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FCC Lame Duck

F

First Fone 65

Guest
:cool: The FCC has according to my sources closed the Houston office effective Nov 2 2016 and reduced the staff at Dallas office from 6 to 2.
there seems to be a lame duck mentality at the commission, after the presidential elections, applications for licenses, CPs, modifications, and other actions involving changes in frequency and location, that normally take 4 to 8 weeks are being granted in as little as four days for a Frequency change and a change to a directional antenna pattern, another one took 14 days for a complex mod, licenses are being granted with out the customary 30 day opposition window for protests, in some cases the license is being granted before the public notice is even issued. most of the applications I have seen are for Hispanic Broadcasters, the application I filed last year for a frequency and transmitter site change took about 8 weeks, How can engineering data on complex changes be rubber stamped with out a through review or window for protests. What is going on ?
 
Congress basically told federal agencies that if they try to do anything between now and January 20, they're going to slap it down. They want agencies to do what Congress has done for the past 4 years. Nothing. This is why you pay taxes.
 
Considering the total mess the Houston FM dial is right now (irrelevant translators nobody listens to) - I would say any period of inactivity is preferable to more damage.
 
Mrtejano said:
Opinions!!! I know lots who listen to LA MEJOR 104.5
Click to expand...

Still, it is a station that got less than a 1 share in its target demo in the last book. "Lots" is not a quantifiable term.
 
TheBigA said:
Congress basically told federal agencies that if they try to do anything between now and January 20, they're going to slap it down. They want agencies to do what Congress has done for the past 4 years. Nothing. This is why you pay taxes.
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:cool:
BA.
The problem with the FCC is just the opposite, they are rushing through complex applications for licenses, translators, change of frequency and transmitter locations without due diligence in reviewing the Application and the technical aspects of it as to weather it will interfere with existing stations and fact checking the applications, they rushed through a S-g- translator mod application which moved into the Houston area from East Texas, that is changing frequency for the second time after objections were filed and going to a double notch directional antenna system, apparently without much if any analysis by the FCC, and no time for impacted stations to object, application went from pending to granted status in just FOUR days, that normally would take 6 to 8 weeks if there were no problems.
It is like they think the sky is falling after the elections and are rushing through select applications before the hammer drops come January.
 
First Fone 65 said:
:cool: The FCC has according to my sources closed the Houston office effective Nov 2 2016 and reduced the staff at Dallas office from 6 to 2.
there seems to be a lame duck mentality at the commission, after the presidential elections, applications for licenses, CPs, modifications, and other actions involving changes in frequency and location, that normally take 4 to 8 weeks are being granted in as little as four days for a Frequency change and a change to a directional antenna pattern, another one took 14 days for a complex mod, licenses are being granted with out the customary 30 day opposition window for protests, in some cases the license is being granted before the public notice is even issued. most of the applications I have seen are for Hispanic Broadcasters, the application I filed last year for a frequency and transmitter site change took about 8 weeks, How can engineering data on complex changes be rubber stamped with out a through review or window for protests. What is going on ?
Click to expand...

Because sadly this is all a political process, not an exercise in sound engineering.
 
First Fone 65 said:
:cool: The FCC has according to my sources closed the Houston office effective Nov 2 2016 and reduced the staff at Dallas office from 6 to 2.
there seems to be a lame duck mentality at the commission, after the presidential elections, applications for licenses, CPs, modifications, and other actions involving changes in frequency and location, that normally take 4 to 8 weeks are being granted in as little as four days for a Frequency change and a change to a directional antenna pattern, another one took 14 days for a complex mod, licenses are being granted with out the customary 30 day opposition window for protests, in some cases the license is being granted before the public notice is even issued. most of the applications I have seen are for Hispanic Broadcasters, the application I filed last year for a frequency and transmitter site change took about 8 weeks, How can engineering data on complex changes be rubber stamped with out a through review or window for protests. What is going on ?
Click to expand...

The downsizing of the FCC started well before the donald even declared. The field offices were downsized or eliminated almost a year ago.
The former regional director in my area, now retired, once told me that leadership was no longer interested in spectrum management. Today, these folks are far more interested in controlling the internet - that will be the next "project" for our next "progressive" president. They're (progressives) already working hard trying to eliminate "hate speech" (i.e. Drudge Report, Breitbart, any other right leaning site)
It seems the FCC has evolved into an arbiter of programming matters and little more. Our tax dollars at work...
 
wavo said:
They're (progressives) already working hard trying to eliminate "hate speech" (i.e. Drudge Report, Breitbart, any other right leaning site)
It seems the FCC has evolved into an arbiter of programming matters and little more. Our tax dollars at work...
Click to expand...

How has the FCC done anything to Drudge or Breitbart?
 
Mrtejano said:
Still enough so that he can't say translators that no one listens to.
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I tried out your station yesterday afternoon and this morning, and I know one very good reason it doesn't rate very highly. There are severe compression artifacts in the music, enough to give me a headache after just a few minutes. Even if I liked the music, I would tune out almost immediately after hearing the poor audio quality. One of my main objections to all these translators and low power stations is that they cost almost nothing to put on the air. So equipment budgets are low, therefore the quality is low. FM is supposed to be the band that "sounds better" than AM. I'd rather hear uncompressed mono music on AM than highly compressed music on FM. 104.5 is really AWFUL in that respect. Completely unprofessional sounding. It could be a teenager with an ipod for all I know. It certainly wasn't put on the air by anybody who knows and cares about a good audio signal chain. So they may have their format on the air, but consciously or subconsciously - that compression is going to irritate listeners and prevent the ratings from growing past miniscule. I think the incoming FCC should make it priority - that anybody putting a translator or low power on the air adhere to good technical standards on the audio. Remember - I am the guy who accepted fades and static on FM 300 miles away. The compression on 104.5 is more irritating. MUCH more irritating. Total garbage audio.
 
Unprofessional?? How? I think it's sounds way better than La RAZA 98.5 here in downtown Houston. Way better than 93.3 FM as well.

They might not have a very strong signal compared to KLTN but I could even dare say 104.5 has a better equalizer setting than KLTN.!
 
Mrtejano said:
Unprofessional?? How? I think it's sounds way better than La RAZA 98.5 here in downtown Houston. Way better than 93.3 FM as well.

They might not have a very strong signal compared to KLTN but I could even dare say 104.5 has a better equalizer setting than KLTN.!
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I guess - I'll have to give 98.5 and 93.3 a listen to see if they are worse. But 104.5 sounded even worse than AM-HD. Hopefully, for the sake of their listeners, they will broadcast songs with less compression.
 
wavo said:
They're (progressives) already working hard trying to eliminate "hate speech" (i.e. Drudge Report, Breitbart, any other right leaning site)
.
Click to expand...

How is Drudge a purveyor of "hate speech" if all it does is provide a page full of links?
 
Some on the political left are pressuring Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies to
censor links from Drudge or Breitbart that they deem to be "hate speech".

It has nothing to do with the FCC.
 
FreddyE1977 said:
Some on the political left are pressuring Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies to
censor links from Drudge or Breitbart that they deem to be "hate speech".
Click to expand...

Meanwhile the right wants to cut funding to, or pass laws against, things they deem to be "left leaning." So what? Everyone wants to have their own opinion justified and the opposition vilified. That's been the theme of the last five years.

Not really a role for the FCC at all. They have not become an "arbiter of programming matters" in any way. In fact, they've been very careful to stay out of programming completely.
 
rbrucecarter5 said:
I guess - I'll have to give 98.5 and 93.3 a listen to see if they are worse. But 104.5 sounded even worse than AM-HD. Hopefully, for the sake of their listeners, they will broadcast songs with less compression.
Click to expand...

I found the sound quality on 98.5 to be far superior to 104.5. No compression artifacts at all. The song I heard had a lot of high frequency content, all on pitch. 93.3 sounded muffled and unprocessed - but not compressed. All three frequencies are weak, so if they are counting on home / office listening - they better think again. They would be unlistenable on the average radios people own. As another poster keeps pointing out, people don't DX. All of these are near fringe DX from West Houston / Katy / Cypress.

I have no further interest in those stations.
 
Broadband is now the #1 priority. Radio has taken a backseat. With today's computer programs and software, most radio applications go thru without a issue unless something looks really weird (or an objection by another party - which is rare). Modern technology has made it simple and probably more accurate than a human calculation).
 
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