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FCC Move Could Shut Down High School Radio Station
Saeed al-Sahaf writes "This probably has been happening all along, maybe just not in my area. A broadcasting company bought an FM radio station in The Dalles, Oregon (a little hick town east of Portland), and wants to move it to a much choicer market in Seattle, Washington. The FCC has given the green light for the move. Problem is, the frequency in Seattle is being used by a station owned by a local high school, Mercer Island High School. The school has appealed, saying the decision ignores the FCC's own rules, and questioned the FCC's assertion that there's space available elsewhere on the Seattle-area radio dial. The school says the proposal is 'little more than an effort to migrate from a rural community to an extremely well-served urban area.' Critics of the proposal contend that the move is an attempt to tap the much larger Seattle radio advertising market."
Trying to relocate a radio station such that it better covers a major metro area rather than covering the subberbs on the fringe of the city is a regular event in the radio biz. The FCC originally wanted to hand out radio allocations so that small communities had stations all to themselves, but this policy has more or less outlived its usefulness as small town ad markets simply just don't exist. A station needs to be either allowed to play ball in its nearby major market, or it most likely is being rented out or sold to a 24/7 national interest which doesn't serve the small market very well anyway.
Is this a ClearChannel Station?
If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
I thought most non profit stations, such as high schools and so forth were below like 90 or 91Mhz or so?
"...and questioned the FCC's assertion that there's space available elsewhere on the Seattle-area radio dial"
If there's space elsewhere on the radio dial, why doesn't the other station take it?
Im unclear of the FCC's rules, but I was under the impression that a certain kind of station (rock music for example) needs to provide a reason their content should be allowed in the market and is not similar to other options...
this may be a local thing tho...
This whole thing is BS, but the high school will most likely get moved around (once again, as noted by the article - yeah, I RTFA) ...
Another example of the little guy getting his ass kicked yet again by the Powell and his idiot-brigade known as the FCC...
My MythTV HowTo
Class D stations are hanging on by a grandfather clause at this point. The FCC is handing out no more new Class D allocations, and all Class D stations have been demoted in status such that if any higher-class stations (which include all commercial stations, since Class D's are by definition non-commercial) gets an allocation that interferes with them, the Class D must cease operations.
In short, Class D is in a phase-out period... stations in the Class D status need to get themselves moved into the dedicated educational slice of the FM band from 88.1 to 91.9, or convert their license to being LPFM station (possibly with lower power than they had before) in order to regain primary status so that nobody else can stomp on their turf.
This poor high school hasn't acted, and now the bulldozer of several stations re-aligining themselves on "their frequency" is coming in to knock them down. Sure, changing frequencies or converting to LPFM isn't a free thing to do, but it was part of their obligations as a broadcaster to keep up with the changes in the FM band. They did nothing, and if they can't afford to get themselves onto a safe channel then that's there problem. They clearly had a chance to do so when LPFM came out, and they passed...
exactly how interesting is a high school channel?
"in kinda important news timmy j. got first in the 400m track race. now onto teacher's lounge gossip..."
if the change goes through i don't think anyone will really miss it after a couple of weekend without it.
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Whatever decision is eventually made in this dispute, I hope it protects "my rights online" -- somehow.
It would be bad if my rights were somehow jeopardized by some high-school vs. commercial radio station dispute in distant Washington state. Bad indeed.
A college radio station was pre-empted because a major new york radio station wanted the frequency. The college refused to move and put up a fight against the FCC, which fined them for various "other" violations.
The taxpayers ended up flipping the bill because of the greedy commercial radio station and the hard nosed college administrators. The FCC is a bunch of corrupt people buyable by whoever has the most money. it just goes to show that the US government is corrupt.
You mean to tell me an agency of the United States government is putting corporate interests before the public's interests?
I never thought I'd live to see the day!
That is by far the strangest place to find a Hip Hop & R&B radio station...
The FCC and most federal agencies work on the opinion that the largest income intake from licensing and taxation is the best way to serve the public. Sadly this only benifits the largest markets eliminates any minority services and ends with a homoginized beaurocracy controled competetive monopoly market.
WTF!? If they are moving the station then when it gets to the new location it will be a new station! Why would they need to keep the old frequency?? this is total bullshit and just prooves how fucking sold out the FCC is, not just to the self-righteous nutcases who think Janet Jackson should be sent to prision, but also to the selfish assholes who want to stop at nothing but total domination of the radio spectrum. Wouldnt be surprised if before long they want to re-assign air-traffic control and emergency services onto one frequency because britney spears is more important!
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
I live in Seattle and I have heard this high school radio station. It's complete and utter crap in my opinion. They play all the heavily commercialized rap and R&B songs. We have two great radio stations in Seattle that pay little attention to commercialization of music:
103.7 The Mountain plays all sorts of music, not just the singles everyone else plays. Furthermore, they don't overplay songs and they aren't afraid to take risks (They played artists like Jack Johnson before anyone else caught on).
90.3 KEXP plays almost any kind of music that has not been commercialized by the RIAA. Sometimes they play things that are a little too weird for me, but sometimes I hear a GREAT song and look it up online (they log all their playlists since you won't recognize their music from TRL).
I doubt the radio station that is trying to displace the hich school station is as good as the two I have mentioned, but seriously, the high school station is not good at all. Also of note, Mercer Island, where the high school is, is where Washington State's most privileged families live. Mercer Island is where a 16 year old girl drover her new Audi A6 drunk and killed a child. (Not to generalize.....)
...might do some good! :P
"...KMCQ's {the nasty corporate commercial station} Web site says the station plays adult contemporary music and uses local announcers. KMIH (The 'hi skool', yo} plays hip-hop and R&B."
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
We'll take care of their site with a thorough slashdotting :-)
This high school doesn't stand a chance. Other than state lotteries and tribal casinos, frequency negotiations are about as corrupt as it gets.
The FCC hasn't been a useful tool of airwave management for a long time, evidenced by their refusal to allow cell/wifi devices on planes. Now there's wifi capability on some planes, but only through the carrier... and do you think that those carriers have figured out some way to isolate that signal that regular industry hasn't? No, it's just that there is money involved, and noone has put forward an ample attack for consumers.
Planning commissions are almost as bad, but at least there's an appearance of more public deliberation for those.
Good luck to that HS, but the chances are slim. My bet is that they'll be left scratching their heads, saying "What's the frequency, Kenneth?"
Right! Government once again using the broad law to help those who can pay for it. The little guy shouldn't have any rights? So much for government being the helpful force. Let's reduce it, reduce the FCC... we're moving to NH to start the process. The Free State Project proposes to reduce government to its constitutionally mandated limits. You can help! http://www.freestateproject.org
Kat Dillon
The article made it sound like they were opposing this from the beginning. If they didn't notice their frequency was being taken until now, then I can perhaps understand it.
I wonder if there are rules on the books that say the FCC has to notify stations when their license is about to change or if their frequency might be affected. It's not like you can find out about these proposals in the local newspaper.
If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
Sometimes I wish Slashdot had some sort of 'issue resolved' button where, when an obviously conclusive, well-thought out post was made, the discussion could be closed.
Seriously, there's nothing else to be said after this post.
You may all return to your regularly scheduled lives.
I work for the FCC and I know that mostly they don't get involved in these things unless you offer them a bribe. These things don't go to the chairman, but they are still pretty high up.
it happened to WHHS Haverford HighSchool... the oldest High School radio station in the United States.....
They too are Class D and in the way of a Class A that wants to start up somewhere in South Jersey.... The FCC rules offer them nothing much since they never became Class A. They have to yield to other stations. The only chance is for them to find another frequency to move to (not a simple or cheap thing really).
If you're surprised, just respond with an empty ac post (or put crap in so the filter lets you).
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
Here is San Diego, we're lucky that Clear Channel can own stations in San Diego, and in Tijuana, Mexico (right across the border). We thus get double the Clear Channel, and yes, our radio sucks more than most cities.
If Oprah ran for President, she would kick W's ass and Kerry the Kommie also. (W is also a commie, just stupider than Kerry, btw.) No one is going to fuck with her.
Mods, I'd like to take this oppertunity to point out that the parent is not really offtopic. He raises a good point, that the larger corporations (ClearChannel) are coming in and pounding the little stations into the ground. In my area, pretty much ALL the stations are ClearChannel, except for the (suprisingly good) local college channel.
Take another look at the article. The high school started on 90.1, but was ordered to move to 104.5 by the FCC in the early 1990's.
"Let's reduce it, reduce the FCC"
If the FCC wasn't in this, they would have moved the tower three years ago when they first wanted to. What are the other options? This isn't a troll, I'm curious what the alternative is.
The FCC and just about the rest of the US government is owned by corporations. We all know that. What's the surprise?!
Furman University in Greenville, SC was without a radio station for about a year and a half because Clear Channel bought a station and boosted its power enough to knock us out. What's annoying is that an exec for Clear Channel is on the board of trustees for Furman. Talk about right hand not knowing what the left is doing... They promised us new equipment to make up for it, but that never materialized. Meanwhile, we were stuck without our beloved WPLS for a significant amount of time....
The highschool students need to remember that they constitute a large and influential portion of the market this station is going after.
If the students start keeping a weekly public list of all advertisers on the current station, and perhaps a playlist of artists as complete as can be, and boycotting where appropriate and writing letters to the advertisers, this plan will come to a halt.
the station that is kicking them is owned by Clear Channel......
I remember The Dalles from the game I used to play in grade school, The Oregon Trail. Some quick googling found this:
http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/Thedalles.html
Apparently The Dalles is where the Oregon Trail ends and the 100 mile Columbia River rafting to the Willamette Valley began.
BTW, did anyone else here ever play The Oregon Trail? I practically grew up with it. Version 1 on the Apple II only required 48 KB of RAM but it was crap. Version 2 was way better but I thnk it required 96 or 128 KB and used a double sided disk. The first Mac version was awesome, it even supported LAN play via AppleTalk. I recently got to play a modern version at my Mom's school... all sorts of funky pre-rendered 3D, but it was more restrictive and less fun than the original versions.
A low power transmitter with an antenna that is not mounted on a high tower has the most flexibility wrt its frequency. As long as there is not another station on that frequency in the immediate vicinity then there's no problem.
A high power transmitter whose antenna is on a high tower is quite different. Interference is possible at a much longer range. ie. the commercial station has a lot less flexibility than the much smaller high school station.
In any event, most school transmitters aren't really considered to be commercial. Confusing the market shouldn't be an issue.
"Sup-yo? the homies and I are chillin at the crib tonight, then we're gonna cruise in my dad's landrover to Bellevue Square and look for bitches, shoplift sports paraphanelia, and make jokes about Samammish High. Oh, hey, I am talking on the new cell phone I just bought with my allowance. What? how much is my allowance now? $200 a week. Ya, I want more, but Dad thinks I should work around the house for it. I am not his bitch, he can mow his own lawn. "
I used to listen to X104 a couple of years ago (actually, when I was in High School). It used to play really interesting music, such as independent techno and dance music.
I tuned in recently, and I all I could hear was the same generic commerical Rap/"R&B" that every other ass clown radio station in Seattle plays.
If anyone is interested, there is another HS radio station called C89fm, run by Seattle Public Schools. It plays content similar to what x104 used to play and even has a webcast so I can listen at work.
Its a great break from the average commerical crap radio in Seattle.
Rich buyers: Hey, let's buy this station and move it to a profitable market!
Critics: We're on to you! This is just an attempt to tap the much larger Seattle radio advertising market!
Rich buyers (in deadpan tone): Gee. They discovered our secret.
My Greasemonkey scripts for Digg &
It's really regrettable, in the sense that the Mariposa, CA area had NO rock radio station in the area. The closest station was in Fresno, and didn't get reception well, if at all, in the area.
The station itself had a range of approximately 3 miles in any direction, which was enough for the town of about 2000 to be entertained. The only thing that was even close on the frequency was a spanish station, whose reception was incredibly poor in the radius of 20 miles from the town. Considering up there is a mostly white demographic (like 95%), I can't imagine any objection.
The thing is, creating a radio station, thanks to the FCC and government, forces the act into a business. This was something that my friend ran out of his house. He received no donations, just overwhelming community support, especially from the 700 or so high school students that had nothing to listen to on the air.
The crap part, is since that it's such a small town, there's no amount of advertising that would make up for the FCC fees alone. Therefore, Mariposa, CA is stuck with a country music station.
This story is just another one that ends up frustrating me in the end. Thank you, FCC. You properly ended up making free speech available and accessible to the upper class.
*** END RANT ***
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
Submitter wrote "...The Dalles, Oregon (a little hick town east of Portland)." Geez. I don't recommend a career in journalism, or especially PR, for anyone who would post that in a national forum. On behalf of my friends who live in The Dalles, may I suggest something more like "...The Dalles, Oregon, a rural community of around 15,000 people 80 miles east of Portland?"
This station has been lucky to be alive since 1978. In 1978, the minimum power requirement to be in the protected educational band from 88.1 to 91.9 got raised to 100 watts. KMIH was on 90.1 and far short of that...
They were allowed to get by until the 1990s when the FCC ordered them to move to 104.5. But even that was a secondary allocation that has no standing to block primary requests like the one that just popped up.
What they should have done was the moment that LPFM came out converted their station from a Class D license to an LPFM1 class license that would have locked them into a primary status on that channel, which would have caused the commerical station's plan to get denied due to interfering with a primary user. Instead, however, they're a secondary user whose signal interfering with this about-to-be-approved primary user is just going to have to get out of the way.
The only way to have blocked this proposal was to have seen it possibly coming in the future and having taken the action to protect their station before it hit. Instead, they were seen by the commerical stations as being weak prey, and were dead the moment that the commercial interests had worked out a plan that gave them upgrades at the expense of KMIH.
Objecting after the plan was filed is too little, too late. Their life on borrowed time is now over.
The winner has the money.. the school has no money so they have lost before the battle even began.
Education takes a back seat once again.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
>Seriously, there's nothing else to be said after this post.
Oh please. The post does not go into why the Class D change happened, who is serves, why community radio is being killed in favor of commercial radio, etc.
Last I checked, the people owned the airwaves and the little slice they had for colleges and highschools is being systematically being pull-out in favor of more clear channel crap.
Secondly, if you read the article you'll see the FCC asked them to move to 104.something. If the FCC didn't ask them to move, they wouldn't be having this problem.
LPFM is largely a joke and its too late to get licenses now. A LPFM station covers a few blocks at best, especially if there are any tall buildings.
As far as the "keeping up with the changes" comment goes, well its important to ask why and understand such changes. What if your city aldermen or state legislature decided the land you live on is too close to the freeway and the Walmart people should have it? Would you and the grandparent be quick to defend a change of law without asking the ethical questions involved? Or is it "that's the law, shut up" all the way?
FCC is not above criticism, especially when its run by Michael Powell and the GOP.
Judging by the websites, the High School station looks far more professional that the hicksville station. Or did they get them the wrong way round?
Last I checked, the people owned the airwaves and the little slice they had for colleges and highschools is being systematically being pull-out in favor of more clear channel crap.
Did you ever stop and think why Clear Channel is succesful? Maybe it's because people listen to their stations. Everyone gets their panties up in a knot (and by everyone I mean geeks on slashdot and a handful of indie music fans) when a channel that no one listens to gets replaced by a Clear Channel station. What's the big deal, if people didn't like the stations they wouldn't listen, and no one would sell advertisements to clear channel. Not to mention, with tapes, cds, satellite radios, mp3 players, etc, there's NO shortage of music media.
"Do you ever get the feeling that everything in America is completely fucked up?" - Hard Harry, Pump Up The Volume
First they want to move the station in question a full state, from Oregon north several hundred miles to Seattle. I could possibly see moving it to Portland, but this is a real streach.
Next, if the high schoolers really want to fight, all they have to do is to talk to their parents. Mercer Island, is located in the middle of Lake Washington and the residents are VERY well off. Paul Allen lives on the island as do a lot of the Microsoft millionairs. Bill Gates lives just north of the island. Quite a few Boeing executives in addition to at least one Senator for Washington (if I remember correctly). If they want, they (the school) have the connections to steam roll the station and make an example of them. Given that its the end of the shcool year with exams, now is the perfect time for this move on the station's part in the student body is out for the summer.
Housing prices start around a million for a modest home....
KMCQ-FM operates at 100,000 watts, but would drop in power if it were to move to Covington. KMIH-FM operates at 30 watts.
The FCC decision also says that "there are alternate channels available" for both operations and that the areas already receive service from more than two dozen existing FM and AM stations.
so like, what's the school's problem? it's an effin high school. the school could go part 15 inna pinch. 30 watts, jeeze, my little ramsey fm10a issa microwatt transmitter. i cover better than a 1/4 mile radius with my "toy" transmitter (i yardcast, i can take the boombox out into the backyard and listen to a shoutcast or live365 stream or my mp3s or whatever else i care to pump out of my soundcard). why does a high school need 30 watts and/or need to cover more area than the campus?Serenity now, insanity later.
Why don't people that live under oppressive regimes yet have the chance to escape stay? Why do those in abusive relationships not leave? They must enjoy it, right? We should take away all their other options because they're obviously not going to use them.
As is the usual case, this would all be a moot argument if the whole world would set aside what it thinks it knows and let ME make all the important decisions.
:)
My declaration to remove all the current problems with so-called "interference" (listen up HAMs, you guys complain the most about "interference", at least on Slashdot): Software defined digital radio
Seriously though, one of the issues that has been brought up with a software radio is that "interference" isn't what it's portrayed to be. Radio waves don't collide with one another, the way that "intereference" implies. Interference is actually an artifact of the low quality analog recievers we use to listen to radio. Their selectivity leaves a whole heckuva lot to be desired. A radio with greater selectivity (the ability to distinguish two radio boadcasts with similar carrier frequencies, even those coming form the same source) can eliminate this dated notion of interference.
Read This Salon article on the subject and be converted to the new way of thinking about "interference". Or not
P.S. This article was the subject of a previous Slashdot article.
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
What does any of this have to do with high school, I ask. Have you seen this "high school" station's website? What high school activities can you identify? Do any of those DJ's look like high schoolers to you?
Sorry, but I thought 'Pump Up The Volume' was a great movie.
just as with the Internet, it was the efforts of educational institutions that pioneered and gave birth to radio as we know it in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The communications act of 1934 was essentially a giveaway to commercial interests, but it did, however, state that the airwaves belong to the public--a commons, if you will, and it did, as part of the compromise, carve out some of the spectrum for educational broadcasting and create special educational licensing.
The commercial interests basically got their way. It is a crying shame that they can't be content with what they have and that they, and the FCC, are now pushing around little educational stations and generally acting as if the airwaves were private property.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
is their FCC skirmish. the name of the school paper is the "mercer high times."
Serenity now, insanity later.
Software defined digital radio is great. But who is going to pay to upgrade all the existing radios? Some stations are useing the same hardware they started with 50 years ago. The stations will probably continue to use that gear for another 50. An AM reciever has maybe as much as 50 cents worth of electronics in it. A FM reciever costs another 25 cents. Can a digital radio be made that cheaply?
Reed (RTFA) may be correct about the technology, but in my view he is naive about the economics.
yeah, fight for this. it's really cool. our school couldn't effort buying radio frequencies, so we used the pa the school band had and placed two giant speakers at the windows in the 3rd floor (no joke). our teachers and the principal were with us.
and in every break, we did it. it was quite fun, but the coolest thing is, that some of the "djs" continued their "jobs" and are now local djs making their living from that. me not, but that's another story (y'know, this geek issue...)
but school radio is a cool thing according to breeding.
beer as in "free beer"
Its all about politics. I say go with the station that reflect the Nazi polititics of the Bush administration the closest. That way we all win. Life has never been better than right now. I love the Bush Administration. I have to say this or they will beat me....
The school-run station is the Government entity.
The so-called 'little guy' is a tax-supported bunch of people messing around. The entity taking away their spot on the band is the non-government entity, freeing up something formerly owned and dominated by government.
resigned
--Rick "If it isn't broken, take it apart and find out why."
Or atleast thats what the FCC keeps telling us... Fuck the FCC. They have to go.
The student radio, after being reduced to pirate radio had to make the move to all internet streaming. CRAP! But, and I haven't listened to the station in years, you can check it out at "underground.fm"
To support the snotty little yuppie puppies at Mercer Island High or the FM media pigs?
Having grown up in a rural Washington town, I can honestly say that I don't have much sympathy for the yup pups. OTOH, they were there first and we're talking about giving pig media a win. I guess I'd go with the pups.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
I live in Seattle and do listen to the hishschool station. KUBE 93.3 is the biggest hip-hop and R&B station in the Greater Seattle area. They cater to the Top 40 format so on any given day you will here the same eight songs every hour. 104.5 plays more of the underground and non-mainstream (read: GOOD) hip-hop. You barely every here commercials and hear alot of older stuff that never made in big with commercial success. It is really sad if they do bring down that station. I guess big business is where it's at.
sure it is small but it is more of a tourist town...don't you have to have farms to be a hick town...i think the dalles was originaly a port for goods going up the columbia and lumber coming down the river.
stendec@gmail.com
Thats just stupid to say. Thats like saying "well black people can't vote.. and well thats the reason they werent allowed to enter the polls"
We change things in this country by recognizing the wrong doings of our past. The fact that we can vocally express dissaproval of a law, a situation, a flavor of ice tea... is the beauty of free speech.
Just because its law, doesnt mean its right.
Frankly the FCC, as someone stated... Has simply taken away free speech broadcasting from average citizens and have give them to corperations and the upper class.
How many steel welders, or under 30k a year folks get to really express their opinions on the air?
How many DJ's get to actually play music they enjoy? How many of them get to expose new music that isnt produced, spoon fead and shoved down their throats by the record industry?
HOw many of them do anything these days? Most just pop in a cd and press play. The mix of the week. Yay.
The FCC for all the bullshit it spouts about the air waves being property of the citizens... Is simply nothing more than a bargaining chip they can use AGAINST the 5 corperations who own the entire broadcasting industry. The problem is, the FCC doesnt give a crap about the people, it just wants to have something to keep them in the game when dealing with corperations. Its a money thing.. not a people thing.
As is always the case with the FCC.
What huge city did the original poster come from? Since when is a city of 15,000 people a hick town? When someone says "hicksville" I tend to picture a town of 200 - 2000 people. The type with two gas stations, a bar or two, maybe a resturant, and nothing more.
Seems like they ARE learning the trade, like applying for your class A license before a commercial competitor stomps on you. A hard lesson, to be sure, but not one that will be forgotten. And, fortunately, they can move into the non-commercial FM band, where they are more properly located anyway.
the little slice they had for colleges and highschools is being systematically being pull-out in favor of more clear channel crap.
You are correct, there is a little slice set aside for colleges, high schools, religious broadcasters, and other non-commercial interests. It's 88.1 through 91.9.
Now I'd like you to point out even ONE case where Clear Channel kicked someone out of this band. Clear Channel is not able to own a station in the non-commercial band. It's been about five years since I worked in radio, but I think I'd notice if suddenly commercial entites were allowed to have non-commerical radio stations "systematically being pull-out" (whatever that means).
Moreover, can you document that Clear Channel/Viacom/CBS/Whatever Megalomedia is "systematically" pushing non-commercial stations off the air, or are you just making things up as you go along?
Furthermore, how is LPFM a joke? There are dozens of LPFM stations out there working very hard to serve thier communities, and doing a fine job of it. This high school's little Class-D signal wasn't much different than a legitimate LPFM that you consider a joke. The kids have the station to learn. They don't need 100,000 watts to learn how to bulk erase a cart.
And it's a lie to say that it's too late to get LPFM licenses now. Dozens were awarded within the last month or so. In fact, just last week WKHV-LP/Kingston and WXLJ-LP/Harwich applied for licenses to cover (if you don't know what that means, you shouldn't be posting in this Slashdot conversation). Two weeks earlier, WJSK-LP/Bartlett was granted its license to cover.
Again, anything to back up your claims, or are you spewing rectally again?
World's tallest building rises in the desert
What this high school needs to do is arrange their equipment such that it detects the signal from the SuperStation and broadcasts the inverse wave, effectively destroying the signal for a good distance around. Sure, it won't save them, but at this point, nothing will!
Where I live, I can not listen to any of the stations that I used to listen to while growing up. Although they were broadcast from other locations, they were perfectly receivable with even crappy car radios. However, every single one of them is now being trample by another licensed station from a different location. Calls to the FCC yield a response of "Too bad, you weren't supposed to be able to get that station in the first place."
The FCC could care less that licensed broadcasters are trampling each other, or that before the second broadcaster showed up I and many others had no reception problems *EVER* receiving the first one. I now have less stations to choose from, and the majority of those left are clear channel. There's even a station that my mom used to listen to while growing up, which I could once also listen to, but is now trampled by another licensed station.
I haven't listened to the radio in my town for at least five years now. Thanks FCC.
Quite simply the FCC has ceased to fulfill a usefull function, from the peoples perspective. The original act in 1934 which created the FCC was flawed to begin with (http://www.spectacle.org/896/mistake.html) in several ways. Since that time it has ceased behaving in the public's interest and instead operates for profit.
c ations-act-1934.htm)
(http://www.wzls.net/) WZLS was a locally run
station which the FCC decided to auction to the highest bidder. It makes for interesting reading. Over 6,000 of the locals in Asheville, NC signed a petition to save the station. This had NO affect.
WZLS had a varied format, they would play pop, rock, country, folk, blues, almost anything that the public requested. They truely served the community and have been much missed. The station that has taken over the frequency now plays canned oldies.
The truely sad thing, is that we have no construct in place to revoke a federal orginazations charter. I believe it should be a simple act. We can take them to court and try to modify them, but frequently that really can not accomplish what needs to happen.
The 1934 Act specifically mandated that the FCC would act in the interest of the "public convenience, interest, or necessity."(http://www.legal-database.com/communi
Quite simply in the case of WZLS it has failed to do this.
In my mind that means it is time to replace the FCC as an entity. Some would say that one failing is not enough, but I feel that this behaviour is such that it must addressed. I do not believe it is too much to ask that my government operate correctly. To have a known error and continue is unacceptable. Clearly the FCC is run with a "good-enough" attitude. I don't believe that "good-enough" is a good strategy for running the land of the free.
Just my 2 cents.
When the next constitutional congress convenes I suggest they make a simple structure for removing a governmental agency which no longer serves its charter.
#### ## Laroue ####
Class D FM stations were basically put out of business in 1980. Except in Alaska, the FCC doesn't allow new ones. Most of the class D stations converted to class A status (minimum power of 100 watts or equilavent coverage thereof) back in the mid 1908's. Some moved into the commercial band as secondary stations and one or two moved to a new FM frequency, 87.9 FM. These secondary stations can be displaced by any other station except another class D, a translator or an LPFM. And, yes more then a few were forced off the air as well.... Fortunately, as mentioned above, class D stations till have priority over translators, and this station can bump an existing translator off the air and take their frequency over if they want. They also have priority over LPFM stations. Their other possibility is to find a frequency in the reserved band where they can run 100 watts. Practically speaking, this isn't really that difficult, as you only need run the 100 watts in one direction. I know of several college FM stations on the east coast that beam a very narrow 100 watt signal straight out to sea, while running class D power in every other direction. Also, the FCC allows these stations to use "off the shelf" directional antennas made by companies like Scala and Winegard that only cost a couple hundred bucks (as opposed to a multi-thousand dollar directions that a commerical broadcaster would use). Finally, the FM band in Seattle isn't nearly as crowded as you might think; I have two rulemakings for new 6000 watt commerical stations pending in the Seattle area right now. And, when I read the report and order, the FCC said that they had found several alternate channels where this station could move to. Since it's on an island, and any interference occurring over salt water can be ignored, I'd wager that there's perhaps half a dozen places it can move to. I might even fire up my copy of RF Investigator and check it out for myself. This station should consider itself lucky, at least there are places where it can move to. I know of one class D community station in the Boston area that signed on in 1959, only to be displaced in 1990 by the third NPR station for Boston. With no place to move, they are only a memory today, leaving their town with no local radio service whatsoever.
Or maybe it's because their cost structure is better. Once syndicated talk-host broadcast across the whole country is far cheaper than one per small-town across mid-america.
There's an enormous economy-of-scale in Radio; and just becasue a station is cheaper doesn't mean it's better for listeners.
Oh the otherhand it _does_ mean it's better equiped to buy expensive spectrum.
You're completely right.
FCC
Microbroadcasting:
High school and college radio stations don't and aren't supposed to just cover the campus. Unless they're a boarding school, I guess, so all the students live on-campus. :)
Nah, Enterprise is where its at.
I have fond memories of biking through that area; I was part of a family-oriented club from Corvallis that would organized 10-day, 450 mile bike-camping trips around various part of OR. I hope it's as beautiful and scenici as I remember it being 20 years ago.
I used to live in nearby Bellevue, and could see where the high school resides, and yet could barely recieve their radio. When I got it though, it was decent content. As far as public radio in the area, 89.5fm (Nathan Hale High School) was far superior. I'd be really pissed if that was being shut down. Its really a tradgedy when a public school's radio station is shut down for commercial interest. I don't see how it is even logical for something from Oregon to be moved to Seattle to an existing frequency. That makes no sense! Mercer Island should have enough rich asses to pay for the legal battles though. We can only hope that the fcc stops sucking.
I certainly wouldn't call The Dalles a "little hick town". Nearby Hood River/Parkdale/Odell, OR is much closer to a little hick town than The Dalles is. I would much sooner label The Dalles a "disgusting ugly drug-dealing polluted air and water crackhead town". Just for the record.
I caught the Mountain Wumpus! He gave me his treasure chest ($100) to let him go free again.