On September 18, 2007, Christopher Allen Brackner ended his life in an apparent suicide.

Brackner was a frequent user of REC's property POWERPUFF.COM and went by the username MewSkitty.

The entire REC family is deeply saddened by this tragic incident, especially in light of the multiple situations that led up to this.

While we understand and respect someone's decision to take their own life, we must do what we can to prevent these situations. Unfortunately we sometimes feel backed into a wall and feel that there is no alternative than to just end it all. Intervention in a way that is proactive but not intrusive is one of the best ways of handling situations like this.

REC Networks is announcing today that it will be removing certain pre-recorded programs from Hardcore XTRA that are not directly distributed by the W0KIE Satellite Radio Network.

This includes Hardcore XTRA's presentations of:
- This Week In Amateur Radio International
- World of Radio
- Mediageek
- This Week In Tech
- Off The Hook

Programming currently fed by W0KIE (including our timeshifted reruns) will continue to be presented.

REC is also giving notice that at the end of November, our current agreement with Live365 for Hardcore XTRA is expiring and at this time, we have no plans to renew it. Many of the reasons stem around the increased broadcast costs and lower revenue recovery as a result of the new copyright laws.

On September 12, 2007, the FCC has issued a Notice of Violation (NoV) to Vida Abundante, licensee of KJVA-LP in San Bernardino.

The NoV states that the station was operating at an unauthorized location, operated with an output power far exceeding what was authorized and with a high-gain antenna thus resulting in an effective radiated power (ERP) of 2,900 watts that far exceeded the allowable ERP of 100 watts for LPFM stations.

Vida has the usual 20 days to respond to the NoV to explain each violation and what corrective actions are being taken to correct the violations.

Due to the upcoming NCE-FM filing window in October, the FCC has declared an application freeze and will not accept any minor change applications for channels 201-220 (88.1 to 91.9) until the end of the window on Friday, October 19, 2007.

In addition, the freeze will also impact non-reserved band channels 221, 222 and 223 (92.1, 92.3 and 92.5).

The freeze will go into effect at 12AM ET on September 8, 2007.

All stations, including LPFMs will not be able to file minor change applications during this freeze.

For more information, see the FCC document:
http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-07-3521A1.pdf

With the recent filing window coming up for new non-commercial educational (NCE) stations, some LPFM operators may think that this is their "security blanket" to a primary service. Before LPFM operators get their hopes up on this primary service nirvana, LPFMers should be aware of the additional responsibilities that come with the territory.

As we have learned with previous opportunities to file for NCE-FM stations, the number of situations where applications can be mutually exclusive are very high, especially in more suburban and urban areas. Some MX applications have gone for over 10 years before either a settlement agreement or comparative review. There is no "if there's 3 equally qualified applicants, we will split the license" rule with NCE-FM.