Mourning the Loss of Charlie Kirk

Since Wednesday afternoon, 9/10, I've been going through the same cycles of shock, denial, anger, and  grief that many millions of others around the world have been going through since hearing the news of Charlie's demise, then witnessing the visuals a short time later.

I get up in the morning, and when I reach full consciousness, my spirit sighs, "Oh, no..." I have thoughts like, "This is such a horrible week. Can't we roll things back to Monday and start over, this time with something happening that delays the shooter - a car breakdown, a debilitating accident, the gun chamber jamming, or his weapon stolen? This is so out of context with what the world needs. You are taking him far too soon."

Charlie's podcast has been airing for several years now on Liberty & Justice 1640 from 9-11 PM weekdays. Over time, I've come to appreciate his sophisticated but clear, direct thought process. Even though I never met him, he felt like an old friend. He was wise and a very, very good man in every way.   

I know this is a giant leap for most of my former colleagues in the overwhelmingly leftist/Marxist folk music world. Those of you in that cult of weirdness, absurdity, and non-reality cannot bring yourselves to appreciate Charlie's integrity, intellect, compassion, faith, humor, and ability to inspire millions of young people to consider a different direction for their lives. I pray some day your eyes will be opened and you come to appreciate this giant among influencers who lived one of cleanest, most purposeful lives imaginable. He accomplished more in his brief 31 years than most people do in 100.

In a very unlikely place - MSNBC - I found an interview with a journalist who had interviewed Charlie two weeks before his death. Here is my summary of what he gleaned from it:

Charlie Kirk's business model was not primarily political. It's number one objective was convincing as many young people as possible to abandon their university conditioning and live a conservative lifestyle: find a good mate, get married, have children, and stay married. And, especially for men, have business or career aspirations, work hard, build value in the world, and be as honest and as fair in your business affairs as possible.

Yes, he hated wokeness, LGBT, and perpetual sex work, but he hated them because they waste time and resources. It is the Christian conservative life that satisfies long term. He also realized that politics is downstream from culture and when we get the culture fixed, politics corrects itself rather quickly.

My tributes to Charlie will start Saturday, 9/13 at 10 pm and Sunday 9/14 at 9 PM and continue through the entire overnight both days. I will be replaying Charlie's two appearances on the Whatever Podcast (Feb. and June 2024) in their entirety. His conversations and debates with two porn stars is featured on the earlier one, I believe. I will also be featuring hosts Brian Atlas and Andrew Wilson parsing through developments as they came in during two long segments that will air through the Saturday into Sunday overnight.

Rest in peace, Charlie. I hope to meet you on the other side.   
 

 

    

FCC Docket 25-133: "Delete, Delete, Delete"- My Submitted Comments

From March 12th through April 11th, the Federal Communications Commission, under the direction of  Brendan Carr, offered a rare opportunity for the public to comment on outdated, excessively restrictive, and cumbersome rules and practices of the agency that need to be eliminated or changed. The solicitation of comments was a response to a series of Executive Orders from President Trump calling on administrative agencies to unleash prosperity through deregulation and ensure that they are efficiently delivering great results for the American people.

Needless to say, I had a lot to suggest in that regard. The biggest reason I have remained a Part 15 broadcaster and not obtained commercial licenses is due to the FCC's poor management of resources, their restrictive rules and paperwork, and the associated expense this causes.

On March 19th, I submitted my comments and they were disseminated through the FCC's website. Anyone wishing to reply to my comments has until April 28th to do so.

Here is a brief summary of my suggestions:

1) Eliminate the current filing window system and revert to the original first come, first served, apply-when-you-are-ready policy.

2) Completely eliminate nonsensical, time wasting EOE requirements for radio stations.

3) Get the FCC out of the business of promoting certain parts of the media spectrum over
others (i.e. FM over AM and shortwave).

4) Put all dark and deleted AM stations into a pool where they can be claimed by new applicants rather than permanently deleting the license.

5) End the pre-internet restriction against new, daytime-only AM stations.

6) End all digital broadcasting in the AM band, promote analog AM stereo, and explore the possibility of using the now empty long wave band for digital-only simulcasting of AM stations.

7) Raise the current license-free, Part 15 power restrictions in the expanded AM band (1610-1710 kHz) from 100 milliwatts to 1 watt and designate the frequency of 1710 kHz for Part 15 broadcasting only.

8) Ease enforcement of language restrictions for all broadcasters to enable on-the-fly use of internet

program sources.

9) Explore the possibility of domestic broadcast use for parts of the shortwave spectrum with a license-free option of power up to 10 watts.

10) Promote and publicize the Media Bureau's Incubator Program for Radio Broadcasters, which was instituted in 2018.

You can read my full comments as a PDF at the following link:

https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/10318280823916/1