The Billings Gazette from Billings, Montana • 19

The Billings Gazette CITY STATE Thursday, December 16, 1993 9C Sidney will wait for station Hearing put off until May on parental-notice statute By LORNA THACKERAY a The Gazette Staff A hearing on the constitutionality of a Montana law requiring parental notification for unmarried women under 18 who seek abortions has been postponed until May 2. The temporary restraining order preventing the state from enforcing that law will remain in effect while legal proceedings continue, Senior U.S. District Judge James Battin ruled Wednesday in Billings. The parental notification law is being challenged by Dr. Susan Wick-lund of Bozeman and five other Montana physicians and a physician's assistant.

Gallatin County Attorney Michael Salvagni was named as the defendant Both sides joined in the motion asking that the preliminary injunction hearing scheduled for Wednesday be continued until next spring. The Montana attorney general's office, representing the defendant in the case, agreed to the continuance because it has not had time to review the issues raised and to determine an appropriate response. The doctors agreed that a postponement would not hurt them or their clients. Battin had issued a temporary The law can't be followed because it is vague, the complaint said. It doesn't say who is responsible for notifying the parent and what form the notification should take.

The law also makes no exceptions for medical risks to the patient or physical or sexual abuse, the complaint said. It does not consider that the pregnancy may be the result of incest. The complaint said the law does not provide for exceptions in cases of medical emergencies, for teenagers who do not live with a parent or for instances when a parent can't be found. If the law were enforced, patients could be forced to endure physical injury, ejection from the home or forced pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood, the lawsuit said. The law imposes an undue burden on the right of a woman to seek abortion, and the obstacles it places on abortion are "not reasonably related to legitimate state interests," it said.

It also denies the woman equal protection because no similar notification is required for the parents of the male involved, the complaint said. Legal assistance for the doctors is being provided by the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, a New York abortion rights group. restraining order halting attempts to enforce the parental notification law on Dec. 1. According to the order the judge signed Wednesday, that restraining order will remain in effect until it is superseded by other injunctive relief or is vacated by order of the court.

Wicklund filed the lawsuit after an investigation was begun by the Gallatin County sheriffs office at the request of a father who told officers he believed that Wicklund had performed an abortion on his minor daughter without complying with the notification law. On Nov. 1, a subpoena was issued for the medical records of one of her patients. The lawsuit contends that the Montana notification statute not only violates the patient's right to privacy, but is an unenforceable law. In the complaint, the doctors contend that the provision of the law requiring parental notification can't be separated from a portion of the statute that required a woman to notify her husband before seeking an abortion.

The husband notification provision was found unconstitutional. It contends that even if the parental notification could be separated, it still violates the due process rights of patient and care provider. involve an even longer process. In that case, the FCC must go through rulemaking and study whether a new channel would interfere with the broadcasting of other channels. Of course, there are two other frequencies already approved for Sidney: those that carried KGCX and KGCH.

The station owners, however, have received an FCC authorization to remain silent until Dec. 16 and may get an extension beyond that. Oscar Halvorson of Williston, whose family owns the station along with Ted and Kay Tescher of Medora, N.D., said Tuesday he doesn't know what the future of KGCX and KGCH will be. When asked why the station closed, he said "Why does any business close?" and confirmed the reason was financial. He said he's willing to sell for the right price.

"You have to get something for it or you might as well burn it down," he said. Ellwein who used to sell ads, work on the air, hire and fire and broadcast sports said he has offered to buy the station for a fair price but was turned down, as was a Sidney economic development group. Instead, he has formed a vehicle for starting a community-owned station for the other FM channel He has licensed Richland Communications LLC (limited liability company) with the state. An LLC, he said, "is a cross between a corporation and a partnership. There is limited liability to an investor." People invest by buying units for $400 each.

"It's not stock' he said. "It's more like a cooperative." Partners have profit sharing instead of dividends. Ellwein started an account at Richland Bank and Trust for pledges and for donations of under $400 and set a deadline of Jan. 1. He estimates that the project will take $200,000 to $300,000.

So far, however, the response has been "underwhelming," he said. "Does the community want the station or don't they?" he asked. "I have the fullest confidence there will be radio station in Sidney. I'm just giving people an opportunity to participate. If they do, they'll reap the benefits." One out-of-town company from not too far away already has shown its commitment to opening a Sidney radio station.

Scofield Broadcasting Co. of Williston, which operates channels KEYZ and KYYZ, will expand to Sidney, according to John Scofield, general manager of the sole proprietor company. "One way or another we will do it," he said. When the FCC opens a window, the company will apply, he said. "We've actually been interested in this market for quite some time," he said.

"It's only been recently that the FCC has allowed multiple ownership of either one FM or one AM in a single market. Williston-Sidney-Glendive is considered one market." Even if Ellwein's community group receives the KSDY license, he said, Scofield Broadcasting will pursue permission to use a new FM frequency. By JILL SUNDBY Of The Gazette Staff Someday, Sidney will again have a hometown radio station, but it may have to wait awhile. Although towns much smaller than Sidney have their own radio stations, Eastern Montana's second-largest city has been without one since KGCXKGCH-FM shut down Aug. 2.

On that day, the station signed off the air at its usual time of 11 p.m. without any special announcement, according to Arch EUwein, former sales manager at the station. The station never reopened because its owners "pulled the plug," said Ellwein, who learned of the closure the day it happened. Throughout football season, there was no hometown station to broadcast Sidney's games play-by-play even on the night Sidney won its seventh state championship. Area residents, however, were able to listen to the games over a Williston, N.D., radio station.

Sidney residents no longer can call in at 10:30 each morning to buy, sell, trade or talk on "Ask Your Neighbor" or listen to other local programs and country music on KGCX. Nor can they hear contemporary country music on KGCH-FM. There are at least two interested parties who want to start a Sidney radio station, but they can't do anything until the Federal Communications Commission gives the nod. And, according to talks with FCC officials, that could be a long time. The FCC won't even "open a window" (accept applications for a certain time period) until early next year, according to James Crutchfield, FCC supervisory program analyst in Washington, D.C.

That window will be for applicants who want to take over the FM frequency formerly used by KSDY, which went off the air in the late 1980s. KSDY's license wasn't canceled until late October of this year, Crutchfield said. When asked why it took so long to cancel the license, he said the FCC probably wasn't made aware until recently that the station had gone off the air. Since Fisher Land and Development which owned the KSDY license, had 30 days to appeal the cancellation, and since paperwork takes time to process, the window won't open until early next year, Crutchfield said. Once it does open, the FCC will accept applications for 30 days.

Then the real wait begins. If one party files an application, it usually takes nine to 15 months to process it, Crutchfield said. If there are competing parties, it takes about 15 months to process the applications plus additional time for an administrative law judge to conduct a hearing and make a decision. Then one applicant will be granted a license to go on the air. To obtain a frequency other than KSDY's would FILL YOUR STOCKINGS EARLY iSB I jo Montana Backroads Readers can sit back, relax and prepare to enjoy this book that takes them on 20 out-of-the-way road trips that tranverse the Big Sky country.

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