Joe Armstrong, the proprietor of WJBE 99.7 FM/1040 AM — whose name letters pay tribute to the unique WJBE’s proprietor, the Godfather of Soul, James Brown — says the Federal Communications Fee is threatening to revoke his broadcast license over his prior conviction for a tax crime, one which occurred years earlier than he took possession of the station.

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Joe Armstrong, the proprietor of WJBE 99.7 FM/1040 AM — whose name letters pay tribute to the unique WJBE’s proprietor, the Godfather of Soul, James Brown — says the Federal Communications Fee is threatening to revoke his broadcast license over his prior conviction for a tax crime, one which occurred years earlier than he took possession of the station.

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The proprietor of Knoxville, Tennessee’s solely Black-owned radio station, WJBE, is preventing again towards the Federal Communications Fee because the company is threatening to revoke his broadcast license due to a previous felony conviction.

Joe Armstrong, the proprietor of WJBE 99.7 FM/1040 AM — whose name letters pay tribute to the unique WJBE’s proprietor, the Godfather of Soul, James Brown — informed NPR that the FCC is threatening to revoke his broadcast license over his prior conviction for a tax crime, one which occurred years earlier than he took possession of the station in 2012.

Armstrong stated the radio station is a fixture in Knoxville, serving as a supply of reports for the Black group — being very a lot a community-oriented station. It broadcasts native information and climate, church providers, rising artists, free promoting for struggling small companies and, lately, details about the COVID-19 pandemic, in accordance with the Institute for Justice, a civil rights group that’s representing Armstrong’s case.

The FCC is questioning whether or not Armstrong, a former long-serving state consultant within the Tennessee Basic Meeting, would be capable of personal a radio station with integrity following his conviction in 2016 for making a false assertion on his tax return.

“It isn’t like that is one thing that occurred, for example, this yr or final yr — we’re speaking about one thing that occurred in 2008,” Armstrong stated.

Round that point, Armstrong and a companion legally purchased cigarette tax stamps that have been later bought for a revenue following the Tennessee legislature’s vote to enhance the state’s cigarette tax, in accordance with the Institute for Justice.

His accountant reportedly didn’t correctly pay the taxes on this sale, leading to Armstrong dealing with bother with the IRS. In 2016, he was acquitted of a lot of the expenses towards him and was convicted of two counts of federal tax fraud. (Armstrong’s accountant, Charles Stivers, was convicted of tax fraud and was granted probation in 2017.)

“There’s lots of people out right here which have made a mistake or have been falsely accused and punished for one thing,” Armstrong stated. “However when folks make restitution, after they’ve completed all the things that they are speculated to do — paid their fantastic[s], accomplished the group service — they’ve proven that their character, if no matter they did, it was a mistake.”

Joe Armstrong says WJBE is a fixture in Knoxville, serving as a supply of reports for the Black group — being very a lot a community-oriented station.

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Joe Armstrong says WJBE is a fixture in Knoxville, serving as a supply of reports for the Black group — being very a lot a community-oriented station.

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After Armstrong’s conviction, the decide referred to as his offense an “aberration” in an in any other case “exemplary life.” Armstrong’s civil rights, together with his proper to vote, have been restored in 2020. In 2017, he reportedly let the FCC learn about his conviction, which Armstrong says had brought about no points till final yr.

“I’ve had the chance after my conviction [to show] that I’ve the character [to operate the station] … the one minority station on this market,” Armstrong stated.

Now, Armstrong and his lawyer are questioning why the fee would strip the station’s license and implement its 33-year-old character {qualifications} coverage for radio license holders.

Andrew Ward, the lawyer representing the case, argues that Armstrong’s earlier conviction is irrelevant to his potential to personal and function WJBE responsibly, saying that stripping the station of its license hurts the group greater than something.

“WJBE has been a beacon for greater than a decade. It makes zero sense that the FCC would threaten to take that away due to Joe Armstrong’s 14-year-old, unrelated tax crime,” Ward stated in an announcement to NPR.

The FCC declined to touch upon Armstrong’s pending case, because the case continues to be in listening to. Paloma Perez, press secretary for the FCC, informed NPR that the fee has an obligation to make sure that everybody holding a license to make use of the general public airwaves “does so within the public curiosity.”

“It’s longstanding apply that any licensee with a felony conviction be positioned into listening to with a view to study whether or not the licensee has the requisite character {qualifications} to stay a trustee of the general public airwaves,” Perez informed NPR in an announcement.

Armstrong’s case with the FCC is just like a number of instances the place the fee has positioned licensees into listening to standing resulting from earlier felonies.

In Alabama, Michael Hubbard, a former speaker of the Alabama Home of Representatives and CEO of Auburn Community Inc., was convicted in 2016 by a jury of violating 12 counts of Alabama’s ethics code.

Hubbard, who owns and operates a number of radio stations throughout Alabama, was additionally questioned by the FCC concerning his earlier convictions and whether or not he ought to proceed to carry his license. After months of arguments and hearings, the FCC finally didn’t revoke Hubbard’s licenses.

In Pennsylvania, Roger Wahl — the proprietor of WQZS, a classic-rock radio station in Meyersdale — additionally went via authorized proceedings with the FCC over his station license following a number of expenses associated to a legal investigation.

Wahl pleaded responsible to expenses related with accusations that he solicited strangers to sexually assault his feminine pal by establishing a faux on-line relationship profile, native TV station WJAC 6 Information reported. In April 2023, the FCC revoked Wahl’s license.