I agree with that too.
I don’t have an answer for how to do it better than by auction. This I can say: Throwing out all spectrum regulations because the Friends of Harry Reid have been getting things is not a good answer, there is still a legitimate reason to allocate spectra via license. We need to concentrate our fire there.
As for the original story, this “pirate station” should have been shut down years ago, and the carp should have been fined out of the perpetrators. They harmed legitimate license holders who played by the rules by infringing on their spectra. Broadcast licenses are not cheap or easy to come by. I worked for a small FM station in a large city, and getting our signal out was difficult. Lawbreakers like this makes it a lot harder, and I think the only reason this bunch got away with it so long is because they are black.
One thing they could do is to raise the maximum wattage for non-licensed operators from 100mw to 1 watt. This would give neighborhoods the ability to have neighborhood radio stations on a band that everyone in the neighborhood can get on their radios.
Then maybe we could have a Tea Party station dedicated to playing patriotic music and arranging tea party meetings.
Like the feds would ever allow that!