re: Why This Kind of Thing Happens...

Why this happens is really a multi-fold thing. It's not answered so simply, and you can't really lump such an incident in with the Swatch fiasco...

First of all, look at your offending party here. MTV. This is a division of a _huge_ company with more money than Midas. As such, they don't have to care about who they piss off. And should they get nabbed by Riley for this incident, they'll just write off whatever comparatively-piddly fine is levied as an 'acceptable business loss'. After all, the MTV Music Awards were THE highest rated basic cable show ever, bar none. Consider the ad revenues vs. what the Commission would hit them with, and be afraid. Be very afraid.

Second offender: the FCC itself. Enforcement? WHAT enforcement? I can recall back ten or so years ago that the Commission had a real, serious, and active monitoring program. What've they got now? Jack. When something pops up on some unauthorized bit of spectrum, you can't jump on the phone and call an FCC monitor and say 'Hey...check what's on xxxxx'. Haven't been able to do that in quite some time. But hey...that's what 'less government' gets you, right? We may have a real firebrand in Riley Hollingsworth, but most of the rest of Commission enforcement is a sleepy situation, especially when they might have to take on something like TimeWarnerMegaMondoCorp.

Rogues gallery exhibit 3: us. Hip trendy MTV nabs spectrum slice from sleepy old hams. Film at 11? NOT! Our perceived irrelevance (or real irrelevance, in the case of some ops) is our worst enemy here. It's not just that we're not using all of that prime 70 cm real-estate, it's that the general public doesn't give a rat's fanny perpendicular as to what we might be doing with it. We have to show the public why they should be concerned if some monolithic company grabs part of our spectrum. Otherwise to them, it's just a footnote of forget to a big glitzy evening of pop stars. And showing why people should be concerned about our service _doesn't_ mean waggling a J-38 at them and saying THIS IS THE GRAND TALISMAN OF YE OLDE AMATEUR RADIO, then promptly lapsing into a nap during which ones' teeth fall out. Nuh-uh. We have to show real, concrete, relevant-to-the-man-on-the-street reasons as to WHY we should be here, why we need that spectrum space, and whatup wif ham radio in general.

Expect to see more of this sort of thing if we can't. A lot more. Once one of these big companies sets a precedent, then they _all_ jump in on things like this. Remember: they have more money than you or I, and money runs the way things work these days. By the CEOs, for the CEOs, etc blahblah.