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The Federal Communications Commission has dismissed an application for a low-power FM radio license for North Versailles Twp.

In a letter sent to Forest Hills-based Tri-Borough Communications, Peter Doyle, audio bureau chief for the FCC, says the application was defective because the group failed to form a proper, registered non-profit corporation or association prior to filing their application.

Tri-Borough, led by former WTAE radio engineer and personality Larry Gerson, had sought a license for 92.3 FM.

The rejection of Tri-Borough's application would apparently clear the way for a commercial license to be granted on 92.1 FM to the owners of WKHB (620). Where Tri-Borough promised to broadcast a mix of oldies and public service programming, WKHB broadcasts 12 hours per day of paid infomercials, mostly for "alternative medicine" practitioners, some of whom do not have degrees from schools of medicine.

The 92.1 FM station would be licensed as a so-called "translator" --- a re-broadcast of WKHB's AM signal and its programming --- in the FM band. Broadcasting infomercials all day long is perfectly legal. (Yay, de-regulation! Thanks, President Clinton!)

(In the interest of full disclosure: I worked, part-time, for the owner of WKHB for nine years before resigning earlier this year. So, you can take this as "sour grapes," but I know of what I speak.)

. . .

Tube City Community Media Inc. got dragged into this hot mess when some clown filed an objection to the Tri-Borough application using the name "Tube City Community Public Radio" --- a clear attempt to impersonate our organization. (See our Feb. 6 editorial, "I Am the Morning DJ at W-FRAUD.")

It cost us two hours' of attorney time at $295 per hour to get things straightened out, which is money we could not afford.

We asked the FCC to dismiss the objection on the grounds that it was fraudulent, but the FCC decided that since the fictitious group changed its name to "Mon Valley Public Radio" --- after we complained, of course --- that it was "no harm, no foul."

. . .

It's very sad. Tri-Borough can't get its radio station, but a new FM signal can come into the area to broadcast crummy hour-long commercials, all day long, five days a week.

WKHB's FM signal also has the potential to do great harm to people trying to listen to Pitt's radio station, WPTS, which is on the same frequency (92.1). (Irony of ironies, WPTS also objected to the little 92.3 signal in North Versailles, on the ground that it would interfere with their broadcast. The FCC dismissed WPTS's objection as well --- and WPTS will have a hard time fending off the WKHB FM simulcast, I predict.)

We're almost certain who filed the paperwork in the name of "Tube City," but we can't prove it, although we have put the person and their attorney on notice.

. . .

I'm sorry to see the North Versailles Twp. application dismissed. But it needed help, to put it politely. (Which Tube City Community Media had offered, last September, publicly. We would have assisted any local group that wanted to file an application for a low-power FM radio station in the Mon-Yough area. No one contacted us.)

As for the turkey who filed the objection in our name, because he or she was too much of a coward to sign his or her real name --- we must, once again, borrow a tradition from the indefatigable Charles Pierce and defer to Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw) in "The Sting":

"Not only are ye a cheat, you're a gutless cheat as well."



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