Listeners Challenge GAF License : Broadcasting: The action may provide an indication of how tough the Bush Administration’s FCC will be on the industry.

In an action that could provide clues about the future direction of communications regulation under President Bush, a listeners organization said Monday that it will challenge GAF Corp.’s ownership of a New York radio station because of the conviction last week of the company and its vice chairman on stock manipulation charges.

The action could force GAF to sell classical music station WNCN-FM or change the structure under which it owns the station, David M. Rice, the lawyer for the listeners, said in an interview.

The challenge may also provide an indication of where the new majority at the Federal Communications Commission stands on the key issue of whether broadcasters should lose station licenses when convicted of serious crimes.

The FCC can conduct a hearing on a licensee’s fitness and character under several circumstances, including a criminal conviction. The agency can revoke a license if it determines that a holder is unfit. In recent years, however, the FCC has narrowed its interpretation of crimes that trigger a hearing.

“Certainly for the last six or seven years, it was clear that the commission endeavored to avoid enforcing the law in this regard,” said Andrew J. Schwartzman, executive director of the Media Access Project, a Washington organization that monitors the FCC. “I am hopeful that the new commission will treat these things differently.”

Three new commissioners joined the five-member body earlier this year, including a new chairman, former broadcast executive Alfred C. Sikes. A fourth new member awaits Senate confirmation. The new members have not yet dealt with a case that illustrates their stand on the fitness regulations.

Mary Catherine Kilday, the FCC’s assistant enforcement chief, said the commission would review GAF’s conviction to determine whether it might violate the character guidelines and threaten the company’s fitness to hold a license.

“We have to see how it stacks up with the character policy, and only then would we know what action would be appropriate,” Kilday said.

A spokesman for GAF said, “The Federal Communications Commission is the only appropriate forum in which to make any comment, and we are not aware of any such matter before the FCC.”

GAF, a chemical maker based in Wayne, N.J., and James T. Sherwin, its vice chairman, were convicted last Wednesday by a federal court jury in New York of eight felonies for illegally attempting to manipulate Union Carbide stock in 1986.

The convictions, which followed two mistrials, stemmed largely from the testimony of Boyd L. Jefferies, the former Los Angeles brokerage chief who pleaded guilty to two felonies and cooperated with the government.

GAF has owned WNCN-FM since 1975. As part of a leveraged buyout by management, GAF sought FCC approval last year to transfer ownership of the station to the new management. The transfer was opposed by the Listeners Guild Inc., an organization formed more than a decade ago to try to maintain the classical music format at WNCN.