WQZS owner faces sentencing

A Meyersdale radio station owner will be sentenced Monday under the terms of a plea deal negotiated by prosecutors.

Roger Dale Wahl, 69, was arrested last year amid accusations that he planted a trail camera in the bathroom of a female acquaintance and used images from it to lure men to her home through a fake dating profile, with the intent of raping her.  

Wahl, known to WQZS radio listeners as “The Commander”, has owned the station since its construction in the late 1980’s, going on the air in 1992.  He agreed to a plea deal in July which included a single felony charge of Criminal Use of a Communication Device, as well as other misdemeanor charges.  The single felony charge alone could land Wahl up to seven years in prison.

FCC rules prohibit anyone with a felony conviction from holding a broadcast license of any kind.  Wahl attempted to transfer control of WQZS to his adult daughter, Wendy Sipple, for $10, which was approved by the FCC on June 1, 2020.  However, the FCC reversed course on July 13, 2020, returning the transaction to ‘pending status’.

“In light of the status of the state criminal case in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Roger Dale Wahl, and the Character Policy Statement, that the captioned application proceeding be remanded to the Media Bureau for further proceedings,” wrote FCC Secretary Marlene Dortch in the July 13th order.

(Thanks to one of our roving reporters for filing this report.)