FCC Denies Foundation for a Beautiful Life AFRs

The full FCC denied Foundation for a Beautiful Life applications for review seeking permission to operate its Saratoga, California, low-power FM station, said an order released Monday. FBL’s license originally faced difficulty when the FCC said it constructed what's now DKQEK-LP Cupertino several miles from the location where it was licensed. FBL continued to broadcast from the site after its license was dismissed, and didn’t wait for the agency to rule on a special temporary authority request seeking permission to provide COVID-19 updates to Cupertino’s Mandarin-speaking residents. After the Media Bureau denied FBL’s requests, it appealed to the full FCC and unsuccessfully sought a stay from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see 2006260052). FBL argued the station provided an important information service for Chinese residents of the market, and that many of its errors were inadvertent. FBL unsuccessfully appealed a requirement that it submit copies of the bureau’s order commanding it to cease operating with any application it files for the next 10 years. By operating the station without a license, FBL was effectively a pirate, the FCC said. "The existence of a serious health crisis, while important, is not a mitigating factor,” said the order. “It does not override licensing requirements or justify a unilateral use of the public airwaves without prior authority.” FBL didn't comment.