Joseph Gwinn wrote:

In article ,
"Michael A. Terrell" wrote:

Joseph Gwinn wrote:

In article ,
"Michael A. Terrell" wrote:

Joseph Gwinn wrote:

Michael A. Terrell wrote:

The FCC is run by lawyers. They did away with the engineers in
charge, a long time ago.

Umm. I worked for the FCC in the early 1970s, in The Office of The
Chief Engineer. The FCC was run by lawyers back then too. Nor could it
be otherwise for any regulatory agency, as whatever the Agency does the
loser always takes the agency to Federal Court. Plaintiffs are usually
billion-dollar companies, so they can afford to take it to the Supreme
Court, and always do.


Earlier, the FCC was the domain of engineers. By the '70s the lawyers
had completed the transition into 'The Vast Wasteland'. Decisions made
for political reasons, instead of sound engineering.

When did you work at the FCC?

Given the political and legal environment of a regulatory agency, I have
a lot of trouble believing that any federal regulatory agency was *ever*
really run by non-lawyers.


Have you ever read the 'early' history of the FCC?

I learned it from my engineering colleagues the oldtimers who joined the
FCC during the Depression.

But perhaps you have a URL or reference to offer.


I had access to a private library in the '70s at what had been a
Crosley plant. It held their archives, including FCC documents, in get
this: REAL BOOKS where they described the work required to straighten
out the AM broadcast mess, their early work on TV standards and the
issues of Amateur radio. How many of your old timers were there in the
first few years of the FCC



But I bet that the official history differs from that recounted by those
oldtimers in precisely the most telling areas.


BTW, Joseph, tell us what you know about 'Courtesy' Radio & TV
broadcast licenses. Specifically the power specifications and
expiration dates, and how they differ from commercial broadcast
licenses.


--
Greed is the root of all eBay.