Stern and the FCC

jack · Post by **jack** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 2:22 am

I just finished watching Howard on Letterman and he was plugging the shit out of his new satellite radio deal. I thought he made some pretty valid points about the discretionary approach to enforcing FCC regulations (he likes to use the oprah comparison) by this administration, not to mention the obvious nepotism with regards to the head of the FCC. it will be interesting to see what happens out of this, as he brings a huge, sizeable chunk of listeners to a new medium that could in many ways revolutionize radio, and how music is distributed. but will people pay for howard stern?

here in santa cruz, free radio santa cruz was recently shut down, stormed at 6am by about 25 federal marshals from the FCC. completely ridiculous.

thoughts?

(i'm a stern fan by the way.)

king_arthur · Post by **king_arthur** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 10:40 am

Comedy Central had their "100 Greatest Standup Comedians" stuff on the other day and good ol' George Carlin came in at number two.

The subtlety of which escaped me until just now...

Stern doesn't do much for me, but neither does hardly anything else on the radio these days. But all y'all probably figured that out y'already, huh?

Was FRSC (RFSC?) a pirate station, or just broadcasting stuff the FCC didn't like?

Charles

fodroy · Post by **fodroy** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 10:54 am

king_arthur wrote:Comedy Central had their "100 Greatest Standup Comedians" stuff on the other day and good ol' George Carlin came in at number two.

The subtlety of which escaped me until just now...

but who was #1?

jack · Post by **jack** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 11:14 am

king_arthur wrote:
Was FRSC (RFSC?) a pirate station, or just broadcasting stuff the FCC didn't like?

Charles

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/cruz/ ... -0441.html

a link to a local story on the bust. probably both.

Jim of Seattle · Post by **Jim of Seattle** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 11:30 am

ClearChannel has been known to employ such guerilla tactics to further its own monopolistic interests. I wouldn't be surprised at all if they were behind that Santa Cruz thing. I refuse to listen to ANY commercial radio anymore. ClearChannel owns everything. The radio station, the concert venue, the restaurant next to the concert venue, the billboards on the way to the concert venue....

bz£ · Post by **bz£** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 4:52 pm

jack shite wrote:http://www.metroactive.com/papers/cruz/ ... -0441.html

a link to a local story on the bust. probably both.

The best part of that article is when one of the guys who was running the illegal station gives a list of reasons why the FCC might be out to get them. It's all "We're a threat to the government" nonsense, except for one: "We didn't have a license."

It always amuses me when people who think they have the right to ignore the law discover otherwise, and get all offended about it.

Not to say that I'm on the side of the FCC here, either. But if you're too dumb to go about your social activism legally, you deserve to be arrested.

jack · Post by **jack** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 5:10 pm

yeah, we can't protect our borders for shit but we sure know how to protect our citizens from those big bad illegal radio stations that offer dissenting views from the shrub administration.