Back in the day I listened to a pirate station that broadcast out of Arizona. Similar to what the article mentioned, that station was run by people who were passionate about music, camping, and what was going on with respect to the National Forest service and the BLM with respect to public lands.
Objectively, they met all the mission requirements that the FCC at the time said they stood for, use of the common air waves for the public good. Their 'crime' was that while they operated a great station the lack of regulatory control meant they were 'at risk' of doing something "bad." They eventually got shut down, the world was not a 'better place' for it.
"Ill-mannered" ? I can't think of anything more ill-mannered than a handful of companies abusing the letter of the law by "owning" all of the licensed spectrum in a given area, and then filling it with lowest common denominator chum in a race to the bottom.
In this day and age where main societal attention has moved past radio, most of the FM band should be put under a regime similar to 2.4GHz. Preserve the few remaining high power commercial broadcasters to maintain the capability for emergency communication, and let a vibrant ecosystem (without the revenue to pay hefty license fees) regrow on the rest.
(edit: Well, the exact 2.4GHz regime might not be the most appropriate, because the obvious play is to broadcast on every frequency for more exposure. But the spirit of my argument remains - "pirate" operations remain vibrant because they can't be bought up and consolidated the way legalized stations do, and so their operation should be encouraged)
The problem with that plan is that broadcast radio does not let two stations (in the same general area) share the same frequency, period. So you need to have frequency coordination.
Compare with the ISM bands, like 2.4 GHz, where you can use complex digital signaling (e.g. CDMA/TDMA combined with robust error correction and detection) to effectively timeshare the frequency. The only reason this works well is because the frequencies are two-way and severely power limited - and even then the WiFi channels are congested.
Your home WiFi network has a range of a few hundred feet. A broadcast radio station can easily reach hundreds of miles. The reason those broadcast licenses cost so much is because there's just not enough broadcast spectrum to go around.
A better option for most users is to just stream over the Internet.
(That said, I would certainly love to see a chunk of spectrum set aside for low-power ad-hoc/community stations. But I don't think it would work reliably if it ever got popular.)
I was aware of that when I wrote my comment. Also the 2.4GHz has a lower inherent range due to higher frequency and water absorption.
I just don't foresee a huge interest in amateur stations being a problem that couldn't be sorted out informally. So Timmy decides to stomp on the broadcast of Tommy a few doors down - they'll figure it out. It certainly can't be worse than the current situation where Tommy isn't broadcasting at all.
Perhaps I'm discounting the effects of "100W SWR-tolerant FM Transmitter" on eBay for $60 direct from China. But shrug with the current state of radio consolidation, why not cross that bridge when we come to it?
FWIW I would say there is clearly more than enough broadcast spectrum to go around at the current prices, given how much dead space there is.
"The problem with that plan is that broadcast radio does not let two stations (in the same general area) share the same frequency, period. So you need to have frequency coordination".
Very true. The problem here isn't regulation per se, which I concur is necessary, but the absurd amount of money it costs.
1: being in compliance requires lots of money -> lots of money requires advertising -> advertising to be effective requires finding as many listeners as possible -> finding most listeners requires broadcasting trash -> bye bye small local station broadcasting interesting stuff. If there was a way to be in compliance without shelling out loads of money that would be awesome and we'd see pretty much every station becoming legit without being forced to ditch Zappa in favor of Bieber and the like. The way it works is the reason why, save for a few rare gems, you turn the knob only to hear the same rubbish pretty much everywhere.
And by the way, if anyone likes the genre, my favorite radio station is TMB (The Musical Box) which streams progressive rock from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Thanks to the Internet for making it possible.
Easy to search for. Direct link to the stream for the impatient: vlc http://142.4.217.133:9740
2: That is actually the other way around. Yes, there are bad apples, and they should be prevented from operating, but there also are loads of people behind pirate radio stations who are sensitive about interference problems and other issues; lots of them are well trained and equipped engineers who fulfill their dream of getting on air with the best intentions. Many also are licensed HAM operators, though for obvious reasons they can't reveal their callsign.
Radio Frequency is what hackers did when there weren't computers available; the practice is old.
Years ago, I would have loved a good prog station. It would have been similar to a good pirate station "back in the day", or even like a lot of FM stations were back in the late 60s/early 70s. But I've long developed my own interests and moods over decades and I find it hard to want to listen to someone else making selections for me. Especially as I prefer listening to older music and I'm much less prog-exclusive than I used to be.
I also listen to different genres (70s pop rock, some punk and light jazz, old style metal, 80s disco and more modern stuff etc.) though I found prog to be more interesting as a wannabe musician; much easier to grasp than the hardest jazz and closer to my origins (Rock&Roll, 70s-80s Hard Rock etc). I also have a thing about swing and big band sound; one of my dreams is hopefully being able one day to take many well known tunes and play them swing-style using rock and big band instruments together. I often hum "normal" songs swing-style while driving my bike and I found that the number of them that could be rearranged as such is surprisingly high.
Objectively, they met all the mission requirements that the FCC at the time said they stood for, use of the common air waves for the public good. Their 'crime' was that while they operated a great station the lack of regulatory control meant they were 'at risk' of doing something "bad." They eventually got shut down, the world was not a 'better place' for it.