WASHINGTON, January 27, 2026: On Friday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released an order requesting a hearing to revoke the licenses of three El Paso radio stations, including Spanish language Ke Buena 97.5 (KBNA-FM). The reason for the hearing to revoke the licenses is because the FCC feels that the two cousins lied about who owns and operates the radio station.
According to the BIA Advisory Services report submitted as part of the application to the FCC to transfer the license from Luz Maria Rygaard to Lorena Margarita Pérez Toscano, there are 36 radio stations in the El Paso area. Of those, 24 are licensed by the FCC and 12 are licensed by the Mexican FCC counterpart, Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT). The purchaser, Pérz Toscano, is a Mexican citizen. Rygaard is a U.S. citizen.
Foreign Ownership Limits
The U.S. Department of Justice operates a committee called the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector which is known by its shorter name – Team Telecom.
Team Telecom advices the FCC on national security matters when foreign ownership of a telecommunications company reaches a certain threshold. The national security concern is foreign activity through American airwaves or communication links. In the case of a radio station, the foreign threshold that triggers a Team Telecom investigation is 25% foreign owned.
Federal law allows foreigners to own 100% of the radio licenses, unless the FCC “finds that the public interest will be served by refusing” to allow the license to be controlled by foreigners. The issue the FCC is now looking at is not the Mexican ownership, but rather the “lack of candor” both Pérez Toscano and Rygaard have exhibited to the FCC during their review of the FCC license transfer.
The FCC rarely moves to revoke broadcast licenses. Last year, in a rare instance, the FCC revoked the licenses of two radio stations in Hallettsville and Yoakum, Texas after the owner did not pay the annual licensing fees for six years. The FCC reinstated the licenses a few days later.
On June 9, 2023, Rygaard filed paperwork with the FCC requesting permission to transfer her radio licenses to Pérez Toscano for $2.5 million. The FCC says it found what it considers a “lack of candor” and found that the two individuals may “have engaged in an unauthorized transfer of control” of the radio licenses. Additionally, from their investigation, the FCC says it now questions whether the current owner, Rygaard, can keep her license. The FCC also now believes that Toscano cannot be licensed for an American radio station.
Taking the radio license away from Rygaard would likely lead to Ke Buena shutting down, at least temporarily.
The FCC Investigation
On November 30, 2021, Rygaard paid $10,000 to Grupo Radio Centro and 97.5 Investment TX for the three radio stations. When Rygaard filed paperwork to transfer the radio licenses to her, she did not disclose that the sale included a loan from Pérez Toscano for $2.4 million. It is the undisclosed loan that concerns the FCC because the loan means that the three radio licenses would be 100% controlled by Mexican citizens and companies. The loan, which was not disclosed in the original application in the 2021 purchase also suggests that the three radio stations were 100% controlled by Mexican investors without the knowledge of the FCC.
The FCC investigation found that if the license transfer had been approved, Pérez Toscano would own the stations along with her sisters, Rebeca Elizabeth Pérez Toscano and Jaqueline Pérez Toscano along with their father, Trigio Javier Pérez de Anda. The family owns six radio stations in Cd. Juárez, although Pérez Toscano told the FCC she had no other ownership in radio stations. The investigation also determined that Pérez Toscano and Rugaard are cousins, which they also did not disclose to the FCC.
The filing with the FCC to transfer control to the Mexican family says that Rygaard would be paid $10,000, her original investment in 2021.
Because the FCC questions whether Rygaard actually owns the three radio stations and because the agency feels that both Rygaard and Pérez Toscano both misrepresented facts about the license transfer, it is now demanding a hearing.
During their investigation the FCC found that Rygaard was an employee of the radio station, and not the owner, as she alleged. Rygaard, as an employee, left the ownership of the radio stations under Mexican control. Although the law allows this, the FCC must be notified and approve of the foreign ownership, which it says it never did.
The hearing the FCC seeks is to confirm whether Rygaard “has engaged in an unauthorized transfer of control” of the three radio stations to Pérez Toscano. The FCC wants the hearing to order the “revocation of the Station licenses and dismissal of the Transfer Application.” This means that the FCC wants to cancel the current license for Ke Buena 97.5 and cancel the request to sell it to the Mexican family, effectively taking it off the air. Rygaard and the Mexican sisters have 20-days to file responses as to why the FCC should not cancel the license and the transfer request.
Ke Buena 97.5’s current FCC license expires on August 1, 2029, but the FCC may cancel it before then. The two other stations, both on the AM band, may also lose their licenses. On April 4, 2023, KAMA went off the air after their studio was damaged but is now back on the air. KQBU went off the air on September 19, 2022, to move their transmitting tower. They told the FCC then that it expected to be on air by September 20, 2023, to meet the FCC requirement to not be off the air for longer than six months. It remains off the air today.
Note: The FCC misspells the name Pérez and Peréz in its filing.
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