All Roy Neset wanted to do was listen to talk radio while he plowed his fields.
But the only station in Tioga, a remote farming community tucked into
the northwest reaches of North Dakota, was an AM station that played
country music from dawn to dusk.
So Neset bought a low-power radio transmitter, obtained permission
from a Colorado station to transmit its programming via satellite and
piped talk radio to his farm and to a handful of neighbors. But Neset
soon found himself in court after the manager of the AM station
complained to the Federal Communications Commission. The agency
seized Neset's equipment, sued the farmer and succeeded in knocking
his tiny station off the air.
Neset's attorneys say in hearing his case, neither the federal court
judge nor a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, which ruled last week, considered Neset's First Amendment
pleas.
"The decision defies the law and common sense," said Scott Bullock,
senior attorney for the Institute for Justice. "If the government
sues you in court, you should be able to defend yourself by raising
First Amendment arguments." (see story link for more, including details on Beat Radio's case)