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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Broadcaster Loses Bid for Review of Expired License

(CN) - The D.C. Circuit rejected Eagle Broadcasting Group's effort to renew its broadcasting license, which expired after the company failed to broadcast for 12 months.

Eagle Broadcasting stopped broadcasting the Arizona radio station KVEZ-FM in June 2001 due to interference and land-use issues. It asked the FCC to let it broadcast from a new site in the Buckskin Mountains, but the agency denied the request and later deemed the license expired.

Eagle Broadcasting protested, claiming it had transmitted signals from the new site within 12 months, even though it lacked authorization. It argued that the Telecommunications Act allows it to transmit any signals from any location within 12 months to avoid license expiration.

The federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., disagreed.

"Unlicensed radio transmissions are not recognized in the Act," Senior Circuit Judge Edwards wrote. "It is therefore an understatement to say that it strains credulity to suggest that the reference to 'broadcast signals' in (the Act) includes unauthorized and unlicensed transmissions."

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