FCC Silenced Puerto Rico Radio Station's Boosters In March 2017 155
An dochasac writes: WAPA (680 AM) is a radio station in San Juan, Puerto Rico. After Hurricane Maria took out power, phone lines, cell towers and internet, WAPA was the only Puerto Rican radio station on the air for crucial public emergency communication. But WAPA's signal coverage was significantly cut in March 2017 when the FCC refused to renew the license for synchronous AM booster stations at Arecibo, Mayaguez and Aguadilla in March due to procedural issues with the petition for renewal. This decision limited the coverage, signal strength and signal quality of this station for remote and mountainous parts of Puerto Rico where the need for emergency communications is greatest. The FCC audio division chief who pulled WAPA's synchronous booster license decided to retire a few days ago. The position is open but is focused on legal training rather than technical expertise and experience with emergency communications.
FCC audio division's regulations have done little to stop AM and satellite radio from broadcasting right-wing streams-of-consciousness throughout the lower 48 states. With IoT, cellular, mesh, satellite, social media and cognitive radio, communications technology is changing much faster than the FCC's legal efforts to regulate it. But its arcane regulations leave Puerto Rico as one of the few islands in the Caribbean without a long distance shortwave broadcast station. With line of sight FM stations offline and WAPA's AM station neutered, post-Maria Puerto Ricans have a better chance of getting news and emergency information from Havana, Cuba than from anything under the FCC's increasingly pointless jurisdiction.
FCC audio division's regulations have done little to stop AM and satellite radio from broadcasting right-wing streams-of-consciousness throughout the lower 48 states. With IoT, cellular, mesh, satellite, social media and cognitive radio, communications technology is changing much faster than the FCC's legal efforts to regulate it. But its arcane regulations leave Puerto Rico as one of the few islands in the Caribbean without a long distance shortwave broadcast station. With line of sight FM stations offline and WAPA's AM station neutered, post-Maria Puerto Ricans have a better chance of getting news and emergency information from Havana, Cuba than from anything under the FCC's increasingly pointless jurisdiction.
smdh (Score:5, Insightful)
No bias in that summary at all LOL....
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What bias? That's a perfectly mainstream and obviously objective account! What are ya, some kind of a Nazi, or what?
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hahahaha.. right so if some rightwing station neglected to follow procedure and bitched about being shut off, you wouldn't be all over them for not following the rules?
mainstream does not imply objectivity.
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hahahaha.. right so if some rightwing station neglected to follow procedure and bitched about being shut off, you wouldn't be all over them for not following the rules?
WAPA Radio: the most conservative, right-wing news and talk station of all such operations in Puerto Rico.
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ok, and so therefore?
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ok, and so therefore?
Therefore any claim that WAPA was being punished for being a progressive voice is null and voided.
WAPA had already replaced the boosters with existing stations which it bought in the respective cities of Puerto Rico, but they were not operative due to the effects of the storm... just as the boosters would not have been operative.
The issue is simply that the storm was so destructive that only 4 or 5 stations were able to stay on the air or return to the air immediately after (WIPR, WKAQ, WAPA, WODA, W
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There is a reason that you put AM transmitter towers in low moist areas. The ground is more conductive in those areas and that makes the antennas more effective, meaning more signal coverage. Radio stations in richer parts of the world often have backup studio and transmitter sites, but most stations in Puerto Rico can't afford to do that.
On the other hand, you put FM transmitter towers on high ground to get the actual antenna (which, unlike AM, is not the entire tower) as high as possible. FM reception is
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All of this may be true, but it has nothing to do with what either the GP insinuated or my response to him.
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It's true that shortwave broadcasting is mostly gone from the Caribbean. That's unfortunate, because it's a resource that is uniquely suited to the situation that Puerto Rico is in now; it can cover a large area with signal even when no infrastructure exists. That need is one reason that the Australian Broadcasting Company continues to offer shortwave broadcasts for the benefit of Australia's small islands.
Existing shortwave broadcasters could beam additional broadcasts toward Puerto Rico, including the US'
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How many even own a shortwave receiver any more?
How many commercial shortwave stations are still a viable business?
With internet and satellite broadcast, shortwave seems to be going the way of medium wave stations in the U.S. (commercial AM in the U.S. is "medium wave" to most of the world)
I dug the shortwave out of the emergency gear. The numbers stations are still there. I got a futball match out of Australia. A couple of music broadcasts in Spanish, And way too many radio televangelists. Voice of A
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I don't think commercial shortwave broadcasting has ever been a viable business. The audience is too diffuse and too difficult to measure. Most shortwave broadcasting was done by governments and religious organizations. But now the governments are shutting down operations, leaving just the religious stations.
But those government broadcasts had the potential to be valuable resources in a disaster situation. They can't do that if they're off the air. But it's also true that they are no help if nobody has the
Re:smdh (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not sure even the summary author knows exactly what he's complaining about here.
Is he complaining that the FCC requires a radio station submit the proper paperwork to keep its boosters operating?
Is he complaining that the FCC exists at all?
Is he complaining that right-wing talk show hosts are allowed to broadcast in the U.S., and wtf does that have to do with Puerto Rico anyway?
Dude, find a coherent thesis before you hit the submit button.
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Good questions!
Another question is: Since he is so concerned about what he considers extremist radio stations in the "lower 48" why didn't he mention the fact that the Far-Left has been broadcasting Marxist Theology on Pacifica Radio on the West coast for 71 years?
Fortunately for America, the Comrades have, during that time, repeatedly re-enacted the Lenin-Trotsky wars by purging their ranks of those with politically impure thoughts. What was politically impure depended on who was in power at the time.
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"People in most of the country do not have an alternate source of information, so they get right wing corporate approved opinions only. A one sided debate is not good for a democracy."
What?
So, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, NYT, WPO, LAT, and a host of other "Progressive" outlets aren't enough for you?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
"Progressive talk radio is a talk radio format devoted to expressing leftist, liberal or progressive viewpoints of news and issues as opposed to conservative talk radio. In the United St
Re: smdh (Score:2)
But its arcane regulations leave...
Should be no suprise that's it's politically motivated; real writers at least know when to use correct tense.
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> Sell Puerto Rico to mexicans, where it belongs.
And then build a wall and make THEM pay.
Oh, wait...
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I Puerto Rico was a concession of the Spanish/American War in the late 1800's and granted Commonwealth status and US citizenship in 1917. P
Puerto Rico became a territory, administered by US appointed governors in 1898. It did not become a Commonwealth until 1952, when it got its first elected governor, Luis Muñoz Marín.
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Yep, it happens every year. Oh wait.
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Re: Procedural Issues (Score:2)
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The petition provided accurate information. The FCC turned down the request to add booster AM transmitters, because they considered the introduction of "experimental stations" a backdoor way of extending the broadcast license of the station.
"Blanco-Pi argues that he should be allowed to have a greater coverage area for the programming broadcast over his existing full-power stations, in part because he believes his programming to be superior to his competitors'"
"establishment of a new AM booster station mere
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Not quite. The repeaters in question had been in continuous operation for anywhere from 14 to 18 years. The FCC denied permission to continue operating these repeaters because they felt that there was no further benefit to experimenting with synchronous repeater techno
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No, we're supposed to bandwagon against the head of the Federal COMMUNICATIONS commission for letting the holy paperwork come before maintaining an ability to effectively COMMUNICATE with the population in the event of an emergency. There's no need to predict a particular emergency, just be prepared when one comes up. As for the need for the boosters, they're SUPPOSED to know this stuff. They absolutely could know that they were necessary to reach all of the population. If they didn't know then they're inco
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So wanting the FCC to lighten up on the regulations a bit make me a typical leftist? You're going to have to send me a program because that seems a bit off to me.
The FCC should also, BTW lighten up on the competition's regulations so long as the use is non-interfering. In other words, the FCC's jog isn't to cripple everyone until they're equal, it's supposed to manage spectrum allocations so they don't step on each other. The boosters do not expand the spectrum allocation.
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Go home, you're drunk!
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It also demonstrates how a "free market" is capable of failing to be in the best interests of the population.
Re: Procedural Issues (Score:5, Insightful)
It also demonstrates how a "free market" is capable of failing to be in the best interests of the population.
Slow down there, cowboy! Are we to understand now that a radio station being *forced*...by government regulation...to *stop* serving their market in the manner that they'd been doing and spent good coin on doing is the *free market* at work?
These words, I do not think they mean what you think they mean.
And as far as this gem from TFS:
FCC audio division's regulations have done little to stop AM and satellite radio from broadcasting right-wing streams-of-consciousness throughout the lower 48 states.
Fuck you very much, and you could switch the terms to left-wing, atheist, Christian, Muslim, Nazi, Communist, Socialist, Fascist, etc etc, and unless they're actually inciting violence and/or armed rebellion/overthrow, I'd still tell you to fuck right off.
Government has no business policing the content of speech outside the aforementioned incitement to violence and/or armed rebellion/overthrow caveats, particularly and especially concerning politics or religion. This idea of "hate speech" is simply Orwell's "Newspeak" re-labeled. A prison for the minds of the masses who cannot rebel when the words and the concepts they conveyed that were used to describe it, and even for the very concept of individual freedom itself, have been erased.
Strat
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Slow down there, cowboy! Are we to understand now that a radio station being *forced*...by government regulation...to *stop* serving their market in the manner that they'd been doing and spent good coin on doing is the *free market* at work?
That is exactly how the leftists think as is evidence by the non-stop comments that have been here on slashdot for years.
It doesnt matter how involved the government is in creating the problem. What matters to them is that they can vilify something other than the government. The left have become Statists. Its why there is now the term "classical liberal." Modern liberals don't believe in liberty.
Re: Procedural Issues (Score:2)
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The alternative to the government regulating radio broadcasts, is them not regulating radio broadcasts.
Not all regulations are equal.
In this case nobody else is licensed to use this frequency anywhere even remotely near this location. Cogitate on that idea for a bit.
The FCC is not mediating between rival licensees of this frequency. It is just standing in the way of what can easily be argued would be an easy increase in wealth for the residents of Puerto Rico. Wealth is goods and services, radio is arguably both, and expanding coverage means more goods and services.
Why do you hate Puerto Ricans?
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Government has no business policing the content of speech outside the aforementioned incitement to violence and/or armed rebellion/overthrow caveats, particularly and especially concerning politics or religion. This idea of "hate speech" is simply Orwel
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I heard a radio preacher in Kansas calling for the extermination of inferior people (by which he meant of a race or religion he didn't fancy).
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I think it is more a commentary on how generally useless and wrong the stories on SlashDot have become.
I guess checking the facts before posting is asking too much. Cherry pick the sound bites and present them out of context. I feel sorry for the people in PR, but they are the master of their own destiny. It was a five year experimental license that expired a year and a half ago that was canceled six months ago by the FCC because the application was flawed.
This story, with all the errors, omissions, and bia
Bias??? (Score:1)
FCC audio division's regulations have done little to stop AM and satellite radio from broadcasting right-wing streams-of-consciousness throughout the lower 48 states.
Can't tell if he's far right, and complaining about being silenced by the left, or far left, and complaining that "those pesky nazis" get to spew their hate speech.
Re:Bias??? (Score:4, Insightful)
FCC audio division's regulations have done little to stop AM and satellite radio from broadcasting right-wing streams-of-consciousness throughout the lower 48 states.
Can't tell if he's far right, and complaining about being silenced by the left, or far left, and complaining that "those pesky nazis" get to spew their hate speech.
Either way its -10 points for off topic content.
Re:Bias??? (Score:4, Insightful)
I can tell. He's a lefty who's tweaked that the FCC won't censor his political opposition.
Since the number of stations (and alternative media outlets) climbed to the point where there was no shortage to be used to justify forcing radio stations to present all positions on controversial subjects, the "fairness doctrine" regulations were removed. This let free speech came at last to radio, which enabled the talk radio industry.
Talk radio ended up presenting primarily conservative viewpoints, mainly because progressive viewpoints tend to be presented as as 1984-style duckspeak rants attempting to enforce consensus, and this verbal abuse didn't attract enough listeners for such shows to achieve financial success.
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The clear relation the article was communicating is that the FCC is biased towards righty faggots who fetishize markets. ... the FCC has been co-opted by right wingnuts and thinks free speech for right fags must be encouraged but brown Puerto Ricans should be made an example of.
Really?
I thought the article showed a clear bias against failing to follow the rules when filling out and filing forms, then took a flying leap into differential regulation of left-right political speech (by an regulatory body whose
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No, its accussing the FCC of bias. While it took efforts to limit WAPAs AM signal to protect licensing, the FCC has let similar signals go on in the continental US.
Did the stations they "let go" fill out their renewal paperwork correctly and file it on time?
If they did, and the station in Puerto Rico didn't, the only bias shown is against people who break the rules the FCC is chartered to enforce.
= = = =
Of course, if breaking the rules is more characteristic of left-wing than right-wing executives, enforcin
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Where? Examples of stations that are authorized despite not following the rules and not filling in the proper paperwork?
Re: Bias??? (Score:2)
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What a clearly unbiased opinion! It's a good thing conservatives so rarely engage in such things.
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He's not complaining about right-wing AM talk radio. That's pretty much the only profitable AM radio market in the US.
I mean, he may be, but complaining about the only profitable political discussion media in America seems dumb. And yes, I'm assuming that the mainstream media outlets are not making any money spewing left-wing propaganda (and profit is not their goal, so no problem).
More than anything, I'm surprised but heartened that such vitriolic, hateful, and bigoted claims are made in the article. We s
As long as we are measuring... (Score:1, Informative)
When it comes to incompetence, the US federal government takes the cake (and keeps it until it is stale before giving out too-small pieces to people who probably don't deserve it.) But Puerto Rico is right up there with self-serving greed, corruption, and third-world trashing of anything that doesn't have armed guards around it. Perhaps they should give up their holier-than-thou "commonwealth" charade and get a real territorial governor that could start bringing them into the late 19th century overall.
Puerto Rico is (Score:3, Insightful)
Nothing but a corrupt banana republic run by a handful of thieving families.......it's no different than Guam, the US Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands or American Samoa. Illiteracy even in government officials is rampant. I personally know one representative in Washington who is a high school dropout (he's also a Democrat). Getting a permit filled out is beyond most of them. The US allows them self-government and this is what happens. And of course, getting lawyers involved in any government department is asking for trouble.
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Puerto Rico has been created in its current form by the USA.
Investigate the Jones Act and then come back and tell us how the USA has allowed free commerce to develop the economy there.
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So you personally know Jenniffer González-Colón
Bullshit. (Score:5, Insightful)
But WAPA's signal coverage was significantly cut in March 2017 when the FCC refused to renew the license for synchronous AM booster stations at Arecibo, Mayaguez and Aguadilla in March due to procedural issues with the petition for renewal.
Bullshit. It wasn't "procedural issues" it was a lack of compliance with the terms they were allowed to add boosters.
Blanco-Pi sought and received annual renewals for the Stations' licenses, albeit often without the
required reports of his experimental progress.5 In 2009, he sought to add a third synchronous booster to
the two he was already operating in conjunction with station WISO.6 After initially denying the
application based on an erroneous interpretation of the rules,7 the staff denied reconsideration based on
Blanco-Pi ' s failure to demonstrate any further experimental benefit of adding a third AM synchronous
booster, at Guayama, Puerto Rico, to WISO and the two existing AM synchronous boosters.8 In seeking
review, Blanco-Pi attempted, for the first time, to justify the addition of a new AM booster station on
technical and experimental grounds; the Commission disregarded these new arguments pursuant to
Section 1.115(c) of the rules.9
Who would have thought that flaunting the rules would eventually get you shut down, right?
Also, if you think all this regulation on radio frequencies is silly then you should realize that the shielding on power supplies (that would otherwise jam most of the RF spectrum) only exist because of regulation that protects the RF spectrum from mass contamination.
Re:Bullshit. (Score:5, Insightful)
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To add more fuel to the article bashing fire:
This is WAPA's Daytime Signal Propagation at 10000 Watts. [radio-locator.com]
This is WAPA's Nighttime Signal Propagation at 9500 Watts [radio-locator.com]
At local range not only does it cover all of Puerto Rico, but starts to hit the Dominican Republic. Even cheap AM radios should be able to pick it up over most of the island.
A higher quality radio (such as a car stereo since power is out over most of the island) should have no trouble picking this up anywhere on the island at any time of the day short
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Maps like that necessarily gloss over terrain interference and such. If you could zoom in and the map was inch for inch accurate, you would see shadowed areas where reception is poor to non-existent.
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Thats correct, there is going to be some terrain loss when it comes to propagation, but it shouldn't be that large of an issue overall with AM. Here's an example of what you're referring to using UHF.
WAPA TV's coverage map. [tvfool.com]
Unfortunately, I can't find a site that does maps quite like this for anything other than TV, but it shows what terrain can do to a UHF signal.
The difference however between UHF and MW when it comes to propagation is huge. UHF is typically received via Line of Sight and needs massive ERP
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OTOH, if that was true, I can't imagine any commercial operation saying, "What the heck, lets blow a few $100K on repeaters anyway.".
Really, antifa??? (Score:5, Insightful)
FCC audio division's regulations have done little to stop AM and satellite radio from broadcasting right-wing streams-of-consciousness throughout the lower 48 states.
Perhaps you should have mentioned that you want to censor people you disagree with instead of assuming that everyone on Slashdot happens to have your same brave wave pattern.
What a load of crap. (Score:5, Informative)
First, AM booster stations only work when they have power, so there's no weight behind the implication that communications are being affected. Second, other than the "7 words" and some advertising (cigarettes, booze) the government doesn't control content, especially political content, which is protected by this 1st Amendment thing. Third, the author apparently thinks AM radio is "shortwave." It isn't.
Finally, AM Synchronous Boosters are classified as experimental, and are licensed "with a view to the development of science or technique." When WAPA first started using them, licenses had 1 year renewable terms, reflecting their temporary nature.
Eng. Wifredo G. Blanco-Pi, the owner of WAPA, has been using this experimental license for commercial, rather than experimental, purposes for 6 years. Current rules limit the total term of experimental licenses to 5 years. So, the FCC didn't renew them the last time around. As the FCC's decision [fcc.gov] says,
Re:What a load of crap. (Score:4, Insightful)
Wait....what? (Score:2, Insightful)
"FCC audio division's regulations have done little to stop AM and satellite radio from broadcasting right-wing streams-of-consciousness throughout the lower 48 states." Is the FCC supposed to be censoring conservatives or something? I didn't realize the FCC worked for the DNC.
Left (Score:4, Interesting)
>"FCC audio division's regulations have done little to stop AM and satellite radio from broadcasting right-wing streams-of-consciousness throughout the lower 48 states."
WTF does that have to do with the story? So every Slashdot posting now has to be turned into a left-wing political statement/commentary?
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I wonder as how the story itself in it current form managed to get to the front page of /. in the first place.
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C'mon. A 4 digit UID, and you still don't understand how
Why isn't Puerto Rico more prosperous? (Score:4, Interesting)
I know there are some legitimate beefs about its relation to the Federal Government, but it would seem to have a lot of things going for it. Direct participation in the US dollar economy, border free movement of goods and people between the US. And as Florida fills up and becomes more expensive, wouldn't Puerto Rico become an appealing substitute with the same kind of tropical appeal?
Sure, it's got more poor people than may be average for the US mainland, but shouldn't that result in more business investment due to labor cost advantages? Or contribute to its viability as a retirement/vacation/resort destination?
I suppose there are standard, pedantic arguments that its handicapped by "colony" status and that racist US politicians have treated it poorly because its residents are Spanish speaking "foreigners" and so on.
But generally speaking, I would expect Puerto Rico to be doing better given its relative advantages over someplace like Jamaica or the Dominican Republic.
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Re:Why isn't Puerto Rico more prosperous? (Score:4, Informative)
I take that as an oblique reference to the Jones Act, which has no effect on foreign supplies. It applies to shipments between US ports, and its effect is economic, so doesn't prevent any shipments.
Furthermore, the current issue is not getting supplies to PR, it's getting them off the docks there and on to where they need to be due to blocked roads and a lack of truckers. Making it cheaper to put a cargo container on the dock isn't currently helping the situation at all.
Wrong approach anyway (Score:2)
What is needed is a 50kW regional channel broadcast with directional antenna (one end of the island point to the other). This should be more than sufficient to cover the island.
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If terrain is in the way, no single transmitter, no matter how powerful (within reason), is enough.
If terrain is not in the way, you don't really need all that much power
From what I gather, there is a terrain problem that makes it very difficult for a single transmitter to cover the entire territory, hence the "booster" stations strategically located to get around that issue.
Now it appears that the owner of the stations has been trying to use the wrong licensing for those stations, and therefore got shut do
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Why is this BS even up here? (Score:1)
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It's intended to provoke a response from Trump supporters, thus alerting honest, intelligent Americans to their presence.
Comment removed (Score:4)
FCC's muddled strategic goals (Score:2)
WAPA replaced the synchronized stations by buying other stations on different frequencies. They have 6 stations across the island. WAPA was not "neutered". People just had to move the dial as they moved around the island.
Thus allowing this single station to unnecessarily monopolize valuable public bandwidth that could have been used for competing stations, competing ideas, community radio, emergency broadcasts...
So which of the FCC's strategic goals does this fall under? 1) Promoting Economic Growth and National Leadership, 2) Protecting Public Interest Goals, 3) Making Networks Work for Everyone or 4) Promoting Operational Excellence?
This experimental license had been renewed for more than a decade. It was pulled with on
One of Ajit Pai's buddies? (Score:1)
"The FCC audio division chief who pulled WAPA's synchronous booster license decided to retire a few days ago.
I bet he did. The son of a bitch probably has blood on his hands. Not that this administration would care, given the location.
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Well said.
Because they make money (Score:2)
FCC audio division's regulations have done little to stop AM and satellite radio from broadcasting right-wing streams-of-consciousness throughout the lower 48 states.
I'll listen to the local NPR affiliate and the local news and talk station with the "right wing nutjobs" depending on which one happens to hold my interests that day. On Rush Limbaugh's show I hear him giving away brand new high end iPhones to people that call in. On NPR they keep asking listeners for money and trying to keep their government funding.
How much money does Rush make on his show? I don't know. Enough to hand out a dozen iPhones every week? Maybe he gets the phones for free from Apple but t
Original Post Error-Filled (Score:1)
Regulatory agencies (Score:2)
If it was important to them... (Score:2)
If it was important to the station owners, they wouldn't have messed up the license renewals.
But WAPA's signal coverage was significantly cut in March 2017 when the FCC refused to renew the license for synchronous AM booster stations at Arecibo, Mayaguez and Aguadilla in March due to procedural issues with the petition for renewal.
They messed up the paperwork, the gov't merely expected the station to follow the rules...
This decision limited the coverage, signal strength and signal quality of this station for remote and mountainous parts of Puerto Rico where the need for emergency communications is greatest.
This so-called "decision" was not, in fact, a decision, it was in fact the the result of failing to follow the legal process of requesting a renewal six months before the hurricane hit the island - nothing more.
The summary smells... (Score:1)
...like bullshit. I can pretty much guarantee that this story is full of holes.
Good.... (Score:2)
Free Speech (Score:2)