Speculation and Shadow Corps: REC Networks Strikes Again

The former employee of Calvary Satellite Network - the individual presumably behind Radio Assist Ministries and Edgewater Broadcasting - certainly learned the rules of translator application-filing well, as the two companies with a single address tendered more than 4,200 applications during the 2003 filing window. A clear sign of spectrum speculation: unknown companies with no prior broadcast history flood the system with requests for channels.

The sheer number of applications filed guarantees some success. So far the Edgewater/RAM duo have been granted more than 1,000 construction permits for FM translator stations around the country. Another 2,300 applications are still pending - it's highly unlikely all will be approved, but the take from the leftovers won't be shabby.

Now the mastermind behind Edgewater/RAM has begun to cash in on the hoarded station permits. According to Pete triDish of the Prometheus Radio Project, a "rate card" of sorts exists listing the going price for translator channels for sale around the country: "they generally sell them for about $6,000 for very rural areas; medium-areas they sell them for $10,000; and slightly more populated areas they go for $14,000 a piece."

In a recent sample of FCC database information collected as part of a special tool set up specificlally to track the Edgewater/RAM translator-trafficking, REC Networks listed the results of 83 station construction permits changing hands. Many of them had been sold, netting the Edgewater/RAM cartel total revenues of $803,000.

The biggest deal of them all involved three listed transactions totaling $326,500, which paid for 26 FM translators in Florida. REC's data lists the buyer as "Reach Communications (Calvary Chapel Church, Inc.)." The second-largest group deal involved 20 translator permits in California, Oregon, and Washington, sold for $219,000. REC's data lists the buyer as "Horizon Christian Fellowship." Horizon is a well-endowed group whose founder came to Christ through a Calvary Chapel church in California. Not only does the Fellowship appear to be loosely structured around Calvary Chapel-style theology, but Horizon also has a budding radio network with links to the Calvary Satellite Network (aka Twin Falls).

Other interesting translator permit purchasers include Laramie Mountain Broadcasting, the owner of some commercial stations in Wyoming; something called "Airport Investors," which dropped $31,000 for translators in three northeastern states; and the American Family Association which ended up getting some free translator permits out of the windfall.

Conclusions and Implications

Religious broadcasting has exploded in the last 15 years, thanks in large part to the FCC's 1990 decision to allow non-commercial broadcasters the ability to feed FM translator stations via satellite. This rule opened the door to low-cost national radio networking, which religious groups have, by far, exploited most effectively.

LPFM directly interfered with the growth of networks based on FM translator stations.

At least one religious broadcast company, Calvary Chapel, attempted and partially succeeded in assimilating LPFM stations into an FM translator network.

Calvary Chapel is not a monolith but the majority of broadcast activity is conducted and coordinated from Calvary Chapel of Twin Falls, Idaho. This entity has applied for both LPFM stations and translators, applications summing into the hundreds.

A former employee of Calvary Satellite Network went into business under multiple corporate names, two of which are Edgewater Broadcasting and Radio Assist Ministries. This was reported by CSN's own Program and Music Director in a 2004 e-mail denying allegations of collusion for the purposes of spectrum speculation between the Twin Falls-based parties.

Edgewater Broadcasting and Radio Assist Ministries applied for more than 4,000 translator construction permits and to-date have been awarded more than 1,000. Of these, Edgewater/RAM sold or transferred at least 83. Total revenue generated to Edgewater/RAM from these transactions is $803,500.

About half of the translator construction permits sold by Edgewater/RAM went to other Calvary Chapel-affiliated organizations; these deals accounted for more than half the revenue Edgewater/RAM generated for itself.

One of these notable transactions involves what appears to be a shell company (Reach Communications) purchasing the permits for 26 FM translator stations in Florida. The shell company appears to be working on behalf of Calvary Chapel Twin Falls (Calvary Chapel, Inc.). If true this contradicts CSN's denial.

Other notable religious translator networks will also benefit from this translator filing window. EMF Broadcasting applied for more than 800 construction permits. If it were awarded even half of them that would be enough to effectively double the company's reach.

Navigating the FCC's plethora of databases is time-consuming and complicated. Evidence of spectrum speculation exists, hopefully REC archives well its ongoing find. Monitoring the speculation's progress may shed light on the way religious broadcasters jockey for position to maximize their evangelistic opportunities.

Even with a small data sample one can make some startling speculative calculations. For hypothetical purposes, let us low-ball the average worth of each FM translator construction permit held by Edgewater Broadcasting and Radio Assist Ministries ($5,000). The permits the two already own are worth an estimated $4.7 million. Another 2,000+ translator applications are pending: if just half come through Edgewater/RAM doubles in value.

At the very least, the FCC's licensing system is being played like a well-crafted instrument by people who monetize spectrum that otherwise would have been used for real community radio. At the very worst, active collusion is occurring among religious media corporations bent on dominating swaths of FM radio spectrum while profiting in the process.

There is an obvious need for the FCC to pay closer attention to the grinding of its own bureaucratic wheels. An FM translator filing window should not have been opened until after the LPFM applications had been dealt with - unless the agency's actual intent all along was to purposely pollute/dilute LPFM's potential growth. The sheer volume of applications received should have set off an alarm or two within the Media Bureau and the shady nature of some of the entities involved should have prompted a rudimentary investigative response.

Whether or not the translator station invasion can be mitigated or reversed is unclear. Edgewater/RAM will not dally in trying to move its inventory of construction permits. The longer one languishes the more likely it is that someone may come along and file a competing (LPFM) application for the channel. Additionally, a rulemaking in development at the FCC and legislation pending in the U.S. Senate offer the possibility of carving out spectrum for more LPFM stations. This chance increases dramatically if the policy change involves granting real community radio (LPFM) stations primacy over FM translator stations.

That such a dilemma stems from some who claim to speak with/for Jesus makes him cry instead.