WQZS: More woes for Wahl

By Ken Hawk
PBRTV Media Correspondent

If WQZS owner Roger Wahl’s legal troubles arising from sex-related charges weren’t enough, he may find himself in even greater trouble with the FCC.

A Somerset-area woman is alleging that she has a financial interest in the Meyersdale-based classic hits station.  Wahl, now a convicted felon, is facing the loss of his right to hold the station’s license.  The administrative law judge overseeing the case recently stated that she received an email from the woman, whose goal is to see that she is properly compensated should a sale of the station be ordered.

Julie Braun Barth, of the Somerset Township village of Friedens, is the spouse of Andreas “Andy” Barth, who died in January of 2012.  Mr. Barth was born in Paraguay and raised in western Pennsylvania, graduating from Charleroi High School and Penn State.  He also became active in the real estate business and owned two ServPro fire and flood restoration franchises in Cambria and Somerset Counties.  According to his obituary, Mr. Barth was listed as a partner in WQZS.

Section 310 of the Communications Act of 1934 allows foreign individuals, governments, and corporations to hold no more than 20 percent of the capital stock of a broadcast station licensee.  However, the commission can grant a foreign individual, government, or corporation a request to hold a greater stake on a case-by-case basis, provided that such a stake continues to serve the public interest.

FCC rules require that station licensees with two or more parties claiming to hold shares of a license to file ownership reports on a biennial basis.  However, Wahl has listed his ownership with the station as a sole proprietorship under his own name and himself as the lone shareholder, thus making him exempt from filing the reports frequently.  Reports filed in 2014 and 2015 continue to list Wahl as being the sole owner.  WQZS has listed a “doing-business-as” entity called Target Broadcasting according to multiple sources, but no FCC records indicate Target Broadcasting’s tie to the license.  According to the website www.rbr.com, Andy Barth was a partner in Target Broadcasting.  This could further complicate matters if Wahl is found to have misrepresented the station’s ownership status.  

According to administrative law Judge Jane Halprin, Mrs. Barth did not offer information in her email that would assist Halprin in the Hearing Designation Order looming over the station that Wahl founded and put on the air in October 1992.  Mrs. Barth’s email has been treated as a petition to intervene and entered into the record of the proceedings.  Any claim that Mrs. Barth would have against WQZS would likely have to be decided by private litigation, according to Halprin.

Wahl acted as his own attorney during a status conference held last week.  He is seeking to retain control of the station’s license, or at least keep it in his family.  An attempt to transfer the station’s license from Wahl to Sipple is still pending.

PBRTV.com thanks Judy Ellich of the Daily American for contributing to this report.