Group drops challenge to station purchase after buyer pledges support for minorities

WASHINGTON, D.C. — To fend off a challenge to its proposed purchase of a Maryland radio station, Infinity Broadcasting Corp. will provide $725,000 to support minority broadcasters and businesses. The Federal Communications Commission approved the settlement in mid-May.

Infinity also agreed to pay $28,250 in legal costs incurred by the challenger, the African American Business Association.

In November the AABA petitioned the FCC to deny Infinity’s proposed $60 million purchase of WPGC (AM-FM) in Maryland from Cook Inlet Radio Partners. The AABA alleged that racist comments on Infinity’s Howard Stern Show precluded the sale under FCC regulations.

The $725,000 will fund a new program, the African American Media Incubator, over a four-year period. The program is designed to train minorities as broadcasters and to encourage minorities to use radio to promote their businesses.

The FCC approved the sale of WPGC to Infinity on the same day it approved the settlement. That day the FCC also sent Infinity a notice of apparent liability for $200,000 for two Howard Stern broadcasts alleged to be indecent.

(In re: Application for Assignment of Licenses of Station WPGC (AM/FM); Media Counsel: Steven Lerman, Washington)

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