KNBU-FM, Baker University’s student radio station, was fined $4,000 July 27 by the Federal Communications Commission for failure to maintain public records.
Gwyn Mellinger, chair of the mass media and communication department, said the department believes the records were not kept from the fall of 2003 through the fall of 2005. According to regulations, the station is required to maintain issues and programs logs, as well as quarterly reports, making files open to the public.
The FCC became aware of the oversight after now retired department chair Ann Rosenthal filed for a renewal of licensure required every eight years in February 2005, Mellinger said.
Mellinger said she believed the record keeping ceased after Richard Bayha resigned as department chair in the fall of 2003.
“We think that records were kept up until 2003, but they were missing back to 1993,” Mellinger said.
Between conversations with Bayha and the presence of emptied folders in which the records should have been held, Mellinger said there was evidence the records were indeed kept until Bayha’s departure.
On Aug. 1, 2005, the same day Mellinger began her new role as director of the media department, an inspector from the KansasAssociation of Broadcasters arrived on campus to investigate the missing records.
During the 2005-2006 academic year, Mellinger was assigned to take over the re-licensure for KNBU. During that time, she filed one amendment to the FCC answering questions regarding the missing public records.
“I attempted to answer those questions. The response I got implied that I had not answered them with the degree of specificity and candor they wanted,” she said. “The FCC attorney essentially threatened us and said ‘be candid or we’re going to throw the book at you.'”
Mellinger then filed a second amendment describing meticulously the confusion surrounding the missing files.
“One of the problems we had in answering the FCC’s questions was that Dr. Bayha had not been an employee of the university in more than two years,” she said. “Clearly, records had disappeared. It was very difficult to construct a narrative of what had gone on here.”