The FCC is getting completely screwy

This entry is about the twisted mess American radio is these days - and how the FCC lets it go on.

There's an article in the Detroit Free Press about a small high school radio station in Ontonagon, Michigan, that's been around for 45 years. It even managed to stay on the air during the height of the pandemic, when school was closed. But now an out-of-town religious broadcaster has applied to start a station in the same area on the same frequency.

Outrageously, the FCC rubber-stamped that request, even though that frequency already had a station. The high school station is now being forced to either find a different frequency or go off the air for good.

Managers of the school station learned of this when the religious station sent them an e-mail about it. This e-mail included a list of other frequencies they could move to. Then why didn't the religious station apply for one of those frequencies instead? Is it because it bips?

Even if knocking another station off the air or forcing it to accept interference is allowed under the FCC's rules, part of the FCC's job is to look at each application to see if it serves the public interest. But it never does, and hasn't in years.