But giving the right to determine who and under what circumstances the licenses are granted is a power that is easily abused, especially by a huge federal bureaucracy. The potential for bribes, kickbacks and cronyism is just too readily accessible.
Friends of Harry Reid stand a lot better chance of getting licences approved than friends of Ted Cruz or Sarah Palin.
Frankly I don't know why the FCC finally got around to shutting this station down, but I'm willing to bet someone with a lot of money and an interest in getting a station on that frequency had a lot to do with the decision.
You wanna bet it was Clear Channel?
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.
Greater Media has 105.7 and 106.7 in Boston (and 96.9 and 102.5). Clear Channel’s FMs are at 94.5, 101.7, and 107.9 and they have AMs at 1200 and 1430. So it’s not CC.
I don’t think a station could get on 106.1 in Boston due to adjacents and same freq., though some say if the FCC made some changes re: LPFM requirements vs. translators (the latter cannot originate programming, only simulcast it) maybe they could go on legally with _10 watts_...but who knows