Guy Wire wrote about me and Radio Goldfield in Radio World Engineering Extra (“New Options for Pirates and LPFM,” April 4). I’d like to provide a different perspective on this case, which has generated so much attention.
Sen. Harry Reid is a statesman, not a politician. Big difference. A senator works for his constituents. So I placed a call to one of his aides in his Las Vegas office. She was unable to return my call. However, a Washington aide to the senator called me at midnight Eastern time, which is 9 p.m. our time. I was very impressed.
I guess it’s about time people look over the candidates running for office before they elect them. You see, Sen. Reid is from a small town (Searchlight, Nev.) and he knows what it’s like to be unable to broadcast local events like ball games, etc. Sen. Reid is just doing what the voters wanted. Is there something wrong with that?
We have one station 30 miles away in Tonopah, KHWK(FM), which broadcasts intermittently. When I went on the air there was not a station in Tonopah; for months it was silent. Then it came on with hard rock music, in an older population area. No IDs whatsoever, with 30 seconds of dead air between songs. I called it “knit-a-sweater-radio” between songs. And yes, parts of Tonopah can hear us and listen because we also ran, and now run, community announcements for that area.
As I stated in Radio Goldfield Broadcasting Inc.’s reply to the law firm of LS&L’s attempt to shut us down, it wasn’t my ego thinking I could do better then the local commercial FCC licensed stations. It’s just that there aren’t any!
Would I have done the same thing in San Francisco or Las Vegas? Of course not. For the most part they have stations serving the public. We had no local stations.
So for the most part I agree with Guy Wire’s opinions.
Now for some geographical data: Nevada has more mountain ranges than any other state, including Alaska. High-power FM is senseless here, even AM, as the soil is very alkaline, providing poor grounding for AM. Our elevation is 5,860 feet. Summit to the south is 6,280; summit to the north is about the same.
Our antenna authorized by the FCC is 26 meters (85.3 feet), 1,700 meters below the average terrain. We are in a bowl at the top of a mountain. The signal is not getting out far, but farther then if you are in a city because there is not a first, second, third, fourth adjacency.
I did not start Radio Goldfield to set a precedent. My motive was to provide information for the health, safety and welfare of this small community, and motorists traveling on State Route 95, the only highway connecting Las Vegas to Carson City, Reno, etc.
In conclusion, let’s examine some other factors facing our area. Nevada test site Area 51 misfired a missile a few years ago and came within 10 miles of hitting the town of Goldfield. I ask you: Do we need communications for the people here?
And now comes the Yucca Mountain Project to store depleted nuclear waste from all over the country. Yucca Mountain is about 68 miles from Goldfield. Trucks hauling all the nation’s nuclear waste will be traveling through our neighborhood via State Route 95. Sen. Reid says it won’t happen; however, billions of dollars have been spent on this project already. Should Goldfield have communications for the people here?
Come on, let’s wake up and quit painting this country with a broad brush. The country wants to store its nuclear waste in our mountains but doesn’t want us to have any communications. The Hon. Harry Reid thought differently, and the FCC obviously felt the same. The FCC is just doing the job Congress intended it to do.
However, on the other side we have a monstrous huge law firm, LS&L representing the corporate Borgs trying to run the government to satisfy their big-money commercial clients, with absolutely no concern for the life, safety and welfare of this community, or motorist traveling SR 95.
