Re: LPFM Rules

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

>Bill O'Neill wrote:
>It sounds like those of franchisee territorial complaints, e.g.,
>McDs, BKC, etc.  You plant a store in Andover with the expectation
>that you'll be the only McD within a certain market radius (the
>basis for your decision to invest.)  Then, the mother corp. opens up
>another franchise license for your local community that you have to
>either bid on yourself, or deal with the competition.

        I disagree. The franchise analogy does not apply. Theoretically, in
a franchise deal, you sign a contract that provides a certain protected
territory, or doesn't.

>As for radio,
>there's always (we hope) competition from the other signals, but is
>it reasonable to expect that your coverage area (ADI) on your
>frequency will become challenged or lessened?

        IMO, it is reasonable to say that a licensee must understand that
this might happen. As I posted before, there's a very long history of this.
Looked at a certain way, the whole history of radio broadcasting in the
U.S. is a story of existing stations getting their signal footprints
stepped on. We all just saw from the ex-band's first days how far an AM
signal of 1 kW goes at night on a truly clear channel. (I got a weak signal
one night from California.) Way, way back, just about every AM station had
a nighttime signal like that.