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TOUCH 106 CALLED A 'ONETIME' PIRATE STATION BY NEWSPAPER COLUMNIST

E

Early Byrd

Today's Boston Globe has a column by Adrian Walker which refers to the many prospective mayoral candidates in Boston. Two are mentioned as being associated with a "onetime" pirate station. Of course, that pirate is TOUCH 106. Gee, I didn't realize that it was a pirate station at "onetime" only, did you? ;)
 
And, people say you can’t trust anything published on the internet. So much for the biggest newspaper in town checking their facts and figures!
 
I keep telling people on this board, IT IS NOT A PIRATE ANYMORE. It became a legitimate Low Power station in 2011 due to the Local Radio Act or something like that. Its legal, Charles Clemons is running for mayor of Boston and he is the owner of the station and hes using it as part of his image. Its totally legal. Accept that, it has bumper sticker, posters and everything down in Roxbury and Dorchester. Teri Cohee, wife of Kevin Cohee the owner of One United Bank has even been in the studio and signed its banner, gone on air. Relax...
 
OK then......if they are no longer a pirate, do they have actual call letters that they announce as close to the top of the hour as possible? Will I be able to see their entry on www.fcc.gov or www.radio-locator.com ?

Just wondering.

cd
 
They announce their letters at the top of each hour, LP-WTCH. As far as the FCC i don't know what to tell you, I've got an interview for an internship their quite soon and I can message you with more details if you'd like. But they've been in existence for 8 years...if they were still a pirate I'm sure there'd be some FCC response, also the blatant advertisement they have would be pretty obnoxious.
 
Mr. Urban Teenager they are most definitely still an illegal pirate station. Charles Clemons was fined in 2008 because of such a fine that has not been paid http://transition.fcc.gov/eb/Orders/2008/DA-08-1073A1.html . They pay no royalties and potential expose folks to RFI with an unregistered transmitter location. Check all the FCC's site yourself if you don't believe us this is all public record. Walk into their offices during business hours and check the public file for copies of their license. I'd like to see how that goes..... All licensed broadcasts have to let you do this but I think they might have trouble with that.
 
Ohh and WTCH is owned by Wheeler Broadcasting and is in Shawano WI http://www.wtcham960.com . Even you know the FCC doesn't give two licensees the same call sign. But when your making yours up that doesn't matter. Don't intern for an illegal enterprise try a real broadcast station.
 
Saying call letters (that they don't own), having bumper stickers and posters, having politicians and the wife of a bank owner on the air, having its "owner" running for Mayor, and not having the FCC shut it down after eight years still does not make a station legal when it still has NO FCC LICENSE.

"Touch" is not a legal "Low Power" (LPFM) station. "Touch" runs commercials. Legitimate LPFM stations must be non-commercial under FCC rules. "Touch" does not have a LPFM license.
 
Johnster said:
Ohh and WTCH is owned by Wheeler Broadcasting and is in Shawano WI http://www.wtcham960.com . Even you know the FCC doesn't give two licensees the same call sign. But when your making yours up that doesn't matter. Don't intern for an illegal enterprise try a real broadcast station.
Click to expand...

An AM station can indeed share its base callsign with an LPFM. Just one example: WFBR(AM) is a commercial station in Glen Burnie MD, near Baltimore. WFBR-LP is an LPFM in Mount Washington KY.

Of course, both being licensed stations, one can easily find them in the FCC database:

http://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/fmq?list=0&facid=135114 (WFBR-LP)
http://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?list=0&facid=19673 (WFBR AM)

Just as one can find WTCH(AM) in Shawano:

http://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?list=0&facid=72154

But when you go to the FCC's FM Query (http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/fm-query-broadcast-station-search) and look for "WTCH" there...well, the result will come as a surprise only to the Globe columnist, apparently:

Search Parameters Callsign: WTCH
Lower Channel 200
Upper Channel 300


*** 0 Records Retrieved ***
 
Hey I get it now.....a current pirate can certainly be a one-time pirate, as long as it continues to currently be! In other words, if you take it literally, "one-time" doesn't necessarily have to mean "former". :)

cd
 
Touch FM is definitely not legal even if they pretend to be. Site for Choice 102.9 said they got the call letters WCFM--which will come as news to the Williams College station in NW Mass
 
Johnster said:
Ohh and WTCH is owned by Wheeler Broadcasting and is in Shawano WI http://www.wtcham960.com . Even you know the FCC doesn't give two licensees the same call sign. But when your making yours up that doesn't matter. Don't intern for an illegal enterprise try a real broadcast station.
Click to expand...

Not exactly true.....remember when WKLB (FM) was WKLB-FM because there was a WKLB (AM) somewhere in Kentucky, I believe. Also I believe there is a WDER-LP operated by VT DOT whereas WDER (AM) and WDER-FM are in NH.

Perhaps Touch 106 is a Part 15 station which does not require calls?
 
Touch 106 cannot be a Part 15 licensed station. Here are the rules for Low Power, Non-Licensed Transmitters (Part 15) stations, which Touch 106 does not meet:
http://transition.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Engineering_Technology/Documents/bulletins/oet63/oet63rev.pdf

Touch 106 cannot be an LPFM station. Here are some key specifics from the LPFM web site, which Touch does not meet:
1. The service is non-commercial
4. Eligible licensees can be non-commercial government of private education organizations, associations or entities; non-profit entities with educational purposes; or government or non-profit entities providing local public safety or transportation services.
http://www.lpfm.com/

Ergo, unless there is another type of FCC license that most of us on this discussion group does not know about, then Touch 106 is not legal and is still a pirate.
 
It's obviously a sacred cow of some sort, protected by governments and government agencies at the local, state and federal level. Not only doesn't nobody dare go after it, everybody just either ignores it or accepts it as a legit broadcaster and a valuable service to an underserved community. Is there an example of this anywhere else in this country?
 
CTListener said:
It's obviously a sacred cow of some sort, protected by governments and government agencies at the local, state and federal level. Not only doesn't nobody dare go after it, everybody just either ignores it or accepts it as a legit broadcaster and a valuable service to an underserved community. Is there an example of this anywhere else in this country?
Click to expand...

There are pirates that have been around even longer. 89.3 Radio Planet Compas, with its 3 transmitters has been around since maybe around 2000! They have 3 transmitters (Randolph, Brockton, and Boston) with the Randolph one being the original. They haven't gotten notices from the FCC in years.

The biggest pirate in Boston, Big City 101.3, was shut down once, but they came back, just as strong as ever.
 
Pirate, schmirate, what do laws matter in a state that gives full welfare benefits to terrorists? It's all relative, isn't it?
 
CTListener said:
It's obviously a sacred cow of some sort, protected by governments and government agencies at the local, state and federal level. Not only doesn't nobody dare go after it, everybody just either ignores it or accepts it as a legit broadcaster and a valuable service to an underserved community. Is there an example of this anywhere else in this country?
Click to expand...

They have been visited twice and fined. That is all the FCC can do witout help from the Justice Department which they have requested.
http://transition.fcc.gov/eb/Orders/2008/DA-08-1073A1.html
 
I understand they need help from federal marshalls for equip seizure, arrests, etc. and often the marshalls are busy with other duties. Pirate radio, or let's call them "undocumented broadcasters" to be politically correct, is definitely breaking the law though some of us may say, oh wow, here's someone putting something offbeat on the air, having fun, maybe some very interesting music...there was that Christian Slater movie Pump Up the Volume, and the British one Pirate Radio (orig title The Boat that Rocked) and sometimes we can sympathize with those who break the law but provide something different on the radio.

But yeah as I've said before, a 13 yr old may want to drive, or someone may want to set up a doctor's practice in a poor neighborhood despite no medical training or certification etc but hey--you need a license. There are only so many spots on the dial and the Fed Radio Comm., later the FCC,
was set up to prevent just ANYBODY from going on the air. It can cost big bucks for a station to operate and some punks come along and set up their own station and interfere with them. License, we don't need no stinkin' license. And the stations that "serve the community" yeah yeah yeah,
good intentions and all, but it's still breaking the law. Broadcast on the Net if you can. Go on a small station (college, small AM etc) and do your show that way. We've had some very creative folks out there, like Radio Free Vermont 96.5 which alleged that it was OK for them to broadcast as the FCC is federal and the signal wasn't crossing state lines.

RFV, based in Rutland Town* VT, aired standards, public service announcements--even commercials (I remember one for a golf driving range in neaby Clarendon). Seemed kinda professional but they were still breaking the law.

*--a sep. community from Rutland City, which surrounds the city limits of Rutland City proper.
 
Part of the above post:

"We've had some very creative folks out there, like Radio Free Vermont 96.5 which alleged that it was OK for them to broadcast as the FCC is federal and the signal wasn't crossing state lines."

Wow, that's an alibi I never heard before!

cd
 
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