A Federal Communications Commission (FCC) judge has blocked an attempt by the agency to revoke the broadcast licence of a Black-owned radio station in Knoxville, Tennessee, according to NPR.

The ruling, handed down Sept. 14, saw Judge Jane Hinckley Halprin determine that Joe Armstrong, owner of WJBE 99.7 FM/1040 AM, should not have his broadcast licence revoked — despite the agency’s concerns over Armstrong’s old felony conviction for a tax crime, one that occurred years before he took ownership of the station in 2012.

“If I was being permanently punished for the mistakes I made in my past, (WJBE) wouldn’t be in existence — nor would this station be recognized for the programming that we’re bringing to Knoxville,” Armstrong, who served as a long-serving state representative in the Tennessee General Assembly, told NPR.

“(The judge) looked beyond my faults and saw the community’s needs.”

Known for being a fixture in the Knoxville area, the radio station has been a resource for the Black community, providing a platform for local news and weather, church services, emerging artists, free advertising for struggling small businesses, and, in recent years, information about the COVID-19 pandemic.

The tiff with the FCC came after 15 years of ownership. “It’s not like this is something that happened, let’s say, this year or last year — we’re talking about something that happened in 2008,” Armstrong told NPR.

According to the Institute for Justice, a non-profit public interest law firm that assisted Armstrong with the case, almost 15 years ago, Armstrong and a partner legally purchased cigarette tax stamps that were later sold for a profit after the Tennessee legislature voted to raise the state’s cigarette tax. Moreover, Armstrong had issues with the IRS due to his accountant failing to pay the taxes on this sale properly.

The majority of the accusations against Armstrong were dropped in 2016, and he was only found guilty of one count of filing a fake tax return. His accountant, Charles Stivers, was convicted of tax fraud in 2017 and given probation.

Armstrong said he advised the FCC about the conviction, which caused no issues until 2022.

Andrew Ward, the attorney who represented Armstrong in the case, told NPR that an old personal tax violation shouldn’t prohibit someone from holding a broadcast licence.

“The government should not get in the way of people working because of irrelevant criminal convictions,” Ward said. “It happens all the time. It was irrational here and is irrational when it happens anywhere.”