Sad Sad day for free speech

[Name]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

I don't have a problem with the FCC putting certain limits on what can be said or done on publicly owned airwaves, my problem is that enforcement is inconsistent and the rules are frequently inane and contradictory.

I'm not particularly clear on why Sirius and the other one are exempt from FCC regulation. Yes, you have to pay to listen and special equipment is needed but they must still be broadcasting over segments of EM band licensed from the government (unlike cable, which circumvents the physically limited publicly-owned medium completely).

Could a traditional radio station avoid FCC sanction if they encrypted their signal and distributed decrypting equipment?

Its actually very similar to cable, as there is a lot of bandwidth within that on frequency that they shoot down, they can put a lot of channels on one frequency, so there is a lot less of a perceived scarcity of frequency band... snot much different then satellite TV, only they can probably fit a lot more channels on satellite radio then they can on satellite TV....