Tribal Radio Station Drops Proposal to Enter Sioux City Market

An FM station owned by the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska has dropped a proposal to enter the Sioux City, Iowa, market.

KWTN/100.9 (Allen), which is currently off the air and licensed for just 100 Watts, had applied to change frequency to 97.1 and move to a tower closer to Sioux City, using 9.6kW/123m (class C3). However, the station has now amended its application to specify that it would remain at its current site and increase to 6kW/66m (class A).

The station’s filing says the change was “due to problems discovered with the currently pending application” but did not specify those problems. In late March, in its latest request for special temporary authority to remain silent, the station said it intended to resume broadcasting at the new location once the move was granted.

The Winnebago Tribe received KWTN as a donation from Cochise Broadcasting several years ago as part of a consent decree.

As previously reported, the FCC responded to KWTN’s initial application with a letter noting that such a move would be considered a major change requiring notice and comment procedures, unless a waiver is granted. KWTN responded with a waiver request, saying the consent decree allowed for a waiver “if the proposed operation will provide service at a location that will satisfy the Tribal Priority requirements.”

Though KWTN is licensed as a commercial station, minutes from a December tribal council meeting indicate that the tribe plans to operate it non-commercially with no personnel and a startup budget of $12,000. The tribal newspaper reported last September that KWTN will have a studio in the tribe’s Physical Resources Building.