The FCC stopped by Salem (WGTK/WFIA AM&FM) to say "Hi" and make a friendly inspection.
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FCC making the rounds today
- Thread starter Radio Dave
- Start date
C
cbader
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I have heard that all went well with that inspection.
They also stopped by GoldenDoor (WLOU/WLLV/WTUV AM& FM). All went well there too.
They also stopped by GoldenDoor (WLOU/WLLV/WTUV AM& FM). All went well there too.
Did they look at anything beyond Public File, EAS and Tower Registration ID Numbers being posted?
Wonder if they are monitoring WLOU for a pattern change?cbader said:I have heard that all went well with that inspection.
They also stopped by GoldenDoor (WLOU/WLLV/WTUV AM& FM). All went well there too.
Unless things have changed, probably not. Maybe 20 years ago, a station near me was fined for a fence being is disrepair around an AM tower. $7500 IIRC. That station's AM pattern had been severely out of tolerance for many years, yet it wasn't checked. Not sure whether they had orders just to check the basics or if the FCC staff was not qualified to know a bad DA from a good one. Another FCC inspection looked at an AM antenna current meter that's normal reading was not in the upper 2/3 of it's scale as required. The inspector commented "man these things are hard to read". To this day, I'm not sure if he was just being nice or if he was unaware of the rule. Then there was that genuinely nice FCC inspector who frequented Ohio 30-40 years ago...he'd walk in the door, hand the receptionist his card & ask where a guy could find a good cup of coffee. He came back an hour later...my kind of inspector!
BobOnTheJob said:
Yea, I guess it would be too much to expect from the gub'ment and an agency who's more concerned about a filing cabinet full of paper verses the actual operation of a station. Although, if they wanted an easy way to check, all the inspector would have to do is listen for a carrier break on or near official sunset.
Boy, have times changed!
I was the announcer/operator on-duty at WVUD-FM (Now WLQT) in Dayton one afternoon in 1969 when FCC Inspector Bernard Stueker and another guy from the FCC Detroit Field Office dropped in the studio unannounced. I had just come on duty and had not fully made all the log-ins yet. Remember, back then, meters had to be read and logged every 30 minutes! These guys just showed up at the studio door minutes after my shift started displaying their FCC IDs through the window obviously wanting to be let in. Talk about being nervous!
The first thing they did was to order me to do an EBS test after the current record ended to see if I could do it.... Back then for EBS, you had to drop the transmitter carrier twice during the test along with running a 1000 cycle tone for the last 15 seconds... Then, they started playing with all the remote meters taking all sorts of measurements. A few minutes later, I had to produce transmitter and program logs for specific dates from the previous two years. After taking care of all that, they asked me to contact our CE so they could be taken to the TX site to compare meter readings from there with those in the studio. Fortunately, they were virtually identical. It was a real shakedown.
In the end, they slapped our wrists, but no fine, for hitting 102% on modulation peaks... The worst part of this was the fact that they had been in town for a week visiting everybody, but no one called us. After they left, I called WHIO, WONE, WING to warn them and they all said they had already been visited! So much for warning the competition! We did hear that they really stomped on WKEF-TV Channel 22 on that visit for hitting 200% on their video modulation and left them with a nice fine.
I was the announcer/operator on-duty at WVUD-FM (Now WLQT) in Dayton one afternoon in 1969 when FCC Inspector Bernard Stueker and another guy from the FCC Detroit Field Office dropped in the studio unannounced. I had just come on duty and had not fully made all the log-ins yet. Remember, back then, meters had to be read and logged every 30 minutes! These guys just showed up at the studio door minutes after my shift started displaying their FCC IDs through the window obviously wanting to be let in. Talk about being nervous!
The first thing they did was to order me to do an EBS test after the current record ended to see if I could do it.... Back then for EBS, you had to drop the transmitter carrier twice during the test along with running a 1000 cycle tone for the last 15 seconds... Then, they started playing with all the remote meters taking all sorts of measurements. A few minutes later, I had to produce transmitter and program logs for specific dates from the previous two years. After taking care of all that, they asked me to contact our CE so they could be taken to the TX site to compare meter readings from there with those in the studio. Fortunately, they were virtually identical. It was a real shakedown.
In the end, they slapped our wrists, but no fine, for hitting 102% on modulation peaks... The worst part of this was the fact that they had been in town for a week visiting everybody, but no one called us. After they left, I called WHIO, WONE, WING to warn them and they all said they had already been visited! So much for warning the competition! We did hear that they really stomped on WKEF-TV Channel 22 on that visit for hitting 200% on their video modulation and left them with a nice fine.
The station I worked for back in 1994 was inspected. Judging by his attitude, the field inspector had his wife leave him earlier that day, then his dog died followed by spilling hot coffee on his lap, he was that much of a a$$hole.
He insisted our licenses needed to be moved from the control room to the transmitter operating point, the exact opposite of the last field inspector who insisted the license be placed in the control room. Then we were fined for having copies of restricted operator licenses instead of originals. The AM directional array was cited, we knew it would be. The most bizarre incident involved how our FM gave the legal ID. The jock said, (example) "99 WABC Mayberry/Mt Pilot". The inspector ordered him to give the full frequency with the ID, (example) "99.1 WABC Mayberry/Mt Pilot". The inspector wasn't in the mood to argue so we did the ID his way until we knew he was out of range.
The lighter side of the visit involved an AM jock. He was performing a set of meter readings and the inspector asked the jock if he used the direct or indirect method for meter readings. The jock responded, "I look directly at the meters."
He insisted our licenses needed to be moved from the control room to the transmitter operating point, the exact opposite of the last field inspector who insisted the license be placed in the control room. Then we were fined for having copies of restricted operator licenses instead of originals. The AM directional array was cited, we knew it would be. The most bizarre incident involved how our FM gave the legal ID. The jock said, (example) "99 WABC Mayberry/Mt Pilot". The inspector ordered him to give the full frequency with the ID, (example) "99.1 WABC Mayberry/Mt Pilot". The inspector wasn't in the mood to argue so we did the ID his way until we knew he was out of range.
The lighter side of the visit involved an AM jock. He was performing a set of meter readings and the inspector asked the jock if he used the direct or indirect method for meter readings. The jock responded, "I look directly at the meters."
radiorob2.0 said:
Most interesting.
The station I worked for in Wisconsin was inspected twice while I was there. They were friendly, courteous, offered us a (very interesting) tour of their field vehicle after the inspection was over.
Only complaint they had was that I'd never tried to use the TV transmitting antenna for ham radio after signoff!
w9wi said:
I've been told many field inspector are pretty cool and unless it's a blantant issue are reasonable. This guy knew he had authority and made it known.
Yes, the FCC was here...and they are still watching not only area AMs ansd FMs, but they're checking auxillary licenses, STL/TSLs, RPUs-I even heard that they checked a mega-church's extensive wireless mic system for spurious transmission-no joke!
Just handle your business, obey the rules and keep your Public File up to snuff...you'll do fine. All the FCC field agents I've dealt with were courteous, knew their stuff, and some even gave me heads-up information on proposed changes thet would affect my operations. I see an FCC visit as an opportunity to show off!
Just handle your business, obey the rules and keep your Public File up to snuff...you'll do fine. All the FCC field agents I've dealt with were courteous, knew their stuff, and some even gave me heads-up information on proposed changes thet would affect my operations. I see an FCC visit as an opportunity to show off!
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