“Revocation” is perhaps the deadliest word to a television or radio station. Applied to a station’s license, it sounds the cataclysmic death knell of a broadcast operation that can render a multi-million-dollar investment worthless.

Industry observers, watchdogs, and community groups may argue that the FCC’s penalty of revocation of a broadcast license is a toothless bear that rarely attacks anymore. Often this stance is accompanied by the claim that the agency is in the pocket of the industries it regulates.

Could your station lose its license? Or (…wishful thinking) has the FCC lost its taste for the ultimate sanction?

Our review of the Commission’s revocation actions over the past 75 years has enabled us to compile a sure-fire list of ways for a radio or television station to lose its license. Regardless of your take on the composition of the Commission and its contemporary sociopolitical agenda, we offer a money-back guarantee that any of the following activities will earn the dreaded result: revocation

1. 1. Molest children.

A felony conviction for deviant sexual assault involving five children resulted in the loss of seven Missouri and Indiana radio station licenses held by companies owned by Michael Rice, who served five years of an 84-year prison sentence for his misdeeds. Never mind that the criminal conduct had nothing to do with the licensee’s broadcast activity. The FCC has said that “there may be circumstances in which an applicant has engaged in non-broadcast misconduct so egregious as to shock the conscience and evoke almost universal disapprobation.” The Commission has postulated that “such misconduct might, of its own nature, constitute prima facie evidence that the applicant lacks the traits of reliability and/or truthfulness necessary to be a licensee.”

1. 2. Traffic in drugs.

Criminal conduct relating to illicit or unlawful drugs will earn the Commission’s disapprobation. The FCC launched a show cause proceeding against an FM station applicant who concealed his arrest and subsequent conviction on drug trafficking charges. It revoked the license of WFXL-TV, Albany, Georgia, a television station whose owner was convicted of laundering drug money.

1. 3. Lie, Cheat . . .

Henry Serafin lost his AM station license due to a number of station operational incidents that included failing to award contest prizes. The licensee was also cited for racial discrimination and misrepresentations in his license renewal application.  Through the years, lack of candor has been the principal ground on which the FCC has yanked the licenses of broadcast stations.

1. . . . 4. and Steal.

Terry Keith Hammond lost his FM station license after it was brought to the FCC’s attention that he had been convicted of theft for altering checks, had operated unauthorized stations in California, Louisiana and Texas, and had violated other FCC rules. The Commission found that “this criminal misconduct justifies a finding that Mr. Hammond has demonstrated his propensity to evade, rather than comply with laws and regulations.”

1. 5. Be a racist.

Lamar Broadcasting Television lost the license for WLBT, its television station in Jackson, Mississippi, because of persistent program practices in opposition to civil rights that included active support for racial segregation and altering network news coverage of the civil rights movement.

1. 6. Lack integrity.

Few broadcast veterans are unaware of the loss by RKO General of the licenses of its 14 radio and television stations after the Commission was apprised of illegal activities of its parent, General Tire, which had maintained a slush fund for uses that included improper overseas payments and questionable campaign contributions. The Commission took away one television license and forced RKO to sell the others at bargain basement prices.

“Integrity” covers a lot of territory. Don Burden lost his five radio station licenses for improperly using the stations to favor political candidates, through newscasts and unlawful campaign contributions, and for rigging contests and fraudulent billing. The FCC pulled John Brinkley’s license for programs in which he promoted goat testes implants in men’s testicles for sexual rejuvenation, gave medical advice over the air, and sold prescriptions through his own “kickback” pharmacy.

1. 7. Don’t mind the store.

The inmates were in charge of the asylum at the University of Pennsylvania’s WXPN. The Commission revoked the station license for the trustees’ lack of control over the station, which included programs containing profanity and sexual talk. The lead-up to revocation was a fine for broadcasting obscenity and for other station operational violations. (Ultimately the FCC granted a new license for WXPN.) Speaking of minding the store, the Commission automatically cancels the licenses of stations that are off the air for more than a year.

8.         Be Oblivious to FCC Deadlines

The FCC routinely revokes the licenses of broadcast station owners who wait to file their renewal applications until after the station’s license has expired. Also, the Commission does not take kindly to stations who do not respond to repeated requests for information. As with off-air operation (see 7), the Commission does not regard silence as golden.

The laundry list of conduct deemed contemptible isn’t locked up in the 20nd century. Rather, it’s a reflection of the eternally flawed human condition. Without the ability – or the need – to see clearly into the crystal ball, we think that past is prologue.

To critics of the FCC who think it’s gone easy on broadcasters in the recent past, we offer an alternative analysis: perhaps broadcasting’s evolution into a mature industry with billions of dollars invested in providing a strong program service to the public has accompanied that investment with responsible management and programming decisions. Regardless, in a universe of more than 30 thousand broadcast stations, the odds are better than even that someone at some point in time is not minding the store . . . or worse.

John Wells King is a principal in the Law Office of John Wells King LLC, in Jacksonville, Florida. A veteran FCC lawyer, King has practiced before the Commission for more than 40 years. He can be reached at John@JWKingLaw.com  

Erwin G. Krasnow, a former General Counsel of the National Association of Broadcasters, is the co-chair of the Communications Group at the law firm of Garvey Schubert Barer. He can be reached at Ekrasnow@GSBlaw.com.