Another KMRI Update

[David]

The Petition for Reconsideration regarding the appointment of Jacob Hibbard as receiver for KMRI has finally been dismissed by the FCC. As near as I can tell from researching the FCC database, KMRI's license is still set to expire on April 23, 2023 unless something changes in the next three months.

Federal Communications Commission
45 L Street NE
Washington, D.C. 20554
News media info. [phone]

PLEADING
0000191738 | Petition for Reconsideration | Jacob Hibbard as Receiver for AASAA Media LLC | Dismissed | 01/19/2023 | 0000149459 | Renewal of License | AM | KMRI | 25405 | WEST VALLEY CITY, UT
Comment #1: Dismissed pursuant to 47 U.S.C. § 405(a) due to untimeliness and lack of standing.

[CAwasinNJ]

The pleading had nothing to do with the appointment of Hibbard. This was the pleading asking for the full 8 year renewal instead of the 1 year that they were given. The license expiration is April 21 2023. The most recent silent STA expires Feb 11.

The reason they were only given a year renewal was due to excessive time off the air. They aren't on the air now as far as I can tell. Have they been on the air at all since last March? Stations that are off the air most or all of the preceding license period have some explaining to do. The FCC is already unhappy and unless there's been time on the air I'm not aware of they've already crossed into "most" territory even if they resumed full time broadcasting today. The odds of the station surviving this don't look promising.

[David]

Thanks for the clarification, CA. I always have difficulty interpreting the FCC database entries, and post-Covid "brain fog" coupled with chronic pain doesn't help matters any.

I've checked a couple of different online Utah SDR's at least a half dozen times to see if I could hear anything on 1550, and I've never heard anything that sounded like a local signal on either the West Jordan or Northern Utah (near Corrine) SDR's. I don't understand why the receiver never bothered to have a longwire antenna and a low power transmitter set up on 1550 to provide at least some type of programming to keep the license active. Even if KMRI simply rebroadcast the local NOAA Weather Radio station with 20 watts, that would be a cheap way to avoid the extended silent status until the tower can be replaced, and to keep the FCC happy. There was an AM station in Minnesota that rebroadcast NOAA with a longwire and 20 watts after its tower site was lost, and Cumulus kept the license for 1230 alive for two years or more by airing CBS Sports Radio with 20 watts and a wire antenna from Cumulus' offices on Bearcat Drive in Salt Lake. Who knows, perhaps the receiver and/or the current license holder aren't really motivated to resurrect KMRI from the dead. However, I seem to recall something about a pending sale being mentioned in the Petition for Reconsideration filed by the receiver. Perhaps the pending sale fell through, assuming I've got my facts straight.