Questions Linger in FCC's Shutdown of WYGG and Asbury Radio

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has once again denied Asbury Radio access to the 16 documents the agency withheld from our initial request for all written communication regarding the actions of the FCC's field engineer, in the Fall of 2006, in shutting down the station that carried Asbury Radio, WYGG 88.1 FM -- and his subsequent visits in 2007. Each time the station announced that Asbury Radio was resuming, the same engineer came back out to this station in Asbury Park from his office on Varick St. in Manhattan. Eventually, the station management asked us to hold off on our return until the agency had stopped their investigations.

We requested the files under the Freedom of Information Act, but many of the pages we received contained  passages blocked out by black marker. In addition, the FCC's accompanying letter said16 files had also been withheld. We wanted to know why we couldn't see them. We wanted access to all documents in order to satisfy ourselves that the agency hadn't acted in part due to pressure from parties Asbury Radio may have covered in its efforts to keep listeners informed about Asbury Park's redevelopment, or on other public affairs topics. Click here for the agency's response via Congressman Frank Pallone. The notion of outside pressure is not so farfetched when you consider that one of the investors in Asbury Partners was having our weekly shows transcribed.
We would hope to be wrong about the FCC. But the only way to ensure that government agencies are acting independently is to examine their motives through access to their communications, what we call transparency.
As you'll see in the letters, our only recourse now is the courts.

FCC Finally Responds to Request from Asbury Radio

FCC Denies Asbury Radio's Request for an Explanation -
And, we're apparently not alone

As former NBC Sports Producer, Mike Hemeon, pointed out today, the commission seems to have denied a bunch of requests for inspections (see below).
In our case, we've been trying since the FCC turned off WYGG's transmitter, in November, 2006, to see the case files. We got about three inches of documents, with tons of redactions (black marker obliterating passages, in places just pronouns), but when we asked why 16 files had been withheld, a long delay set in. We were first given a string of numbers and letters, some kind of government code, which was meaningless to us.
So we appealed. It is October 2009, and we are only now getting the commission's decision on that appeal. Basically, they say they weren't in error when they withheld the files. No, you're not crazy, we never said they were in error. We asked them to translate into English their reason for denying our request.
The station went back up in February of 2007, but whenever the station or Asbury Radio, a show on the station for 6.5 years, talked about going back on, the FCC representative again would leave his Varick St., NY, office and go back to the studio, which is now at Asbury Avenue, on Library Square.
In the meanwhile the station has obtained a license to go from 100 to 1500 watts and can be heard from Long Branch to Pt. Pleasant. The station management would like Asbury Radio - The Radio Voice of Asbury Park, a weekly public affairs talk and entertainment show, back on their airwaves.

MAUREEN NEVIN ON REQUEST FOR INSPECTION OF RECORDS. Denied the Application for Review filed by Maureen Nevin. Action by: the Commission. Adopted: 09/01/2009 by MO&O. (FCC No. 09-87). OGChttp://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-87A1.dochttp://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-87A1.pdfhttp://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-87A1.txt
MICHAEL RAVNITZKY ON REQUEST FOR INSPECTION OF RECORDS. Denied the Application for Review by Michael Ravnitzky. Action by: the Commission. Adopted: 09/30/2009 by MO&O. (FCC No. 09-86). OGChttp://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-86A1.dochttp://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-86A1.pdfhttp://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-86A1.txt
AINSWORTH C. JACKSON ON REQUEST FOR INSPECTON OF RECORDS. Denied the Application for Review by Ainsworth C. Jackson. Action by: the Commission. Adopted: 09/30/2009 by MO&O. (FCC No. 09-88). OGChttp://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-88A1.dochttp://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-88A1.pdfhttp://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-88A1.txt
CAPITAL REPORTING COMPANY ON REQUEST FOR INSPECTION OF RECORDS/
NEAL R.GROSS & CO., INC. ON REQUEST FOR CONFIDENTIAL TREATMENT. Denied the Application for Review filed by Neal Gross & Co., Inc. Dismissed the Application for Review, filed by Capital Reporting Company. Action by:the Commission. Adopted: 09/30/2009 by MO&O. (FCC No. 09-85). OGChttp://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-85A1.dochttp://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-85A1.pdfhttp://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-85A1.txt
Asbury Radio would like to hear from the other petitioners.