The Los Angeles Post

FCC DISMISSES APPLICATION FOR CALIFORNIA STUDIO WITH LINKS TO CHINESE GOVERNMENT TO DELIVER PROGRAMMING ACROSS THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER FOR REBROADCAST INTO THE UNITED STATES

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Orders Studio to Cease Such Operations Within 48 Hours
—
WASHINGTON, June 22, 2020—The FCC’s International Bureau today dismissed an
application to deliver Mandarin Chinese programming from a studio located in Irwindale,
California to XEWW-AM in Mexico for rebroadcast back into the United States. The
application was dismissed because the parties failed to include in their application a key
participant, Phoenix Radio, which produces the Mandarin programming in its studio. Phoenix
Radio is partially owned by two entities with Chinese government ownership, Extra Steps
Investment Limited and China Wise International Limited. The parties have 48 hours to cease
broadcast operations related to this application.

The Bureau formally dismissed the Permit to Deliver Programs to Foreign Broadcast Stations
(section 325(c)) application of GLR Southern California and H&H Group USA as deficient as
the application failed to include Phoenix Radio, LLC, as an applicant. Phoenix Radio’s known
activities at this broadcast programming studio are such that, without reviewing its role as an
applicant, the FCC could not evaluate the proposed service. Specifically, the broadcast
programming subject to this application is supplied, created, and produced in a studio used,
owned, and maintained by Phoenix Radio. The Bureau also dismissed an associated request to
renew Special Temporary Authority to operate pending Commission action on the underlying
section 325(c) application.

The intent of the application was that the programming would be transmitted from the studio to
XEWW-AM in Rosarito, Baja California Norte, Mexico and then broadcast back into the
United States. If such a revised application is filed that includes Phoenix Radio as an
applicant, the Commission would review it under applicable law, including determining
whether the grant of the application would serve the public interest under Section 309 of the
Communications Act.