The FCC has ordered the owner of a group of Spanish-language evangelical Christian radio stations to pay its overdue regulatory fee bill or face a license revocation for an FM radio station purchased nine years ago — placing it in similar status with seven other facilities that no longer exist which also have an outstanding bill to the Commission.
In February 2017, a broadcast licensee led by Maria Guel, wife of “serial translator applicant” Antonio Cesar Guel, acquired a Class A FM serving Wichita Falls, Tex., for $122,000. That station’s annual FCC regulatory fees haven’t been paid since 2023. Additionally, the FCC found that the regulatory fees for seven now-defunct radio stations and a now-defunct low-power digital TV station were unpaid in 2024.
As such, KZAM-FM in Pleasant Valley, Tex., is being eyed for a license revocation and call letter deletion, should Guel’s Mekaddesh Group fail to pay the Commission what it is owned.
For KZAM, that would be $2,025.25 for FY 2024 and $1,875 for FY 2025. However, there’s more that’s owed, linked to former stations KEVK-FM in Sanderson, KEVQ-FM in Crosbyton, KYLQ-FM in Encinal, KEVM-FM in Junction, KWFG-FM in Knox City, KDSP-FM in Spur, and KYLB-FM in Turkey, Texas. There’s also LPTV facility KZAU-LD in Killeen, Texas.
A total of $14,599.04 is owed for the now-former facilities; an attempt by the Treasury Department to collect the debt went unanswered.
