FCC Inquires about Status of Twin Cities AM Radio Station

The FCC has sent a letter to Nevada Radio LLC, owner of KQSP/1530 (Shakopee-Minneapolis), inquiring about the status of the station.

The letter says the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau has received several complaints alleging that KQSP has been off the air since December 2021, and that a field agent “observed that there was no signal on the Station’s channel during a visit to the Minneapolis/Shakopee area” on June 8, 2022.

The FCC’s letter asks Nevada Radio to provide a statement about KQSP’s operational status since Dec. 1, 2021, including copies of leases, engineering records, utility bills, Emergency Alert System logs, monthly accounting records, and dated pictures of the station’s transmission facilities.

Federal law stipulates that a station automatically loses its license if it is silent for more than a year unless the FCC decides to “extend or reinstate such station license to promote equity and fairness.”

Fred Weinberg, who owned half of Nevada Radio and served as its managing member, died in September 2021. There has been no FCC application requesting a transfer Weinberg’s interest in KQSP following his death.

KQSP is licensed for 8.6kW daytime and 10 Watts nighttime from a directional array along the Minnesota River in Chanhassen.

The station’s 2020 license renewal application remains pending, and the FCC letter became public when it was attached to that application earlier this month.