Court rules against rfb
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By DANIEL BARLOW Southern Vermont Bureau - Published: April 11, 2006
BRATTLEBORO — Radio free brattleboro's three-year court battle against the Federal Communication Commission has ended in defeat.
Federal Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha granted summary judgment in favor of the FCC on March 31 and ruled that the now-defunct community radio station can never resume broadcasting without a federal license.
Murtha's 12-page ruling also prohibits "all persons in active concert or participation" with the former 10-watt radio station in Brattleboro from going back to the airwaves without a license or waiver from the federal government.
An attorney for the former station said an appeal is not anticipated at this time.
"The government is pleased with the judge's ruling," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Drescher, who prosecuted the case for the FCC. "This ruling gives the government the relief that it has been seeking."
The legal battle began when the FCC forced the station off the air in June 2003 after receiving complaints its broadcasts interfered with a Massachusetts-based public radio station.
Members of the station turned to the community and received resolutions of support from town meeting and the Brattleboro Select Board before resuming broadcasts. They argued in court documents that the FCC benefited large corporations at the expense of community radio.
Last summer, Murtha asked both sides to come to a settlement in the matter, although members of the former station said those talks fell apart because the resolution could set a legal precedence that would hurt other small stations' efforts.
"In essence, the FCC and rfb agreed to disagree," station attorney James Maxwell said.
Murtha also denied two motions filed by Maxwell relating to the FCC's June 2005 seizure of station equipment during an early morning raid led by U.S. marshals.
Maxwell sought to have the two cases consolidated and asked the court to rule that the FCC was in contempt because it sought the search warrant from a Burlington court while proceedings were occurring before another judge in Brattleboro.
One of Maxwell's motions was successful, however. The name of Larry Bloch, a Brattleboro businessman and one of the co-founders of rfb, was removed as the sole defendant in the case.
Federal officials had targeted Bloch specifically because his name appeared on the station's incorporation papers when registering as a nonprofit. Maxwell argued Bloch should not be held responsible because the station was run as a collective using consensus to come to decisions.
Although the radio station was not successful in its court battle, Maxwell said the Brattleboro station was the first unlicensed radio entity to seek and obtain a town-wide resolution in support of it continuing to broadcast.
That and other techniques used could be replicated in other communities, he said. "The basic argument that a town gave an entity permission to broadcast still exists," Maxwell said. "That argument is still useable by other stations."
Brattleboro Community Radio, a new community station run by a local nonprofit group, received a 100-watt license from the FCC in early 2005 and is expected to begin broadcasting later this spring.
Contact Daniel Barlow at daniel.barlow@rutlandherald.com.
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