Why did my favorite radio station fail?
 

I'm asking about 96.5 FM-KYPT in Seattle. From around January 2000
until Monday December 22nd 2003, it was an 80s station called The
Point. When it came online, there were a few stations that had a mix
of 70s, 80s, and more recent stuff, but after the others gradually
shifted to other eras of music. At the end, it was virtually the only
station in Seattle to have any 80s music at all, and the only one that
was 100% 80s music. Now it is an alternative/hard rock station called
K-ROCK. I personally don't think it's an improvement, as I dislike
alternative music intensely. I'm OK with hard rock, but it's not worth
dodging Nirvana and their copycats.

The station has never been very friendly in the customer relations
department as far as letting listeners know what is going on. About a
year and a half ago, they fired virtually their entire on-air staff
one day in the middle of the week with absolutely no warning to the
listeners or to the people who were getting the axe, I'm sure. When
people tuned in for the morning show the next day, there were two guys
who didn't know what the heck was going on fielding calls from
confused and irate listeners, and their web site was suddenly down for
several months 'for construction'. Their new web page at
www.965thepoint.com continues this trend by being decidedly
un-informative. I'm not asking why this station in particular changed
format, but rather what factors may have prompted the change (for the
worse, IMHO). The station is owned by Infinity Radio, which owns
several other stations in the area, though they don't have a monopoly.
Strangely enough, Infinity Radio owns another station in the same area
that has classic rock (KZOK), so it would seem that the audience would
overlap significantly.

It's rather saddening that the Seattle area will have no more free 80s
music. It doesn't effect me as much, as my car stereo (where I do 95%
of my radio listening) is Sirius satellite radio ready, and since they
have an all 80s channel, I've decided to activate with them. Still, I
will miss The Point's web site where they always had announcements
about which 80s bands were coming to the area, and the contests they
used to have to win tickets for the concerts.

--


If you can't figure out my address, you need help.

Girl gamer since 1984,

Atari/NES/Genesis/SNES/DC/GBA/GC/PS1-2/Xbox/PC gamer

Arklier wrote in message ...
I'm asking about 96.5 FM-KYPT in Seattle. From around January 2000
until Monday December 22nd 2003, it was an 80s station called The
Point. When it came online, there were a few stations that had a mix
of 70s, 80s, and more recent stuff, but after the others gradually
shifted to other eras of music. At the end, it was virtually the only
station in Seattle to have any 80s music at all, and the only one that
was 100% 80s music. Now it is an alternative/hard rock station called
K-ROCK. I personally don't think it's an improvement, as I dislike
alternative music intensely. I'm OK with hard rock, but it's not worth
dodging Nirvana and their copycats.

The station has never been very friendly in the customer relations
department as far as letting listeners know what is going on. About a
year and a half ago, they fired virtually their entire on-air staff
one day in the middle of the week with absolutely no warning to the
listeners or to the people who were getting the axe, I'm sure. When
people tuned in for the morning show the next day, there were two guys
who didn't know what the heck was going on fielding calls from
confused and irate listeners, and their web site was suddenly down for
several months 'for construction'. Their new web page at
www.965thepoint.com continues this trend by being decidedly
un-informative. I'm not asking why this station in particular changed
format, but rather what factors may have prompted the change (for the
worse, IMHO). The station is owned by Infinity Radio, which owns
several other stations in the area, though they don't have a monopoly.
Strangely enough, Infinity Radio owns another station in the same area
that has classic rock (KZOK), so it would seem that the audience would
overlap significantly.

In looking at the latest ratings from R&R, the station was the
lowest-rated FM in Infinity's Seattle cluster and had pretty much
stayed in the 2 area. Even though The End's ratings have been going
down, Infinity decided that there was still an audience for modern
rock--particularly in Nirvana and Pearl Jam's hometown--that could be
lured away from The End. And so Seattle now has a modern rock format
war raging. Also, the all-80s format's been dying out nationwide for
some time now.

I can understand why you're unhappy with the format changes, but the
nature of the business is such that most of the station owners don't
often want to tip their hands. Also, in the case of low-rated formats
like all-80s with an extremely loyal audience, they'd rather
immediately flip the format and get it over with rather than announce
the flip and risk backlash and campaigns to stop the switch. In the
end, Infinity thought that modern rock would do better for them than
all-80s. It may be disheartening to you, but that's the biz.

Sirius is terrific, but choosing a receiver or a service on the basis of the
band-readiness of your car stereo is a bad idea from the previous generation of
satellite radio equipment. You'll get more enjoyment from a Plug 'n Play unit
that lets you take the music from home to car to office. "XM-ready" or
"Sirius-ready" car stereos are ready only for a satellite-tuner of the same make
as the car stereo, one that limits your subscription to the vehicle. With luck
your receiver has auxiliary input, or perhaps the Sirius jack or the CD changer
jack can be deployed as an aux. Otherwise, PnP's work through the cassette deck
or through FM modulation, and there will be an appreciable hit in sound quality
compared to the car-dedicated unit you have planned for.

Suggestion: ask around at the "Install Garage" area at
www.siriusbackstage.com .

Jerome

"Arklier" wrote in message
...
It's rather saddening that the Seattle area will have no more free 80s
music. It doesn't effect me as much, as my car stereo (where I do 95%
of my radio listening) is Sirius satellite radio ready, and since they
have an all 80s channel, I've decided to activate with them. Still, I
will miss The Point's web site where they always had announcements
about which 80s bands were coming to the area, and the contests they
used to have to win tickets for the concerts.

On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 21:09:19 +0000, Arklier wrote:

I'm asking about 96.5 FM-KYPT in Seattle. From around January 2000
until Monday December 22nd 2003, it was an 80s station called The
Point. When it came online, there were a few stations that had a mix
of 70s, 80s, and more recent stuff, but after the others gradually
shifted to other eras of music. At the end, it was virtually the only
station in Seattle to have any 80s music at all, and the only one that
was 100% 80s music. Now it is an alternative/hard rock station called
K-ROCK. I personally don't think it's an improvement, as I dislike
alternative music intensely. I'm OK with hard rock, but it's not worth
dodging Nirvana and their copycats.


Because Invinity needed to do someting.
It's all about the money.
80's music has no listener appeal.

Ron

I'm sure satellite radio is great for tunes on the road but once locked into
Sirius or equiv how are you warned
that the road ahead is blocked by an overturned sewerage sludge carrier ?
Listen to channel 19 on the old CB radio ??? lol


--


Remove "zz" from e-mail address to direct reply.



"Cooperstown.Net" wrote in message
...
Sirius is terrific, but choosing a receiver or a service on the basis
of the
band-readiness of your car stereo is a bad idea from the previous
generation of
satellite radio equipment. You'll get more enjoyment from a Plug 'n Play
unit
that lets you take the music from home to car to office. "XM-ready" or
"Sirius-ready" car stereos are ready only for a satellite-tuner of the
same make
as the car stereo, one that limits your subscription to the vehicle. With
luck
your receiver has auxiliary input, or perhaps the Sirius jack or the CD
changer
jack can be deployed as an aux. Otherwise, PnP's work through the
cassette deck
or through FM modulation, and there will be an appreciable hit in sound
quality
compared to the car-dedicated unit you have planned for.

Suggestion: ask around at the "Install Garage" area at
www.siriusbackstage.com .

Jerome

"Arklier" wrote in message
...
It's rather saddening that the Seattle area will have no more free 80s
music. It doesn't effect me as much, as my car stereo (where I do 95%
of my radio listening) is Sirius satellite radio ready, and since they
have an all 80s channel, I've decided to activate with them. Still, I
will miss The Point's web site where they always had announcements
about which 80s bands were coming to the area, and the contests they
used to have to win tickets for the concerts.

On 1 Jan 2004 17:30:42 GMT, "Steve Stone"
wrote:

I'm sure satellite radio is great for tunes on the road but once locked into
Sirius or equiv how are you warned
that the road ahead is blocked by an overturned sewerage sludge carrier ?

Don't you have a sense of smell? I don't think there's a way to be
absolutely accurate in traffic reporting. I can't count the number of
times I've been returning to New York from a camping trip listening to
one of the all news stations and being told it's backed up for miles
as I breeze along at 65 (being passed by everyone else).

The converse has often been true. Everything is reported as clear as
we sit in bumper to bumper traffic long enough to wish we hadn't had
those last 3 cups of coffee or took the advice of that lady whose
husband is constipated.

Another traffic problem indicator is thick black smoke ahead. You can
assume you be communing with your car for an extended period. Yet
another nighttime clue is miles and miles of red lights ahead of you
that don't seem to be moving forward.

I now live in Western Massachusetts and have no hope during the day of
being told there's a flaming tanker truck heading my way. There's no
all news station and no one dares break away from Rush Limbaugh except
to run a few drug commercials.

I've found the absolute best traffic info comes from Ham Radio
operators chatting on repeaters as they watch their cars boil over.
Get a simple scanner and program the local 2 meter repeaters into it.
Most of the usual conversation is about gout and medical problems
until traffic takes over. It hasn't failed me, yet. As a Ham myself it
has the added advantage of providing me with local directions. Hams
are great people always willing to help even with something as simple
as finding the local carbohydrate palace.

Listen to channel 19 on the old CB radio ??? lol

Won't work. You'd be disrupting the search for hookers at truck stops.

Rich
KF2JO

"Steve Stone" wrote in message
...
I'm sure satellite radio is great for tunes on the road but once locked
into
Sirius or equiv how are you warned
that the road ahead is blocked by an overturned sewerage sludge carrier ?
Listen to channel 19 on the old CB radio ??? lol

CB Chan 19 is probably the best solution. Broadcast traffic reports hardly
ever helped me.

I listen to Metro Traffic, 455.95 mHz on my Beartrackers.

On 1 Jan 2004 19:10:23 GMT, "R J Carpenter" wrote:


"Steve Stone" wrote in message
...
I'm sure satellite radio is great for tunes on the road but once locked
into
Sirius or equiv how are you warned
that the road ahead is blocked by an overturned sewerage sludge carrier ?
Listen to channel 19 on the old CB radio ??? lol

CB Chan 19 is probably the best solution. Broadcast traffic reports hardly
ever helped me.

Rich - I've got the scoop on traffic reporting and other "breaking news" items on
broadcasting....in many cases, they're bogus.

Traffic reporting, as I've seen, experienced and even participated in, is often so
old that if you take the advice to avoid a backup, you'll often end up just adding
time and distance to your trip, since the cause of the backup and most of the backup
itself is already gone by the time you hear the report on the radio. The whole
reason why traffic reports exist on radio is to make it seem that you're getting
up-to-the-minute reports, and since the majority of the roads covered aren't used by
a specific commuter (how could it be otherwise) there's no way that individual
listeners can check on how accurate the reports really are, and when the alleged
backup on the road travlled seems to have evaporated, said listener simply thinks
they got lucky that time.

"Breaking news" is often as much as 6 hours old, with the major actor(s) already
apprehended or otherwise dealt with. And, as often as not, the newspaper story the
next day will have the actual story, whereas the field reporter, being so far from
reliable sources of information, will have gotten it wrong in the live shot,
breathlessly intro'ed by the blowdried anchor whose closest encounter with a real
news event was the time he was at the Orlando airport when a plane went down....in
Europe.

Yeah, I'm being snide. But these days, with localism all but gone in American radio,
it really is mostly smoke and mirrors. I'll admit that with the trafficams going up
in various major cities it may be easier for the information to be accurate and
timely, but without these tools, you might just as well have a field reporter (or DJ
aspirant...it seems the job of traffic reporter is often filled by failed jocks) call
in to the station while the sound effect of a helicopter plays in the background.
(And I hope I haven't revealed any trade secrets!)
--
For direct replies, take out the contents between the hyphens. -Really!-



"Rich Wood" wrote in message
...
On 1 Jan 2004 17:30:42 GMT, "Steve Stone"
wrote:

I'm sure satellite radio is great for tunes on the road but once locked into
Sirius or equiv how are you warned
that the road ahead is blocked by an overturned sewerage sludge carrier ?

Don't you have a sense of smell? I don't think there's a way to be
absolutely accurate in traffic reporting. I can't count the number of
times I've been returning to New York from a camping trip listening to
one of the all news stations and being told it's backed up for miles
as I breeze along at 65 (being passed by everyone else).

The converse has often been true. Everything is reported as clear as
we sit in bumper to bumper traffic long enough to wish we hadn't had
those last 3 cups of coffee or took the advice of that lady whose
husband is constipated.

Another traffic problem indicator is thick black smoke ahead. You can
assume you be communing with your car for an extended period. Yet
another nighttime clue is miles and miles of red lights ahead of you
that don't seem to be moving forward.

I now live in Western Massachusetts and have no hope during the day of
being told there's a flaming tanker truck heading my way. There's no
all news station and no one dares break away from Rush Limbaugh except
to run a few drug commercials.

I've found the absolute best traffic info comes from Ham Radio
operators chatting on repeaters as they watch their cars boil over.
Get a simple scanner and program the local 2 meter repeaters into it.
Most of the usual conversation is about gout and medical problems
until traffic takes over. It hasn't failed me, yet. As a Ham myself it
has the added advantage of providing me with local directions. Hams
are great people always willing to help even with something as simple
as finding the local carbohydrate palace.

Listen to channel 19 on the old CB radio ??? lol

Won't work. You'd be disrupting the search for hookers at truck stops.

Rich
KF2JO

"Arklier" wrote in message
...

shifted to other eras of music. At the end, it was virtually the only
station in Seattle to have any 80s music at all, and the only one that
was 100% 80s music. Now it is an alternative/hard rock station called
K-ROCK. I personally don't think it's an improvement, as I dislike
alternative music intensely. I'm OK with hard rock, but it's not worth
dodging Nirvana and their copycats.

Perhaps the format wasn't enabling them to make money, or if there were
profits, they may have been marginal.


The station has never been very friendly in the customer relations
department as far as letting listeners know what is going on. About a
year and a half ago, they fired virtually their entire on-air staff
one day in the middle of the week with absolutely no warning to the
listeners or to the people who were getting the axe, I'm sure.

It's traditional in the radio biz to NOT tip off anyone to major changes.
As a layman, I can only surmise some reasons for doing this -- one, they
don't want the staff to know, lest they bail out before their firing day,
or end up with a competitor before the format change, or worst of all,
organize campaigns to keep their jobs. There is also the concern that they
might do something on air before their termination; then again, if someone
did, it would lead to publicity for the station, which they might welcome.
It's a strange game, that radio biz.....

When
people tuned in for the morning show the next day, there were two guys
who didn't know what the heck was going on fielding calls from
confused and irate listeners

There was an instance where a local AM station fired the afternoon DJ / talk
show host in the MIDDLE OF HER SHIFT!!!!! She did a drive time DJ stint
from 3-6, then there was a break for news, and she normally did a talk
show from 6:15-7:30. She was promo'ing her talk segment, including
blurbs about an author who was going to be interviewed. When the news
ended, there was a satellator show on from Baltimore. How to handle the
calls? The station took the phone off the hook! (Very courageous move).


, and their web site was suddenly down for
several months 'for construction'. Their new web page at
www.965thepoint.com continues this trend by being decidedly
un-informative. I'm not asking why this station in particular changed
format, but rather what factors may have prompted the change (for the
worse, IMHO). The station is owned by Infinity Radio, which owns
several other stations in the area, though they don't have a monopoly.
Strangely enough, Infinity Radio owns another station in the same area
that has classic rock (KZOK), so it would seem that the audience would
overlap significantly.

It's rather saddening that the Seattle area will have no more free 80s
music. It doesn't effect me as much, as my car stereo (where I do 95%
of my radio listening) is Sirius satellite radio ready, and since they
have an all 80s channel, I've decided to activate with them. Still, I
will miss The Point's web site where they always had announcements
about which 80s bands were coming to the area, and the contests they
used to have to win tickets for the concerts.

--


If you can't figure out my address, you need help.

Girl gamer since 1984,

Atari/NES/Genesis/SNES/DC/GBA/GC/PS1-2/Xbox/PC gamer

"R J Carpenter" wrote in message
...

"Steve Stone" wrote in message
...
I'm sure satellite radio is great for tunes on the road but once locked
into
Sirius or equiv how are you warned
that the road ahead is blocked by an overturned sewerage sludge carrier
?
Listen to channel 19 on the old CB radio ??? lol

CB Chan 19 is probably the best solution. Broadcast traffic reports
hardly
ever helped me.

I accept Rich's suggestion of 2-m ham radio as being better.

On 2 Jan 2004 17:42:00 GMT, "Bob Haberkost"
wrote:

Rich - I've got the scoop on traffic reporting and other "breaking news" items on
broadcasting....in many cases, they're bogus.

Alas, I feel you're right.

"Breaking news" is often as much as 6 hours old, with the major actor(s) already
apprehended or otherwise dealt with. And, as often as not, the newspaper story the
next day will have the actual story, whereas the field reporter, being so far from
reliable sources of information, will have gotten it wrong in the live shot,
breathlessly intro'ed by the blowdried anchor whose closest encounter with a real
news event was the time he was at the Orlando airport when a plane went down....in
Europe.

While I think you're being too harsh with blown-dry anchors (there's
an entire hairdressing and makeup industry at stake) I would
occasionally listen to my NYC precinct's frequency. I was amazed often
at how quickly the police apprehended the person they were after. It
was old news before it got to be news.

In my new market we have an anchor who must be the wife of the owner.
She looks as though she just rolled out of bed. I can only imagine
what the show looks like in HDTV where Bondo as makeup no longer
works.

Rich

"Steve Stone" wrote in message
...
I'm sure satellite radio is great for tunes on the road but once locked into
Sirius or equiv how are you warned
that the road ahead is blocked by an overturned sewerage sludge carrier ?
Listen to channel 19 on the old CB radio ??? lol

Of course I'm no more 'locked into' a Sirius music stream than if I were
listening to any other station that doesn't report on the particular road I'm
riding.

I'm in dairy country, so the sniff test is not a reliable indicator of
oncoming sewage sludge. There'd be too many false positives. Likewise with a
couple of little kids in the car.

In a rural area, the local dial is good for a whiff of nostalgia, rather
than for actionable information on the road. Visiting NYC, traffic reports can
be used skillfully. Presets for traffic on the ones, fives and eights, and I
bounce from report to report to choose among competing routes.

Telematics is one of satellite radio's killer apps. I expect that in a
couple of years satellite receivers will be receiving traffic and weather
information text encoded from all over the country. Subscribers, having
previously punched in the routes and zones they're interested in, will obtain
that information on the road via synthesized voice over the music bed.

Jerome

On 2 Jan 2004 17:41:53 GMT, David wrote:

I listen to Metro Traffic, 455.95 mHz on my Beartrackers.

Hmm. As I recall scanners are illegal in cars in many states, several
surrounding New York. We know you wouldn't want to commit a crime, so
you'll remove it, I'm sure.

If you have a Ham license, you're exempted.

I'm not sure why you'd do that since it's available on nearly every
station in the city.

Rich

On 30 Dec 2003 20:07:36 GMT, "Ron Cole" wrote:

On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 21:09:19 +0000, Arklier wrote:

I'm asking about 96.5 FM-KYPT in Seattle. From around January 2000
until Monday December 22nd 2003, it was an 80s station called The
Point. When it came online, there were a few stations that had a mix
of 70s, 80s, and more recent stuff, but after the others gradually
shifted to other eras of music. At the end, it was virtually the only
station in Seattle to have any 80s music at all, and the only one that
was 100% 80s music. Now it is an alternative/hard rock station called
K-ROCK. I personally don't think it's an improvement, as I dislike
alternative music intensely. I'm OK with hard rock, but it's not worth
dodging Nirvana and their copycats.


Because Invinity needed to do someting.
It's all about the money.
80's music has no listener appeal.

I wouldn't say NO listener appeal. I listened to it all the time. I
have a bunch of 80s songs on CD (my CDs were stolen out of my car, so
I replaced them with downloaded copies of the same songs).

--


If you can't figure out my address, you need help.

Girl gamer since 1984,

Atari/NES/Genesis/SNES/DC/GBA/GC/PS1-2/Xbox/PC gamer

Who wants to listen to those crappy stations?

XM and Sirius are both launching traffic reports next month.

I am in the media. No one has ever questioned the appropriateness of
me having a mobile receiver. In fact, I can easily justify it with
any peace officer by telling the story of a deputy who bled to death
when his gun went off by accident and he severed a leg artery. His
partner did not know the groin pressure point and the man bled to
death.

Had a scanner user with first aid training been nearby that deputy
would still be alive.

On 3 Jan 2004 17:21:49 GMT, Rich Wood wrote:

On 2 Jan 2004 17:41:53 GMT, David wrote:

I listen to Metro Traffic, 455.95 mHz on my Beartrackers.

Hmm. As I recall scanners are illegal in cars in many states, several
surrounding New York. We know you wouldn't want to commit a crime, so
you'll remove it, I'm sure.

If you have a Ham license, you're exempted.

I'm not sure why you'd do that since it's available on nearly every
station in the city.

Rich

On 8 Jan 2004 15:21:45 GMT, David wrote:

I am in the media. No one has ever questioned the appropriateness of
me having a mobile receiver. In fact, I can easily justify it with
any peace officer by telling the story of a deputy who bled to death
when his gun went off by accident and he severed a leg artery. His
partner did not know the groin pressure point and the man bled to
death.

Had a scanner user with first aid training been nearby that deputy
would still be alive.

I think such laws are stupid. However, they were lobbied for by law
enforcement who believed criminals were tracking their movements and
knew when they were about to arrive. They were also concerend that the
media would monitor and interfere with their operation or expose
something that shouldn't happen.

A "peace officer" doesn't make the rules. If he sees a receiver
capable of receiving police and fire frequencies, he's supposed to
take action in those states that forbid scanners in cars. The same is
true for states that ban radar detectors.

With the no-code ham license an exemption is easy to get. Just show
the cop your license and you're free to go. The next time a cop shoots
himself, you'll be there to help.

There was a case in Cranford, NJ where a ham offered to help the
police track down someone who was causing malicious interference to
public safety services. They ended up charging him with doing it in
spite of the fact that it continued while he was in custody. Charges
were dropped after the ARRL assigned a lawyer (John Norton) to
represent him.

In my experience in the NY/NJ area it's been the "peace officer" who
is most against scanners. I wouldn't appeal to his "save my comrade"
sensibilities.

Rich

Nowadays cops use digital cellphones if they want to be secure from
the press.

I've never heard of anybody around here getting busted for having a
scanner. That sounds like crazy talk.

On 8 Jan 2004 18:20:21 GMT, Rich Wood wrote:

On 8 Jan 2004 15:21:45 GMT, David wrote:

I am in the media. No one has ever questioned the appropriateness of
me having a mobile receiver. In fact, I can easily justify it with
any peace officer by telling the story of a deputy who bled to death
when his gun went off by accident and he severed a leg artery. His
partner did not know the groin pressure point and the man bled to
death.

Had a scanner user with first aid training been nearby that deputy
would still be alive.

I think such laws are stupid. However, they were lobbied for by law
enforcement who believed criminals were tracking their movements and
knew when they were about to arrive. They were also concerend that the
media would monitor and interfere with their operation or expose
something that shouldn't happen.

A "peace officer" doesn't make the rules. If he sees a receiver
capable of receiving police and fire frequencies, he's supposed to
take action in those states that forbid scanners in cars. The same is
true for states that ban radar detectors.

With the no-code ham license an exemption is easy to get. Just show
the cop your license and you're free to go. The next time a cop shoots
himself, you'll be there to help.

There was a case in Cranford, NJ where a ham offered to help the
police track down someone who was causing malicious interference to
public safety services. They ended up charging him with doing it in
spite of the fact that it continued while he was in custody. Charges
were dropped after the ARRL assigned a lawyer (John Norton) to
represent him.

In my experience in the NY/NJ area it's been the "peace officer" who
is most against scanners. I wouldn't appeal to his "save my comrade"
sensibilities.

Rich

On 9 Jan 2004 15:44:15 GMT, David wrote:

Nowadays cops use digital cellphones if they want to be secure from
the press.

I've never heard of anybody around here getting busted for having a
scanner. That sounds like crazy talk.

Check with the ARRL. They'll quote you all the cities and states where
the police wanted scanners and VHF and UHF ham radios banned in
vehicles. Just because no one has been busted doesn't mean the laws
aren't on the books.

I agree it's crazy talk, but from the police.

The New Jersey scanner law:

397. EQUIPPING MOTOR VEHICLES WITH RADIO RECEIVING SETS CAPABLE OF
RECEIVING SIGNALS ON THE FREQUENCIES ALLOCATED FOR POLICE USE.

A person, not a police officer or peace officer, acting pursuant to
his special duties, who equips a motor vehicle with a radio receiving
set capable of receiving signals on the frequencies allocated for
police use or knowingly uses a motor vehicle so equipped or who in any
way knowingly interferes with the transmission of radio messages by
the police without having first secured a permit to do so from the
person authorized to issue such a permit by the local governing body
or board of the city, town or village in which such person resides, or
where such person resides outside of a city, or village in a county
having a county police department by the board of supervisors of such
county, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not exceeding
one thousand dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or
both. Nothing in this section contained shall be construed to apply to
any person who holds a valid amateur radio operator's license issued
by the federal communications commission and who operates a duly
licensed portable mobile transmitter and in connection therewith a
receiver or receiving set on frequencies exclusively allocated by the
federal communications commission to duly licensed radio amateurs.

Crazy talk, all right, but legal crazy talk.

Rich

Yeah. I'm aware that such laws exist. But wouldn't you get laughed
off the force for busting somebody for having a radio?

I can see where it might be an aggravating circumstance attendant to a
serious crime.

On 10 Jan 2004 18:31:55 GMT, Rich Wood wrote:

On 9 Jan 2004 15:44:15 GMT, David wrote:

Nowadays cops use digital cellphones if they want to be secure from
the press.

I've never heard of anybody around here getting busted for having a
scanner. That sounds like crazy talk.

Check with the ARRL. They'll quote you all the cities and states where
the police wanted scanners and VHF and UHF ham radios banned in
vehicles. Just because no one has been busted doesn't mean the laws
aren't on the books.

I agree it's crazy talk, but from the police.

The New Jersey scanner law:

397. EQUIPPING MOTOR VEHICLES WITH RADIO RECEIVING SETS CAPABLE OF
RECEIVING SIGNALS ON THE FREQUENCIES ALLOCATED FOR POLICE USE.

A person, not a police officer or peace officer, acting pursuant to
his special duties, who equips a motor vehicle with a radio receiving
set capable of receiving signals on the frequencies allocated for
police use or knowingly uses a motor vehicle so equipped or who in any
way knowingly interferes with the transmission of radio messages by
the police without having first secured a permit to do so from the
person authorized to issue such a permit by the local governing body
or board of the city, town or village in which such person resides, or
where such person resides outside of a city, or village in a county
having a county police department by the board of supervisors of such
county, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine not exceeding
one thousand dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding six months, or
both. Nothing in this section contained shall be construed to apply to
any person who holds a valid amateur radio operator's license issued
by the federal communications commission and who operates a duly
licensed portable mobile transmitter and in connection therewith a
receiver or receiving set on frequencies exclusively allocated by the
federal communications commission to duly licensed radio amateurs.

Crazy talk, all right, but legal crazy talk.

Rich