[BC] FCC and Secret Service

[Bruce Doerle]

Ron & Mario,

Having worked for both the Commission and Secret Service, I understand the powers involved in this situation.  The FCC has authority to assign your frequencies from blocks that they have been authorized to license by NTIA.  Some blocks may be shared usage.  Now back after President Kennedy's death, Congress gave the USSS a considerable amount of power to protect the President.  There are no secrets that kept from the USSS if they believe that they are needed to protect the President.  Any government resource is available to them.  Sometimes, they can go overboard, but Congress gave them that power.

Bruce 

>>> ronc at sonic.net 07/09/05 3:59 PM >>>
Herb:  See this reference, and you'll see that the NTIA is delegated it's 
authority from the President, who can assign any government owned radio 
stations to any frequency.

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/roosa4.html

Ron Castro
Chief Technical Officer
Results Radio, LLC


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mario Hieb, P.E." <mario at xmission.com>
To: <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Sent: Saturday, July 09, 2005 11:43 AM
Subject: [BC] FCC and Secret Service


> Partly true.
>
> The FCC is empowered by the Communications Act of 1934, an act of 
> Congress, not the executive branch. Also, Congress essentially runs the 
> FCC because they vote on their funding. No money, no FCC.
>
> Yes, the Secret Service probably has precedence over the FCC, they always 
> do pretty mach as they please. The irony of the situation was that it 
> wasn't Bryant Gumbels IFB that was affected, but the Olympic ski team 
> radios, which are required for team coaching and skier safety. The FIS, 
> which sanctions the event, will stop a race if the radios don't work. No 
> race, no people, and no need for the Secret Service; a strange Catch-22 
> that didn't seem to register with the Secret Service.
>
> The big tragedy was that the Secret Service was invited to every monthly 
> meeting of the frequency coordination committee. They came to only one. 
> They never asked me for my frequency list, which I would have happily 
> given to them. They didn't coordinate with the FCC through the NTIA. They 
> were "too important."
>
> Regarding the frequencies in question, I held licenses on those channels 
> for 1 1/2 years, and had them renewed twice. The FCC had three 
> opportunities to see the conflict, but didn't. Nor did they initiate 
> coordination with the NTIA, which they were supposed to have done.
>
> Even though the Secret Service behaves like big, stupid goons, I blame the 
> FCC for dropping the ball and being lazy bureaucrats, despite presidential 
> directives to cooperate fully in the interest of national pride and 
> security.
>
> There is a funny ending to the story. The federal government managed to 
> find a few hundred radios for the ski teams, only a fraction of which were 
> returned. The teams returned to their native countries with lovely parting 
> gifts!
>
> Mario
>
>
> At 12:07 PM 7/9/2005, you wrote:
>>Message: 27
>>Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2005 10:36:00 -0700
>>From: "Ron Castro" <ronc at sonic.net>
>>Subject: Re: [BC] Vigilantes
>>To: "Broadcast Radio Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
>>Message-ID: <02b801c584ac$ac68d540$6d01a8c0 at Ronlap>
>>Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
>>         reply-type=response
>>
>>The FCC is under the authority of the Executive Branch, and the
>>Commissioners serve at the convenience of the President, hence he, and the
>>US Secret Service, which is also under Executive authority, can overrule 
>>the
>>FCC.  The Secret Service is there to protect lives, not to make sure 
>>Bryant
>>Gumbel has a crystal clear IFB.
>>
>>Ron Castro
>>Chief Technical Officer
>>Results Radio, LLC
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Mario Hieb, P.E.
> Consulting Engineer
>
> 36 H St. #2
> Salt Lake City, UT 84103
>
> e-mail: mario at xmission.com
> text: 8015546069 at mmode.com
> cell: 801-554-6069
>
> NSPE ~ AFCCE ~ SBE
>
>
>
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