Tired of incessant right wing talk? Then help us zap the talk radio empires with the Zapple Doctrine

[richardmyers]

Tired of incessant right wing talk? Then help us zap the talk radio empires with the Zapple Doctrine

In 2007, conservative talk radio comprised 91 percent of the talk radio spectrum. It seems that hasn't changed much, and it may be getting worse; four progressive talk stations have been shut down just since the 2012 election.

Imagine that the great talk radio empires of the right are protected by vast networks of castles with moats. Right wing talkers in their boundless hordes man the parapets, shouting down to the populace how conservative political principles are vastly superior to anything espoused by those few voices on the left. And any progressive talk radio voice may be hushed simply by arranging schedule to stifle their message.

In essence, that's what we see in the talk radio environment. In the absence of any sort of fairness doctrine (which was throttled during the Reagan administration, and the last vestiges of which were eliminated just last year), this circumstance of right wing dominance is perpetuated around the clock, week after week, year after year.

But there is a law still on the books, narrowly drawn and with specific purpose, that seeks not cultural fairness, but electoral fairness for a specific period (sixty days) just prior to any electoral contest. Unlike the moribund and in some quarters controversial Fairness Doctrine, the Zapple Doctrine is described by the Broadcast Law Blog as "potentially [having] some vitality".

More right wing talk radio, and Zapple Doctrine, at the link.

[DreamGypsy]

1. Jamming Rush Limbaugh

A few years ago we installed a variable frequency drive for our 40 HP irrigation pump. VFD's are energy saving electronic devices that change the frequency of the current supplied to the load - for example from normal 60 HZ to 51.3 HZ. When used with a pump there is usually a feedback loop with a sensor so the flow is maintained at a set constant pressure.

From Wikipedia:

Many fixed-speed motor load applications that are supplied direct from AC line power can save energy when they are operated at variable-speed, by means of VFD. Such energy cost savings are especially pronounced in variable-torque centrifugal fan and pump applications, where the loads' torque and power vary with the square and cube, respectively, of the speed. This change gives a large power reduction compared to fixed-speed operation for a relatively small reduction in speed. For example, at 63% speed a motor load consumes only 25% of its full speed power. This is in accordance with affinity laws that define the relationship between various centrifugal load variables.

We operated the VFD for one season without problems, but early in the next year's irrigation cycle we had a visit from the local electrical utility company. I was outside and noticed a utility truck driving up and down the road beside our fields, occasionally stopping for the passenger to get out and walk around. After a while the truck drove up to the barn.

The utility had received a complaint from a customer living about a mile or so from our farm. Apparently this neighbor had recently been troubled by severe static when listening to his AM radio in the morning. He was upset because ... you guessed it ... he couldn't get his daily dose of Rush. The FCC requires that utility companies respond to this type of complaint, so the utility guys had been driving around the power lines in the vicinity taking measurements of the static, trying to track down the source.

When they told me the story and that their measurements seemed to indicate my VFD as a likely candidate for the problem, I asked the obvious question:

Wow. Is there any way I can increase the range of the interference to cover the whole U.S. grid???

They smiled (a bit sympathetically I suspect) then explained that the utility had to respect tastes of all its customers, da-da da-da da-da. I agreed to meet with one of their power engineers to investigate the problem.

We messed around with grounds for the drive...installing a couple of rods 6 ft deep and ensuring that the ground on the well casing was intact. Didn't seem to reduce the noise.

A few months later a utility lift truck came up road. They needed to shut off our power temporarily, saying they were in the area installing some required 'enhancements'. I haven't heard any more about the issue.

So, I did my little bit to try and 'zap' the RW mouthpieces. Sorry it didn't scale.