Battle lines have been drawn between the only two radio stations in the community of Meyersdale, Pennsylvania.  In April 2023 the FCC revoked the radio license of Roger Wahl the "stated" owner of WQZS.  The quoted word "stated" comes from an opposition filed by the only other radio station in that community, WHYU-FM which is owned by the American Militia Association.  Roger had asked the FCC to forgive him of his crimes and give him a chance at a new hearing after claiming that his health issues prevented him from participating.  Not so fast says Rober Kluver, the President and manager of WHYU-FM.

In Kluver's filed opposition he goes over Roger's appeal with a fine toothed comb and identifies its flaws, including excuses Wahl makes about his criminal offenses and health issues.  Kluver points out that the application for review fails to address any of the points the Enforcement Bureau made in its revocation order and wasn't received in time for it to be considered.  The revocation order gave Wahl 30 days from the 12th of April and was not received until the 14th of May, two days late according to Kluver.  The opposition from the militia organization also points out that Wahl only had to upload documents and send emails to the commission over a period of 10 months and was only hospitalized for 29 days.  Roger returned to broadcasting his morning show and running the radio station without contacting the FCC to let them know he had returned to work. This was the reason given by Administrative Law Judge, Jane Hinckley Halprin, when she terminated the hearing and certfied to to the Commission that Roger Wahl had waived his right to have it because he failed to participate as ordered.

In the appeal filed by Roger Wahl's new attorney its being claimed that his crimes which were pretending to be a women he took had taken nude photos with a trail cam, uploaded the to fake intenet profiles on dating sites, luring interested men to fulfill her rape fantasy, constructing a wooden cross to rape her on, and then deleting the evidence when caught is nothing more than a crime of passion that should not result in Wahl's loss of his station license.  The appeal included a number of comments who talked Wahl up as an otherwise great guy, claims that his crimes were not that serious and the Enforcement Bureau failed to make their case.

Kluver points out that such a burden of proof only existed for a hearing that never happened and that FCC rules take effect under such circumstances where a decision is made based on information available from the record.  That information of course includes the criminal convictions of Roger Wahl which were not contested by Wahl after he plead guilty.  The hearing was designated to give Roger Wahl, based on those convictions, an opportunity to explain to the FCC why his license should not be revoked.  During the discovery process, Roger failed to upload required documents and answer to questsions asked by the Enforcement Bureau.  He spent at least 29 days in the hospital between May and June of 2022 according to emails sent to them from his daughter Wendy Sipple and statements from Wahl in his application for review.

Kluver pointed out that Roger attempted to transfer the station to his daughter Wendy for a token amount of just $10 amid allegations that the radio station was really owned by a company called Target Broadcasting, Inc.  Kluver also suggests that Roger cerified an agreement surrounding that transfer was both submitted along with the application to the FCC and placed in the online public information file on the FCC website.  We could not find any such document within the WQZS OPIF.  Kluver goes on to allege that the FCC was wrong when they suggested Roger had an overall history of copliance with their rules by his failure to timely upload issue and program lists to the OPIF.

The revocation order gave Roger 30 days to file an application for review or petition for reconsideration that it said would pause the clock on the 40-day effective date of the termination of the license for WQZS.  The FCC has moved to change the callsign of WQZS to DWQZS so far despite the appeal by Wahl not being received by the commission until after 32 days had passed.  The FCC has thus far not acknowledged the acceptance of either Wahl's application for appeal or Kluver's filed oppositition with any public statement that it will consider the matter.  Kluver suggests that because the application was filed late and failed to meet certain requirements, the commission can simply return it to Wahl without taking any action and simply revoke the license on time.  The license of WQZS was set to terminate on May 22nd, 2023 which has now passed with no further action being taken by the Commission so far.

Kluver says that he filed the opposition on behalf of the community he says wants Roger taken off the air where he recognizes himself as the only one in the community who knows the ins and outs of the commission's rules and because of the negitive image Wahl's situations gives to other local broadcasters, where WHYU-FM is the only other local station.  Kluver cliams he has fielded questions from the community about any affiliation he might have with Wahl or WQZS and if he or any anyone else at the American Militia Association had committed any crimes before considering working with their station. He believes the exhibits supporting Wahl keeping the license are tainted because of their source which he claims is a Pator which airs a show on WQZS every Sunday morning and other who he claims are being dishonest.  He beleives that regardless of Wahl's past in reporting the news, something most other stations do, is not enough to overcome license revocation.

According to FCC rules, the enforcement bureau can themselves toss out defective applications for reviews while other rules say the full commission has to act on reviews of revocations.  The status of WQZS and Wahl's looming revocation is unknown and appears to be in limbo.  We do know that Roger Wahl is continuing to broadcast on 93.3 MHz right now from Meyersdale.