Re: [IRCA] A Message from Scott Bailey, GM/CE WMRO-AM, Gallatin, TN

["Chuck Hutton" <charlesh3@xxxxxxx>]

I agree 101%. When he talked about "Be A Proud American" and allow illegal
power for HS football, I would have thought it a joke to couple the two
ideas but he was dead serious.

As to the real bottom line (running full power until the Friday night
football game is over), I have some sympathy for his desire to serve the
community. If he can get his co-channel stations and the FCC to agree,
great. If not, it's not his business to self-approve it and violate the
rules.

Would I turn him in? Not if he was interfering with "entertainment
reception" and there were other channels that suited me just as well. Should
he interfere with an EAS station that was my only EAS stations or one of
only a few I could receive, you bet I would.


Chuck

-----Original Message-----
From: irca-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:irca-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Craig Healy
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 8:07 PM
To: Mailing list for the International Radio Club of America
Subject: Re: [IRCA] A Message from Scott Bailey, GM/CE WMRO-AM, Gallatin, TN

> What most folks don't know about the High School Football deal is this,
the
> Commission knows that AM is in trouble, and on Friday Nights, the FCC
turns
> thier heads on the AM stations running full power during the high school
> football ballgames.

I personally don't complain when stations do run on the "HS football STA".
It does give DXers a chance to hear something out of the ordinary.  The old
adage about one man's pest being another man's DX is quite true.

However, claiming a moral right to that seems to be pushing things a bit.
Maybe it's being equated to exceeding the speed limit, because "everybody
does it"  and "the road is posted too slow".  By extension, that would seem
to give some incentive to ignore any rule or law to which you disagreed, in
the guise of morality and entitlement.  Scott is wrong in this, though it's
really a minor matter.

I've been doing engineering work for stations big and small since 1970.
While I've never owned a station, I can certainly understand what it would
be like.  But, when he bought the place, he knew what he was getting into -
unless he didn't perform due diligence.  If not, then that's his fault.  He
bought a high dial position, low power station that's on a clear channel,
and not directly in a metro area with a high population density.  A
difficult scenario to show a profit by any measure.

Nonetheless, no matter from what perspective you analyze it, it is still
illegal to run over your licensed power except in a time of stated
emergency.  If a client were to ask me, I would tell them not to do it.  If
a client told me to be a party to it, I would walk away.

For Scott to complain in a public forum is silly.  All he's doing is calling
attention to himself.  I would bet a good lunch that there are FCC folks who
monitor the Broadcast list, and probably the DX lists as well.  Were I an
enforcement official, these lists would be a gold mine of tips on who needs
a visit.  Heck, we have people here on a first name basis with FCC field
engineers, and pass info to them all the time.

Be all this as it may, I will likely never complain to the FCC about the HS
football STA.

My advice to Scott Bailey would be to never say another word about this -
ever.

Craig Healy
Providence, RI

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