Posted on 04/18/2014 9:36:32 AM PDT by raccoonradio
Governor Deval Patrick (D-MA) today sharply criticized federal agents for shutting down an unlicensed radio station in Grove Hall and said he tried to dissuade them from raiding the station that bills itself as the fabric of the black community.
Patrick, the state’s first African-American governor, said he had received advanced warning from the US attorney’s office that TOUCH 106.1 FM was going to be raided and urged the office not to proceed.
But federal agents disregarded him. They swept into the station Thursday and seized transmission equipment in what they called a strike against illegally operating radio stations.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonglobe.com ...
Then you had “The X” which broadcast out of Mexico, outside of the jurisdiction of the FCC.
Deval wouldn’t be very upset if the station was run by white people or conservatives.
If you are arguing the Feds should have no authority here, then you just shot yourself down because this was a commercial radio station. Furthermore, if a station were to be "non commercial" (whatever that means), their signal could intrude on a commercial station's coverage area if not regulated.
If you are suggesting this makes me "non-conservative," then FU if you think you are the arbiter of what's conservative.
The entire continental US would be like that if the FCC haters had their way.
I think you are a foul mouthed knee jerk statist. Must every signal in the FM frequency higher than 100 milliwatts be subject to federal regulation?
Most Pirate Radio stations are 1 to 5 watt stations that interfere with nobody and are intended to serve small neighborhoods and are run by budding teenage transmitter engineers on cheap and often with home made transmitters. They find unused frequencies and bother nobody. But if some bureaucrat 2000 miles away gets a call from someone at some giant corporation that owns 50% of the licenses for broadcasting in the US, the Feds will spend thousands of dollars tracking that 2 watt signal down to shut them down and threaten the kid with a prison term and a $10,000 fine.
If that is the America you want to live in, then you are not a Constitutional Conservative.
Oh, I’m a statist now? Yup. FU fits you perfectly.
Let me know how your 120 MPH run down the left side of the freeway works out for you. Those statist sonsabitches have no right to tell you how to drive. Try not to hit any innocent people.
What about political activity? It was heavily involved in the mayor's race.
BTW -black politicians, once elected, see absolutely nothing wrong with showing favoritism toward one group over another. The media go along with it.
Please no pictures. Spare us the great nausea.
What I'd like are some pirate stations that play real oldies Rock 'n Roll. <^..^>
But there is something about FCC regs and that being an illegally operating station
PLUS calling for someone to be killed is hate speech.
can you imagine if that had been a white radio station calling for blacks to be killed?
BTW the first amendment while generous does not and never has allowed completely unfettered speech
Speed limits are set by the state on highways and the cities on streets.
Although I travel on interstate highways, I have never been pulled over for speeding by a federal bureaucrat.
You never addressed my point. Should some 14 year old budding transmitter engineer be fined $10,000 and face up to a year in prison for broadcasting on a one watt transmitter on an empty fm frequency to his 20 block neighborhood?
This is why we need to question everything the Feds do. Under what constitutional authority does the federal government have to shut this station down if:
1. The radio signals never cross a state line and
2. The signal is not interfering with licensed stations that have signals which cross state lines and
3) the station is not operating for the purpose of making money or otherwise engaging in interstate commerce?
Just because something has been upheld by the courts doesn't make it constitutional. The courts have become an arm of the oligarchy and the tools of creeping totalitarianism.
I'm a ham, and I really have to agree with this. If the individual state wants to regulate it should be free to do so or not.
If a situation does not enter into an area of federal power outlined in Art. 1 Sec. 8 of the Constitution, it's really none of Fedzilla's business.
If he does it on the spectrum designated for commercial broadcasters, you betcha. Call me a statist. I call you a demagogue if you are saying a 14-year-old would see a multi-thousand dollar fine and/or jail time for that. This story, BTW, is not about a 14-year-old kid, this is a radio station with all the trappings of a licensed broadcaster. I don't care what the power of the station is, they should have the carp fined out of them.
My point about the freeway is you seem to be advocating no rules at all for the broadcasting road. Because radio waves travel distances long enough to be interstate, it's one of the few proper applications of the (badly abused) Interstate Commerce clause of the US Constitution.
You said: >>If a situation does not enter into an area of federal power outlined in Art. 1 Sec. 8 of the Constitution, it's really none of Fedzilla's business. This is the part of the Constitution (Article I, Section 8) that permits the FCC's regulation of the radio spectra: To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
This is a proper interpretation of the phrase "regulate Commerce...among the several states, and with the Indian Tribes" aka "Commerce Clause." Most applications of the phrase, as used by the present "Fedzilla," are improper, which makes this one of the rare ones that are proper.
FYI, I believe TOUCH is running 100 watts, so it’s hardly an enterprising 14 year old kid playing DJ with a 1 watt transmitter.
There’s an FM station in Woonsocket, RI (WWKX, 106.3), which is on an adjacent channel to TOUCH at 106.1. WWKX’s coverage area extends into the Boston metro area, and will be a fairly weak signal at that distance. So there may well be an interference problem.
I checked the website. They sell advertisements, disguised as tax-deductible "Corporate Sponsorships." Link.
Would make our Boarder Patrol a total joke....Already is. SO?
The bolded section is what is relevant. Yes, I can broadcast around the world. Because it crosses state (and even national ones), then federal, and even international regulation makes at least some sense.
In the case of little 5 watt microbroadcasters, I don't really think it does. I have a small TV transmitter that will reach analog sets that are about 500 feet away from the transmitter. I don't think the feds have any business regulating that either. Some regulation is useful, as without it, much of the airways would probably be pretty useless, because you'd have bozos indiscriminately stomping on everyone and preventing the use of most of the spectrum. This could seriously impact people in a negative way, especially in times of a disaster, like a hurricane or something of similar scale where often the only comms in some areas immediately after is radio.
However, just because some regulation makes sense doesn't mean that indiscriminant regulation does, which is sometimes what Fedzilla does, and often times is doing in the case of microbroadcasters.
I won't disagree with that. The station in question is not a microbroadcaster, it's big enough to cover the entire city. And they are stomping on a legitimate licensee, there's a comment just a couple of posts above this about a small station on an adjacent frequency.
Radio broadcasting is a funny thing. In AM radio, you can get atmospherics where a station can skip it's signal way, way past the expected range. I was an announcer/engineer for 15 years, and I've seen some strange things happen that way. Doing licensing state-by-state just isn't feasible, with the exception being the little college 4-watt FM stations. Where I went, we had one of those and also dormitory AM radio stations that could only be received in the dorms.
The concept of "interstate commerce" is highly overused by Fedzilla, but this is one of the few cases that it's proper.
FWIW, the FCC not only controls the airwaves to make sure that stations don’t unduly interfere with each other, they also control who and under what circumstances broadcast licenses are issued and why is allowable content.
Remember the Fairness doctrine? That was used to squelch free speech and the current FCC Nazis are desperately trying to bring it back in order to squelch the voices of conservatives.
Under what theory of the interstate commerce clause does the FCC have the authority to regulate content or force station owners to broadcast viewpoints opposed to the licensee’s morals or politics?
Like all federal bureaucracies, The FCC is a power mad Leviathan that will abuse whatever authority it is given. As with all such beasts, we must always be cognizant of their appetite for power and avoid feeding them at all costs.
Does the FCC have a legitimate purpose. Yes. Do they have way too much centralized power. You betcha. Should some of this authority be delegated to states and local communities. You betcha. The way the FCC is running its business these days, there will be no more mom and pop radio stations anywhere in the country by the end of this decade. Clear Channel and a few others will have a monopoly on all of them. Then the only way to provide alternative broadcasting is to go Pirate and risk the wrath of the Beast.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.