BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (AP) -An unlicensed radio station operating in defiance of the Federal Communications Commission is asking for support from voters on Town Meeting Day.

Members of radio free brattleboro, who don’t capitalize their group’s name, are collecting signatures to place a non-binding question on the community’s support for their 10-watt station before the voters on Town Meeting Day in March.

“We’re really putting ourselves out on a limb a little bit,” explained rfb co-founder Larry Bloch. “But we serve the community and we want to be open and transparent about the process we are taking.”

“Shall the voters of Brattleboro give to radio free brattleboro (rfb) authority to broadcast until such a time that a Low-Power FM license is issued to radio free brattleboro or to another non-profit, locally based, community group which is prepared to offer to the Town of Brattleboro diverse, all-access, non-commercial, community radio?” reads the proposed ballot question.

The subject of radio free brattleboro, its decision not to seek a broadcasting license and its philosophical battle with the FCC has been a hot topic in the community since June, when the station was ordered to shut down by FCC field agents.

The station had broadcast for approximately five years before the FCC ordered it to shut down after two complaints surfaced that the station was allegedly interfering with the broadcast of another station.

After much public debate, the station returned to the air in August at a new frequency — 107.9 FM — a frequency reserved for a 100-watt FM license that two area organizations applied for but which has not yet been granted.

The station was threatened with shutdown again in September and FCC agents asked to see rfb’s license or “authority to broadcast.”

Station supporters gathered 3,000 signatures of support, saying they demonstrated that it had “authority to broadcast” from their community.

When they asked for more formal support from the town Selectboard in November, the resolution was defeated 4-1, with opponents saying they doubted they had the legal power to approve the station’s operation.

A resolution from the town’s voters would be “more direct and compelling” in the station’s potential legal struggle than the Selectboard resolution, said Bloch.

AP-ES-12-27-03 1711EST

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