An LPFM station is required to be a "non-commercial educational" broadcaster, with no more than 100 watts ERP.
It would appear that TOUCH was operating as a commercial venture. An article I found from 2007 stated they were at the 100 watt level, but I have found nothing since then to indicate what their current power level is.
I searched the FCC website to see if I could find anything related to the recent shutdown of TOUCH. I found nothing but I did find dozens of items concerning the shutdown of other unlicensed FM broadcasters around the country. Many of those were in response to complaints of interference from legitimate stations. Pirate FM stations do seem to be quite common. I was hoping to find some information as to the origin of this complaint.
The real question is why didn't the FCC shut this station down in 2007 rather than letting it run another 7 years? They seem to move quickly once a pirate station is identified, but they left this one alone for years. I would bet, as other have suggested, that race preference kept them alive, but something happened recently that trumped that race card. A personal vendetta by a disgruntled staffer? Some change in the political structures in the FCC?
If the culprit was a moneyed media giant like Clear Channel, they would have gotten this done years ago. That tells me they weren't involved.
One longtime Boston pirate, Choice FM, claimed it had the call letters WCFM, which I’m sure came as news to the folks at Williams College in Williamstown, MA who have had a station with those calls for years. The website claimed they had 2,000 watts and were licensed by the FCC as a low power station (again: they claimed 2,000 watts). I believe at one time the Touch FM site said they had the call letters “WTCH-LP”.
Bovine excrement.
The Touch site now mentions the FCC raid and there’s a loop announcement saying their programming continues as a streamcast, etc. There is a change.org petition out there to get the station back on. Hey, raise a bunch of money in the community and buy a station and go on legally, that would be fine by me. They chose to go on without permission.
>>Many of those were in response to complaints of interference from legitimate stations.
Some go right next to legit stations. One in Boston picked 93.5 FM—right next to sports/Red Sox flagship WEEI-FM 93.7.
>> I would bet, as other have suggested, that race preference kept them alive, but something happened recently that trumped that race card. A personal vendetta by a disgruntled staffer?
It has been said that the FCC waits for complaints from legit broadcasters. Greater Media has WROR 105.7. They also have WBQT 96.9, a hip hop station who probably lost some listeners to “Touch”. It was said Boston mayor Tom Menino had asked Greater not to complain. Well, the new mayor of Boston is Marty Walsh. Maybe now that someone else is in power...
Charles Clemons ran for mayor of Boston last year. He didn’t make the cut in the primary and had two finalist candidates, one of whom he could endorse. There was Walsh and there was John Connolly.
He backed the wrong horse. Connolly.
I think it happened because the operator of the station decided to use it as a launch pad for a run for Mayor.