the shrewdness of apes

last week, Radio Free Brattleboro - southern Vermont's bastion of free-form, commercial-free, independent radio and home to brother DJ Audible's weekly adventures in thematic programming - was raided by the FCC in a pre-emptive strike that came despite the fact that a federal court judge in Brattleboro had yet to rule on the pending litigation between the two parties, and despite previous assurances from the FCC that no seizure would take place until a ruling was issued. the FCC has a class of licenses for low power, 10-watt stations, but have never solicited applications to actually grant any of the licenses, meaning rfb had no way of acquiring a license other than through court proceedings which the FCC has now pre-empted. the whole morass is all too sickeningly believable. for a bit more on this saga, and a good resource for the underground radio scene, check out diymedia.net.