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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."
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?
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...
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.
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!
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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.....)
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?"
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.
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 point is that the FCC is letting large corporations control the airwaves to the detriment of the public (i.e schools).
Apparently a good deal of public values what the corporations provide. Maybe you don't value it, but many people do.
If people really valued this radio station so much, where is the money? I've found it's easy for people to claim such and such is the greatest thing, but when they are asked to pay for it, suddenly it's less important.
The fact is most of the public likes what you and I would consider crap and that means most of the resources are going to go to providing them with their crap.
That doesn't mean what the public wants is somehow objectively worse than what we want. We have different values. But, should we given resources, airwaves and otherwise, disproportionately?
They are prioritising the big and wealthy over the little guy. It doesn't affect your rights online, but holy fuck does it affect your rights
The problem is that "the little guy" mostly doesn't give the public the crap it wants and the wealthy do.
If you want to be one of those wealthy people, you need to provide people with the crap they want, like Beanie Babies, or Public Storage, or fatty Hamburgers, or Britney Spears' T&A, or shiney Chrome rims for SUV's.
The fact is that the animals mostly make the world go round and stations like ClearChannel are giving them what they want. Shouting "NO!" isn't going to change that.
So this is another 'big bizness bad' rant discussion and it's on YRO because that's Timmuh's hobby: ranting about big bad bizness.
You still didn't explain how this relates to 'online' except in an extremely peripheral way.
resigned
- I'd prefer not to.
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.
Very well put, and just what I was thinking. They KNEW this could happen because of the nature of their license. They had a secondary allocation. If other stations can get primary allocations in their service area, they too had the chance but didn't take it. Secondary means secondary.
Sure, it's a shame to lose a signal -- especially an educational one. But there's probably very little stopping them from moving to a nice 1,000 watt AM allocation with far better coverage. Oh, the little baby DJs don't want to be on AM? Then they're not using it to learn, and shouldn't have an educational radio station. They could probably sell/trade their 10 watt FM transmitter for a 1kw AM transmitter. The only real hassle would be finding a frequency and going through all the paperwork and lawyers. And if that doesn't work, LPFM is still an option.
World's tallest building rises in the desert
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.