Can a radio station owner submit an obscene set of call letters for his station and have it approved by the Federal Communications Commission? Brent Bozell's culture column passes along that two prospective stations in Hawaii were granted the call letters KUNT (and KWTF), which the station owner quickly apologized for submitting. But the FCC, for its many millions in expenditures, has no living, breathing human checking to make sure that embarrassing call letters aren't included in their usual online submission process. Brent elaborates:

It wasn’t that long ago that the bureaucracy at the Federal Communications Commission fell on its collective rump when with Solomonic wisdom it announced that use of the “f-bomb” over the broadcast airwaves didn’t constitute an indecency so long as that word was used as an “intensifier” adjective, and not a verb. The real world shook its head in disbelief, the appropriate cobwebs were cleared, and ultimately the FCC reversed itself.

Never underestimate a federal bureaucracy. The FCC has struck again.

One responsibility of this agency is to assign call letters to new TV and radio stations. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin has reported that deep in a 15-pages list of new call letters issued by the FCC last month, the call letters KUNT were granted to a yet-unbuilt low-power digital television station in Wailuku, Maui.

The Honolulu paper discovered that the FCC doesn’t exactly hire a human to look over the call letter list. Apparently the agency’s $300 million annual budget goes only so far. Assignment of the station letters actually is an automated process, according to Mary Diamond of the FCC's Office of Media Relations. Broadcasters use the FCC Web site to request and receive call letters with no oversight from any FCC human.

The station owners have now stepped in to reverse this outrage and Kevin Bae, vice president of KM Communications Inc. in Skokie, Illinois, has now apologized. It is "extremely embarrassing for me and my company and we will file to change those call letters immediately."

But this is not the first time the FCC has been asleep at the assignment desk, nor have other station owners reflected KM’s responsibility. KCUF-FM near Aspen, Colo. got its F-word-in-reverse call letters in August of 2005 and has been on the air since December.

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IMUS SUIT IS DROPPED

By DAN MANGAN | September 12, 2007

A Rutgers basketball player who sued radio host Don Imus for calling her team "nappy-headed hos" has dropped the defamation case less than a month after filing it, The Post has learned.

Kia Vaughn gave no explanation in her "voluntary discontinuance" of the suit against Imus, his sidekick, Bernard McGuirk, and corporate radio and television partners, which she submitted Thursday in Bronx Supreme Court. Her lawyer could not be reached for comment, and Imus' lawyer declined to comment.

McGuirk's high-powered lawyer, Joseph Tacopina, said the suit had no chance of succeeding had Vaughn pursued it.

"The suit was absolutely ridiculous," he said. "We were gearing up to file a motion to dismiss."

Vaughn's complaint sprang from an April broadcast of Imus' show on WFAN-AM Radio and MSNBC television, when McGuirk called the Rutgers University women's hoops team "some hardcore hos," and Imus replied, "That's some nappy-headed hos there."

The racist banter created a firestorm that led to Imus' firing. Vaughn filed suit on Aug. 14.

Tacopina, pointing out that Vaughn was never mentioned by name by Imus or McGuirk, noted that, "They said 'some nappy-headed hos.'

" 'Some' does not include 'all,' " said Tacopina. "It was clearly parody. There was not malicious intent, there was no intent to defame. No one listening that day that was sober said, 'Oh, my God, they may be prostitutes!' "

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Ham radio operators help thwart burglary in Farms

By Kit Bradshaw

Monday, September 24, 2007

 

Three juveniles thought they were pretty smart using amateur radios to

communicate with each other as they allegedly talked their way through at

least one burglary and possibly more in Jupiter Farms.

 

Their last transmission, however, was “Code Red, Code Red, Code Red. There

are cops everywhere, dude!”

 

The three were outwitted by local ham radio operators listening to the

communications that were enhanced through the Citizens Emergency Response

Team Repeater that allows the signal to extend from Boynton Beach to Port

St. Lucie from Jupiter Farms.

 

On Friday night, as a victim of a burglary huddled in her bedroom closet,

calling for sheriff’s deputies, Albert Moreschi of Jupiter Farms and John

Levey of Palm Beach Gardens, among others, were monitoring the radio

transmissions from the suspects and feeding information to the deputies.

 

But they weren’t just listening to the burglary as it went down. They were

recording the transmissions.

 

“On Sept. 8 we heard what sounded like men talking about committing a

burglary and we were monitoring them on one of the local ham repeaters,”

said Levey. “As a retired police officer, when I heard it the first time, I

knew what it was. We notified law enforcement, but they didn’t describe the

house well enough to get the exact address.

 

“On Sept. 21, we hear them doing the same thing, and recognize their voices.

So I get out my tape recorder and start taping them. Bert is on the radio

when he hears it, and we get on our cell phones, and we’re monitoring this.

If we heard anything specific, we’d tell the authorities.”

 

According to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office report, one of the

suspects was arrested in the house, one walking down a nearby road and a

third, who fled in a car, was arrested near the Publix in Jupiter Farms.

 

“We have them on two different burglaries,” said PBSO Lt. David Kronsperger,

“and suspect they were in other houses as well.”

 

Levey’s work didn’t end when the suspects were arrested.

 

“After I didn’t hear any more on the radio, I then went to the Sheriff’s

Office substation in Jupiter Farms, and there was a deputy there, with one

of the suspects,” Levey said. “I identified myself as a former police

officer and a ham radio operator and said to the deputy ‘by the way, if you

just caught three guys, we’ve been recording their transmissions.’”

 

The Sheriff’s Office is now in possession of the ham radio transmission

tapes.

 

The three suspects also could face other charges by the Federal

Communications Commission for operating an amateur radio without a license,

according to Moreschi.

 

“What is interesting is that we don’t know where these kids got the ham

radios,” said Moreschi. “ They came right over the CERT repeater and that

has a special tone, and you have to have a special tone to key it up. So it’s

a little more sophisticated than walkie talkies.”

 

Both ham radio operators, plus another in Port St. Lucie who declined to be

identified, were modest about their role in the events.

 

“Hey, it just another community service by a ham radio operator,” said

Levey.