Today REC Networks, Prometheus Radio Project, and a gaggle of D.C. media advocacy groups filed an 
emergency petition with the FCC for a freeze on the processing of translator applications from 2003. That was the application window in which 13,000+ applications were filed, of which 4,000+ were part of a scheme to provide turnkey radio networks to religious broadcasters.
The petition reports that World Radio Link, Inc. is apparently the marketing arm of the scheme. It advertised prominently at the National Religious Broadcasters annual convention last month that it
[r]epresents the two largest filers of FM translator applications in the FCC’s most recent FM filing window. These two applicants, Radio Assist Ministry and Edgewater Broadcasting, are making available for acquisition hundreds of these FM translator station construction permits to existing or new entrant Christian broadcasters throughout the country. Continue reading “Translator Invasion Freeze Petition Filed”
Category: FCC
D.C. Circuit Seems Wary of Broadcast Flag
On Tuesday a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals heard a case advanced by the American Library Association and eight partners challenging the validity of an FCC decision to require digital television sets and video recorders to comply with broadcast flag technology. A broadcast flag is essentially a copy protection mechanism embedded in the data stream of DTV content. “Activation” of the flag will make it impossible to record or play back DTV programs unless done so on “approved” devices. Under the FCC decree as it stands presently electronics-makers will have to roll out broadcast flag-compliant devices in July. Continue reading “D.C. Circuit Seems Wary of Broadcast Flag”
Churn at the FCC
Mikey Powell’s giving up the ghost (don’t look back, buddy); Kathleen Abernathy may follow; and W. Kenneth Ferree, head of the FCC’s Media Bureau, is also done. Also, Michael Copps’ term expires in the summer. It’s unusual to have such turnover in a short time. Can we expect substantive change in the agency’s direction?
Probably not. The replacements will not be reformists: they’re straight from the farm team that breeds regulators. These being three primary sources: campaign contributors, congressional staffers, and those already in administrative positions. All of the (speculative) candidates for a Commissioner’s post hail from one of these places. Congressional staff are an especially fertile ground, seeing as it sometimes seems easiest for the two major parties to agree on the appointment of folks already within the family, so to speak. Continue reading “Churn at the FCC”
KBFR Gone For Good: "FCC is trying some very scary new tactics."
Straight from the mouth of Monk:
Please report that we are, after almost 5 years on the air, indeed, shut down for good and out of business. Obituary coming out soon. Our yearly benefit [happening this Thursday] will become a wake/legal defense fund.
This implies that there’s a legal struggle brewing in the courts, details unknown – although a team of lawyers is on the case (including some from the Dunifer defense crew). I’m working on the details, stay tuned.
Boulder Free Radio Off the Air
The transmitter location got a visit on Tuesday afternoon – coincidentally the one-year anniversary of “first contact.” Station founder Monk says, “this feels somehow different [from] other FCC visits.” That inkling is not completely new: the FCC began numbering the warning letters left in Boulder recently – perhaps an indicator that the agency is attempting to build a case against the station in preparation for stronger enforcement action. KBFR’s web site reads “RIP” but something tells me this isn’t the end just yet…
LPFM Day at FCC Confirmed; A Cocky Monkey
LPFM Day is February 8 at FCC headquarters. The event is akin to a “mini trade show,” a chance for advocates of low power radio to show off the technology and talk up its benefits to FCC staffers. The Prometheus Radio Project is organizing a mini-conference on LPFM for the day before. It is even rumored that Mikey Powell may grace the event with his presence – the least he can do for failing to accomplish anything substantive as far as advancing the rollout of LPFM stations.
SF Weekly has a new feature on Pirate Cat Radio. Since 1997 this “punk as fuck” station has, according to its founder, “Monkey,” received more than 120 warning notices from the FCC while operating unmolested in Los Gatos, Santa Cruz, and Los Angeles. So far it’s been on in the Bay area for some two years and nary a peep from the FCC. Telling tall tales? Consider this: he blames the October 2003 raid of San Francisco Liberation Radio on interference SFLR caused to Oakland International Airport – yet he chuckles about complaints from neighbors when Pirate Cat messes up TV reception, and it hindered reception of at least one Los Angeles station during its run there. Continue reading “LPFM Day at FCC Confirmed; A Cocky Monkey”
Like Food Stuck In Teeth
How to break news to a friend that they’re looking a bit uncouth? It’s not easy.
Recently I stumbled across the web site of a group called the National Association of Microbroadcasters. This sort of idea’s been tried before but, given the nature of the free radio movement in the United States, such groups have never lasted very long (and the few still in existence are very low-key). Not so the NAMB: boasting more than 40 “member stations,” “covering 194,000 [square] miles,” this is quite a boost from the blue, if true.
Further exploration of the site, however, tempered my enthusiasm. Specifically, the link off the front page labeled, “What is The Law?” This takes you to a page with eight links on it. Some of them are pretty benign, like links to the Communications Act of 1934 and various pieces of U.S. Code applicable to the FCC. Sprinkled in are links to dubious legal memoranda whose basic gist is that the FCC does not have the jurisdiction to license stations that do not broadcast over state lines. One link here even includes a scanned image of a letter one Eric Johnson of Everett, WA received from a functionary at the FCC: it claims that “intra-state radio communications may be regulated by individual states, and I would recommend contacting your State Utility Commission for further information.” Continue reading “Like Food Stuck In Teeth”
FCC Jurisdiction: Interstate Alone?
It should come as no surprise that broadcasters have thoroughly hashed the question of the FCC’s jurisdiction in the courts. The argument, in the context of unlicensed broadcasting, revolves around a single premise: the federal government is empowered to police all interstate activity while business within a state falls within the jurisdiction of the state. Broadcasters – especially microbroadcasters – have argued that if their radio signals do not cross state lines, they are not engaged in “interstate commerce” – and therefore don’t need a license from the FCC.
This particular challenge to FCC authority started all the way back in 1928, when the license for a radio station in Homewood, Illinois owned and operated by the American Bond and Mortgage Company was set to expire. The company went to court seeking to affirm its right to continue broadcasting, arguing that since its signal did not travel outside Illinois the Federal Radio Commission had no power to license it anyway. District court judge James H. Wilkerson disagreed: Continue reading “FCC Jurisdiction: Interstate Alone?”
Making Waves Update; FCC in MN
Michael Lahey’s been getting around: his killer microradio documentary will get more screenings around the country next year, one of which will be in April at the Anthology Film Archives in NYC. Also, a professor from the UK recently contacted Michael about using Making Waves as part of an exercise/discussion in a new textbook on alternative media.
Earlier this month Michael also was a special guest on The Power Hour, a talk show carried on the Genesis Communications Network. Not only did Michael get two hours to plug the film and talk about the issues behind it, but they also opened the phone lines. That’s where things got interesting: Continue reading “Making Waves Update; FCC in MN”
Denver Free Radio Packs It In
Sad news from the mile-high city: KCTS Radio, after a short but spirited game of cat-and-mouse with the FCC, has decided to retire the operation. From a communiqué first e-mailed (now available on the station’s web site), station spoke Carl Nimbus answers, in detail, the question, “So what happened to ‘we’re just going to keep coming back’?”
The FCC was all over us. More than they have the time and budget for. More than nearly any other pirate station in the country….[Denver FCC agent Jon] Sprague and friends were coming faster and more frequently than their counterparts do in markets like LA, SF, NYC, Dallas, Chicago and other large cities. Why would that be? The FCC responds to complaints from licensed broadcasters. They very rarely go out at random to shut down a pirate. Continue reading “Denver Free Radio Packs It In”