Summary: In April of 2014, federal agents raided the studios of 106.1 TOUCH FM in Boston, Massachusetts. They took turntables, microphones, transmitters, pretty much everything. The reason was simple: the radio station was operating without a license. But that raises questions: could the owner get a license? If not, why not? And why did he need one in the first place?<br><br><br><blockquote>Just because something’s law, doesn't make it right. I like to call us the Rosa Parks of radio. The Harriet Tubman of radio. The Nat Turner of radio. The Malcolm X of radio. Everyone deserves a voice.<br><br>-- Charles Clemons<br>This is a story about how radio regulation has evolved over its one-hundred year history, and whose interests that regulation serves. It is also a story of media diversity -- of two independent and black-owned radio stations that once broadcast on Boston’s airwaves, but have been silenced.</blockquote><br><br>Finally, it is the story of Greg Lawson -- a man who always keeps the radio on, and listened as the stations he depended on disappeared, one after the other.<br><a href="http://www.lifeofthelaw.org/wp-content/uploads/divider.png"></a><strong>Suggested Reading<br></strong><br><ul> <li><a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/static/the-titanics-role-in-radio-reform">The Titanic’s Role in Radio Reform</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/04/17/federal-agents-shutter-unlicensed-station-touch-mainstay-african-american-community/FwUAmBjkW314GNH9nJ7RlO/story.html">Unlicensed Grove Hall radio station shuttered</a></li> <li><a href="http://thenewpress.com/books/rich-media-poor-democracy">Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times</a></li> <li> <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10714421.2010.502806?journalCode=gcrv20">A Political-Economic History of FCC Policy on Minority Broadcast Ownership</a><a href="http://www.lifeofthelaw.org/wp-content/uploads/divider.png"></a> </li> </ul><strong>Production Notes<br></strong><br><em>Radio Silenced </em>was reported and produced by Ian Coss and edited by Nancy Mullane, <em>Life of the Law's </em>Executive Producer. The story's Senior Producer was Tony Gannon. Our Post Production Editors are Kirsten Jusewicz-Haidle and Rachael Cain.<br><br><br>We want to thank Jason Loviglio, Chair and Associate Professor of Media and Communication Studies at the University of Maryland for sharing his scholarship. Professor Loviglio is the author of <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/radioas-intimate-public"><em>Radio’s Intimate Public: Network Broadcasting and Mass-Mediated Democracy</em></a><em>.</em><br><br><br>Our engineer was Howard Gelman of KQED Radio in San Francisco. Music in this episode was composed and produced by Ian Coss.<br><br><a href="http://www.lifeofthelaw.org/2017/02/radio-silenced-transcript/">Transcript of <em>Radio Silence<br></em></a><br><br><br><br>
