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From: dsi@unccvax.UUCP (Dataspan Inc)
Newsgroups: net.video,net.ham-radio
Subject: Re: Satellite viewing "freedoms"
Message-ID: <283@unccvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 6-Sep-85 09:43:17 EDT
Article-I.D.: unccvax.283
Posted: Fri Sep  6 09:43:17 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 8-Sep-85 04:58:42 EDT
References: <763@vortex.UUCP>, <706@terak.UUCP>
Organization: UNC-Charlotte
Lines: 56
Xref: watmath net.video:1475 net.ham-radio:3189


     Frankly, I am miffed at the FCC's asinine position which still segregates
spectrum space into "educational" and "commercial." Remember when all the 
NYC V's bought out Channel 13 and made it WNET. Nothing like buying off a
competitor, right? Now, I hear from very reliable sources, that they are running
ads stating that you can get "thirties on Thirteen." Imagine that, a PUBLIC
TV station selling "sponsorships."

     Then there are those religious broadcasters who run essentially paid
religious broadcasting (soliciting donations) in both parts of the FM band.
(See my recent flamage in net.music about this...down boy...down! )

     Then there are those jerks who are lining up to get a UHF station in
your town, radiate 3 watts out of a plastic coathanger on top of a Hechinger's
TV antenna mast pole, and whine and complain about "must carry." To hell
with must carry! My cable system has excess capacity of 30+ channels! I
wouldn't mind getting a real NBC Affiliate in Charlotte (WXII Winston Salem...
Cablevision of Charlotte, are you listening?). After all, you can get PTL
club on our cable system on 5 different channels. Is this diversity? 

     Speaking about educational TV and radio, I think the FCC should take
a very long and hard look at monopolizing of channels. For example the
State of North Carolina has 8 (count em, 8) public TV stations which do
a fine job, thank you. However, they all operate with less than maximum
facilities (like 300 kw visual) on UHF. Educational broadcasters should not
be given carte blanche in spectrum utilization, but rather be encouraged
to use MAXIMUM TOWER AND POWER to reach their viewers. I can't believe 
for one minute that it costs more money to put up one 5MW UHF station 
in Clemmons, N.C. to cover what channel 17 (Linville) and channel 26 (Winston-
Salem) does now! And, I don't feel one bit sorry for their complaints about
money when UNC operates channel 58 Concord, NC and someone else operates
WTVI (42) Charlotte...  not to mention the public TV station in Rock Hill.
Can you imagine what a conniption fit the FCC would raise if, say, 
channel 45 in Belmont and channel 3 in Charlotte (equally as close)
were both CBS Affiliates ?

     Segregation of the ether has had exactly the effect which Netwon Minow
said: it turned commercial TV into a vast wasteland. Knowing that their
brothers below 92.1 mHz and on the "*" TV channels would take care of
"culture" and "limited commercials" and "no editorializing (hmmmm?)" the
major networks were given free run over their affiliates to bring us such
wonders as a Double Shot of "The Lone Ranger" and dreck like "Sliver Spoons".

    I've no objection whatsoever to the programming or ideals of public TV
and radio. What I have an objection to is the segregation of the ether that
serves no purpose whatsoever but to perpetuate 80% of the FM band being
the RFI that it generally is. I also violently object to those fundraising
campaigns that public stations feel they need. Until our local public FM
station stops compressing the crap out of classical music, I think they 
should send ME money, so I can build my basic repertoie collection and
listen to music the way it was performed in the first damn place.

(Gosh, this feels great!)
David  Anthony
CDE 
DataSpan, Inc