The FCC has dismissed a challenge to license renewal for WCQS-FM in Asheville, N.C., reports the local Citizen-Times. The petition was brought late last year by a group headed by retired pubradio exec and producer Fred Flaxman. He said that he had volunteered to serve on the station’s community advisory board but learned that it didn’t have one, a violation of the Public Broadcasting Act. Once station management did establish a board, it was “tightly controlled to make sure that no critics of the station or its policies are allowed to serve,” Flaxman contended. He also complained in the petition that WCQS didn’t carry programs by local independent producers, including himself.
In its response, the FCC said that the station “has served the public interest, convenience and necessity during the subject license term, there have been no serious violations of the (Public Broadcasting Act) or the rules, and there have been no other violations, which taken together, constitute a pattern of abuse.” Read the full FCC response here.