I was present when an uneducated fellow asked a philosophy professor, "What is philosophy?"
The professor said, "I don't know."
The uneducated guy said, "Oh."
I was present when an uneducated fellow asked a philosophy professor, "What is philosophy?"
The professor said, "I don't know."
The uneducated guy said, "Oh."
Today's radio philosophy subject is "Our Station is Us."
What do I mean?
With a part 15 station a person will first program what he likes, followed by what family members want to hear, and of course things listeners request.
But a part 15er will probably not program something disliked by all of the above.
It is different in commercial radio. Although a few station owners might dare to program their favorite material on their station, most owners will do what their consultant recommends. The consultant might say, "You should run all country." Even if the station owner personally hates country, he does not hate making money, so he will run country until that day when the idea either works or doesn't work.
Very unskilled station owners might take the approach of one guy I knew in early FM, who got a full power license, and had his wife flip through a pile of record albums to program the station. His wife was happy but he went out of business.
Join us again for Radio Philosophy. We don't know what it is, but it's fun anyway.
An adviser is someone who gives advice, and at part15.us many of us come here for advice on technical and legal issues regarding low power broadcasting. We are fortunate to have a fine collection of advisers, including professional engineers and persons with much experience.
But so far as I know we have no attorneys, especially any versed in FCC law, so on legal matters we receive opinions on what might be true, we can consult the Part 15 Rules and make our own interpretations, and we have enforcement data which shows actions and trends in actions taken by FCC field agents.
The most dubious advice I've noticed from time to time are enforcement scoldings suggesting that part 15 operation subjects us to being pulled over to the side of the road for speeding, euphemistically speaking, which apriori assumes we are breaking the law and must accept the consequences. This may simply be flawed logic, especially coming from a non-law-enforcement person, but seems adversarial.
But in the main, the advice is as good as you'd get if you paid for it.
Well, this isn't exactly related,
but sometime in the very late
1960s to early 1970s, the
permitted FM Part 15 field strength
was cut way back.
I wonder when, and what the permitted
strength was before the cutback.
Best Wishes,
Bruce, DRS2