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.
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.
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.