[BC] No time for pirates

[lew pifer]

Excellent article!   

> From: reader1 at oldradio.com
>
> As I recall, and being older than dirt my recall is beginning to fade, the Communications Act of 1934 (as amended) states that the airwaves are exclusively regulated by the Federal Government, and states, locals, cops, have NO SAY in the matter. The spectrum is regulated by the NTIA for government services and FCC for civilian services. Thus PRB-1 which finally forced the acceptance of antennas over zoning and other BS.
> The FCC must use the services of the DOJ to criminally go after pirate stations. Usually they just got them to shut down and for some a NOAL which the FCC must have the DOJ actually collect if the recipient refuses to pay. The FCC is not a police agency, it is a regulating agency. If you want less over modulated first adjacent interference, the best approach might be to go over with a smile on your face and say, "Hi, I'd like to help you make your station sound better, adjust the modulation level, give them a limiter, what ever and leave. Under proper modulation 1st, 2nd, 3rd adjacent is nearly a moot issue except for those crappy no IF, slope detector boxes manufacturers pass off as radios. Those should be outlawed along with the deaf DTV receivers.
> The FCC has little interest in the end life of broadcasting OTA as we know it. The Govt is more interested in internet streaming, cell phones, smart devices, cable services, satellites and other "modern" communications systems and useless "emergency" systems that are too complicated to ever work but sound good at political speeches. .If you think not, just look at how they abandoned CB radio when it became too big a mess to deal with. Broadcastings only clout is the political speech outlets that keep broadcasters and politicians in the same bed. With hundreds of thousands of NET broadcasters, few under the age of 40 would morn the loss of OTA AM or FM or DTV. Even the number of broadcast engineering consultants has declined. I was asked this week to do some aps which I have not done for nearly 20 years, because the person could find no one on the east coast-new England to do it. I referred them to a long time friend in MI.
> As I have oft said, it may come to one or two sticks per market and the 1-2 channels shared by most of the program providers that can still figure out how to make money at it in a DTV multicast. Looking at MSM (main stream media) ratings/shares, (ABC NBC CBS, FOX, PBS) all their DTV program channels could be handled on one channel and 1 stick Technology eventually makes everything obsolete.
> We need to look to the future, and not at the present and solve the question, "Where do we go from here?"
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> Henry Ruhwiedel, SBE, Ham, retired broadcaster, broadcast columnist, former station owner, consultant, etc.
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