The Gulf Coast city of Port Arthur, Texas, is giving a nonprofit low-power FM station four months to get its studio and offices out of City Hall after the station refused to eliminate political topics from its programs.

The city is trampling on the free-speech rights of KSAP (“The Breeze”), according to station leaders and local politicos on their side. They say Mayor Deloris “Bobbie” Prince is now trying to scuttle an alternate site as well — a city-approved plan to relocate the station to a soon-to-be-vacated firehouse.

“At some point, I think the mayor took it upon herself to get rid of the station,” says Martin Flood, a Port Arthur city councilman.

Other officials counter that the city simply needs the space now occupied by KSAP.

But they don’t deny that they want to evict the station because of what it broadcasts. As long as the station is based on city property, its penchant for political commentary could g et the city in hot water with state ethics boards, which have previously fined other civic officials for plugging ballot issues on municipally-controlled broadcast stations, says Steve Fitzgibbons, city manager.

“That kind of liability we just don’t need,” he says. [ More ARTICLE ] or View [ View DISCUSSION