Dennis & Callahan criticized for "election postponed" joke

[A. Joseph Ross]

On 5 Nov 2008 at 18:26, Garrett Wollman wrote:

> > i.e.....WNAC-TV.....and WHDH-TV
> 
> > They could not sell the license, as the government (the public) took
> > it back and gave the license to operate chs 7/5  to someone else.
> 
> Not quite the same situation, because this was all tangled up in those
> stations' license renewals, at a time when the FCC allowed competitive
> applications against pending renewals.  A better example would be
> those cases where a station owner is convicted of a felony.  Felons
> are not allowed to hold broadcast licenses, and on a number of
> occasions, the FCC has simply reassigned the license to someone else,
> either as a caretaker trustee or as a new station owner.

Actually, it was more complicated than that.  It had nothing to do 
with license renewal, per se, or with normal competitive applications 
against license renewal.

The Channel 5 case involved a decision to set aside the original 
award of the channel assignment to the Herald Traveler.  Because the 
original award was voided, a competitive process did not give WHDH-TV 
the benefit of its good record of performance that would normally be 
given to an incumbent licensee.

The Channel 7 case involved revocation of the license because RKO 
general was found guilty of corrupt practices and therefore 
unqualified to hold a license.  

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
 92 State Street, Suite 700                   Fax 617.507.7856
Boston, MA 02109-2004           	         http://www.attorneyross.com