Fire in wood stove takes NH microcaster off the air

The studio and transmitter of community broadcaster WXGR-LP Dover NH (http://www.recnet.com/cgi-bin/lpfm/fmq.cgi?input_type=facid&facid=126947) was destroyed by a fire.

WXGR-LP, operated by an organization called "Gritty" (as in "nitty-gritty") was only on the air for about a month playing music as well as international programming from World Radio Network.

The fire was caused by a wood stove in the building that was provided at no charge to Gritty. The loss was uninsured. Gritty is funded to recover the costs of the equipment lost but the loss of the donated building is estimated at $80,000. The organization is trying to raise funds to recoup the loss.

Photos of the fire can be found at http://www.wxgr.org

REC Networks has announced a new program that will start airing on Hardcore J, REC's streaming broadcast that plays Japanese popular music.

Listeners will be able to enter 10 JPOP songs that were once played on Hardcore J but are no longer played. Hardcore J will then play all ten songs on a weekend program and then the songs requested will be inserted into the playlist rotation for the rest of the week.

Hardcore J is now taking suggestions for upcoming episides of "My 10 Songs".

REC considers the ability to send and receive Morse code in the Amateur Radio Service as an operating skill...

REC considers the ability to send and receive Morse code in the Amateur Radio Service as an operating skill just as the operation of a station in the Amateur-Satellite service or the operation of various modes such as Amateur Television (ATV) or Earth-Moon-Earth (EME).

Even though not every amateur licensee would ever operate some of these modes, they are questioned about these modes on the written examination.

MB Docket 03-130: Definition of Radio Markets Outside Arbitron Radio Survey Areas

Even though the media concentration rules of the FCC have been overturned, that order did spawn a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to inquire on how markets will be defined in areas outside the areas surveyed by Arbitron.

In our comments, we rebutted the FCC's proposal to use county boundaries to define media markets. REC counterproposed markets that actually reflect the coverage of clusters of stations that serve the same area.

REC defines specific market areas in Southern California and Arizona.

Supports elimination of third adjacent and limited second adjacent requirements

REC has filed comments with the FCC on the 700+ page report by the MITRE Corporation in respect to third-adjacent channel protection in respect to Low Power FM (LPFM) broadcast stations.

This report was ordered by Congress as a part of the passage of the Radio Broadcast Protection Act, the legislation that imposed third adjacent channel restrictions on LPFM stations.

In our comments, we supported the elimination of third adjacent channel restrictions to domestic FM full power and translator stations.

We have addressed several of the issues brought up in the MITRE report.