Tube City Almanac

October 17, 2007

Radio is a Sound Salvation

Category: Mon Valley Miscellany, Politics || By

I chipped in my nickel on the WDUQ controversy today over at Pittsburgh Radio & TV Online.

By the way, a few people (very few) have asked me recently: Whatever happened to the effort to bring a public radio station to the Mon-Yough area?

Briefly, the group that I'm involved with, called Lightning Community Broadcasting Inc., applied for a license back in 2001. We even approached the Redevelopment Authority of the City of McKeesport about acquiring space in The People's Building, and putting the transmitter on the roof. (I still think that's a good idea.)

But at the urging of the broadcasting lobby (and National Public Radio), the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress ignored the scientific data the FCC had collected and said small, 100-watt FM stations would cause too much interference.

That blocked our application and thousands of others, and the FCC was forced to reject them.

This was the first time, but not the last, that Republicans in Washington rejected scientific evidence in favor of something being spoon-fed to them by lobbyists.

(Ahem. Sorry, a little political editorializing crept in. Herbert Hoover, shown above while listening to Jack Bogut, would not approve.)

Anyway, with the change from Republican to Democratic control of Congress, legislators are trying to roll back the restrictions. U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Swissvale) is leading the effort, at the urging of Penn State Greater Allegheny Campus in McKeesport.

Back in 2000, our group was working with Penn State to apply for a shared license; Penn State ultimately decided to apply for its own license.

Well, in August of this year, we voted to help Penn State Greater Allegheny with their effort to get a radio license in any way that we can, including fundraising and technical help. We've written to their student-run Internet radio station (WMKP) and their faculty adviser with that offer, and we're waiting for a response.

When I hear more, I'll let you know. The comment line is open. What's on, your mind?






Your Comments are Welcome!

If the license ever goes through, sign me up as a politcal call-in show host!
Paul Shelly (URL) - October 17, 2007



“that Republicans in Washington rejected scientific evidence “

You seem to like only some scientific evidence.
doug - October 17, 2007



Count me in whenever your license is approved. I would be proud to host a program dedicated to veterans and their families. Agenda could be starting or expanding a small business, veterans advocacy and readjustment to civillian life after deployment.
Donn Nemchick - October 18, 2007



Ah, Doug, I missed you.

Yes, I am biased. I like scientific evidence actually done by scientists, as opposed to “experts” from The Creation Institute, the Family Research Council and ExxonMobil.

I also like my law done by lawyers from law schools other than Liberty University.

Call me a stodgy old fool.

Donn and Paul, those are both good ideas. But we’re a long way from printing bumper stickers, and if any license gets approved, it’s liable to be PSGA’s, not ours.

If this thing ever flies … whether it’s a community radio station, a college radio station, or something in between … it will need a lot of “sweat equity” to make it work.
Webmaster (URL) - October 18, 2007



The “scientific evidence” that supports theories of human-induced global warming is very much in question, and that questioning is lead by leading, actual scientists who have studied and worked their entire lives in the field. These people are actual leaders in the field and are at leading institutions around the world like MIT, Cambridge, etc. etc.

The only thing that is “settled” about the issue is that there is actual warming occurring. That is neither shocking nor disastrous. Science has known for a very, very long time that the earth cools and warms in cycles. Al Gore is not a scientist, and his movie is a farce. There are plenty of climate scientists around the world in academia and government who have said so, but they are always casually dismissed as “deniers” as if that term somehow equates to “liar”.

Global warming is BIG BUSINESS and the same folks who are profitting from this scare were the ones screaming in the 1970s that another ice age was upon us. But don’t believe me, look it up in the NY Times archives.

Yes, this is my particular field of expertise. I’ve been a certified meteorological and oceanographic forecaster for over 25 years.
Bulldog - October 18, 2007



Back in the 1970s, people were buying 8-track tapes and polyester leisure suits, too.

Luckily, fashion changed. So did technology. So has science.

You don’t think computer modeling and climatological analysis has improved since the 1970s?

Should we also go back to predicting weather based on weather balloons and barometers instead of radar and satellite imaging?

Sorry, Bulldog, with all due respect, I ain’t buying what you’re selling. Neither is anyone else in the world:

“The main human influence on global climate is emissions of the key greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide. The accumulation of these gases in the atmosphere strengthens the greenhouse effect. At present, just over 7 billion tonnes of CO2 is emitted globally each year through fossil fuel use, and an additional 1.6 billion tonnes are emitted by land use change, largely by deforestation. The concentrations of these gases in the atmosphere have now reached levels unprecedented for tens of thousands of years.”
—- U.K. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

“Our problem today is that the concentration of greenhouse gases, especially of carbon dioxide (CO2), in the atmosphere has risen too much due to the process of industrialization over the past 150 years. Emissions from industry, private households and traffic are constantly increasing this concentration and our atmosphere is heating up to an unnaturally high level.”
—- German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety

“Looking back over the history of the Earth and humanity, we find that fossil resources such as coal and oil buried around the world have been accumulated by living organisms through gradual fixation of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere over dozens and hundreds of million years. We, the human beings, however, have been rapidly burning up these precious resources in the just over 200 years since the industrial revolution, releasing enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.”
—- Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda

Only in the United States are we still debating this. And even in the U.S., it’s a very small minority of people who are debating it:

“Human activity has been increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (mostly carbon dioxide from combustion of coal, oil, and gas; plus a few other trace gases). There is no scientific debate on this point.” (Emphasis added.)
—- U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
Webmaster - October 18, 2007



and no, it’s not only in the United States…

As reported by United Press International…

“University of Copenhagen Professor Bjarne Andresen has analyzed the topic in collaboration with Canadian Professors Christopher Essex from the University of Western Ontario and Ross McKitrick of the University of Guelph.

It is generally assumed the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans have grown warmer during the recent 50 years because of an upward trend in the so-called global temperature, which is the result of complex calculations and averaging of air temperature measurements taken around the world.

“It is impossible to talk about a single temperature for something as complicated as the climate of Earth,” said Andresen, an expert on thermodynamics. “A temperature can be defined only for a homogeneous system. Furthermore, the climate is not governed by a single temperature. Rather, differences of temperatures drive the processes and create the storms, sea currents, thunder, etc. which make up the climate”.

He says the currently used method of determining the global temperature — and any conclusion drawn from it — is more political than scientific.

The argument is presented in the Journal of Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics.”

And there are Danish climate researchers Henrik Svensmark and Eigil Friis-Christensen.
Bulldog - October 18, 2007



Bulldog, this is tiresome.

Henrik Svensmark’s work has been debunked:
http://www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk/content/h844264320314105/

So has the work of Andresen, Essex and McKitrick:
http://rabett.blogspot.com/2007/03/open-book-test-in-comments-over-at.html
http://timlambert.org/2005/07/climate-audiot/

I can find fringe scientists to support many outrageous claims, including those of Scientology, Rev. Moon and the Flat Earth Society. That doesn’t make them so.

The body of scientific knowledge is heavily on the side of global climate change, and that human activity is having a measurable effect.
Webmaster - October 18, 2007



Also, you guys are commenting on the wrong damned Almanac entry.

Global warming was the day before:
http://www.tubecityonline.com/almanac/entry_839.php

Sheesh. You crazy kids!

Let’s confine the comments here to radio, WDUQ and Herbert Hoover.
Webmaster - October 18, 2007



O.k., my mistake. It was responding to the comments posted above that I think were in reference to “Republicans in Washington rejected scientific.”

I’ll agree to disagree on the rest of it because I can’t have a discussion where you claim that posters on a blog “debunk” anything. As for the Royal Journal article, it didn’t completely debunk Svensmark work, and it should be noted that some of the crucial data that it relied upon by J Hansen (NASA 1999) was proven this summer to have been tampered with thereby calling into question that part of the article.
Bulldog - October 18, 2007



(sigh)

OK, Bulldog, try this on for size.

Christopher Essex and Ross McKitrick are paid experts for something called the Heartland Institute.

The Heartland Institute is funded by oil companies, car manufacturers and tobacco companies. The board of directors is made of people like options traders (William Higginson), the director of economic policy for General Motors (Tom Walton) and the manager of industry affairs at Philip Morris (Roy Marden):

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=10584

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartland_Institute

Seriously, is this the best you can do?

Citing research funded by special interest groups for major polluters and commodities traders?

John 11:35!

Any more comments on global warming will be deleted. I’m too busy to spend all day shooting fish in this particular barrel.

Unless you have something to say specifically about McKeesport or the Mon Valley, please go play someplace else for a while, OK?
Webmaster - October 18, 2007



Herbert Hoover just LOVED “Legendary Chicken Fairy.”
Bob (URL) - October 18, 2007



Herbert Hoover also used to go to KDKA’s spaghetti breakfast in Market Square. Somewhere I have a picture of him and John Cigna, doing the Charleston and sharing a “farkleberry tart.”
Webmaster - October 18, 2007



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