Commission rejects WKHB move

For the second time, the Federal Communications Commission has rejected a proposal to move the city of license of WKHB (620) from Irwin in Westmoreland County to Brentwood in Allegheny County.

According to a story by Pat Cloonan in the McKeesport Daily News (subscriber-only link), the FCC told Broadcast Communications Inc. on Oct. 26 that changing the city of license would have “no net service benefit” to the market while removing “the obligation to provide service” to Irwin. The FCC generally rejects proposals to move stations if they leave a “city of license” without any broadcast service.

The proposal was first rejected back in March 2006, but BCI refiled the application and asked the commission to reconsider it. BCI argued that Irwin’s small population did not justify a radio station license when Brentwood (with more than double the number of residents) had no license at all. In addition, BCI noted that because WKHB’s tower would remain in the same location, no one would lose the station’s signal.

But the FCC’s letter restated the commission’s original objections to the move and argued that the refiled application should not have been accepted.

A 5.5kW daytime, 50W nighttime station, WKHB is co-owned with Jeannette-licensed WKFB (770) and Waynesburg’s WANB-AM/FM. WANB-FM (103.1) was recently given FCC permission to raise its power and relocated to Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County.

(Full disclosure: Both this PBRTV writer and PBRTV Editor in Chief Eric O’Brien are part-time employees of BCI.)