-Port Arthur into Houston.
The station’s demise began in December 2020 when its transmission tower in Sargent, TX collapsed, knocking KJOJ-FM off the air. Owner Liberman Broadcasting — later renamed Estrella Media — never restored operations. It shifted the KTJM simulcast to KNTE Bay City, TX (101.7 FM), a programming arrangement that current owner MediaCo Holdings continues to use today. And after more than 12 consecutive months of silence, the FCC canceled the KJOJ-FM license in June 2022.
Ordinarily, when a station license is canceled, the FCC restores the vacant FM allotment to preserve the possibility of future service in the community. But in this case, FCC engineers determined the former KJOJ-FM allotment was short-spaced to a newer Class C2 allotment in Wharton, TX.
According to the FCC, only 182 kilometers separate the two channels, well below the required 249-kilometer minimum spacing for a Class C FM facility. Engineers concluded there were no alternate channels or technically viable transmitter sites available to resolve the conflict.
“We find that the deletion of vacant Channel 277C at Freeport is consistent with the Commission’s policy that we will not retain a vacant FM channel that would not comply with the Commission’s spacing requirements,” Assistant Audio Division Chief Nazifa Sawez writes in the order.
The move comes just days after the FCC announced it will hold a new FM auction early next year. The list includes 132 construction permits. On that list is the Class C2 facility in Wharton, TX southwest of Houston. The permit carries one of the auction’s highest opening bids at $30,000. Interest in bidding on the station could be even stronger since potential buyers will no longer have to worry about the co-channel signal coming back to life along the Texas coastline.