Reply #34: Anyone Can Build & Use a Basic Broadcast Transmitter

[NashVegas]

It's not just TV that's mandated to switch, but radio also.

There are 13 possible channels in the VHF spectrum - emergency services don't need that many.

Furthermore, the Fed plans to auction off the analog spectrum frequencies to private industry.

Currently a pirate broadcaster will get busted, have to pay an FCC fine. Once that spectrum is owned by private businesses, I'd imagine they'd go after a pirate for everything they've got.

Can't speak for TV but radio is not going to exist in its present form for long.

It's top heavy with sales and management, nothing is budgeted for a local, creative, programming staff, no one is working to nurture creativity and excellence for future broadcasters. What is now happening in real estate is going to happen to radio before long.

When it does, you'll see the NAB howling for legislation to deregulate foreign ownership in addition to cross-ownership with newspapers & TV. Right now, cross-ownership is the only thing that's going to prop up radio investors long enough to bail. Any sucker who buys a station at 15x what it would have cost in 1984 will, themselves, be looking for a parachute.