**Before the**

## Federal Communications Commission

## Washington, D.C. 20554

In the Matter of )

)

Alpine Broadcasting Corporation ) File No. EB-08-KC-0351

Licensee of Radio Stations KCTO and KCXL )

Facility ID #1162, Liberty, MO and ) NOV No. V200932560001

Facility ID #136386, Cleveland, MO )

)

)

NOTICE OF VIOLATION

Released: November 7, 2008

By the District Director, Kansas City Office, South Central Region,
Enforcement Bureau:

1.  This is a Notice of Violation ("Notice") issued pursuant to Section
    1.89 of the Commission's Rules ("Rules")[^1] to Alpine Broadcasting
    Corporation ("Alpine"), licensee of radio stations KCTO, Cleveland,
    MO and KCXL, Liberty, MO.

2.  On October 30, 2008 and November 3, 2008, agents of the Commission's
    Kansas City Office of the Enforcement Bureau inspected radio station
    KCTO located at Cleveland, MO, and co-owned station KCXL, Liberty,
    MO and observed the following violation(s):

    a.  47 C.F.R. § 73.1125(a): "... each AM... broadcast station shall
        maintain a main studio at one of the following locations: (1)
        Within the station's community of license; (2) At any location
        within the principal community contour of any AM, FM or TV
        broadcast station licensed to the station's community of
        license; or (3) Within twenty-five miles from the reference
        coordinates of the center of its community of license..." "A
        station must equip the main studio with production and
        transmission facilities that meet applicable standards, maintain
        continuous program transmission capability, and maintain a
        meaningful management and staff presence."[^2] The Commission
        has defined a minimally acceptable "meaningful presence" as
        full-time managerial and full-time staff personnel.[^3]

> At the time of these inspections, station management stated that the
> main studio for station KCTO was located at the office of an
> accountant, 3001 N. Hwy 291, Suite 6, Harrisonville, MO. However, no
> signage designating that location as the KCTO main studio was made or
> posted until after the inspection began, and that signage was a small
> piece of paper taped to the door window where it was not clearly
> visible to vehicles passing that location. According to station
> management, the main studio was staffed by the accountant/manager from
> 10 AM -- 5 PM or 9 AM -- 4 PM, Monday through Friday, but the main
> studio had no posted business hours. No other station employees
> staffed the main studio.

b.  47 C.F.R. § 73.1125(e): "Each AM... broadcast station shall maintain
    a local telephone number in its community of license or a toll-free
    number." On October 30, 2008, according to station management, the
    licensee did maintain a toll-free telephone number for station KCTO.
    However, according to senior management, the toll-free number was
    not available through directory assistance, was not posted in local
    phone books, was not aired on KCTO, and was not published in media
    where it would be available to the public. When the agents called
    that number on October 30, 2008, it was answered at the Liberty, MO
    studio for station KCXL, not at the KCTO studio. When the number was
    called again on November 3, 2008, it was answered by the accounting
    office in Harrisonville. According to the accountant, who is also
    the KCTO station manager, he has no way of determining if the
    incoming call is to the KCTO phone number or for the number
    associated with his accounting business, so he answers all calls as
    if they are for his accounting office.

c.  47 C.F.R. § 11.35(a): "... EAS Participants must determine the cause
    of any failure to receive the required tests or activations ...
    Appropriate entries indicating reasons why any tests were not
    received must be made in the broadcast station log..." At the time
    of inspection, the separate station logs for both KCTO and KCXL for
    the period of 5/1/08 to 10/30/08 documented several weeks where only
    one of the two required weekly tests or actual EAS activation had
    been received by the station. No entries were found documenting the
    reasons why no test or activation had been received from their
    second monitoring source during those weeks.

d.  47 C.F.R. § 73.1870(c): "The chief operator is responsible for
    completion of the following duties... Review of the station records
    at least once each week to determine if required entries are being
    made correctly. Additionally, verification must be made that the
    station has been operated as required by the rules or the station
    authorization. Upon completion of the review, the chief operator or
    his designee must date and sign the log, initiate any corrective
    action which may be necessary, and advise the station licensee of
    any condition which is repetitive." At the time of the inspection on
    October 30, 2008, the station's chief operator had been reviewing
    the station logs for both stations for EAS activations, and had
    signed and dated the logs, but had not taken necessary corrective
    actions. The EAS logs clearly indicated that on several weeks during
    the period of May 1, 2008 through October 30, 2008 only one EAS
    activation had been logged, when two or more should have been
    received. The chief operator did not note the missing EAS
    activations and took no corrective action to determine why some EAS
    activations were not being received. It is further noted that this
    violation is repetitive as the last inspection of Alpine-owned
    station KCXL, conducted on 12/13/96 found that no station operator
    was reviewing the KCXL logs or taking corrective actions.

e.  47 C.F.R. § 73.3526(e)(9): "All written comments and suggestions
    received from the public regarding operation of the station, unless
    the letter writer has requested that the letter not be made public
    or when the licensee feels that it should be excluded from public
    inspection because of the nature of its content, such as defamatory
    or obscene letter. Letters and electronic mail message shall be
    retained \[in the public inspection file\] for a period of three
    years form the date on which they are received by the licensee." On
    October 30, 2008, the KCXL public inspection file did not contain
    any letters or emails from the public. A folder containing that
    material was later found in another location in the KCXL studios,
    but those were not provided upon initial request to view the entire
    public inspection file. On November 3, 2008, the inspection of the
    KCTO public inspection file found no folder containing letters or
    emails.

f.  47 C.F.R. § 73.49: "Antenna towers having radio frequency potential
    at the base (series fed, folded unipole, and insulated base
    antennas) must be enclosed within effective locked fences or other
    enclosures. Ready access must be provided to each antenna tower base
    for meter reading and maintenance purposes at all times. However,
    individual tower fences need not be installed if the towers are
    contained within a protective property fence." At the time of
    inspection of station KCXL, the gate to the tower fence had a large
    gap underneath it allowing unobstructed access to the tower base.
    According to the station manager, a piece of the fencing, found
    nearby, must have been knocked off recently and the manager was able
    to resecure the fencing at the time of inspection. However, it was
    noted that the overall condition of the fencing around this tower
    was severely deteriorated and providing a minimally effective
    enclosure.

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3.  Pursuant to Section 308(b) of the Communications Act of 1934, as
    amended,[^4] and Section 1.89 of the Commission\'s Rules, Alpine
    Broadcasting Corporation, must submit a written statement concerning
    this matter within twenty (20) days of release of this Notice. The
    response must fully explain each violation, must contain a statement
    of the specific action(s) taken to correct each violation and
    preclude recurrence, and should include a time line for completion
    of pending corrective action(s). The response must be complete in
    itself and signed by a principal or officer of the licensee. All
    replies and documentation sent in response to this Notice should be
    marked with the File No. and NOV No. specified above, and mailed to
    the following address:

> Federal Communications Commission
>
> Kansas City Office
>
> 520 N.E. Colbern Rd., 2^nd^ Floor
>
> Lees Summit, MO 64086

4.  This Notice shall be sent to Alpine Broadcasting Corporation at its
    address of record.

5.  The Privacy Act of 1974[^5] requires that we advise you that the
    Commission will use all relevant material information before it,
    including any information disclosed in your reply, to determine
    what, if any, enforcement action is required to ensure compliance.
    Any false statement made knowingly and willfully in reply to this
    Notice is punishable by fine or imprisonment under Title 18 of the
    U.S. Code.[^6]

> FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
>
> Robert C. McKinney
>
> District Director
>
> Kansas City District Office
>
> South Central Region
>
> Enforcement Bureau

[^1]: 47 C.F.R. § 1.89.

[^2]: *Main Studio and Program Origination Rules*, Memorandum Opinion
    and Order, 3 FCC Rcd 5024, 5026 (1988).

[^3]: *Jones Eastern of the Outer Banks, Inc.*, Memorandum Opinion and
    Order, 6 FCC Rcd 3615, 3616 (1991), *clarified* 7 FCC Rcd 6800
    (1992).

[^4]: 47 U.S.C. § 308(b).

[^5]: P.L. 93-579, 5 U.S.C. § 552a(e)(3).

[^6]: 18 U.S.C. § 1001 *et seq.*