"failure to clean or repaint its antenna structure to maintain good visibility"

They probably want it painted to prevent planes and helicopters running into it.

you have to maintain your equipment in good shape or it becomes a menace.

This should be the FCC job not fines for cursing.

smitty would really prefer that they fine broadcasters for cursing, and ignore the rusty unpainted towers that could fall on his house or pose an obstruction to his plane?

Tipper Gore, is that you?

"Anttenna"??? WTF is that, a $10 bill for ants???

SPELLING HULK MAD!
SPELLING HULK SMASH!

This thread is proof that once people decide that an organization is bad, they will biatch about anything they do.

There are 2 interests involved:

Safety of planes and helicopters, as the tower needs to be as visible as possible in the daytime.

Nuisance and eyesore to people in the neighborhood.

kellylockhart: Maybe I'm a bit clueless, but wouldn't the large metal object sticking out of the ground be a bit obvious already? What was it painted with before, camoflauge paint?

Camo paint would show up better against a sunset than a brown/red rusty steel tower.
Keep in mind that the large metal object is not a solid large metal object... and it can be quite thin, too. I work for a broadcaster (so I'm really getting a kick out of these replies...) and our tower is 1200' tall... but only about 10' wide, and open frame, so it really only has about 4' worth of metal on each side, with the rest being open. Easy to miss visually:


And $16,000 seems a tad bit excessive of a fine for a not-so-recently-painted radio tower (that every pilot in the area probably already knew about).

... except that towers are used for VFR navigation, and if you can't see the tower, you don't know where you are... And since the tower might only be 10' wide, you might have problems if you know it's "somewhere nearby" but don't know where.
$16k is low, actually, considering painting a tower costs between $5k-15k depending on size.

Also, the paint keeps the tower from rusting, and rusty towers become hazards not just to planes.

Okay, it's confirmed. I'm a bit clueless. :)

Well, yeah, but we knew that from your hair in your profile pic.

/zing!

Except... isn't Puerto Rico another country... and the FCC a us organization?

BackAssward: Except... isn't Puerto Rico another country... and the FCC a us organization?

It is a US territory with Commonwealth status.

FCC gon mess around get stabbed!

once and for all, BRING IN BIGGER GORILLAS

I would have thought the FAA might be more interested in the tower's visibility than the FCC. Otherwise this seems pretty reasonable.

So they did what they're SUPPOSED to do?

I like them better when they protect me from falling towers, than when they 'protect' me from boobies (I thought my personality pretty much took care of that) or 'naughty' words, the naughtiest of which not only has the same first letter as 'family' but is pretty much the best way to start one. So why do 'Family Values' types hate it so much?

Theaetetus:

So basically what you're saying is, the admins greenlit another bullshiat headline, and stuck a Flamewar Asinine tag on it to try to induce an ad-hit-driving argument in the thread? Say it ain't so!

But I didn't guess the antenna.

crazycooter
I would have thought the FAA might be more interested in the tower's visibility than the FCC. Otherwise this seems pretty reasonable.

There you go... messin up Fark with that damn... "sense", or whatever the kids are calling it these days.

Not paintin' yer antenna? Oh you better believe that's a finin'.

i'm sensing a photoshop competition.

Great - the damn FCC has fused with a homeowner's association and now it's farking unstoppable.

Thank you Theaetetus for the response. I work in the industry as well and I did get a chuckle out of the responses. One of our towers was hit by a plane once in foggy weather. It was painted and had all the lights but was still hard to see in teh fog.

kellylockhart: Okay, it's confirmed. I'm a bit clueless. :)

Theaetetus: Well, yeah, but we knew that from your hair in your profile pic.

/zing!

Yeah, and shave the beard, it makes you look like a guy.

Sixteen thousand dollars?! Aye papi, that's a lot of oranges.

FriarTuck
Safety of planes...

Let us not forget, it was the aeroplanes which attacked us on that 11th day of September. If it were up to you liberals, the skies would go unchecked; free of these towering "freedom traps" which we use to protect this nation, and our outlaying commonwealths, against tourism terrorism.

The only crime here is that they have not painted the tower red, white, and blue. As to send a message to any planes that would dare fly near them, that they would be entangled in our rusted, iron arms of justice.

/or something

I need my tower "painted", if you know what I mean...

Dirty antennas transmit dirty language, clean antennas transmit clean language.

Whatchu mean painteeng a freakeeng tower, we no mexican!!!

/Puerto Rican

If you don't want to play by the rules, don't play at all.

If you don't have the $$ to maintain your equipment, how do you have the $$ to pay your staff?

Good way to get it painted... bankrupt the station.

Bet you a quarter they become the broadcast arm of the free Puerto Rico Independence movement.

It is a US territory with Commonwealth status.

It'd be a state already if it wasn't for the bad rap they all got for their singing and dancing gang problem.

BackAssward

You are the product of the American public schooling system that I have tried so hard to redeem.

You'd rather see the FCC spend time fining stations for "obscenity"?

I think we've all seen how well that works out (see my user name).

bittermang...

Also, bears.

farkin fcc, always pushing the little guy around

Oops?

Paint? Pah. Clearly the government is in bed with the Glidden corporation.

I say the radio station should paint it a wonderful shade of sky blue. That'll fix the FCCs trolley.

Theaetetus

You work in Needham, eh?

FrankenPengie: gallery.bostonradio.org

Shhh. Don't point out all the US-based towers that aren't painted, or regularly fined by the FCC.

God bless our corrupt Congresscritters, protecting all their little donors from undue government "interference"...

Theaetetus our tower is 1200' tall.

Wowsers. That tower be high, says I.

I once considered buying a piece of property that had a 400' tower on it. That was unbelieveably huge, I thought.

Unenforced rules aren't rules.

You work in Needham, eh?

I remember the first time I saw those towers I almost drove off the road. Really farking tall.

Properly painting towers only seems "Assinine' to those who don't have to worry about running into them with the aircraft they fly because they can't be seen.

/been said already, but had to get my $0.02 in.
//submitter is an asshat
///pilot
////slashee slash slashalot.

This story is strange. The solution is just give those PR's some cans of spray paint. Them buggers cain't help themselves.