Folks, today a federal marshal asked me not to engage in any further direct conversation with the “Rapaho” character. Yet, at the same time, I consider many of you on this board as friends. Thanks to Rapaho’s revelations, I now have many of you sending private messages asking about his allegations. Undoubtedly, others out there are also wondering what gives. Thus, this reply is directed not to Rapaho, but to everyone else.
Almost 48 years ago, my first born son was given up for adoption because his mom and I were teens and couldn’t provide. After a brief stay with foster parents, he was state-raised in some pretty bad group homes. When he turned 18, the state gave him $5 and dropped him off in downtown Houston. Several months later, shopping mall security guards accused him of stealing batteries from a Radio Shack. They didn’t arrest him; they beat him up and then ran him out of the mall. When his complaints to HPD about the beating fell on deaf ears, he went ballistic. He set fire to a HPD substation, a DPS drivers license office, empty office buildings, construction trailers, dumpsters, etc. Wasn’t right, but I can certainly find empathy in the anger of what he did. In any event, nobody got hurt.
Of course, he was caught, arrested, and put in jail. At the time, however, I didn’t know that it was my son who was involved because the state had changed his name and sealed all the records. What I do know, as it is a matter of public record, is that the jail psychiatrist drugged him to the point where he was almost a zombie. In this drugged state, his court appointed lawyer urged him to go in the courtroom, waive all his rights, and plead guilty asking for probation. The lawyer later admitted telling him if probation was denied the maximum sentence was 20 years and that he would probably get a 10 year plea bargain sentence. After the judge gave him a 50 year sentence, he went crazy threatening judges and other officials.
Despite nobody being hurt, the judge sent my son to prison with court paperwork erroneously indicating a conviction for 1st degree arson with bodily injury. This caused state officials to classify him as a dangerous violent offender and to assign him to one of the worst prisons in Texas. With difficulty, he survived. He filed hundreds of lawsuits and appeals complaining of what had been done by the judge, only to be sanctioned, fined, found in contempt, and put in solitary confinement.
In the 1990s, the laws were changed to allow access to sealed adoption records. I was reunited with my son, and got a judge to order him brought from prison back to Harris County. The adoption decree was voided and his name legally changed back to his birth name, which is the same as mine except with a “Jr.” suffix. Also, with his family pressuring public officials, the courts finally reexamined the situation, and corrected the injustice by reducing his sentence and releasing him. That was about six or seven years ago. In that time, he hasn’t set any fires or done any wrong to anyone. He is a good person, always helping others. He lives in and supervises one of the shelter residences our church operates to help homeless individuals.
Mr. Henderson’s attempt to bring my son’s history into this dispute is an example of “how low can you go.” It’s nothing more than a smoke screen, designed to divert attention from his wrongdoings.
Two years ago, our church began putting aside funds for the purpose of applying for an LPFM license during the 2013 filing window, and to construct such a station. We voted to shelve this plan after Roy Henderson’s attorney agreed to allow our ministry, at our own cost, to use the analog TV licenses for KVDO and KJIB until either the end of analog broadcasting in September 2015, or until Mr. Henderson built out digital facilities.
In another topic, I know Mr. Continuous Wave has been critical of the arrangement, arguing that this type of Local Management Agreement is not legal without a written contract and approval from the FCC. What Mr. CW needs to be understood here is that this is Mr. Henderson’s customary manner of doing business. Mr. Henderson has about a dozen stations scattered across the country, some on the air, others not. He doesn’t run any of them, but rather lets his family members, friends, and anyone willing to give him money or a portion of the proceeds. There are no formal LMAs for any of them. In any event, his lawyer led us to believe this type of arrangement was legitimate.
Then Mr. Henderson reneged on our contract. And, after we refused to shut the station down, to try to avoid getting in any more trouble than he was already in, he simply “surrendered” the licenses. Folks, think about this: there were several entities wanting to purchase the licenses, including a large church that would’ve paid Mr. Henderson in excess of a million dollars. How much wrongdoing does one have to be hiding in their proverbial closet to just walk away from a million dollars?
Thus, I started bringing all of Mr. Henderson’s secrets out of the closet. On this forum I learned he was trying to sell a worthless license for KROY to KSBJ for $350K. Worthless, in that the station was off the air longer than a year, and by operation of law the license was cancelled in 2011. I brought this to the attention of the FCC in a formal complaint, and the FCC essentially told Mr. Henderson that unless he resolved the issues with me the station would fade away. In copies of emails posted elsewhere on this forum, I showed where Mr. Henderson through his lawyer asked me what it was going to take for me to go away. He advised the KVDO/KJIB licenses couldn’t be recovered. What else did I want? Implicitly, it was an offer of money. I turned him down, yet withdrew my complaint anyway. The only reason I did so was because the folks at KSBJ are doing God’s work! Prayer and meditation convinced me it was the right thing to do.
Finally, to the folks on here who are my friends, my petition to reinstate KVDO/KJIB remains pending. An FCC lawyer has advised that they’re taking a really hard look at the situation. Honestly, I don’t want to program the stations anymore. In my current state of health fighting cancer and all, I’m really not physically capable of it. However, they shouldn’t go to waste. The spectrum is not property owned by individuals; it’s a public resource. For years, Mr. Henderson sat on these licenses, showing the public a lot of nothing. Think of all the good broadcasters out there who would put the licenses to good use. Yes, Mr. CW, I read your comments about how it can't be saved by a third party. I may be beating my head against a brick wall here, but I'm still going to try. I know that at least one member of Congress has sent the FCC a letter asking them to explore ways to save the station, and more may join. If enough people raise their voice, a new precedent might be established. On the kvdo.net website is a computer form. By filling it out and clicking submit, you can send an email directly to Tom Wheeler, chairman of the FCC, asking that he reinstate the licenses.
Thank you and God Bless.
