People Post is a space for opinion pieces, letters to the editor and guest submissions from members of the Long Beach community. The following is an op-ed submitted by KLBP-LPFM President Ken Roth, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Long Beach Post.

If you paid attention to announcements in early 2016 that Long Beach may soon have one—and possibly even two—independent low power FM radio stations, you may be interested to know what’s happening now.

Unfortunately, the news is not good.

The Long Beach Radio Project, as one of the projects came to be known, has suffered the fate of many similar radio projects throughout the country, which I will describe in a moment; but first, a bit of background.

In its efforts to diversify and democratize the airwaves, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allowed non-profit public benefit corporations to compete for a spot on the radio dial. As one might expect, competition in the Los Angeles Basin was fierce, resulting in more than 30 qualified applications, based on the FCC’s point system. Once these organizations were identified, the real battle for airtime began.

Despite the vast landmass we know as Los Angeles, there simply isn’t enough air space to support 30 new radio stations, along with all of the commercial ones. In addition, some of those 30 applications turned out to be non-compliant with FCC rules, unsound in terms of engineering, and in some cases outright fraudulent, in that applicants weren’t real organizations at all, and oftentimes were set up at the home addresses of relatives or associates of a single organization attempting to acquire as much coverage in the area as possible (low power stations usually have a coverage radius of six to 10 miles from antenna location).

The real intent of low power FM radio is to give voice to the voiceless—individuals and communities that are under-represented in the commercial media spectrum, and given Long Beach has no independent broadcast media of its own, it was a perfect candidate to receive a permit to construct an LPFM station. To assure this access by under-represented groups, the FCC required organizations to be in continuous operation for three years prior to application, to have a community service component to their operation, and to be compliant with all state and federal laws.

While there were two permits granted in Long Beach, to Catalyst, Inc. and the Long Beach Community Television and Media Corporation (LBCTMC), I will focus on LBCTMC, given my involvement as a member, board director and president of the organization.
I joined LBCTMC in 2011, after a request from the then-president. I submitted a membership application, paid dues, both of which were accepted, and at that year’s annual meeting I sought a seat on the Board of Directors, which I secured after a winning ballot by the membership.

I also learned rather quickly that LBCTMC was an organization without a purpose. Its membership consisted mainly of cable TV access volunteers who had hoped LBCTMC would be granted operation of PADnet, which didn’t happen. Between 2011 and 2013, membership was virtually non-existent, board and member meetings were spotty at best, and there was little, if any, planning for the future. At the 2013 annual meeting, for instance, one former member showed up, in addition to a few board directors. Essentially the organization was moribund.


 

Then we learned about the opportunity to apply for an LPFM license. The few board directors still attending sporadic meetings were interested in pursuing the application, but none stepped forward to take on the application. I volunteered. The application process was not insubstantial and ultimately required months of time. Without an active membership and only spotty involvement by other board directors, the necessary work fell primarily on that one foolish volunteer: me.

To all of our amazement, our application was advanced to the next level, requiring even more work. However, at the same time, we learned our non-profit status had been revoked for not filing annual reports for the past three years. In short, the organization, set up in 2009, never filed another annual report with the IRS after its first year. The organization was also fined by the state Franchise Tax Board for not filing in 2010, or for any year afterward. Despite being a board director in 2012, none of this information was shared by officers with the rest of the board, mostly because there wasn’t an active and working board.

These infractions were sufficient cause for the FCC to kill our application. However, a quorum of the board gathered in December 2014 and asked that I become president. By this time, I was wary of the sustainability of the group, and agreed to be elected only as an interim executive. The board disagreed. It was all or nothing. Excited by the proposition of a radio station in Long Beach, I accepted their nomination and was elected unanimously.

Over the next year, I reinstated LBCTMC’s exempt status, properly registered it with the Franchise Tax Board and Attorney General’s Registry of Charitable Organizations. I also worked closely – and tirelessly – with an independent mediator to help resolve conflicts that helped move forward the remaining 21 Los Angeles applications, and as a result the FCC granted LBCTMC an LPFM construction permit on December 23, 2015. In fact, due to that work, we were the FIRST permit to be granted among the Los Angeles applications. Now it was time to build an organization capable of operating a radio station.

The LBCTMC Bylaws, as well as the California Corporation Code, forbid the last board director or officer to separate from a non-profit organization, without dissolving it, if there is no one left to conduct business. The LBCTMC Bylaws also stipulate that membership or directorship requires attending at least one meeting per year and to pay annual dues. By these standards, there was no board and no membership, and my authority to represent the organization was due to the “last man standing” doctrine contained in both the corporation bylaws and the state corporation code.

To remedy these circumstances, I convened a Special Membership Meeting, per corporate bylaws, in May 2016, for the purpose of re-establishing a membership base from which to build a functional board and organization. The meeting was well attended and immediately contentious, with former directors asserting rights despite no participation or dues payment for multiple years. As a conciliatory gesture, we set a meeting for the next month and agreed to reinstate former directors if they paid dues.

At that next meeting, virtually all of the disengaged board directors attended, and another “member” who they promptly nominated and elected to fill a vacancy on the board paid their dues. At the same time, the corporate bank account was accessed and funds removed from a safekeeping account, under whose authority, I still don’t know, and the bank, which shall remain nameless at this time, refused to provide me that information despite my standing as president.

Since there was no active board since 2014, there was no membership committee, but at the June meeting anyone was allowed to become a member, in violation of the corporate bylaws. Additionally, with a new “purchased” board in place, a board meeting was scheduled for July 7. But before the minutes of the previous meeting could be approved, certifying the new board, the agenda was hijacked and a vote was taken to remove me as president, again, in violation of the corporate bylaws. Board directors cannot remove other directors – a majority vote of membership is required unless the director has been convicted of a felony or judged incompetent by a court of law, according to both corporate bylaws and state corporation code sections 5220-5223.

Within a week, and while I was presenting research at an international conference outside of the U.S., this same uncertified board voted to remove two other directors, and then widely publicized these actions, along with the illegal election of a new president, who had never even been approved as a member.

Further, when this group was asked in writing on three separate occasions to allow inspection of membership records, intake procedures, criteria for membership, why some members were accepted or rejected, who paid dues and who did not, these records were not made available, again in violation of LBCTMC’s own bylaws and corporate code sections 6330-6338. Public benefit corporations are REQUIRED by law to respond to inspection requests within 10 days. Yet, this group, in the past year, has refused inspection on three occasions, including one request through their attorney, who in her capacity as a board director of KPFK made the exact same request of her own organization but apparently doesn’t see fit to equally apply the law in this case.

Now, to be fair, Long Beach is not the only city in which groups like this have disregarded corporate, state and FCC laws and procedures in an attempt to seize control of an LPFM permit. Similar takeover attempts have occurred in Washington, D.C., Baton Rouge, LA, Portland, OR, as well as other cities. In the Baton Rouge case, the FCC eventually levied a $20,000 fine against the rogue group. Another less recent case was finally settled this past year, 27 years later.

Further, in a bald attempt to prevent me from attending a membership meeting, to ensure attendees didn’t hear an alternative narrative to the one promoted by the uncertified group, the acting “president” filed a specious police report barring me from the meeting. A staff writer for this publication investigated the allegation at the time and found it had no merit. The Superior Court agreed. However, the ruse did succeed in barring me from the meeting, during which other specious and defaming statements were made about me, according to witnesses, in order to advance the takeover.


 

Let’s make clear: the construction permit granted to LBCTMC belongs to LBCTMC but those purporting to be members and officers of LBCTMC are not members and officers of LBCTMC, and as a result the FCC has now blacklisted the application pending the outcome of litigation in Los Angeles Superior Court. That litigation, filed by me, as an individual, will be amended and expanded once new counsel is secured.

The suit seeks reversion to corporate status as of May 21, 2016, the day in which I presided over a Special Membership meeting, or the dissolution of the corporation. A reversion allows us to step back and establish a proper membership and properly seated board of directors to properly administer an FCC-regulated public resource. Dissolution, of course, would end LBCTMC’s clearly non-compliant history of operation. After having donated four years of my life to realize the opportunity of independent radio in Long Beach, forcing the dissolution of the corporation is a last—and least desired—outcome.

There are two other points worth mentioning. First, when we began to re-establish LBCTMC, I started an Internet radio stream, KLBP.fm, which is still operational, and has never been supported by LBCTMC, since the takeover occurred shortly after establishing the stream. I have personally maintained this stream until forming another nonprofit corporation, KLBP-LPFM, Inc., which now owns the stream and has nothing to do with LBCTMC, and to which LBCTMC has no right, title or interest. KLBP-LPFM, Inc. also is a nonprofit public benefit corporation, and is building relationships with other area and distant LPFM stations to form a network to share music, news and other content. Despite full knowledge of this separate and distinct organization, LBCTMC continues to use the name KLBP-LPFM, and has even purchased web domains in OUR name. This is a clear violation of the Anticybersquatting Act and carries with it severe penalties. The correct and official call letters for the LBCTMC LPFM permit are KRNF, according to FCC records.


 

Second, when dealing with the FCC, an individual is required to establish a FRN account, which is used to communicate with the Commission. Multiple individuals within an organization can have separate FRN accounts. However, in May of this year, members of LBCTMC hijacked my FRN account, established in 2013 when I began the LPFM application process. The only purpose for doing so was to prevent my interaction with the application I authored and shepherded through the granting process.

A 104-page petition for reconsideration (http://bit.ly/2urICc7) has been served on the FCC and by extension all alleged members of the LBCTMC board. That petition also contains the complaint filed in LA Superior Court, as well as corroborating documentation, which some alleged LBCTMC “directors” have vigorously sought to evade service of. In at least two cases, defendants residing in the same household have evaded professional process service more than 50 times. Tell me, if you felt you were acting in good faith and within the law, why would you avoid service? Wouldn’t you want your day in court, to set the record straight?

In the end, we all have a lot to lose here, and in my opinion, it appears that some frankly don’t give a damn.

Kenneth Roth began his career as a print journalist nearly four decades ago. He also is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and has been involved in the start up of more than 30 businesses, including a half dozen nonprofit organizations. He holds a PhD from UCLA and for more than a decade has taught media production at California State University. For the past two years, he also has taught graduate courses in research methods and using communication for organizational change at USC’s Rossier School of Education.