🚀 go-pugleaf

< >the Federal Communications Commission aka the FCC, which is a
< >censorship strong arm of the politicians in the United States
< >of America, has successfully restricted its licensing against
< >non-christian organizations especially in the short wave
< >department!

I also found this particular statement to be rather strange. I am
very active in the shortwave listening hobby and subscribe to a
number of shortwave publications. Whenever a new organization in the
US applies for a SW license the information is publicized in the SW
hobby press. There have been no applications to the FCC for a non-
Christian SW station since SW licensing was opened up in the early
1980s. If no one is applying, I don't quite see how one can say the
FCC is being restrictive.

In fact, those who know the SW scene would tell you that the FCC has
become a pushover when it comes to licensing SW stations. Because of
this, a lot of Evangelical Christian groups have been opening SW
stations in the US. There is also a Roman Catholic station, WEWN, in
Alabama which relays programming from Sister Angelica, who also has
her own TV network. I've not seen or listened to her, but she has
been described in rather uncomplementary terms. The Christian
Scientists also have a station (actually two - one in South Carolina
& another on Saipan in the Pacific). The Christian Scientists
recently sold their third station, in Maine, to a splinter group of
the Seventh Day Adventists (no...not the Branch Davidians). (The
main Adventist church operates a string of SW stations around the
world and does some rather admirable work.)

Another interesting one is WMLK in Pennsylvania which is operated by
the Assemblies of Yahweh. Actually, I'm not sure if they are
Christian or not, in that I don't know their position on Jesus
Christ. A central tenant of their faith is to spread the word that
God's (the Judeo-Christian-Islamic one) true name is Yahweh.

All in all, US-based religious SW stations really can not be said to
represent the religious views of anything approaching mainstream USA,
although some of the Evangelical ones are probably "mainstream
Evangelical". Others are more in the extreme right-wing Evangelical
camp. There are some good, responsible religious stations on SW.
Unfortunately, few of them transmit from the USA.

The FCC has two main restrictions on SW licenses. One is that the
transmitter must be at least 50 kW (50,000 watts). That makes putting
a SW station on the air a rather expensive affair and not something
small organizations can do. This rule goes back something like 50
years or more and has nothing to do with the current alternative
media scene. While one could say it stifles the voices of smaller
alternative organizations, what it really does is prevent every Tom,
Dick, & Harry extreme right-wing preacher from clogging up the SW
bands with cheap little 1,000 watt SW stations. I don't think you
would find very many people knowledgable about SW who would argue for
a lowering of the FCC limit.

The other restriction, which also goes back over 50 years, is that
stations located in the US may not direct their programming to
audiences within the US, but must direct them outside the borders.
This is accomplished with directional antennas. Of course, SW signals
don't respect borders. For example, WYFR, which is run by Family
Radio in Oakland, CA (the director of which said the world ended in
Sept, 1994) has its transmitter site in Florida. By directing many of
their transmissions to Eastern Canada, Western Canada, & Mexico, they
just happen to cover all of the continental USA which happens to lie
in between Florida & the target zones.

This non-US audience rule has come under scrutiny in the past few
months. Two stations, WWCR in Tennessee and WHRI in Indiana, were
selling time to non-religious right-wing talk shows. These xenophobic
talkshows are not exactly the kind of programming one would call
directed to foreign audiences, and furthermore, they only give out
800 numbers accessible from the USA on the air, making it impossible
for any listeners they might have outside the US to participate
anyways. The FCC is reportedly giving this situation a very careful
look.

Getting back to the original point of the FCC discriminating against
non-Christian religions when it comes to SW licenses (I don't know
about AM/FM), there are no valid reasons to say that. There are a lot
of negative and truthful things that could be said about the FCC and
its operations. However, when invalid accusations are made that only
weakens the arguments against the FCC.

If you want to know more about SW listening and what is out there, I
suggest a purchase of the book "Passport to World Band Radio". The
1995 edition is due out in early September. One source of it is Grove
Enterprises in Brasstown, NC. For those in the USA, they have an 800
number, but I don't have it on hand. Their e-mail address is
Grove@mercury.interpath.net and they have just put up a Web site, I
think at http:www.grove.net. If you can't get through, get back to me
& I will double check those addresses & get you the postal address &
800 number.

Another good source of information on SW is the monthly "Journal of
the North American Shortwave Association" published by NASWA; 45
Wildflower Road; Levittown, PA; 19057. A sample copy is $2 in the
USA/Canada/Mexico or $3 elsewhere. (Disclaimer: I edit a quarterly
column on Latin American culture & broadcasting for NASWA plus write
occasional special features, but as it is an all-volunteer
organization I get no renumeration!)

There are lots of things that can be heard on SW. The easiest things
are big government broadcasters like the BBC, Voice of America, Radio
Netherlands, Voice of Russia, Radio Beijing, Spanish National Radio,
etc.  All these and many more have English broadcasts. There are also
some large private/religious broadcasters including the
very interesting missionary station HCJB in Quito, Ecuador (Ken
MacHarg of the station has participated in this list).

In addition, with better equipment and some patience one can log
smaller broadcasters from around the world, including some we read
about on this list. In the past year or so there have been items on
here about government actions against Radio Huayacocotla in Mexico,
Esculeas Radiofonicas Populares in Ecuador, and Radio Pio Doce in
Bolivia.  All of these stations can be heard in North America,
Europe, and elsewhere around the world. Other members of AMARC and
ALER, such as La Voz de Atitlan in Guatemala, can be heard as well.

Don Moore
MOORE@ACC.MCREST.EDU
Davenport, Iowa, USA