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Copyright 1999 Daily Bruin via U-Wire University Wire April 26, 1999 LENGTH: 685 words HEADLINE: Commission pulls the plug on UCLA student-run radio station BYLINE: By Neal Narahara, Daily Bruin SOURCE: U. California-Los Angeles DATELINE: Los Angeles, Calif. BODY: The good news is that people were listening to KLA on its broadcast frequency. The bad news is that they were federal agents. After nearly a year of broadcasting illegally, UCLA's student-run radio station's transmitter was shut down by The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) earlier this month. KLA had been broadcasting without a license at 91.9 FM with the help of a low-power transmitter since last summer. Currently, the station is only available in the dorms through cable. "We weren't surprised, but it was a little scary," said Tina Harrington, KLA's general manager. "I think no one really knew and no one wanted to ask (whether we were in compliance)." The FCC requires all radio stations whose broadcasts reach beyond a certain geographic area on FM to be licensed so that they will not interfere with other stations. KLA's broadcast was shut down despite being on an apparently unoccupied frequency and having limited geographic range. "Once, on a really good day, I had gotten it on Wilshire," Harrington said. For the most part, however, KLA's broadcast had a much smaller range. The transmitter was so weak that the broadcast could not be picked up in Kerckhoff Coffee House because the signal could not penetrate the building's walls. "Our strategy for KLA never included broadcasting out beyond the dorms," said Arvli Ward, director for Student Media. The dorms have always been KLA's largest audience, but the FM broadcast was important to many who worked at the station. "It's a big deal to us," said Amir Kenan, a deejay at KLA. "Our hearts just sank." Low-power FM transmitters are readily available at electronics stores and are relatively inexpensive, costing only several hundred dollars. Licenses to broadcast, however, are much more expensive. "It's insanely expensive to get licensing in Los Angeles," Harrington said. In fact, the FCC is no longer issuing licenses in Los Angeles. Therefore, prospective broadcasters have to pay tens of millions of dollars for an existing station if they want to get on the air. KLA is not the only station to have been shut down recently. According to Mark McNeill, the general manager of the University of Southern California's student-run KSCR, the FCC shut down over 300 stations nation-wide this summer in an apparent crackdown on pirate radio stations - including his own. McNeill and Harrington both suspect the crackdown's goal may be to identify pirate radio stations in order to eliminate future license eligibility. The FCC is currently considering a rule change, making licenses available for low-power transmitters to meet the needs of small communities. According to the proposal, "the character qualifications ... may disqualify license applicants who have intentionally and persistently violated longstanding prohibitions against unlicensed broadcasting." "Most of the concern is over making the FCC mad at us," Harrington said. In the case of KLA and KSCR, the FCC was not as harsh as it could have been. Although the FCC may levy fines and confiscate equipment, it chose to do neither with the college radio stations, opting instead to simply disconnect the transmitter. "We've been doing it about eight or nine years using low-power FM," McNeill said. Since being shut down, KSCR has turned its attention toward Internet broadcasting with limited success. While the broadcast has attracted about 35,000 listeners, it is now only available to those with access to the Internet. "(Without an FM broadcast), our role in the community is taken away," McNeill said. According to McNeill, KSCR's broadcast covered the downtown area and included foreign language broadcasts and popular hip-hop shows which received up to 150 calls an hour. "I would love it if we could get back on FM," he said. "That would be the ideal thing." The situation is a little different for KLA. "I don't think the audience was the issue (with the FM broadcast) as much as being able to say we were 91.9 FM," Harrington said. KLA is currently looking into its own Internet broadcast. |
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