🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <800@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP> tra4@sphinx.UUCP (Jonathan Traum) writes:
>By the way, has anybody noticed
>that public radio stations always seem to be around 90 or 91 MHz? My own
>experience in Miami, New York, Orlando, Chicago, LA, etc. have shown this, as
>do the stations shown on the tuning table posted earlier. Whenever I am in a
>city where I have never been before, I always tune in that area and always
>manage to find a public radio station. If this is completely true, it makes the
>tuning table unnecessary. Does anyone know a reason for this? Is it cheaper to
>broadcast in that frequency range, or is there an FCC regulation?

The FCC reserves a small band (from 88 to 92MHz, I *think*) for non-commercial
stations.  This is not a hard and fast rule:  Older stations which were 
already operating in this band when the rule was passed (in the late sixties,
I believe) were allowed to continue, and I think that if a commercial station
acquires a non-commercial station, it may continue to use the frequency.
The rule only works one way: non-commercial stations may use any bandwidth
which they are able to obtain.  Some of this is explained in Lorenzo Milam's
wonderful, hard-to-find book, "Sex & Broadcasting," about how to organize
and operate a non-commercial radio station, and how to harass your commercial
competitors.

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