WQZS: FCC Enforcement Bureau asks Judge to Pull License

The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau is asking the Administrative Law Judge assigned to preside over the fate of a Somerset County radio station, to pull its license.

In the order dated Tuesday, May 31st, the bureau filed a “Motion to Dismiss for Failure to Participate and Waiver of Hearing, or in the alternative, Motion to Compel A Response to the Enforcement Bureau’s Outstanding Discovery Requests.”

Acting Bureau Chief Loyaan A. Egal submitted in the motion that WQZS owner Roger Wahl’s “lack of responsiveness and repeated failures to provide substantive and complete responses to the Bureau’s continued attempts at discovery, and his apparent disregard for the Commission’s rules, procedural deadlines, and the Presiding Judge’s orders, plainly amounts to a waiver of this hearing.”

“As a result,” wrote Egal, “the Acting Chief, Enforcement Bureau, through his attorneys, respectfully contends that the Commission’s rules and precedent compel the dismissal of this proceeding and revocation of Mr. Wahl’s license.”

Egal referenced a previous ruling by Administrative Judge Jane Halprin, who has been presiding over the WQZS proceedings since they first came to light in the wake of Wahl’s sex-related criminal charges.

“As the Presiding Judge has previously acknowledged, parties ‘to a hearing proceeding are expected to comply with the Commission’s rules, procedures and orders, including orders of the Presiding Judge. That duty is also inherent in the privilege of being entrusted with a Commission license. Lack of counsel or unfamiliarity with Commission processes does not excuse nonfeasance,” stated Egal.

Wahl has been fighting the revocation of his license without an attorney. While he is allowed to do so, Wahl quickly ran afoul of Halprin over his apparent ineptitude with email and uploading requested documentation electronically.

“The Bureau submits that Mr. Wahl has failed to fully participate in
this proceeding, and as such, in accordance with section 1.92(a) of the Commission’s rules, has waived his right to this hearing, finalized Egal. “The Bureau thus respectfully requests that the Presiding Judge
dismiss this proceeding and revoke Mr. Wahl’s FCC license. In the alternative, the Bureau requests that the Presiding Judge compel Mr. Wahl to produce a complete, substantive, and detailed response to the Bureau’s document requests and interrogatories that were the subject of
the Presiding Judge’s Discovery Order and to the Bureau’s Second Request for Production of Documents and Things.”

Wahl founded the 3,000 watt classic hits-formatted station licensed to Meyersdale in the fall of 1992. The station existed rather quietly and unassuming until Wahl’s arrest in 2019. Now a convicted felon, Wahl has been fighting for the right to keep his license, which is in jeopardy under the FCC’s character requirements.

A non-commercial LPFM, also based in Meyersdale, is also petitioning against the renewal of Wahl’s license once it expires in August.