Black-owned radio station may lose license over FCC 'character qualifications' | Hacker News Reader

Black-owned radio station may lose license over FCC 'character qualifications'

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33 pointscf100clunk14 comments

At first I thought this was maybe clickbait and the article would provide some additional details. But it’s pretty much as dumb as it sounds.

Basically any radio station owner with a felony is automatically placed into a hearing, and this tax fraud felony from 2008 was made available to the FCC now (from not paying taxes on some cigarette stamps, seems a trifle).

Still seems dumb on the FCCs part. It’s not like you’re guessing about the station. It’s been on the air for a decade. No hearing necessary.

You know what's dumb? Pulling a "black-owned" racial card every time there is anything happening, even if the rules have nothing to do with race.

What's dumb is not comprehending the wider impact.

> The owner of Knoxville, Tennessee's only Black-owned radio station

You may recognize Tennessee from such hits as "Tennessee legislature expels 2 Black representatives".

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/tennessee-expulsion-house-d...

Is there an implication that because a state did something likely racist that a federal agency is motivated by the same racism? Are there white station owners with felonies?

Rules can have a higher impact to some races vs other races. Like this rule affect blacks more since they only make up 13% of the population but make up 34% of felons out there.

Meanwhile in DC, (at least some kinds of) felons have preference for marijuana licenses.

Is this what you are talking about? If so, felons don’t get any preference.

https://outlawreport.com/dc-reverses-ban-on-former-felons-in...

Yeah, this rule in general seems pretty anachronistic when any old idiot can spin up a YouTube channel in approximately 5 minutes.

My knee-jerk sense of fair play has me wondering how/why Fox News license holders are not at risk of losing theirs, given the self-acknowledged mendacity of some of its on-air personalities. To me, that goes directly to 'character qualifications', but perhaps cable TV network owners do not face the same standards as their broadcast radio station colleagues.

Yeah, broadcast and cable are regulated very differently because radio spectrum is a limited shared public resource while cable is mostly private property and essentially unlimited channels.

There are a lot of boomers still living, breathing, and listening much more to radio than to YouTube.

Why is "not paying taxes on a sale" a conviction for tax fraud? Is it a simple matter of paying the amount due plus penalty? Where is the scheme to deceive?

I often get letters from the IRS correcting my taxes.

Often? Sounds like you're poor at attempting fraud.

What does the station owner's race have to do with this? (rhetorical question, no answer required)

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