The next WBNI/WBOI pledge drive may seem to have a little more urgency to it, this Notice Of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture from the Federal Communications Commission may have something to do with it.
The Feds have found that WBNI 94.1 and their parent North East Indiana Public Radio failed to "retain all required documentation for the Public Inspection File", a requirement of the FCC. This file is maintained, usually, at the station's main studio and/of business office and contains many documents pertaining to the operation of the station, including the station license. Apparently the recent license renewal application for WBNI asked a question regarding placing certain specified documents in said Public File. Well, WBNI had not been doing this and answered the question with a truthful "no", setting in motion a bureaucratic flurry resulting in a nasty letter and a $10,000 fine.
If you read the entire document you may notice that WBNI is referred to as a commercial station. While WBNI does not accept regular advertising and mimics the underwriting standards of their sister station WBOI 89.1 (which is a non-commercial allocation), WBNI has not ever asked to be reclassified as a non-commercial station, probably because North East Indiana Public Broadcasting, if they ever chose to, could sell the 94.1 license to a commercial broadcaster for a lot more money.
At any rate, kudos to WBNI for telling the truth.......it cost them a healthy $10,000.
You can read the entire FCC notification here:
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