[BC] This is Part 15 Radio :)

[Mark Humphrey]

The RBR story about this Sandy Springs, GA part 15 station caused me to
realize (again) how strange some FCC policies can be.

Many of you may recall the 1991 proposal to move WHMA 100.7 from Anniston,
AL to Sandy Springs.  This was one of the first major FM allotment
modifications and caused many of the established Atlanta owners, including
Cox and Jacor, to voice a loud "You Can't Do That!" outcry.    Even the NAB
got involved and filed an opposition.  So it came as no surprise that the
FCC denied the move, citing the "Faye and Richard Tuck" precedent:  Sandy
Springs was "not incorporated", received most government services from
Fulton County and/or Atlanta, and -- get this -- many of their local civic
associations listed Atlanta postal addresses(!), so the community was found
unworthy of a new "local service."  WHMA's owner was told to stay put in
Anniston.

Several years later (after WHMA had changed ownership) the Commission was
handed a petition to move the station to College Park, another suburb
actually a bit closer to Atlanta City Hall than Sandy Springs.  This time,
the station's escape from rural Alabama was determined to be "in the public
interest" and the station was granted a CP to transmit from atop the Westin
in central Atlanta as WWWQ. ( I wonder how well they bury "College Park" in
the legal ID.)  But who can blame them for wanting to serve the entire metro
-- they have a C2 signal that can be heard 40 miles away.

Following that, an application was filed to add a new AM station to Sandy
Springs -- and this time around, the FCC decided there wasn't a problem in
granting the community its "first local service" -- although with a
flamethrowing 50 kW on 830 kHz, the temptation to serve Atlanta and beyond
will be mighty hard to resist.

Meanwhile, the FCC decides to form a Localism Task Force to "play a critical
role in gathering empirical data and grassroots information on broadcast
localism and advise the Commission on concrete steps it can take to promote
localism in radio and television broadcasting."  Perhaps the recent
crackdown on public file enforcement is the result of this effort.

Now, along comes this Part 15 group which has identified a niche for local
news and public affairs (and they are really trying to fill it -- see
www.radiosandysprings.com/onair.html)     But without a "license to serve
the community", they must make do with 100 mW from short whips to send
civic-related programming to the people of Sandy Springs.  And if anyone
complains about interference, they're off the air.   Well, at least they
don't have to worry about keeping a public file, and they have the Internet
to fall back on (as long as that stays unregulated -- thank goodness for the
First Amendment!)

Hope the international readers of this list aren't laughing too hard.

Mark


On 2/1/06, Rev. Robert P. Chrysafis <kc8gpd at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Check out these part 15 stations
>
> kieth said this guy is using 12 rangemaster each being fed by 8k telco
> lines
> http://www.rbr.com/epaper/pages/january06/06-20_news1.html
>
> not as big but still running a nice setup
> http://www.wnar-am.com
>