Puerto Rico Broadcaster Agrees to $61,500 Settlement
International Broadcasting Corp. agreed to pay $61,500 in a settlement with the FCC over multiple ownership violations involving TV and radio stations in Puerto Rico, according to a consent decree released Monday. It said that IBC violated the ownership rules…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
in the process of transferring two FM stations, three AM stations and three TV stations from IBC owner Pedro Roman Collazo to his heirs Angel Roman Lopez and Ruth Roman Lopez. Angel Lopez became Collazo’s legal guardian when Collazo was diagnosed with dementia in 2011, and was later appointed his heir by the court system when Collazo died in 2013. Lopez filed involuntary transfer of control petitions for the stations with the FCC, but they were stalled because the commission found that Lopez had a controlling interest in Aerco Broadcasting, which owns an FM and TV station in San Juan, Puerto Rico. IBC didn’t respond to commission requests for information about possible multiple ownership rule violations until 2015. Since the Lopezes have been in effective control of IBC’s stations since 2011, it appears that the ownership rules were violated, the consent decree said. The stations also violated some of the public file rules, it said.