In article ,
"Michael A. Terrell" wrote:

Joseph Gwinn wrote:

In article ,
"Michael A. Terrell" wrote:

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

All of them, I think. The FCC was founded in 1934.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Communications_Commission

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.

Nothing. I was not in the Broadcast Bureau, I was in the Office of the
Chief Engineer.

But I can guess - Courtesy licenses had far better terms than other
kinds of license. The Broadcast Bureau was easily the most political
part of the FCC, because Congress cared deeply what the broadcasters
thought. Something about the power of the press and don't get into
fights with people who buy ink (or by extension electrons) by the
barrel. What Congress did *not* care abut was technical issues.

And you have proven my point that engineers have never and will never be
running regulatory agencies.


Courtesy license were issued to military radio & TV stations. They
were issued for place keeping only, and to prevent a commercial station
being licensed on the same area and frequencies. It had nothing to do
with politics. The differences in the two licenses we Power level:
The license stated the initial power at the time it was issued, with the
disclaimer, "OR AS DEEMED NECESSARY". The expiration date was: "UNTIL
NO LONGER NEEDED". There are a lot of old records in the online FCC
database, but no record of the stations I engineered at, at Ft. Greely
in the early '70s.

What a letdown. By your presentation, I suspected dark undercurrents.


The FCC replaced the DOC as the ruling agency, and their first job
was to clean up the mess of radio stations that interfered with each
other. Once again this was an engineering problem, not political.
Stations had been allowed on the air with little or no control.

Early TV has similar problems, requiring the realignment of channel
and power assignments. This was an engineering problem, not politics.

Well, neither of us were at the FCC during this period, but having
worked there I have a lot of difficulty believing that they were ever
free of politics.

Joe Gwinn