FCC Denies Schwab Multimedia Tolling Appeal

The full FCC denied Schwab Multimedia's appeal of a Media Bureau decision to deny Schwab a construction permit extension for KWIF(AM) Culver City, California, said an order in Thursday’s Daily Digest. Schwab argued construction was impeded by COVID-19 and more extensions should have been granted, but the FCC said in the order that Schwab didn’t build out the station because it lost permission to build on the site. “Accordingly, we reject Schwab’s allegation that the Bureau erred in not granting tolling based on other causes, such as COVID,” the order said. Schwab’s construction permit deadline was originally November 2019, but the company was granted several extensions, including one in March 2020 based on Schwab’s contention that COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders made it impossible to continue work. In September, the bureau denied an additional extension and found “no evidence of a causal connection between Schwab’s claimed continued COVID-related impediments and its failure to construct.” In October, Schwab told the bureau it had lost the landlord’s permission to construct on the site. Schwab also didn’t provide sufficient evidence that COVID restrictions prevented construction, and late-filed evidence that construction was occurring, the order said. “Permittees that seek additional construction time following a disaster must establish a material nexus between the disaster and failure to construct,” the order said.