Wahl gets another chance to keep license

By Ken Hawk, PBRTV Media Correspondent

A Somerset County radio station owner is being given one last opportunity to fight for the right to keep his station’s license.

For Roger Wahl, the owner, founder, and morning DJ of Meyersdale-based classic hits station WQZS, the fight has been going on for close to three years now.

The FCC initial pre-hearing status conference that Wahl failed to attend last month, has been rescheduled to 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, March 8, 2022.  FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Hinckley Halprin will preside.  As was the case in last month’s failed conference attempt, the March 8th proceeding will be conducted via an online platform.

Wahl, 71, claimed to be having a medical procedure done at the time of the initial January conference date.  Neither his local attorney, David Flower, of Somerset, nor his FCC attorney of record, Lauren Lynch Flick, could be reached for comment.
Charges against Wahl were first filed in the summer of 2019.  Wahl was accused of creating an online dating profile posing as a former girlfriend, then solicited responders to rape the woman.  He was further accused of planting a camera in the woman’s residence without her knowledge or consent.  Under the terms of a deal reached with prosecutors in July 2020, Wahl pleaded guilty to a felony charge of criminal use of a communication facility, and four misdemeanors, in exchange for no incarceration.

FCC rules currently prohibit those convicted of felony crimes from holding a broadcast license.  Complicating the situation further is the fact that Wahl resides in the same building as the station, located on Hunsrick Road in Summit Township, just outside of the Meyersdale borough limits.  As both the station and Wahl share the same postal address, a computer at that address created the fake dating profile.  Wahl also deleted evidence from his cell phone after learning he was under investigation.  

Wahl attempted to transfer the license from his name to that of his daughter, Wendy Sipple, in June of 2020, which would have allowed the station to remain in his family.  The FCC initially approved the transfer, but after the criminal charges against Wahl were brought to light, the application was returned to pending status.  An attempt by Sipple to include herself in the FCC legal action was denied in December.  Sipple claimed her grounds for inclusion were that the purchase deal between she and her father predated the events which led to the hearing designation order.

“I am an innocent third party to acquire the station license,” Sipple stated in her filing. “If granted, proceeds from operation of the station (will) be used to pay its innocent creditors.”

Halprin responded that those matters were irrelevant to the resolution of issues designated for hearing, which focuses on Wahl’s qualifications to hold the license in light of his criminal record.  

Wahl founded WQZS in the early 90s after a lengthy set of competitive hearings over the station’s construction permit, first granted in 1988.  Wahl began his radio career in the early 1970s in the Altoona market prior to building WQZS.