Re: WMFO transfer of license?

[Garrett Wollman <wollman@lcs.mit.edu>]

<<On Tue, 11 Feb 2003 09:50:03 -0500, Aaron Read <aread@speakeasy.net> said:

> One would expect that we'll see something similar for WBUR fairly soon, 
> perhaps.  Since DeWolfe is no longer the chair of the Trustees of BU, and 
> wasn't Westling a Trustee and the President and now he's neither?   I don't 
> know how many people are BU Trustees so I don't know what the threshold is 
> for requiring a license transfer.

Theoretically, any change in control of a licensee must be approved by
the Commission.  Because non-profits cannot legally have owners,
control in the FCC's eyes rests in the membership of the board of
trustees (or directors, as the case may be).[1]  My understanding of
the FCC doctrine in question is that if a sufficient number of board
members to effect changes in the station's policy are replaced,
whether at once or over time, the FCC's consent must be obtained.

I believe that this does not apply in the case where the licensee's
governing documents give another entity the right to control the
composition of the board -- in which case it is control in that
superior entity that matters to the Commission, and the licensee is
considered to be a mere conduit of the other organization's
activities.

-GAWollman

[1] Even for commercial concerns, non-citizen board members are
prohibited from participating in governance of licensees.  GE, for
example, has several board members who are required to recuse
themselves with respect to any decision taken in regards to NBC or
Telemundo station operations.