> If you'll visit their website, you'll see that it's a
> sub-directory from the site
www.main.nc.us/iww/, which is an
> anarchist/communist-leaning labor party site. That the
> station is affiliated with such a group makes me
> uncomfortable at best.
Why does it make you uncomfortable? Are they plotting to overthrow the government through violent means? I will admit to a disadvantage here in that you can hear the station and I can't. Are you a station owner by any chance?
>
> To state that the spectrum belongs to whoever has the best
> lobbyists is quite off base. Lobbyists and congress do not
> assign licenses or allocate AM or FM spectrum: the FCC does
> that based upon purchases. A company's ability to raise
> enough capital to purchase a whole lot of stations, and
> congress lifting the ownership cap, are two very separate
> issues. How on earth can a Lobbyist possibly effect the
> engineering realities of the spectrum?
They can't. They can, however, change the rules regarding the allocation of said spectrum. That's how legal low-power FM (not pirate) radio got started.
>
> As for spectrum being given to whoever has the most bucks,
> everything below 91.9 is deemed non-commercial. Public Radio
> gets a huge slice of the pie now... how much more do they
> need? It is just unrealistic to think that every assorted
> whacko with a political agenda should get his or her own
> frequency.
The people running this "dangerous" station seem to feel otherwise. Have you looked at their schedule? It seems like a bunch of kids playing radio, spinning hip-hop tunes and "sticking it to The Man". I don't see any political programming of any sort on the schedule. Asheville has a legal and licensed Air America affiliate for that.
>
> If every aspiring broadcaster were to simply put up a stick
> wherever they thought it wouldn't interfere, radio would
> cease to exist. The bottom line is that there MUST be rules
> and regulations to guide spectrum assignment. Our spectrum
> would be utterly destroyed if the FCC didn't oversee it.
> Without proper spectrum management, no one, legal or
> otherwise, would be able to utilize it. How would this be in
> the public's best interest?
If they were running anything over 10 watts they might present a problem. By your logic, a kid running a Part 15 AM rig that barely covers a block or two is presenting some kind of threat. It's a shame the FM band is already jam-packed to bursting with legal and licensed stations. Otherwise I could see allocating a channel or two to folks who just wanted to "play radio" without causing the end of civilization, but I'm afraid that scenario will remain a pipe dream.
>
> You may view modern radio as "boring, predictable, and in
> the pockets of the stockholders rather than the audiences".
> However, many of us happen to enjoy radio as it is.
> Personally, I can think of almost nothing short of physical
> pain which would be worse than having to listen to 'public'
> radio all day, whether via a legal station or a pirate.
That's why radios have tuning dials. Unless the pirate station being discussed is coming through your TV or something, no one is forcing you to listen to it.
>
> Obviously, the general public still loves radio. What other
> medium REGULARLY attracts a whole 94% of all Americans EVERY
> WEEK? My bet is, LPFMs would never achieve this.
Probably not. I looked into establishing an LPFM here a couple of years back when LPFM licenses became available. The minimum figure I could budget including equipment and an engineering study came to $35,000. I doubt the average person without corporate connections could come up with that sort of money.
>
> I can't prove that they are in fact harming anyone else with
> their broadcast, just as you certainly can't prove that in
> fact they aren't. However, if the frequency were a viable
> one for Asheville, I'm quite certain that someone would have
> applied for the allocation by now. I'm willing to bet that
> Radio Free Asheville didn't spent the thousands it would
> take to execute a proper engineering study. Therefore, it's
> anyone's best guess whether or not they are hurting a legal
> broadcaster.
Quite right there. Maybe someone with real big pockets should apply for the frequency and run those vandals off the dial like they did with Zeb Lee a few years back.
>
> Of course, the attitude Radio Free Asheville demonstrates by
> hijacking the airwaves seems consistant with their anarchist
> agenda. Imagine if we all ignored law and order the way
> these folks do. We could rape, pillage, and murder at will.
Is Radio Free Asheville advocating rape, pillage and murder? That's a bit of a stretch. The laws against those activities are well-founded and necessary. Anyone who does go out raping and pillaging and murdering should be locked up. I fully support and obey those laws, as does 99% of the population. But putting out a flea-powered signal which at best only goes a few miles doesn't quite qualify as "anarchy". I doubt many people in Asheville, other than the friends of the folks running RFA, are even aware of its existence.
> The bottom line is that we must have law and order in this
> country. For society to work and succeed, we have to follow
> the rules, and punish those who ignore them.
When RFA starts exhorting the masses to riot in the streets and plant bombs in public places, then you will have a case. For now, it's just a bunch of young idealists playing radio with a flea-powered signal. Most such ventures fall victim to infighting (re WBAI)and the onslaught of maturity among the participants and fade away sooner or later. By reporting them to the FCC, however, you are making it easy for them to take on the role of martyr for the cause, such as it is. This happened recently with Radio Free Brattleboro in Vermont. The FCC raided them and suddenly they're heroes in the pirate radio world. I would bet the RFA crowd would love to be similarly raided by the feds so they could holler long and loud about how their free-speech rights are being cruelly violated. Ignore them and they'll eventually go away when they discover the general mass audience doesn't give two flips about them or their station. How much you want to bet they won't be on the air next year at this time even if they aren't raided?
KL
<a href="http://home.nc.rr.com/gttyson/lastradio.html">The Last Radio Station<a>
