Re: Detroit Pirate Shutdown

[mwaters@wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>Mike Hemeon wrote:
>Well it appears that the way to go if you decide to become a pirate is open a
>religious or foreign language station.

        I guess you're suggesting the FCC is gentler with them -- because?
It's worried about bad PR in the community where the pirate operates, which
presumes a station like the Praise FM gospel station is more popular in its
community than an alternative music or left-wing political station might
be?
        Since I don't follow the pirate-station situation closely, I don't
know the formats or programming content of the various stations that have
been shut down over the past year or two.
        One of the interesting things about Praise FM is that it operates
as a commercial station. It even had ads this fall for candidates in the
primary elections. IMO, this gives the pirate even less of an "excuse," in
that if it's a revenue-based operation, there are likely to be
opportunities in the market to buy leased time on licensed stations and put
the programming on, probably with a better signal -- although also probably
on AM rather than FM.

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