If you live in Texas, and if you enjoy Joe Paggs and all over at WOAI AM (1200) at night, please go to the WOAI website and sign the petition to protect regional AM stations that have large nighttime coverage areas.
The petition is here: http://woai.iheart.com/features/save-am-radio-1919/
We live in East Texas and depriving us of over-the-air listening to WOAI at night would prevent us from receiving timely news, information and in particular regional weather information.
As you should be aware, there are some streaming services that might represent they provide coverage out here in “fly-over” country, but this is simply not true.
What REALLY happens is that the local telco carrier (in our case CenturyLink) puts in half-ass HDSL service and the proceeds to over-sell their service so that we are frequently victims of bandwidth exhaustion. (We have complained to the Commission and the telco with no improvement in service.) Welcome to responsive government.
Additionally, while we have a satellite system as well, in the Commissions “infinite wisdom” these are presently tariffed at extortionist rates that preclude casual streaming of iHeart or other services. What you should also be aware of is that just when we need it most (as in bad weather) we find either the NOAA weather is down or the satellite is down due to precipitation wrecking the satellite shot. Power’s not perfect out in these parts, either.
So please, for God’s sake, don’t compound one act of stupidity with another and screw up a health AM broadcast band by freeing up additional channel space for marginal broadcasters and give the successful long-term regional AM operators have a chance against an increasingly competitive environment comprises of wannabes who don’t know the first thing about serving a region, let alone a community. Narrowcasting with lots of small bad stations does not make up for genuine quality broadcasting by a good station.
Or, is that the point? Is it that because WOAI doesn’t carry the kind of politically-acceptable (liberal approved) content that the Commission promotes which is just sure as hell not in the public need, interest, and concern? Economic Stimulus plan, maybe? We seem to have the odor of politics in the air.
Or, as an alternative, tell the freaking telcos to put fiber out here to the woods so we can enjoy the public safety benefits of good broadcasters like WOAI. Otherwise? Mits off!
Thank you for your attention,
George & Elaine Ure (retied in East Texas)
I don’t give AM radio much of a chance in the long-term. It’s just too useful.
Instead we will likely see it disassembled and then cobbled into local stations, none of which will have anywhere near the quality of coverage. I counted the other night and already, nighttime AM radio here is not reflective of the region’s demographics.
We do long driving trips now and then and sometimes at night. There’s nothing like a Noory or the latest weather from your destination to keep you awake.
Leave it to government to “fix” something else that ain’t broken.
Or, is there something else afoot? With Agenda 21 and all, how about under-serving the rural areas even more? Isolate and conquer is it? And while telcos argue they need money for infrastructure out in the sticks (where the food and energy come from, remember?) when it comes down to investing in rural of sending dividends to shareholders, care to guess who wins?
Debate Fatigue
Please tell me last night was the last of it? Not that I don’t mind watching the theater of people trying to “out republican one-another.”
To my cynical eye, the only guy who talked an issue well was Dr. Ben Carson who didn’t get enough time to explain his healthcare ideas – and being a doc and all, I value Carson’s take. He was also the most “presidential” in demeanor.
John Kasich gave a good impression, too, as someone who could roll up his sleeves and get something done. As to the Trump remark that Ohio’s success in budgets was due to oil, Kasich had numbers to back up his claim that it was not a fracking festival going on although whose numbers to believe is like a choice between a pistol or shot of hemlock.
Ted Cruz, I think, did the right thing in terms of laying back one getting a few jabs in at Trump –who fended them off well. But here’s the thing: I thought Marco Rubio could have used an Adderall, or two because he was just way outside the kind of reserved, intelligent kind of discourse that would play well.
And though lots of people think Trump won it, which is may have, I want him to start getting more into specifics and I got the impression that other than broad promises, he didn’t have a real (point by point) healthcare plan.
So at this point, even though it’s perhaps a “wasted vote” I will likely vote for Ben Carson because he’s likely the “smartest guy in the room.” Trump will carry most of the states, maybe Cruz wins Texas, and Trump carries the convention.
But maybe a vote for Carson isn’t wasted. He’s thoughtful, smart, and knows how to “hit the books and learn” which is something I greatly admire. Of all the candidates, I keep coming back to Trump-Caron as the best selection of brains and practical experience to fix what’s been broken by too many same-old-crats and same-old-cans.
If there’s one thing I learned from 40-years of news and business hard-ball: Smart people count. And while no one on the stage is a dummy, for me to comes down to doers and posers and Cruz’s lack of support from fellow republicans (*which Trump hammered on) does underscore the lack of team play.
Then again, that’s what this whole sordid mess has been: No team play. I heard the beginnings of a Carson plan with real meat on it. Trump danced it, Rubio and Cruz had way too much testosterone going, although Kasich got across (true or not) that he is a roll ‘em up and let’s get ‘er done kind of guy.
Damn shame the democrats have been playing hide the sausage all this time. I would love to see how Hillary would have fared in a real Shark Tank.
Payback for Holder, Et Alia
So now we see how to avoid freedom of information requests: Hide the read name of the person do the official acts.
The story popped out in Vice on Thursday that former U.S.
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