Radio license

“ While the decree of the State court concerning the transfer of the leasehold is, in view of the pleadings, not here as an independent question, due consideration of the federal question relating to the transfer of the license makes it proper to consider the bearing of a decree ordering an immediate transfer of the leasehold upon the status of the radio license. A proper regard for the implications of the policy that permeates the Communications Act makes disposition of licensed facilities prior to action by the Communications Commission a subsidiary issue to the license question. ”

“ Notwithstanding any license requirement established in this Act, if the Commission determines that such authorization serves the public interest, convenience, and necessity, the Commission may by rule authorize the operation of radio stations without individual licenses in the following radio services: (A) the citizens band radio service; (B) the radio control service; (C) the aviation radio service for aircraft stations operated on domestic flights when such aircraft are not otherwise required to carry a radio station ”

“ In providing for regulation of the radio the Congress was under the necessity of vesting a considerable amount of discretionary authority in the Commission. The task of choosing between various claimants for the privilege of using the air waves is essentially an administrative one. Nevertheless, in specifying with some degree of particularity the kind of information to be included in an application for a license, the Congress has indicated what general conditions and considerations are to govern the granting and withholding of station licenses. ”

“ In addition to the usual penalties prescribed by statute for their violation, however, the Commission has been expressly authorized by § 311 to refuse a station license to any person 'finally adjudged guilty by a Federal court' of attempting unlawfully to monopolize radio communication. Anyone under the control of such a person may also be refused a license. And whenever a court has ordered the revocation of an existing license, as expressly provided in § 313, a new license may not be granted by the Commission to the guilty party or to any person under his control. ”

“ If the answer to Question 1 is in the affirmative, is the Radio Act of 1927, as amended, valid as against the claim that it authorizes or requires the Federal Radio Commission, in its action on an application for renewal of license by a person such as is described in Question 1, to take private property for public use without just compensation, either by denying such application or by granting it on such terms as virtually to destroy a going broadcasting business of such person? ”

“ The committee process is now complete and the committee has presented a bill which gives cable a compulsory license to intercept and re-transmit (secondarily transmit) television and radio broadcasts. It recognizes the passive, “antenna”, role of cable in secondary transmissions within the local market area, and imposes no liability to pay copyright royalties for those “local” transmissions. ”

“ The Commission is given no supervisory control of the programs, of business management or of policy. In short, the broadcasting field is open to anyone, provided there be an available frequency over which he can broadcast without interference to others, if he shows his competency, the adequacy of his equipment, and financial ability to make good use of the assigned channel.
The policy of the Act is clear that no person is to have anything in the nature of a property right as a result of the granting of a license. ”

“ Moreover, the government keeps tabs on all radio people to see they obey the rules. Every wireless man is examined, classified, and given a license just as an automobile driver is. He has to keep it handy, too, and be ready to trot it out on request. You can't get by with bluffing. If an operator is found to be unfamiliar with the rules, or is discovered breaking any of them, his certificate can be withdrawn. No chap wants to risk that, especially if he is trying to earn his living by wireless. ”

“ With respect to Mexican signals, the Commission determined that the compulsory license would apply only in the area in which such signals may be received by a U.S. cable system by means of direct interception of a free space radio wave. Thus, full copyright liability would apply if a cable system were required to use any equipment or device other than a receiving antenna to bring the signal to the community of the cable system. ”

“ Assuming that the transmission meets the other conditions of the provision, it makes no difference what type of public transmission the organization is making: commercial radio and television broadcasts, public radio and television broadcasts not exempted by section 110 (2) , pay-TV, closed circuit, background music, and so forth. However, to come within the scope of subsection (a) , the organization must have the right to make the transmission “under a license or transfer of the copyright or under the limitations on exclusive rights in sound recordings specified by section 114 (a) .” ”

“ We hold that resulting economic injury to a rival station is not in and of itself, and apart from considerations of public convenience, interest, or necessity, an element the petitioner must weigh and as to which it must make findings in passing on an application for a broadcasting license. ”

“ Therefore, as we have concluded, the State has not been deprived by federal legislation of the practical power to terminate the broadcastin service by a proper adjudication separating the physical property from the license. We think that State power is amply respected if it is qualified merely to the extent of requiring it to withhold execution of that portion of its decree requiring retransfer of the physical properties until steps are ordered to be taken, with all deliberate speed, to enable the Commission to deal with new applications in connection with the station. ”

“ Respondent derives income from the licensing of its patents, its policy being to license any and all responsible manufacturers of radio apparatus at a royalty rate which for many years has been approximately one percent. Petitioner manufactures radio apparatus, particularly radio broadcasting receivers.
The license agreement in issue, which appears to be a standard Hazeltine license, was entered into by the parties in September 1942, for a term of ten years. ”

“ Public Safety Radio Services.— Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall prevent a public safety service licensee from commencing operations consistent with the terms of its license on spectrum recovered as a result of the voluntary cessation of broadcasting in the analog or digital television service pursuant to subsection (a) . Any such public safety use shall be subject to the relevant Federal Communications Commission rules and regulations in effect on the date of enactment of this Act, including section 90.545 of the Commission's rules (47 C.F.R. 90.545) . ”

“ Section 307 (b) , note 1, supra, empowers the Commission to allow licenses so as to provide a fair distribution among communities. Fairness to communities is furthered by a recognition of local needs for a community radio mouthpiece. The distribution of a second license to a community in order to secure local competition for originating and broadcasting programs of local interest appears to us to be likewise within the allowable area of discretion. There are other instances of Commission use of community allocation of licenses to secure local means of expression. ”

“ In this connection, you will note that in the story Jack Hampton's father builds sending stations on Long Island and in New Mexico. This is unusual and requires explanation.
The tremendous growth of amateur receiving stations is due in part to the fact that such stations require no governmental license. A sending station, on the other hand, does require a license, and such license is not granted except upon good reasons being shown. ”

“ Since the Commission in exercising its licensing function must be governed by the public interest and not the private interest of existing licensees, an appellant under § 402 (b) (2) appears only to vindicate the public interest and not his own. Federal Communications Comm. v. Sanders Radio Bros. Station, 309 U.S. 470, 642, 60 S.Ct. 693, 84 L.Ed. 869, 1037; Scripps-Howard Radio, Inc., v. Federal Communications Comm., 316 U.S. 4, 62 S.Ct. 875, 86 L.Ed. 1229. That the Commission's order may impair the value of an existing station's license is in itself no ground for invalidating the order ”

“ They can relay messages for other radios. They can even try to detect the presence of dumb radio devices, like TVs and FM tuners, and grab the signal they’re meant to be receiving off of the Internet and pass it on, so that the dumb device doesn’t even realize that the world has moved on.
“Now, the original radio rules were supposed to protect free expression because if everyone was allowed to speak at once, no one would be heard. That may have been true, but it was a pretty poor system as it went: Mostly, the people who got radio licenses were cops, spooks, and media barons. ”

“ By any applicant for a construction permit for a radio station, or for a radio station license, or for renewal of an existing radio station license, or for modification of an existing radio station license, whose application is refused by the Commission.
' (2) By any other person aggrieved or whose interests are adversely affected by any decision of the Commission granting or refusing any such application. ”

“ A 'preexisting satellite digital audio radio service' is a subscription satellite digital audio radio service provided pursuant to a satellite digital audio radio service license issued by the Federal Communications Commission on or before July 31, 1998, and any renewal of such license to the extent of the scope of the original license, and may include a limited number of sample channels representative of the subscription service that are made available on a nonsubscription basis in order to promote the subscription service. ”

“ Appellees attempt to avoid the force of the italicized sentence in two ways. First, they point to its repeal in the 1952 amendments to the Act, 66 Stat. 716. That repeal was occasioned by objections from the industry that it was unfair for radio broadcasters who had been found in violation of the antitrust laws to be subject to license refusals by the Commission, even when the court as a part of its decree did not see fit to order the license revoked under § 313. See S.Rep. No. ”

“ It would be natural for the government, however, to give Mr. Hampton license to use a special wave length—such as 1,800 metres—for transoceanic radio experiments. Extension of the license to the New Mexico plant would follow.
THE AUTHOR.
DIRECTIONS FOR INSTALLING AN AMATEUR RADIO RECEIVING TELEPHONE
In order that the boy interested in radio telephony may construct his own receiving set, the Author herein will describe the construction of a small, cheap set which almost any lad handy at mechanics can build. ”

“ The basic consideration of policy underlying the Regulations is succinctly stated in its Report: 'With the number of radio channels limited by natural factors, the public interest demands that those who are entrusted with the available channels shall make the fullest and most effective use of them. If a licensee enters into a contract with a network organization which limits his ability to make the best use of the radio facility assigned him, he is not serving the public interest. ”

“ The act of 1927, c. 169, 44 Stat. pt. 2, p. 1162 (47 USCA §§ 81-119) , was enacted as a regulation of interstate and foreign radio communication; and it is in such activities that the company's broadcasting station is used. ”

“ On the argument it was conceded that, in broadcasting for its customers, appellant, by generating the necessary electric power and controlling the transmitter, produces the radio emanations which actuate the receiving mechanisms located in other states. Upon the facts alleged, we see no more basis for saying that appellant's customers o the broadcasting than for saying that a patron of a railroad or a telephone company alone conducts the commerce involved in his railroad journey or telephone conversation. ”

“ It is quite possible, of course, that maximum utilization of the radio as an instrument of culture, entertainment, and the diffusion of ideas is inhibited by existing network arrangements. Some of the conditions imposed by the broadcasting chains are possibly not conducive to a freer use of radio facilities, however essential they may be to the maintenance of sustaining programs and the operation of the chain broadcasting business as it is now conducted. But I am unable to agree that it is within the present authority of the Commission to prescribe the remedy for such conditions. ”

“ In actual practice, programs are transmitted by wire, usually leased telephone lines, from their point of origination to each station in the network for simultaneous broadcast over the air.↑ Station licenses issued by the Commission normally last two years. Section 3.34 of the Commission's Rules and Regulations governing Standard and High-Frequency Broadcast Stations, as amended October 14, 1941.↑ The history of federal regulation of radio communication is summarized in Herring and Gross, Telecommunications (1936) 239-86 ”

“ While the television industry is also a regulated industry, it is regulated in a very different way. That difference is controlling. Radio broadcasters, including television broadcasters, see Allen B. Dumont Laboratories v. Carroll, 3 Cir., 184 F.2d 153, are not included in the definition of common carriers in § 3 (h) of the Communications Act, 47 U.S.C. § 153 (h) , 47 U.S.C.A. § 153 (h) , as are telephone and telegraph companies. ”