FCC Renews Five TV Station Licenses

The FCC renewed five TV station licenses Wednesday, part of a laundry list of actions released a day before the FCC commissioners are scheduled to appear before the Senate Commerce Committee for an oversight hearing.

The FCC renewed the license of Hubbard's KOBR(TV) Roswell, N.M. The station had informed the commission when it applied for renewal that it had exceeded FCC commercial limits in kids shows by two-and-a-half minutes, but the FCC said the incident appeared to be isolated and inadvertent and so did not admonish the station--and official reprimand--and approved the renewal.

The FCC also renewed the licenses of Ion Media Networks' KKPX(TV) San Jose,  KSPX(TV) Sacramento, KPXN San Bernardino, all California; and KUPX(TV) Provo, Utah. But it admonished all of them for the same violation of failing to provide the requisite information about its kids shows to electronic program guide publishers.

In all cases the FCC said the violations were not serious, and had been corrected, and all were still operating in the public interest, which is the prerequisite for the seven-year renewal.

The New Mexico and California renewal applications had to be filed by June 1, 2006, and the Utah application by Aug. 1, 2006.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.