No I meant the FCC didn't document the inspection and violations found. Were
there any?
The station had no current violations when they were inspected on Bang's Ave.
The FCC inspector called the GM to the roof and was telling him that the
antenna needed radiation shields. Do you know what a radiation shield is I have
never heard of one?
About 30 minutes later the station got a call from a cable TV installer
saying he had a crew up on the roof and he and his crew were about to begin
work up there and that he had to turn the transmitter off. About 20 minutes or
so later the cable guy called the station from the roof yelling that his guys
were in jeopardy and that the GM should get to the roof immediately. So when
the GM went up on the roof it was the FCC inspector and not a cable TV
contractor.
Part of an RF Engineering Report when the antenna is on a roof requires that
a station either reduce power or pull the plug while there is work up near the
antenna. The station at the time was operating with a TPO of 50 watts because
of the increased height.
So technically the FCC inspector was right, even though his tactics were sort
of questionable. It was at that point when the FCC inspector went to the
transmitter and told the station's GM do I turn the transmitter off or turn it
off and take all of your equipment? BTW the roof also had cell panels in the
same vicinity of the station's antenna and they weren't shut off.
This is the incident I am talking about but don't take my word for it talk to
the station's GM yourself and he will tell you the same story.
The violations that you and others have mentioned were resolved years ago
prior to the station's license renewal and the FCC had renewed the station's
license during the last license renewal period without question.
Am I privy to the FCC's records? Yes I am they are public and the enforcement
bureau makes no mention of any improper operation at the station. So they
either found something or they found nothing which was it.
There was an inspection by an FCC inspector, he did take them off the air,
and if you have a license they can only do that for cause.
They have an Temporary STA that ends in early April and if they don't get
their antenna up to where so that they can meet their licensed authorization
they go away period.The STA clearly states that there will be no extensions.
So if AP denies a variance they are off the air.
You are correct in that the FCC doesn't take licenses away anymore but they
will fine the hell out of you. According to the Station's GM the station did
not voluntarily go off the air the story he told me and many others the story
that is written above.
I am well aware that the station is a class A station and the rules that they
must follow the same rules that apply to all stations except LPFMs. The point I
was trying to make is that NCE-FM, LPFM, and pirate stations aren't even on th
FCC's radar these days because they have been cut back so severely.
The FCC DOES indeed play favorites and politicians do tell the FCC what to
do. Here are couple of examples. One is a pirate station that went on the air
and was covered by the Boston Globe in the weekend edition so everyone can see
it. The station serves the black community and my guess is that unless they
violate any of the FCC rules, other than just being illegal, they will remain
on the air. They are the only black station in the Boston area since the only
black station in Boston changed format.
The station is can be heard at the FCC's Quincy Field Office and it is still
on the air.
http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2007/01/20/message_received/
The other one is appeared in Inside Radio this morning. Senator Harry Reid
told the FCC to issue an STA for a pirate station that the FCC had previously
shut down. Where in Part 73 or 74 does one apply for one of these?
http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2007/Feb-02-Fri-2007/news/12344648.html
Why waste your time even applying for a license?
pistonen57 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
You mean the station did not document the inspection and violations
found?
As I said, the record shows the station went silent on its own, so
it must have had major problems it felt like it should not continue
with after coming to the attention of the FCC, and I believe their
authorized site was not available, so what should they have done?
Continue on at wrong height and coordinates and subject themselves
to further fines? Would you pay for them?
Are you usually privy to the FCCs records? Please tell me who you
know.
When did you inspect the station? You did't have to go there to know
that Bangs Avenue is a high building and they were at an absurdly
wrong height and wrong coordinates for several years, and to see
that the antenna was real close to the rooftop, which is a hazard.
So, you still say you did not find any violations?
They were obviously allowed to return to the air with an STA because
the station went silent voluntarily and applied for an STA for new
site, which they wre granted. So, since revoking a license is not
something the FCC usually does, even with serious violations, they
are allowed back on the air, which I guess is happening according to
Maureen, and since I've heard them back on. If there were no
violations, why did they apply for STA to go silent, then another
one to move?
Notice to the public for what action? Aside from the list of
violation notices that get posted, where are these public notices
you speak of that are issued within 2 weeks?
They are in fact a "real" licensed class A station with all the
requirements of "real" full broadcast stations, you know what that
entails. Should they be allowed to operate like a pirate, at any
height, and anywhere they like, without required EAS equipment...
without being called on it? If they were allowed to do that, the
FCC would surely be playing favorites and something would be wrong
with that. Not to mention, since their coverage area is
tremendoulsy increased at the unauthorized height, its contour was
well within the listenable range of 88.1 WNJT public radio to the
west, and it must have been causing some interference to listeners
trying to get them, as well as adjacent channel interference to 88.3
listener-sponsered WBGO Jazz 88 in northern Monmouth. A lot of
people listen to these good stations, they do not belong to one of
the two radio groups you mentioned, and they are not canned crap.
Also, the lack of EAS could cause listeners of WYGG to miss
important alerts.
--- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, Mike Hemeon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>
> I have been through the stations documents and there is no
indication as to why the station was taken off the air. There is no
record of the inspection at the FCC, there is no record of any
warnings, citations, or fines. The FCC has to have a reason to shut
a station down there has to have been a violation and I cannot find
one.
>
> The FCC today has no problem fining stations for anything to
them it is a source of income.
>
> The FCC has had no jurisdiction of content since the
Communications Act of 1996 and is one of the reasons that there
aren't any challenges to broadcast licenses during renewal anymore.
>
> The station asked for an STA to remain silent in November
because they were forced to move after the plug was pulled. I have
read the stations STA and the conditions of it and if there were any
violations why did they allow them to return to the air?
>
> What you say is true about the FCC and their timelines on fines
but notification to the public that something happened appears
within two weeks.
>
> The last time they were fined was for moving without telling the
FCC and I believe not having an EAS receiver. They are a glorified
LPFM station and if you know anything about LPFMs they are a little
more than licensed pirate stations.
>
> They serve a specific part of the community unlike the canned
crap on terrestrial radio out there today.
>
> I know exactly how the FCC works, the FCC of today, I have two
FM applications in front of them right now along with an FCC
attorney. They have a backlog of close to two years now and LPFMs,
NCE-FMs, and pirates are on the very bottom of their list. I have
also appeared before the FCC and testified on the matter of HDTV
terrestrial transmission systems 8VSB vs. COFDM.
>
> I can't agree that there would be a big stink made about it. It
is a small religious station owned by a minority group and if it
went away who would notice? People from another country that live on
the fringes of society with no power.
>
> Do they feel stupid about being fined? I would imagine that the
sting of a fine of over ten grand would upset them. They are not a
commercial station that belongs to one of the two radio groups in
the area that has an FCC attorney to wipe their noses.
>
> The commercial stations in the area had visits from teh FCC in
the past year and were fined also how stupid do they feel. These
people are allegedly professionals they must really feel stupid.
>
> The GM of the station told me exactly what happened on that day
and it made no sense.
>
> Okay you went through your rant now why did they shut them down?
You ask many questions but still no answers. The question remains
why is there absolutely no documentation on this inspection or
shutdown. Why is that?
>
> Someone indeed should find out what the story on this is and I
don't see any results coming from you. So far all I have heard from
you is
>
>
>
> pistonen57 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Let's just end this nonsense. I've never seen someone
more laughably
> off-base than Mike with his be-all end-all doom and gloom
conspiracy
> theories. Whatever he thinks he knows about AP politics is all
well
> and good, but it has nothing to do with what happened to WYGG.
There
> really is no mystery to this, if you people would stop typing and
go
> look for the truth in front of your faces. The sad thing is, I
don't
> think anyone here really has the station's interests in mind.
You're
> just either bashing the FCC, politicians, or arguing amongst each
other
> in some kind of childish word-play, I-know-more-than-you game. Why
> doesn't someone go do some real investigating and find some hard
> facts? Think about it.
>
> If anyone wants to know what happened with WYGG and the FCC, why
> doesn't someone ask the station exactly what they were doing
wrong. I
> am an area resident in the broadcast business, and some of you are
> asking the wrong questions. The FCC does not need a reason to
inspect
> a broadcast station; they do random, unannounced, unsolicited
> inspections all the time. There's usually no complaint. They are
> looking for technical violations, public file, main studio rule
> violations, stuff like that. An FCC inspector has never, ever shut
down
> licensed broadcast stations based on content or some political
> reasons. If they did, that would be some pretty bad press, and the
> station would likely make a big stink about that. I don't know
much
> about the political situation in AP, and don't think the FCC
really
> cares about that at all. Also, I don't see any official notice
that
> the FCC shut down the station. About the station not receiving any
> official notice, if you haven't noticed, the FCC these days seems
to
> take a really long time to issue their fines, sometimes more than
a
> year. From what I can see, for minor violations, FCC issues
violation
> notices routinely within a month or two. The more serious stuff
with a
> monetary fine takes much longer to issue. Maybe it's lack of
manpower,
> or they just can't decide what they want to do.
>
> Ask WYGG if they themselves requested special temporary authority
to go
> silent in November. Ask them why a broadcast station would ever
want
> to go silent if everything was OK.
>
> Ask them if they feel stupid, after notices and fines in 2002,
(they
> are public documents posted on the web) to continue operating with
an
> antenna at 601 Bangs Avenue, at a height of approx. 44 meters
instead
> of the authorized 14 meters. Ask them if it could be to illegally
> increase their coverage area from a couple of mile radius to at
least
> 20 miles?) Ask them if they thought that illegally covering so
much
> area could cause interference to another station on 88.1.
>
> Ask them if they feel stupid to also continue operating at the
wrong
> coordinates (wrong place) for all these years after a fine.
>
> Ask them if they lowered their power like someone said they did to
> account for that height. Ask them also if they ever received
> authorization to raise height and lower power.
>
> Ask them if they had previously operated without required,
potentially
> life-saving EAS equipment for several years. Ask how they expected
> their listeners to get important emergency alerts or weather
alerts
> with no EAS.
>
> Ask them if they ran a station for years without any public
inspection
> file. Ask them what they told members of the public who asked to,
and
> have the right to check their public records.
>
> Ask them if their antenna was a radio frequency radiation (RFR)
hazard,
> by being mounted so close to the roof surface, and if so, why they
> certified on their 2006 renewal application that their was no RFR
> hazard? Ask them if they thought about workers on the roof that
might
> be exposed to high levels of RFR.
>
> Ask them if the real station owner had a history of pirate
operation in
> the New York area.
>
> Ask them if they consider themselves really lucky to have
continued to
> operate for years at much too high a height, wrong coordinates,
and
> with other serious violations, with FCC fines thrown in, or did
they
> have some political pull of their own that allowed them to get
away
> with operating like that for so long.
>
> Ask them why, as a non-commercial station, they had groups on the
air
> that ran commercials. Ask them if they charged a fee to run these
> spots.
>
> Ask them if they now want to abide by the terms of their license
like
> most other broadcasters do, or embarrasingly continue to look like
> a "pirate" station with a license.
>
> Ask them why they moved to a new location and if they are already
back
> on the air with a Special temporary authority, and how they
managed
> this if all the AP politicians and the FCC and even George "W" are
> involved in a conspiracy to shut this station down because of
something
> political.
>
> Ask them if they have a station engineer.
>
> Ask them to do the right thing so that they can serve the
community
> properly like I believe they want to.
>
> Larry M.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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