The FCC has designated Snake River Radio’s 1490 KPCQ Chubbock/Pocatello ID for a hearing to determine whether to proceed with its pending license renewal due to its limited operational status since acquiring the station in 2018 and questions of whether the license should be considered expired automatically due to extended periods of silence.
Since closing on its $20,000 acquisition of then KRTK on February 1, 2018 through the end of its current license term on October 1, 2021, the station was silent 80 percent of the time. KPCQ was filed as being silent for 350 days from 6/30/18 through 6/14/2019, 363 days from 6/17/19 to 6/13/20, and 364 days from 6/15/20 to 6/13/21. The original silent STA was filed stating that the tower site owner required Snake River Radio to remove KPCQ’s tower on June 30, 2018. Yet on June 26, 2019 it filed a notice of resumption station it had resumed operation from that tower on June 15 before going silent again on June 17 claiming that a construction crew clipped and severed a tower guy wire causing collapse of the tower. The FCC notes that the discrepancy was not explained and it seeks to find out whether KPCQ did resume operations or if the license expired for being silent for over a consecutive 365 day period.
An application was then made for a new site, which was granted on September 12, 2019 and it resumed operations for one day on June 14, 2020 from a temporary long-wire facility. On June 14, 2021, KPCQ began operating from its new site under program test authority while awaiting its license to be renewed and the new facility granted.