Breakin' the law.. breakin' the law...

For a country that prides ourselves in freedom of speech.. we sure do a lot of censoring and making it hard for people to have their own voice. You're not allowed to say bad words on the radio or television.. even music gets censored over bad words.. remember 2Live Crew.. remember the PMRC?

'Course I'm not here to discuss the PMRC or the fact that you can't say fuck on TV (but bitch apparently is ok.. go figure!). Today's blog is about Low Power FM Radio... here on referred to as LPFM... more commonly referred to as pirate radio due to FCC rules and regulations that make it near impossible to get a license to operate legally.

I am only really familiar with one station, and that is because a friend of mine introduced me to it. I rather enjoyed the station because it had a broader view of current events and also a wider selection of music. The one thing that REALLY appealed was the fact that it wasn't a radio station in a box concept.. the DJ's were free to speak their minds and play the music they wanted to play. They weren't trying to make everything one size fits all.. and I liked that, because lets face it this world is NOT a one size fits all place.

A blurb from the FCC's page on LPFM..."LPFM stations are available to noncommercial educational entities and public safety and transportation organizations, but are not available to individuals or for commercial operations. Current broadcast licensees with interests in other media (broadcast or newspapers) are not eligible to obtain LPFM stations." In short.. if you're just some average dude that wants to create a station to give community news and allow a "public forum" so to speak for people to discuss things going on in the world, voice their opinions, and play music that isn't mainstream.. you're out of luck.

It seems to me that the main reason and essentially the ONLY reason that the FCC and Congress are against LPFM other then from the groups mentioned in the above paragraph is the potential for interference of the licensed stations.

So here is my question.. if the LPFM isn't going to cause interference with the bigger stations, Air Traffic Control, emergency services, military, etc. then why shouldn't they be allowed to get a license? I'd be willing to bet a majority of the pirate stations that exist out there would welcome being licensed. The people who operate these stations and the DJ's that man them aren't criminals.. they're just people who want to be heard and play stuff that mainstream stations don't. Is that so wrong?

It seems a shame that their voices have to be silenced when they aren't doing any harm. Freedom of speech? Not hardly. I think it's time that the FCC and Congress take another look at the LPFM/Pirate stations.. one that perhaps isn't biased towards the big stations with money and the ability to buy the silence of others.

*shrug* Just my opinion.

Couple links for ya'll if you want to read up on the subject yourself..
http://www.lpfm.ws
http://www.fcc.gov/lpfm/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LPFM