FCC comes to decision on license for radio station that airs Bob Romanik talk show
The Federal Communications Commission has rejected an application to renew the license for the AM radio station that broadcasts Bob Romanik’s controversial talk show.
Jane Hinckley Halprin, an FCC administrative law judge, permanently dismissed the application to renew KQQZ 1190 AM’s license on Wednesday.
Romanik is known as “The Grim Reaper of Radio” on the show he hosts. He couldn’t immediately be reached for comment about Wednesday’s decision.
Entertainment Media Trust, which owns KQQZ and three other AM radio stations, filed its applications back in 2012. At the time, St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern asked the FCC to deny the license renewals because he believed Romanik actually controlled those stations and hadn’t disclosed that to the commission.
The FCC found evidence that Romanik “exercises de facto control over the stations,” “has held himself out as the stations’ owner” and “is personally involved in station business,” according to Judge Halprin’s order from Wednesday.
But Halprin ultimately dismissed the license renewals for all four stations because Entertainment Media Trust’s trustee, Dennis Watkins, didn’t show up for an FCC proceeding on the licenses and the question of the stations’ control and because he didn’t file documents the FCC sought.
“The Presiding Judge therefore declines to expend further government time and resources on this matter,” Halprin stated.
Watkins declined to comment when reached by phone Wednesday.
Romanik’s legal history and controversies
Romanik has a history with Illinois courts and has been the subject of criticism for his repeated use of racial slurs on the air. He defended the practice, however, contending that his use of the epithet is selective and refers not to race but to ideology that applies to a criminal or corrupt element of society.
In 1997, he pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of justice in the investigation of racketeer Tom Venezia and Belleville lawyer Amiel Cueto. He lied 150 times to a grand jury investigating Venezia’s $48 million video gambling ring and Cueto, who was Venezia’s attorney and business partner.
Romanik pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud in 1999. He admitted to defrauding two banks of about $1.5 million to build topless nightclubs in the metro-east. He was ordered to serve 20 months in federal prison. He has denied owning any strip clubs.
A Missouri judge ordered Romanik in 2018 to stop “stalking or disturbing the peace” of Caleb Friz, a Missouri activist who organized a Facebook boycott of the radio station’s advertisers. Romanik gave Friz’s telephone number on the air the following week.
This story was originally published February 19, 2020 at 7:27 PM.
