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NAMING NAMES
So...quick quiz:
What do WBPX Channel 68 in Boston and WAMI Channel 69 in Miami have to do with terrorism and your safety?
According to former leaders of the 9/11 Commission -- now the 9/11 Public Discourse Project -- quite a bit.
Mary Fetchet, whose 24-year-old son Brad was killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center, wipes away tears as she listens to members of the 9/11 Public Discourse Project
AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari
Today, more than four years after 9/11, both Democrats and Republicans on the former Commission slammed the Bush Administration and the U.S. Congress for failing to enact most of the Commissions 41 recommendations to improve homeland security and better prevent/prepare for a terrorist attack.
One of their major areas of criticism today -- one of the many "F" grades -- is the fact that there is not one unified spectrum on which first responders can communicate.
"It really approaches scandal to think that, four years after 9/11, the police and the fire cannot talk to one another at the scene of the disaster," said former congressman and former Commission co-chair Lee Hamilton. "They could not do it on 9/11, and as a result of that, lives were lost. They could not do it at Katrina. They still cannot do it."
And while former Commissioner and New Jersey Governor Tom Kean noted that Congress was working to remedy the situation, he added that "the best hope we have is a bill that fixes it by 2009."
AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari
Says the report in its first entry: "Both the House and the Senate bills contain a 2009 handover date [for the spectrum space] -- too distant given the urgency of the threat. A 2007 handover date would make the American people safer sooner."
As I noted in an earlier post, Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., and Congresswoman Jane Harman, D-Calif., have cited un-named television broadcasters who use the frequencies first responders want to use -- Channels 63, 64, 68 and 69 -- as holding up this legislation for years.
So who are we talking about? Which big broadcasters?
I'm told by Congressional sources that the big stations that would be affected by giving those spectrum numbers are the family-friendly PAX and Spanish-speaking UNIVISON, as well as some other broadcasters in particular markets.
I wonder if the family friendly and minority nature of these stations have anything to do with the politicians' reluctance to name them?
Or is it just that it's more nefarious-sounding to call them "big broadcasters"?
Of its dozens of stations, PAX, which has a new name, owns 17 stations with channel numbers in the 60s. That includes Boston's WBPX Channel 68.
Univision owns and operates 63 television stations in major U.S. Hispanic markets and Puerto Rico; I'm not sure how many of its channel numbers are in the 60s. Miami's WAMI Channel 69 appears to be one of them.
A spokesman for PAX could not be reached for comment. A spokesman for Univision declined to comment.
I would suspect no network would want to give up their channels even with compensation. And I don't believe the U.S. government wants to pay any compensation since, after all, the airwaves belong to you and me.
Anyway, that's who it is.
More from PAX and Univision when and if they get back to me. (Hint: don't hold your breath.)
Best
Jake
