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Hallettsville and Yoakum Licenses Revoked

R

Ryan Williams

radioinsight.com

FCC Revokes Pair Of Texas Licenses Over Unpaid Regulatory Fees

The FCC has revoked the licenses of Kremling Enterprises’ Country “Texas Thunder Radio” 94.3 KYKM Yoakum and 99.9 KTXM Hallettsville
radioinsight.com radioinsight.com

Kind of shocking they didn't pay fees for so long and then didn't respond when asked about it by the commission.

I wonder if iHeart will use this opportunity to move WACO-FM into the Austin market. I think we discussed it here or another forum many many years ago, but KTXM was one of the shortspaced facilities in doing a move-in. The other was around Kerrville, if I recall. Probably do able now if the ownership rule isn't a issue.
 
Ryan Williams said:
I wonder if iHeart will use this opportunity to move WACO-FM into the Austin market.
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Ownership cap issue as iHeart already has four FMs in Austin, which IIRC is the limit for a market that size. If the caps are relaxed that could open the door.
Ryan Williams said:
I think we discussed it here or another forum many many years ago, but KTXM was one of the shortspaced facilities in doing a move-in. The other was around Kerrville, if I recall. Probably do able now if the ownership rule isn't a issue.
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I don’t see any full power stations on 99.9 that would be in the way, but there are first adjacent translators on both sides that would have to move or shut down.
 
Nobody can do any 'major' change until a filing window is open. And they can get the station back by paying the fees and/or any fine (likely admonishment). This is just so strange to me. The stations were doing pretty well and the husband and wife duo were very dedicated to serving the community and certainly monetizing the station. For this to happen, something pretty big would have been needed to knock them down. Was it Covid and then some other major expense they couldn't cover? Still, I would think somebody in the area would have loaned or gifted the funds.
 
b-turner said:
Nobody can do any 'major' change until a filing window is open. And they can get the station back by paying the fees and/or any fine (likely admonishment). This is just so strange to me. The stations were doing pretty well and the husband and wife duo were very dedicated to serving the community and certainly monetizing the station. For this to happen, something pretty big would have been needed to knock them down. Was it Covid and then some other major expense they couldn't cover? Still, I would think somebody in the area would have loaned or gifted the funds.
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I don't believe that is correct, since the current WACO-FM and a downgraded facility into Austin would be mutually exclusive with one another with likely contour overlap. It would qualify as a minor modificaiton.

@Mediafrog+

The ownership cap may or may not be an issue depending on current count. Austin is right on the edge, if I recall, of having enough total station to qualify for the larger ownership cap. I can't remember for sure off of the dome, but I think Austin is at 43 or 44. You need 45 to get five on the same band, so WACO-FM would potentially get you there or within one.
 
fybush said:
Just because the current 99.9 license goes away doesn't open anything up for change, because the underlying allocation doesn't go away and still needs to be protected.
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I forgot about the allotment angle since this is not reserved band. I know a WACO-FM move-in has been mentioned over the years multiple times from different folks. Some may have been around this forum, but I remember some discussion offline too. I thought it was basically an open secret possibility from what I was told.

But, I looked into this a bit more this evening when I had some extra time...

On the plus side, there isn't an urbanized area issue and I think this could be done outside of a major filing window.

However, from the ownership cap point of view, Austin is showing a total of 42 stations. I think BIA's numbers might have an error. Regardless, you would need 45 stations to move the market to a five FM cap. It's close, but not quite there.

Next, it looks like a move-in on 99.9 is short-spaced in two ways: EMF's co-channel KLKV in Hunt, TX (C3) and co-channel KTXM Hallettsville (A) as previously discussed.

If you make an assumption that a downgraded WACO-FM would need to be at least a Class C2 from one of the West Austin towers to make it worth the trouble (I don't think iHeart would be interested in a Class A move-in into Austin), then it would be short-spaced to KLKV by approximately 25 miles and about 25 miles from KTXM. There is definitely a reference point north of Austin where it could be fully spaced and a directional antenna could be used to accommodate the spacing issues, but it isn't really clean.

So in summary, if iHeart had some help from their friends at EMF, where KLKV was downgraded or moved to another channel (if possible) and EMF changed something like KLVT from Temple, TX to somewhere in-market like Jarrell and they got one more station to to be added to the market count (like KRXT which is now run out of Taylor) and they were willing to accept a null towards Hallettsville, a move-in does seem theoretically possible, but that is a lot of caveats in addition to giving up the most successful station in the history of the Waco market which has historically billed very well for the market size.

On the plus side, there isn't an urbanized area issue and this could be done outside of a major filing window.
 
Man, KTXM was a station I’ve been trying to catch through tropos. I’ve had nearly all stations from that area besides that one
 
KYKM is number onen on my preset in my car and home radios. Sad this happened.
 
stan said:
It was still broadcasting the other day. Is it still on?
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Technically, they are supposed to shut off the transmitter the instant the FCC advises them that their licenses are revoked. If you read the actual notice from the FCC, paragraph 9 specifically directs them to do so.

In actual practice, I suppose they could file a Petition for Reconsideration and the FCC would not likely enforce the above while that was pending ... but under the circumstances, I would think that to be awfully risky.
 
boiseengineer said:
Nothing short of a payment in the full amount plus fines (along with a real response to the previous inquiries) might reinstate the licenses.
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Agreed, but at this point I don't see any option to even take those steps without a Petition for Reconsideration.
 
I was about to say... I don't think they deserve to lose the stations.


KYKM and KTXM were sold to the current owners by the people currently responsible for KEMA 94.5 Three Rivers.
However, KEMA was not sold and I'm not sure if they ever got it together, in fact I remember reading about the FCC trouble they got in about 10 years ago (they managed to get out of it). But I'm not even sure if the FM is on-air anymore. Last I heard 94.5 it was only on one speaker and had 30 announcement messages in a row as if iTunes was on shuffle and not a real automation system, if anyone needs the operation looked at I say 94.5 might.
 
SnottyNose799 said:
I was about to say... I don't think they deserve to lose the stations.


KYKM and KTXM were sold to the current owners by the people currently responsible for KEMA 94.5 Three Rivers.
However, KEMA was not sold and I'm not sure if they ever got it together, in fact I remember reading about the FCC trouble they got in about 10 years ago (they managed to get out of it).
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They (actually he) didn't reimburse Victoria Radio Works for their expenses accrued during the move of KVIC to 104.7, replacing the former facility licensed to Ganado that Henderson owned. It briefly cost him the license for the other side of that frequency/facility shift, 94.9 @ Ganado (now KEON). Henderson felt it was a fair trade that in lieu of paying for the move of KVIC, he'd just hand over the license for KJAZ to VRW. They rejected and filed a complaint. After they were then reimbursed, 94.9 was reinstated and still operates to this day. (AFAIK)
SnottyNose799 said:
But I'm not even sure if the FM is on-air anymore. Last I heard 94.5 it was only on one speaker and had 30 announcement messages in a row as if iTunes was on shuffle and not a real automation system, if anyone needs the operation looked at I say 94.5 might.
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I can't verify it's operational at this very moment, but I've seen reports from SA within the last year that indicated 94.5 @ 3 Rivers was on the air intermittently.
 


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