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A noted FCC Attorney has, in public fashion, taken on the notion that the public should be paid for use of their airwaves. He notes that Congressional legislation in 1927 and 1934 does not forward this ultimate intent. And that the federal agency created by these acts has over stepped its authority. Additionally, digital media has made the old spectrum management models obsolete and that eventually they will be challenged and fall in federal court. Krasnow provides some pretty interesting thoughts in his treatise on the subject.
http://www.tjcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/Spkng-Frly-Krasnow-5-2-11.pdf
The question then begs an answer; who should claim ownership of the airwaves and how do we manage spectrum in the future? The music industry has tried to hang on to it’s antiquated business model, only to have gone bankrupt and be sold off the conglomerates overseas. Will the old bureaucratic spectrum management model cause the same demise for radio?
It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee. It’s a brave new world out there. Will broadcasters embrace the change or continue with 90 year old business model. Nearly everyone I know survives by “work-arounds” to the rules and regulations that are clearly not in compliance.
FCC leadership, broadcast attorneys and broadcasters have long asked Congress for a forward-looking fix. Does anybody perceive that will happen anytime soon?
It still remains true: A rising tide raises all boats. At low tide, there is till the same amount of water in the ocean, regardless of how many boats are beached. How we take care of our craft during the low tide will determine whether it will float on the rising tide.
Total posts : 45366Certain natural resources exist in support of our human existence: air, water, the ground, vegetation, temperature, the sun, and the electromagnetic spectrum.
Some part of these things belong to us individually and by combining all individuals together we have a collective interest.
In my opinion the electromagnetic spectrum is a public resource, and each one of us has a claim to it, like a deed I once got from Puffed Wheat for “1-Square-Inch in Alaska.”
Communications services will continue absorbing large portions of spectrum and they probably would like to grab the FM band. I predict the end of digital free TV because it’s become difficult to receive besides which the public seems to think cable TV is worth high rates.
Cable TV is the dream of corporate success because people pay for it AND tolerate commercials, making free DTV a poor investment for station owners and advertisers.
Except for a handful of locations AM & FM programming has lost most of its serious listeners because of terrible programming, which seems like self-destruction. The public has been largely passive about media quality, but the more vocal listeners have found their complaints dismissed, finding that media complaints are not counted as votes.
Platitudes are of no help at all. At low tide we are beached not only with no oar, but with no craft of our own to save.
Total posts : 45366I have a real real good friend who is the
chief engineer of a big local FM. He also works
for lots of little AM and FM stations. He
has been doing this sort of thing since 1978.
And mostly 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week.We wonder about the eventual vanishing of
broadcast radio on the AM and FM bands.
My good friend has heard predictions from
5 to 30 years from now. I guess it will be
somewhere in the middle.it’s not that I don’t care about it because I
do – but I am going to enjoy the radio spectrum
the way it is now. So I guess that’s today until
“whenever.”The changes that have hit “over the air” TV bother
me. But life is too short to let it get you down too
much.I still have my little Part 15 station. I still have my
little ham radio station. I still listen all over the
spectrum – it’s still fun.I could get hit by a bus tomorrow. Any of us could.
So lets have fun with what we’ve got. If it starts
to go away – we can cross that bridge when we get
there.Best Wishes,
Bruce, MICRO1690/1700.
Total posts : 45366I shutter to think of this outcome.
We will always have a need for wireless communications. Be it radio or TV, analog or digital.
Too many times has cable left areas without TV and now telephone service when the four winds blow. Imagine trying to gather local information in the aftermath of storm damage without wireless radio or TV.
Our city looked into area wide WIFI. But, even WIFI radio won’t work after the UPS batteries die and distribution links drop off. Isolated power outages can render both cable and WIFI offline.
Even AT&T UVERSE is subject to power outages. Their remote distribution terminals are powered locally rather than from the Central Office. Should power fail they run on battery for a while. After which, telephone, television and internet cease without connecting a generator for power.
From the broadcasters perspective I suppose eliminating the cost of high power transmitters is appealing. But, in a crisis the cable and internet isn’t always there.
There will still be the need to regulate the spectrum and I wouldn’t want corporations to control it. Perhaps the current government model is outdated but I don’t think it would be prudent to simply abandon it. A great deal of planning is in order before any change can take place.
Total posts : 45366Your various comments have helped me become less cynical about the future, which comes so easily to me as a pessimist.
I was too severe about platitudes as they have a place on our banners as we march toward an objective. That’s what I felt was missing in the start of this thread – that is, a stated objective. But, now being more fair, it was inferred that we needed an objective.
I also don’t believe we should scrap the existing control of the frequency spectrum by replacing the FCC with something different. I think the FCC is fine for handling the task of re-structuring and I have a few recommendations at the top of the list.
AM BAND
The original purpose of 50kW stations disappeared decades ago. Therefore 10kW is suggested as the maximum allowed power, thus opening many new license opportunities;
For densely populated locations power levels below 250W could open tremendous service for near-area communication, therefore the now stagnant LPAM concept needs to be jump-started;
Programming wise all licenses should belong to their area of service with no absentee landlords or global satellite formats, except sparsely;
Religious organizations should not be assigned licenses to broadcast, as a pure matter of keeping government separate from religion regarding a limited resource. Religions are commodities, like any other advertiser, and should be required to pay for commercial air time to promote their brand;
Make the list longer. Add some more reasonable and common sense ways the AM Band could be repaired.
Total posts : 45366Hurricane Katrina was only a
few years back.WWL, on 870 kHz – 50 kW,
served A LOT of people. Lots
of other radio stations relayed
WWL’s programming. Oh, I forgot
to mention that WWL was in New
Orleans. I believe at night it
covers the whole eastern seaboard.I was able to listen to WWL up here
in Connecticut often. The amount of coverage
that station has during the day is big.
At night it’s huge!Somebody somewhere has got to take notice of
the usefulness of WWL in that situation.Best Wishes,
Bruce, MICRO1690/1700
Total posts : 45366… is the incessant grab for more bandwidth for stupid stuff like watching streaming 3D HD movies on your Iphone, or whatever, with a 4G , 5G, 6G … connection. What a waste of RF bandwidth! This nonsense won’t stop. Where will it lead? There is only a finite amount of RF bandwidth available. Bandwidth will go to the highest bidder!
Total posts : 45366MICRO1700 made a convincing case for 50kW stations with the WWL story. But I think there are some 50kW stations that do not provide the public news and weather reports but have cheap junk-food programming with no staff. Perhaps the way to solve the situation is to require 50kW stations to maintain a vigil using real on-duty reporters serving the public.
Radio manufacturers and sellers need a mention, like C.Crane and Universal, for providing reliable battery operated receivers. The problem starts when there’s nothing to receive.
Using spectrum to relay children’s 3D movies to cellphones is (I hope) a venture doomed to fail. People are not going to sit and watch a 2″X 2″ screen for the length of a movie.
May the highest bidder be the biggest loser.
Total posts : 45366PhilB, I agree.
The other night I turned on 77WABC new york to hear what must have been 15 mins of ridiculous paid programming for fat burning diet.
lowering the power of most stations would eliminate some of that.
at the 50K i work at in maryland, we are live all night
interesting during the bin laden coverage, i tuned into a few of the “boom box” fm stations to find they were all voice tracked with no one at the stations to relay the news.
the main problem is that the FCC realizes that the more stations they allow and permit, the more diverse the content, the more free information becomes.
they like to keep the status quo in check because once they open the floodgates, they are afraid of what might come out…
Total posts : 45366Hello there Mr. Valley, AM1700.
Speaking of 50 kW stations in
Maryland, I have always been a
fan of WBAL on 1090 in Baltimore.It has a strong signal up here in
Connecticut.I am 3 miles from WTIC’s 50 kW transmitter
on 1080. Even though WTIC has the really
bad IBOC noise on each side of the main
channel, I am still able to hear WBAL most nights.The way to do it is to tune into 1090, and then
go down to 1088 kHz. The WTIC IBOC noise is a lot
weaker there (obviously) and then you can null
the WTIC IBOC noise out and still hear WBAL
(a little bit off frequency.)So WBAL is a friend to all of the AM DXers up
here.Best Wishes,
Bruce, MICRO1690/1700
Total posts : 45366well, i’ll be in overnight!
so if you hear any messups, you can blame me!
Total posts : 45366I now officially decree all the electro-spectrum is now in custody of Me!
There will be some immediate changes under my ownership
1. IBOC is hereby banned from use on the AM Dial
2. All devices putting out RF that should NOT are hereby disallowed. Please engineer better.
3. Part 15 rules will be updated,
1 WATT AM (50 ft radiating element. Elevated is A OK)
1 WATT ERP FM
50 WATTS Shortwave
50 WATTS Longwave
4. VHF-Low (76-88)to be reallocated for AM stations wishing to abandon AM band.
5. Shortwave restrictions lifted, if you want to service America, do it.
6. Longwave band will be given priority for new applicants
7. I hereby retake the TV band (52-69) buzz off Cell Phones
8. All pirates will be hunted down and eliminated.
9. Noise makers on the RF band must be corrected or shut down and destroyed.
10. If you are not a fan of these changes, don’t use the RF band or any device that does.
Total posts : 45366To Mr. Valley AM1700:
Yikes!
I’ll tune in WBAL on my Sony ICF-2010
when I get home from work tonight!That’s about 11:00 PM!
And HI Mr. Crow! I like your spectrum
ideas. And I know this is from another
thread, but I’m sorry to hear about
your computer trouble. Hope things
are better now.Best Wishes,
Bruce, MICRO1690/1700
Total posts : 45366Dear Mister The Crow:
I wish to join your takeover of the spectrum and agree with all your well decided points, except I wish to open more discussion on Number 8.
I think eliminating pirates could be done in a more beneficial way.
8. Fine Them Here and Now for the full amount in their bank accounts, using the money for Part 15 activity. Grab their houses, cars, boats, airplanes and possibly their girlfriends for use in Part 15 activity. Put them in a re-schooling camp and require they adhere to Part 15 Rules even if they would rather call it quits.
Does anyone Second the Motion?
Total posts : 45366someone else can take the pirates girlfriends or wives. One is enough for me and I am content with things the way they are here.
Now if you don’t mind, there are other stations using the airwaves over my property that i need to tax. lol
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