[BC] Why it is important to do as the FCC says

[Jim Stanley]

An episode comes to mind from approximately 13 years ago.  A Field Engineer
from the St. Paul MN FCC office was driving in South West Wisconsin after
dark and scanning the AM band.  He heard a station in Southern Minnesota
that should not have been audible except in their very small city of
license.  The Engineer said he stopped his vehicle, got out of it and stared
at the sky.  Yes, it was definitely nighttime! The Engineer proceeded to
drive approximately 100 miles to the location of the Minnesota day timer and
measured the field intensity at 1 KM from the tower.  As suspected, the
station was operating at daytime power with a Minnesota Twins baseball game
in progress and loaded with commercials.  The engineer spent the night in
the small town and visited the station the next morning.  The manager
explained they had a ball game on and could not be switching to nighttime
power during such an important event.  And what about all of those
commercials that had to air.

Things deteriorated from that point on and eventually after a few days and a
couple of hefty NAL's,  the manager was sent packing by the station licensee
which was a relatively large group owner at the time.

So play nicely with the other children and follow the Rules.

Jim Stanley

With a Perseus SDR they could record the entire band and capture definitive
proof of power-change time.

Mark Durenberger
On the Road