Re: WKNM Lowell Update

[Shawn Mamros <mamros@MIT.EDU>]

Donna writes of the unlicensed 1570 in Lowell:
>I first heard about this station in the July of 1998, and Mark wrote it was
>supposed to be all Portuguese.  Given how the FCC slammed Radio Free
>Allston (a station well known for doing community service) and took them
>off the air forcibly, how has WKNM managed to stay on the air so long
>without anyone stopping them?  Donna is very puzzled.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease, in a manner of speaking...  Supposedly,
one of the big FMs in Boston - whoever was closest to RFA's chosen frequency
- - complained to the Candy Commission, and that started the wheels turning
to shut RFA down.  Apparently no such complaint has been filed against
WKNM by a licensed station - is there anyone who would?

I do recall that when RFA first started announcing their intentions to
broadcast, they initially said they would be on 88.5 FM.  At WMBR, where
we would have been second-adjacent, we (or at least the technically-minded
folks on our staff) weren't entirely happy with that choice.  I don't
know how WERS, who would also have been second-adjacent, felt about it
either, assuming they had heard about it.  But at any rate, partially
because of potential interference to the two non-comms, and probably
also because WFCR Amherst is quite listenable on a good tuner in Boston,
RFA picked another frequency before they went on the air.

- -Shawn Mamros
E-mail to: mamros@mit.edu

------------------------------