WWeek reports on the shutdown of illegal pirate station PRA, formerly broadcasting on 100 watts at 96.7 FM, and works in a dig at the O--what, is it mandatory now?
All the city's major publications have written about PRA. Despite all this publicity, the station went off the air only once, for a week last year, when it learned the FCC was downtown hunting for the source of the station's signal. The government agency, they believed, had been tipped off by an Oregonian article written by Margie Boulé that offhandedly mentioned the station frequency. ...
So when another Oregonian writer, freelancer Lee Williams, came calling to write about PRA last month, Riehle says he was willing to talk if the story focused on PRA's year-old Web radio station and would not mention the illegal FM broadcast. Despite the fact that the radio's illegal status is both a valid and more compelling news story, Williams agreed.
But when the story appeared in the O's Feb. 24 A&E section, it not only mentioned the FM signal but focused on the station's illegal activities, quoting Riehle as saying, "We've made it very easy for the FCC to say stop.... And when they do, we will." The article also included a paraphrased quote from Riehle stating that a broadcast license was "not expensive," making it appear that PRA simply chose not to obtain one. Riehle told WW that he was misquoted. Technically, licenses are cheap—if you can find one to buy, he says, adding that, in Portland, all frequencies are claimed.
Elg says that those quotes "read like we were waving the station in the FCC's face."
Williams agrees that a deal was struck with PRA, but says the terms had changed."Brian originally said, 'Don't put in the FM broadcast 96.7,'" Williams told Riff City. "That was one of the ground rules.... Later he asked me, 'What's your take on this gonna be?' and I said I was gonna mention 96.7, and he said go ahead."
Hey Lyn, you're doing a great job of reprinting stuff from WWeek. Keep it up!