The Federal Communications Commissions is raising the possibility of revoking the licenses of three Texas stations after it says its investigation into the ownership tied to their potential sale has “raised more questions than it has resolved.” In doubt is the fate of El Paso market regional Mexican “Ke Buena 97.5” KBNA-FM, Spanish AC KAMA (750), and the currently silent KQBU (920).
In 2023, Lorena Margarita Pérez Toscano filed a $2,461,565 deal to buy the stations from a U.S. holding company with ties to Grupo Radio Mexico led by Luz Maria Rygaard. Because Toscano is a Mexican citizen, that triggered a deeper review by the Justice Department as part of its now-standard process for assessing foreign buyers. It had no objection to the sale. But a more consequential, simultaneous review was occurring at the FCC. It has led the Media Bureau with questions about who has really been running the stations — questions that it now hopes an administrative law judge will be able to answer.
The Bureau says in an order released Friday that after reviewing the record and the parties’ responses to its inquiries, “substantial and material questions of fact” still exist regarding whether the parties have engaged in an unauthorized transfer of control, as well as whether they misrepresented the facts.
The FCC says a programming-and-sales arrangement wasn’t disclosed up front. The Bureau says did not appear in the transfer filings, but instead surfaced during the its investigation, when station staff said that another entity, Pro Radio, was programming the airtime and selling the advertising on the stations. The Bureau says it was also given conflicting information about timing — saying the response asserted Pro Radio began programming in November 2021, while other evidence suggests Pro Radio was not formed in Texas until August 2022.
Toscano and her two sisters own Pro Radio, according to the FCC. When it inquired about the programming arrangement, they were told it was “unwritten” with the three sisters telling the Bureau they weren’t aware the agreement needed to be in the stations’ public inspection files. The order says the Bureau asked them to put the agreement to writing and provide it, but they failed to deliver.
The order also highlights a significant debt relationship and family connections between Rygaard and Toscano — who are said to be cousins — although it concedes not everything is clear, since proper documentation was never submitted. The Bureau says Toscano already holds the right to collect a significant outstanding debt owed by Rygaard. Its order also flags unusual sequencing in the deal as it relates to debt financing. The FCC says “it is not clear” whether Rygaard has made any payments to Toscano during her ownership of the company, what the outstanding balance is on the loan, what security, if any, has been provided for the loan, and how exactly the funds were used by the stations. The Bureau says the women’s’ responses left key questions unanswered.
The order repeatedly faults Rygaard and Toscano submissions for gaps, contradictions, and what it characterizes as weak support for assertions about who controlled station operations. It describes their later response as lacking documentation substantiating Rygaard’s actual control over the stations and demonstrating her independence from her employment by Pro Radio. Ultimately, it says the responses “reinforced the Bureau’s view that an unauthorized transfer of control to Toscano, a foreign national, had already occurred.”
The FCC has set the matter for a hearing before an administrative law judge and laid out the issues to be tried, including whether the transfer applications should be approved — or the licenses be revoked. Procedurally, the order requires written appearances within the next 20 days for both Rygaard and Toscano. It also warns that if Toscano fails to file the required appearance, her purchase applications will be dismissed — with no opportunity to try again.