Lena Kristin Ingelsrudøya (14 August 1973 - 27 December 2010) was a Norwegian woman footballer.
Ingelsrudøya began her career in a boys' team at Tobøl and then played on a girls' team at Skotterud. She later played for Swedish clubs Eda IF in Charlottenberg and Mariedals IK in Borås, before studying in the United States, where she played college soccer for the Lindenwood Lions.
She returned to Norway in 1999 as a 26-year-old and joined Setskog/Høland in the elite league, the Toppserien. As a defender she played in most of her club's matches, including the Final, by which time the team had become Team Strømmen. The team also finished second in the 2005 Toppserien. Before the 2010 season Team Strømmen joined the Lillestrøm men's football club Lillestrøm SK to form the new women's club LSK Kvinner FK.
She worked as a product specialist at the medical company Johnson & Johnson. She retired from regular play at the end of 2006 but continued as a volunteer and played several matches in goal in the 2009 season.
Death
Ingelsrudøya died very suddenly in childbirth of a suspected amniotic fluid embolism She was survived by her daughter Hanna. Her friends set up a Facebook memorial In 2011 LSK Kvinner added an 'L7' motif to the front of their yellow shirts in memory of their former player, whose shirt number was 7.
Ingelsrudøya began her career in a boys' team at Tobøl and then played on a girls' team at Skotterud. She later played for Swedish clubs Eda IF in Charlottenberg and Mariedals IK in Borås, before studying in the United States, where she played college soccer for the Lindenwood Lions.
She returned to Norway in 1999 as a 26-year-old and joined Setskog/Høland in the elite league, the Toppserien. As a defender she played in most of her club's matches, including the Final, by which time the team had become Team Strømmen. The team also finished second in the 2005 Toppserien. Before the 2010 season Team Strømmen joined the Lillestrøm men's football club Lillestrøm SK to form the new women's club LSK Kvinner FK.
She worked as a product specialist at the medical company Johnson & Johnson. She retired from regular play at the end of 2006 but continued as a volunteer and played several matches in goal in the 2009 season.
Death
Ingelsrudøya died very suddenly in childbirth of a suspected amniotic fluid embolism She was survived by her daughter Hanna. Her friends set up a Facebook memorial In 2011 LSK Kvinner added an 'L7' motif to the front of their yellow shirts in memory of their former player, whose shirt number was 7.
Billy James Guin, Sr. (born November 14, 1927), is a retired businessman and engineer from Shreveport, Louisiana, who was from 1977 to 1978 his city's last public utilities commissioner under the former commission system of municipal government. Since 1961, Guin has been involved in the development of the Louisiana Republican Party to majority status in his state. In 1964, he and two others became the first members of their party ever elected to the Caddo Parish School Board. Bessie Guin subsequently married James E. Fitch, Sr., an Ohio native, and the couple resided in Shreveport. In addition to Billy, there was a second son, James Fitch, Jr. (born c. 1937).
Guin graduated in 1944 from C. E. Byrd High School in Shreveport and then entered Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. Guin left VMI for duty in the United States Marine Corps in extended World War II service. He then returned to VMI, from which he received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. There he met his wife, the former Nancy Jane Beale (March 31, 1927 - January 19, 2018), a native of Franklin near Norfolk, Virginia.
Guin also served with the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He remained thereafter in the United States Army Reserve for three decades. On his return to Shreveport, he became affiliated with E. M. Freeman and Associates and United Gas before he formed the former B. J. Guin Engineering Company.
Political life
Republican pioneer
Guin was a member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee and the Caddo Parish Republican Executive Committee. who in 1972 won election to the state House and served for twenty years, and Fielder Edd Calhoun (1931-2012), an insurance agent and civic figure originally from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Heading the GOP ticket was Charlton Lyons, a Shreveport oilman who challenged Democrat John McKeithen for governor of Louisiana. Lyons polled the strongest vote in decades for a then rare Republican nominee in Louisiana. Guin described Lyons as "a good man who wanted to change the political complexion of Louisiana. He built the Republican Party in its present form. He was a great campaigner, and there was much grassroots fervor. When he began to make inroads, the sheriffs and other Democratic officeholders proceeded to block his election."
School board
In the general election held on November 3, 1964, Guin and two other Republicans running for the Caddo Parish School Board, the late Joel B. Brown and Edward Leo "Ed" McGuire, Jr. (1914-1983), were swept to victory on the coattails of the successful presidential nominee in Louisiana, U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. McGuire was a native of Taunton, Massachusetts, who married the former Mary E. Bell (1916-2011), the daughter of Judge Thornton F. Bell of Shreveport, whom he had met while serving as a second lieutenant in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II.
Once on the board, Guin argued against reducing the number of members, a position advocated by board president and later state legislator Don W. Williamson. Guin contended that smaller boards augment the power of interest groups. While the larger membership can be cumbersome and cause longer meetings, Guin said that more members insure that the overall well-being of the community is served, rather than organized vocal minorities.
Public utilities commissioner
In 1970, Guin and McGuire did not seek reelection to the school board but instead ran for the Shreveport city commission, Guin at public utilities and McGuire for mayor, then the "commissioner of administration". Both lost to Democrats, Guin to William A. "Bill" Collins, a former public relations specialist, and McGuire to Calhoun Allen, who vacated the position of utilities commissioner after eight years to run successfully for mayor. In 1974, Guin again challenged Collins for utilities commissioner and improved his showing from 1970 by some 7 percentage points but still lost 57-43 percent. When Collins vacated the post in 1977, Guin won a special election on June 18 with 51 percent of the vote to fill the remaining seventeen months in Collins's term.
Guin hired Patricia Ann "Patsy" Forcier as his administrative assistant. At the time the wife of Ray Forcier of Shreveport, she has since been married to Billy Clapp of Ocala, Florida. Her father was the former State Representative Edgar H. Lancaster, Jr., of Tallulah in Madison Parish. An unlikely specialist on sewer matters, Forcier, who was barely thirty when she joined Guin's staff, proved invaluable to his brief tenure at the Shreveport Utilities Department. Forcier's unusual speciality for a young woman attracted national press attention.
In 1977, Guin dismissed the municipal water superintendent Alfred Joseph Petrus (1920-2009) for alleged theft of city materials and the improper use of municipal employees. Petrus was first suspended by Commissioner Collins shortly before Collins left office. The suspension carried over into the Guin administration, pending a probe into the charges against Petrus. After a jury found Petrus not guilty of felony theft, he applied to Guin for reinstatement. Guin, however, changed Petrus' suspension to outright dismissal because Petrus had allegedly used city employees to perform work at his private residence. Despite exoneration by the jury, Petrus failed in further appeals. Petrus thereafter worked in the private sector became heavily involved in veterans and patriotic causes.
Commissioner Guin became involved in another legal dispute when R. W. Calhoun, the superintendent of the Cross Lake Patrol, which fell within the jurisdiction of the utilities department, testified that he had issued about fifty permits for construction of piers and boathouses extending into the lake. Calhoun said that he attempted to "accommodate everybody on the lake - depending upon the shape of his lot." Because numerous lake lots had had curved boundaries, Calhoun said that the city was compelled to guarantee equal access from all lots regardless of shape. Guin stood with Calhoun: "The criteria that I used, and the concept of this design, was to try to create equity the owners of the adjacent lots around that cove. Each one should have access to the water, whereby he could build a pier." When a lot owner sued to block a neighbor from constructing a pier and boathouse, the court two years after Guin had left office stood with the city's method of issuing the permits.
Under Guin, Shreveport adopted fluoridation of the municipal water supply, an issue once controversial. The John Birch Society called it a "form of government mass medication of citizens in violation of their individual right to choose which medicines they ingest." Opponents claimed that fluoridation creates more long-term health risks than the immediate advantages gained from decreased tooth decay. Hence the issue had been bypassed for more than twenty years by Shreveport municipal officials though adopted in many other cities. In 1977, however, the Chamber of Commerce and both daily newspapers, The Times and the since defunct Shreveport Journal, published by Charles T. Beaird, strongly endorsed fluoridation. Guin sought a $10,000 request from the city council for an engineering study to move toward fluoridation. When his colleagues balked, he pursued a referendum on the issue. On November 22, 1977, with a 28.3 percent turnout, 12,037 voters (53.6 percent) opposed a ban on fluoridation of the drinking water. Another 10,413 (46.4 percent) favored a ban. Though fluoridation was approved in a back-handed method—one had to vote "No" to approve of fluoridation—the physical process of actually placing the chemicals in the water supply, was not completed until the middle 1980s, long after Guin's tenure as utilities commissioner had expired.
Abolition of the commission government
Guin served on the council with another Republican pioneer in Caddo Parish, George A. Burton, Jr., who from 1971 to 1978 was the last to hold the former position of municipal commissioner of finance.
In 1978, the Shreveport commission government was abolished through a federal court order citing the at-large election system as having operated "invidiously to minimize or cancel the voting power of black electors." With the commissioners' positions effectively abolished, Guin hence ran for mayor under the new and still serving mayor-council government. His opponents were the Democrats Don Hathaway, his council colleague who headed the Department of Public Works, and William T. "Bill" Hanna, an automobile dealer who ultimately won the position. Less than two years after his election to the last city council under the commission government, Guin finished with only 1,888 votes (3.4 percent).
Personal life
Guin is a deacon, choir member, and clarinet player at the First Baptist Church of Shreveport. He is also a member of Rotary International.
Billy and Nancy Guin have a son, Billy Guin, Jr. (born 1951), an attorney since 1978. With the Shreveport firm of Rountree and Guin, his specialities are civil practice, mediation, criminal defense, and insurance defense litigation. They also have four daughters: Nancy Guin Austin (born 1952) of Baton Rouge, Alice Reeves Guin Lind (born 1955) of Alexandria, Elizabeth Anne "Lisa" Leonard (born 1957) of Metairie in Jefferson Parish, and Mary Virginia "Ginny" Reynolds (born 1962) of Shreveport.
Guin graduated in 1944 from C. E. Byrd High School in Shreveport and then entered Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. Guin left VMI for duty in the United States Marine Corps in extended World War II service. He then returned to VMI, from which he received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. There he met his wife, the former Nancy Jane Beale (March 31, 1927 - January 19, 2018), a native of Franklin near Norfolk, Virginia.
Guin also served with the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He remained thereafter in the United States Army Reserve for three decades. On his return to Shreveport, he became affiliated with E. M. Freeman and Associates and United Gas before he formed the former B. J. Guin Engineering Company.
Political life
Republican pioneer
Guin was a member of the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee and the Caddo Parish Republican Executive Committee. who in 1972 won election to the state House and served for twenty years, and Fielder Edd Calhoun (1931-2012), an insurance agent and civic figure originally from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Heading the GOP ticket was Charlton Lyons, a Shreveport oilman who challenged Democrat John McKeithen for governor of Louisiana. Lyons polled the strongest vote in decades for a then rare Republican nominee in Louisiana. Guin described Lyons as "a good man who wanted to change the political complexion of Louisiana. He built the Republican Party in its present form. He was a great campaigner, and there was much grassroots fervor. When he began to make inroads, the sheriffs and other Democratic officeholders proceeded to block his election."
School board
In the general election held on November 3, 1964, Guin and two other Republicans running for the Caddo Parish School Board, the late Joel B. Brown and Edward Leo "Ed" McGuire, Jr. (1914-1983), were swept to victory on the coattails of the successful presidential nominee in Louisiana, U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. McGuire was a native of Taunton, Massachusetts, who married the former Mary E. Bell (1916-2011), the daughter of Judge Thornton F. Bell of Shreveport, whom he had met while serving as a second lieutenant in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II.
Once on the board, Guin argued against reducing the number of members, a position advocated by board president and later state legislator Don W. Williamson. Guin contended that smaller boards augment the power of interest groups. While the larger membership can be cumbersome and cause longer meetings, Guin said that more members insure that the overall well-being of the community is served, rather than organized vocal minorities.
Public utilities commissioner
In 1970, Guin and McGuire did not seek reelection to the school board but instead ran for the Shreveport city commission, Guin at public utilities and McGuire for mayor, then the "commissioner of administration". Both lost to Democrats, Guin to William A. "Bill" Collins, a former public relations specialist, and McGuire to Calhoun Allen, who vacated the position of utilities commissioner after eight years to run successfully for mayor. In 1974, Guin again challenged Collins for utilities commissioner and improved his showing from 1970 by some 7 percentage points but still lost 57-43 percent. When Collins vacated the post in 1977, Guin won a special election on June 18 with 51 percent of the vote to fill the remaining seventeen months in Collins's term.
Guin hired Patricia Ann "Patsy" Forcier as his administrative assistant. At the time the wife of Ray Forcier of Shreveport, she has since been married to Billy Clapp of Ocala, Florida. Her father was the former State Representative Edgar H. Lancaster, Jr., of Tallulah in Madison Parish. An unlikely specialist on sewer matters, Forcier, who was barely thirty when she joined Guin's staff, proved invaluable to his brief tenure at the Shreveport Utilities Department. Forcier's unusual speciality for a young woman attracted national press attention.
In 1977, Guin dismissed the municipal water superintendent Alfred Joseph Petrus (1920-2009) for alleged theft of city materials and the improper use of municipal employees. Petrus was first suspended by Commissioner Collins shortly before Collins left office. The suspension carried over into the Guin administration, pending a probe into the charges against Petrus. After a jury found Petrus not guilty of felony theft, he applied to Guin for reinstatement. Guin, however, changed Petrus' suspension to outright dismissal because Petrus had allegedly used city employees to perform work at his private residence. Despite exoneration by the jury, Petrus failed in further appeals. Petrus thereafter worked in the private sector became heavily involved in veterans and patriotic causes.
Commissioner Guin became involved in another legal dispute when R. W. Calhoun, the superintendent of the Cross Lake Patrol, which fell within the jurisdiction of the utilities department, testified that he had issued about fifty permits for construction of piers and boathouses extending into the lake. Calhoun said that he attempted to "accommodate everybody on the lake - depending upon the shape of his lot." Because numerous lake lots had had curved boundaries, Calhoun said that the city was compelled to guarantee equal access from all lots regardless of shape. Guin stood with Calhoun: "The criteria that I used, and the concept of this design, was to try to create equity the owners of the adjacent lots around that cove. Each one should have access to the water, whereby he could build a pier." When a lot owner sued to block a neighbor from constructing a pier and boathouse, the court two years after Guin had left office stood with the city's method of issuing the permits.
Under Guin, Shreveport adopted fluoridation of the municipal water supply, an issue once controversial. The John Birch Society called it a "form of government mass medication of citizens in violation of their individual right to choose which medicines they ingest." Opponents claimed that fluoridation creates more long-term health risks than the immediate advantages gained from decreased tooth decay. Hence the issue had been bypassed for more than twenty years by Shreveport municipal officials though adopted in many other cities. In 1977, however, the Chamber of Commerce and both daily newspapers, The Times and the since defunct Shreveport Journal, published by Charles T. Beaird, strongly endorsed fluoridation. Guin sought a $10,000 request from the city council for an engineering study to move toward fluoridation. When his colleagues balked, he pursued a referendum on the issue. On November 22, 1977, with a 28.3 percent turnout, 12,037 voters (53.6 percent) opposed a ban on fluoridation of the drinking water. Another 10,413 (46.4 percent) favored a ban. Though fluoridation was approved in a back-handed method—one had to vote "No" to approve of fluoridation—the physical process of actually placing the chemicals in the water supply, was not completed until the middle 1980s, long after Guin's tenure as utilities commissioner had expired.
Abolition of the commission government
Guin served on the council with another Republican pioneer in Caddo Parish, George A. Burton, Jr., who from 1971 to 1978 was the last to hold the former position of municipal commissioner of finance.
In 1978, the Shreveport commission government was abolished through a federal court order citing the at-large election system as having operated "invidiously to minimize or cancel the voting power of black electors." With the commissioners' positions effectively abolished, Guin hence ran for mayor under the new and still serving mayor-council government. His opponents were the Democrats Don Hathaway, his council colleague who headed the Department of Public Works, and William T. "Bill" Hanna, an automobile dealer who ultimately won the position. Less than two years after his election to the last city council under the commission government, Guin finished with only 1,888 votes (3.4 percent).
Personal life
Guin is a deacon, choir member, and clarinet player at the First Baptist Church of Shreveport. He is also a member of Rotary International.
Billy and Nancy Guin have a son, Billy Guin, Jr. (born 1951), an attorney since 1978. With the Shreveport firm of Rountree and Guin, his specialities are civil practice, mediation, criminal defense, and insurance defense litigation. They also have four daughters: Nancy Guin Austin (born 1952) of Baton Rouge, Alice Reeves Guin Lind (born 1955) of Alexandria, Elizabeth Anne "Lisa" Leonard (born 1957) of Metairie in Jefferson Parish, and Mary Virginia "Ginny" Reynolds (born 1962) of Shreveport.
Audrey McGinn is an American attorney who works at the California Innocence Project (CIP), a nonprofit organization at California Western School of Law that provides pro bono legal services to individuals who maintain their factual innocence of crimes for which they have been convicted. McGinn has participated as an attorney in at least seven exonerations of convicted prisoners. She authors petitions on behalf of clients, and also directs and supervises clinic student casework and the project’s volunteers. McGinn helped found ten Innocence Projects in Latin America, and has lectured to law schools in those countries about exonerations and the use of DNA in criminal cases. She has trained Spanish-speaking lawyers in Latin America in trial advocacy skills.
From September 2015 to September 2016, McGinn served as Director of the Wrongful Convictions Division (WCD) of the Iowa State Public Defender’s office, where she reviewed past convictions to determine if any should be reversed for improper evidence.
While still a law school student, McGinn's interest in Latin America led her to join Proyecto ACCESO, a CWSL program promoting the rule of law in Latin America through education and outreach to legal professionals and the public. The position was established to provide “a systemic approach” to address post conviction relief for prisoners.
In the position, McGinn worked in partnership with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Innocence Project of Iowa. She also said, "We know that this has been a problem elsewhere and I think it would be presumptuous to say that it would not be a problem in Iowa. It’s just a matter of finding these cases and finding the appropriate legal means to prove their factual innocence if we have the ability to do so."<ref name"Iowa"/> In September 2016, McGinn left her position at the WCD and returned to the California Innocence Project.<ref name"Resume"/>
Awards and honors
McGinn was named “Professor of the Year” in 2018 at California Western School of Law, where she is an LL.M. Professor.<ref name="Team"/>
From September 2015 to September 2016, McGinn served as Director of the Wrongful Convictions Division (WCD) of the Iowa State Public Defender’s office, where she reviewed past convictions to determine if any should be reversed for improper evidence.
While still a law school student, McGinn's interest in Latin America led her to join Proyecto ACCESO, a CWSL program promoting the rule of law in Latin America through education and outreach to legal professionals and the public. The position was established to provide “a systemic approach” to address post conviction relief for prisoners.
In the position, McGinn worked in partnership with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Innocence Project of Iowa. She also said, "We know that this has been a problem elsewhere and I think it would be presumptuous to say that it would not be a problem in Iowa. It’s just a matter of finding these cases and finding the appropriate legal means to prove their factual innocence if we have the ability to do so."<ref name"Iowa"/> In September 2016, McGinn left her position at the WCD and returned to the California Innocence Project.<ref name"Resume"/>
Awards and honors
McGinn was named “Professor of the Year” in 2018 at California Western School of Law, where she is an LL.M. Professor.<ref name="Team"/>
WXTZ 87.9 Norwich was a non-profit, community based Part 15 FM radio station located in Southeastern Connecticut and served the Norwich, Connecticut listening area.
Originally called Z107.1 and located at 107.1 MHz on the FM broadcast band, it was displaced on August 15 of 2014 to 87.9 MHz because of co-channel interference as it expanded into a radio network service.
WXTZ 87.9 Norwich is currently a defunct radio station, however, it has a history of being Norwich Connecticut's first FCC part 15 FM radio station.
History
The radio station began its on-air operations as WXTZ-FM on the morning of June 16, 2013, on 107.1 MHz as a single transmitter, part 15 FM radio station. Located in a multi-family apartment building located on the corner of Mopsic Court and Summitwoods Drive in Norwich, Connecticut. The range was very limited and only served several large multi-family apartment buildings grouped together on a large hillside over looking a large portion of the west side section of the city.
Listeners of this station also participated in the station's programming schedule and participated as the on-air talent. As time passed, the staff and a few interested parties, looked into the options available, to get the signal to cover a larger area without surpassing legal FCC Part 15 Rules. This type of service is a what the FCC calls a Part 15 FM broadcast Station.
A group of people agreed to buy FCC part 15 certified FM transmitters, if WXTZ-FM agreed to supply the programming. A method had to be found that allowed each transmitter to be on the same frequency without interference to each other and so no transmitter would be needed to provide the feed to each location.
It was decided that using a VOIP technology called Audio over IP to stream the audio from the studio to the transmitter locations was the best way to go about doing this. The translators would then rebroadcast the audio stream over the FM band, covering a much larger market area in Southeastern Connecticut.
The station was carried on various volunteer-owned, part 15 transmitters, eventually totaling 8 transmitters at its peak.
Each translator station was capable of providing its own locally produced programming if it desired to do so, by running it off of a locally owned computer. Most translators however, relied on the feed from the studio.
Channel 200 (87.9 MHz) was selected because other frequencies in the local area were currently in use or contained first adjacent channel interference and no one wanted to interfere with any of the currently licensed radio stations located in Southern New England or Long Island New York. Some potential listeners expressed to the station that their radios were not capable of tuning to 87.9 and asked if WXTZ-FM had a public website stream available on services such as TuneIn. Additional Music licensing fees paid by the station would have been required to stream the station on line on in this manner. This proved to be too costly for the station, and it would also have limited the number of songs that could be played per artist per a set number of program hours.
WXTZ-FM was a commercial-free, self-supporting radio station, that was offering the New London County market area with an over-the-air radio service that it currently lacked, which is a 'multi-genre' music station. It played all the hit music that is often played on various other radio stations in the local area.
As time passed, those that did participate lost all interest in being involved with the station or being a translator participant. By November 1, 2014, the network was down to 2 translators, and those owners had also expressed their desire to no longer participate with the station.
While planning a schedule for the Christmas holidays, the network made a final decision on November 12, 2014, to cancel all programming feeds and WXTZ-FM went silent, although, technically it was already off the air, because there were no longer any participating transmitters still in service.
The re-launch
Once again, interest grew in WXTZ-FM and people asked for a re-launch. It was decided to call the station WXTZ 87.9 Norwich, so the station had some connection to the city which it served.
The Facebook and Twitter Accounts were renamed accordingly. This time however, WXTZ 87.9 Norwich publicized the IP address of the stream on Facebook, Twitter and other social media groups, inviting people to freely use the stream to re-broadcast the station, as long as WXTZ 87.9 Norwich was used as the station name.
The studio re-launched the audio stream again on December 15, 2014, at 6:00AM EST, just one week before Christmas Day and had several privately owned new translators carrying the new stream, which primarily consisted of all Christmas music.
The daily programming schedule on this station was mostly run by a computer-based automation program, that randomly picks songs from a play list of 3002 songs. The evening schedule is often manned by a live DJ. The music played during these live shows, is mostly played from vinyl records. The station prides itself as being one of the few stations that play the whole album when a 33 1/3 RPM record or CD is played.
The music often heard on this station after the holidays were over, appeared to fall under the following genres: Techno, Rock, Heavy Metal, Southern Rock, Top 40, Oldies music from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and the year 2000 to today's Current Release Music of 2014, Country, 70's Disco, Soul Music, Hip Hop music, Trance as well as royalty free music.
The station made it clear both on air and on social media sites, that "WXTZ-FM" and "WXTZ 87.9 Norwich" were simply branding names and were not to be considered or assumed to be call letters issued or licensed to the station by Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
False accusations surface
It appears that the station received recognition it wished not to receive. News started to surface that WXTZ 87.9 Norwich was being called and labeled a "Pirate radio" station, a strong word used by licensed radio operators for someone who is accused of broadcasting illegally. The station appeared to have caught the attention of a local licensed radio station also broadcasting in the same community as WXTZ.
Little is known about the complainant, except that it claimed it heard about the station from a few listeners who asked if they owned WXTZ. The unknown station owners then wanted to take legal action and have WXTZ 87.9 Norwich shut down. Alleged remarks surfaced that the station could be heard over a radius of several miles, along Connecticut's interstate highway 395. However, the person claiming this, did not clearly specify that it was indeed "WXTZ 87.9 Norwich" that they had heard, so it is purely speculation.
The owner of the part 15 related website falsely used that statement, without first asking for that person's permission to republish it and also failed to confirm with that person if they were in fact talking about the same station. As of April 17, 2015, the person that made that statement, was contacted and confirmed that he no way said it was a signal associated with WXTZ 87.9 Norwich. Therefore, the owner of that part 15 website falsely used that person's statement without first, obtaining that person's permission to do so and did not verify with that person, that they were in fact talking about the same radio station. That very same website also published and hosted copyrighted photos belonging to the radio station, without first obtaining prior written permission to use the photos. Clearly, if anyone is going stand behind one law, such as FCC part 15 rules and regulations, they should also stand by US Copyright laws. It is a US copyright violation to steal and use images from anyone else's Facebook accounts and to host on another person's website without proper consent. It also posted other items from WXTZ's website making claim that the station was a pirate station. If the station was intentionally operating as a pirate radio station, the station would not have posted or broadcast, a legit listed telephone phone number, internal photos of its studio, external photos showing the studio's building as well as photos clearly showing its street location. It also broadcast 24 hours a day where most pirate radio stations try to hide their location and broadcast only a few hours late at night or weekends to avoid being caught. Therefore, the station itself did not operate in violation because it did not operate any transmitters at its studio location. Those that accused the station of violating any laws failed to include proof that the station only provided an audio stream on line and did not operate a transmitter of any type to feed the audio to the public. This was clearly posted on WXTZ 87.9 Norwich's Twitter account and Facebook pages as well as the IP address the stream was available on. The station never claimed itself as operating under the title of a law breaking "PIRATE" radio station and resents the claims being made against it.
Station participant Bruce LaFountane stated "The studio clearly broadcast a phone number, anyone could have called us and requested a tour, we would have welcomed anyone in right then and there, offered them a coffee and proved that there was no illegal transmitting equipment operating at our studio location and if there was anyone doing anything illegal with our audio feed on the FM band, we would have been more than happy to assist in tracking it down. But that is not how things were done. The station was accused and called a Pirate, not the transmitter operators".
The end of an era
The WXTZ 87.9 Norwich staff first became aware on March 10 of the slanderous remarks that were taking place and realized that it was about to be held accountable for the actions of those who were re-transmitting the WXTZ 87.9 Norwich signal with their personally owned transmitters. The station was also concerned about the condition of the other remaining translators, what their RF power outputs were, as those privately owned translators were not being monitored by the station and the station did not require any written authorization from the participants to re-broadcast the station's audio stream, therefore, the station could not confirm if anyone that was participating, was operating in violation of any federal or local laws.
Because of what was taking place, a final decision was made.
On March 16, 2015, at 7:20 PM EST, WXTZ 87.9 Norwich, interrupted its Internet feed to announce it was canceling its program schedule effective immediately and advised any of its participating 87.9 MHz FM translators to cease broadcasting the station immediately. The Internet feed from the studio was suspended shortly thereafter and the alleged, last known translator, is said to have gone silent sometime on the morning of March 17, 2015.
Decisions have been made that there is no way to conduct such a service on the radio broadcast band without being subject to strict FCC rules and very limited signal range and complaints from other local licensed radio stations. What was thought to be a great idea, turned out to be a waste of time and money and there was too much legal liability at stake even though the station did not own or operate the transmitters that carried its signal on air.
WXTZ 87.9 Norwich was retired, the Facebook page and Twitter accounts were deleted thereafter. After doing so, Those that wanted WXTZ 87.9 Norwich shut down, accused the owners of those pages of attempting to hide and delete evidence that claimed the station participated in illegal pirate radio operations. The Facebook page and Twitter accounts were deleted because they no longer served a purpose. Bruce Edwards who was a voice on the radio station could not believe that such accusations were made when it was our right to delete what rightfully belonged to us and that in doing so, should not have caused anyone to accuse us of attempting to delete any evidence. We, in no way ever willfully or intentionally asked anyone to operate in violation of FCC rules. Why is the studio being held responsible by "these people" when we have repeatedly said the studios, which was the only part of the station we were legally responsible for, never used an on site transmitter, nor did we own or operate such broadcast equipment which involved needing any valid FCC authorization to operate. Unless the FCC tells us that we need an FCC license to operate a web based Internet stream, then I see no intentional and willful violations being committed by us. However our words continue to fall on deaf ears.
In April 2015, a decision was made to give Internet Radio a try, where there would be absolutely no permission granted to anyone to re-broadcast the station on any over-the-air radio broadcast bands, including the AM or FM broadcast bands. The Facebook page was saved hours before it was scheduled to be deleted and it was renamed with a temporary name that was intended to take it away from any further reference to the FM radio broadcast band. The station wished to save and include its already established Facebook fan base with the future re-launch on the Internet. The page is now geared toward being an Internet-based Radio Station page. Even though the station has signed off of the FM band with no intentions of ever returning to the radio broadcast airwaves, the station is still being harassed and stalked by the same group of people who claimed that the station intentionally and willfully operated in violation of FCC rules and intentionally and willfully operated as a "pirate radio station". "It is sad when you didn't break any rules, but people still place a criminal name on you because you're in the most vulnerable position, this is the case when you do not hide your identity, it is easier for them to blame you for the actions of what other people did or might have done"
This is the final entry related to this radio station. The staff members associated with this radio station have lost interest in any further launch dates. This includes any future plans of launching an Internet Radio Station.
The radio station related Facebook and Twitter accounts were finally permanently deleted and removed from the web and all of the radio station's Facebook page subscribers were removed from the page before the final deletion was performed.
All of the studio owned equipment was sold off as secondhand equipment, and so WXTZ 87.9 Norwich goes down in history as Norwich, Connecticut's first part 15 radio station.
Originally called Z107.1 and located at 107.1 MHz on the FM broadcast band, it was displaced on August 15 of 2014 to 87.9 MHz because of co-channel interference as it expanded into a radio network service.
WXTZ 87.9 Norwich is currently a defunct radio station, however, it has a history of being Norwich Connecticut's first FCC part 15 FM radio station.
History
The radio station began its on-air operations as WXTZ-FM on the morning of June 16, 2013, on 107.1 MHz as a single transmitter, part 15 FM radio station. Located in a multi-family apartment building located on the corner of Mopsic Court and Summitwoods Drive in Norwich, Connecticut. The range was very limited and only served several large multi-family apartment buildings grouped together on a large hillside over looking a large portion of the west side section of the city.
Listeners of this station also participated in the station's programming schedule and participated as the on-air talent. As time passed, the staff and a few interested parties, looked into the options available, to get the signal to cover a larger area without surpassing legal FCC Part 15 Rules. This type of service is a what the FCC calls a Part 15 FM broadcast Station.
A group of people agreed to buy FCC part 15 certified FM transmitters, if WXTZ-FM agreed to supply the programming. A method had to be found that allowed each transmitter to be on the same frequency without interference to each other and so no transmitter would be needed to provide the feed to each location.
It was decided that using a VOIP technology called Audio over IP to stream the audio from the studio to the transmitter locations was the best way to go about doing this. The translators would then rebroadcast the audio stream over the FM band, covering a much larger market area in Southeastern Connecticut.
The station was carried on various volunteer-owned, part 15 transmitters, eventually totaling 8 transmitters at its peak.
Each translator station was capable of providing its own locally produced programming if it desired to do so, by running it off of a locally owned computer. Most translators however, relied on the feed from the studio.
Channel 200 (87.9 MHz) was selected because other frequencies in the local area were currently in use or contained first adjacent channel interference and no one wanted to interfere with any of the currently licensed radio stations located in Southern New England or Long Island New York. Some potential listeners expressed to the station that their radios were not capable of tuning to 87.9 and asked if WXTZ-FM had a public website stream available on services such as TuneIn. Additional Music licensing fees paid by the station would have been required to stream the station on line on in this manner. This proved to be too costly for the station, and it would also have limited the number of songs that could be played per artist per a set number of program hours.
WXTZ-FM was a commercial-free, self-supporting radio station, that was offering the New London County market area with an over-the-air radio service that it currently lacked, which is a 'multi-genre' music station. It played all the hit music that is often played on various other radio stations in the local area.
As time passed, those that did participate lost all interest in being involved with the station or being a translator participant. By November 1, 2014, the network was down to 2 translators, and those owners had also expressed their desire to no longer participate with the station.
While planning a schedule for the Christmas holidays, the network made a final decision on November 12, 2014, to cancel all programming feeds and WXTZ-FM went silent, although, technically it was already off the air, because there were no longer any participating transmitters still in service.
The re-launch
Once again, interest grew in WXTZ-FM and people asked for a re-launch. It was decided to call the station WXTZ 87.9 Norwich, so the station had some connection to the city which it served.
The Facebook and Twitter Accounts were renamed accordingly. This time however, WXTZ 87.9 Norwich publicized the IP address of the stream on Facebook, Twitter and other social media groups, inviting people to freely use the stream to re-broadcast the station, as long as WXTZ 87.9 Norwich was used as the station name.
The studio re-launched the audio stream again on December 15, 2014, at 6:00AM EST, just one week before Christmas Day and had several privately owned new translators carrying the new stream, which primarily consisted of all Christmas music.
The daily programming schedule on this station was mostly run by a computer-based automation program, that randomly picks songs from a play list of 3002 songs. The evening schedule is often manned by a live DJ. The music played during these live shows, is mostly played from vinyl records. The station prides itself as being one of the few stations that play the whole album when a 33 1/3 RPM record or CD is played.
The music often heard on this station after the holidays were over, appeared to fall under the following genres: Techno, Rock, Heavy Metal, Southern Rock, Top 40, Oldies music from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and the year 2000 to today's Current Release Music of 2014, Country, 70's Disco, Soul Music, Hip Hop music, Trance as well as royalty free music.
The station made it clear both on air and on social media sites, that "WXTZ-FM" and "WXTZ 87.9 Norwich" were simply branding names and were not to be considered or assumed to be call letters issued or licensed to the station by Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
False accusations surface
It appears that the station received recognition it wished not to receive. News started to surface that WXTZ 87.9 Norwich was being called and labeled a "Pirate radio" station, a strong word used by licensed radio operators for someone who is accused of broadcasting illegally. The station appeared to have caught the attention of a local licensed radio station also broadcasting in the same community as WXTZ.
Little is known about the complainant, except that it claimed it heard about the station from a few listeners who asked if they owned WXTZ. The unknown station owners then wanted to take legal action and have WXTZ 87.9 Norwich shut down. Alleged remarks surfaced that the station could be heard over a radius of several miles, along Connecticut's interstate highway 395. However, the person claiming this, did not clearly specify that it was indeed "WXTZ 87.9 Norwich" that they had heard, so it is purely speculation.
The owner of the part 15 related website falsely used that statement, without first asking for that person's permission to republish it and also failed to confirm with that person if they were in fact talking about the same station. As of April 17, 2015, the person that made that statement, was contacted and confirmed that he no way said it was a signal associated with WXTZ 87.9 Norwich. Therefore, the owner of that part 15 website falsely used that person's statement without first, obtaining that person's permission to do so and did not verify with that person, that they were in fact talking about the same radio station. That very same website also published and hosted copyrighted photos belonging to the radio station, without first obtaining prior written permission to use the photos. Clearly, if anyone is going stand behind one law, such as FCC part 15 rules and regulations, they should also stand by US Copyright laws. It is a US copyright violation to steal and use images from anyone else's Facebook accounts and to host on another person's website without proper consent. It also posted other items from WXTZ's website making claim that the station was a pirate station. If the station was intentionally operating as a pirate radio station, the station would not have posted or broadcast, a legit listed telephone phone number, internal photos of its studio, external photos showing the studio's building as well as photos clearly showing its street location. It also broadcast 24 hours a day where most pirate radio stations try to hide their location and broadcast only a few hours late at night or weekends to avoid being caught. Therefore, the station itself did not operate in violation because it did not operate any transmitters at its studio location. Those that accused the station of violating any laws failed to include proof that the station only provided an audio stream on line and did not operate a transmitter of any type to feed the audio to the public. This was clearly posted on WXTZ 87.9 Norwich's Twitter account and Facebook pages as well as the IP address the stream was available on. The station never claimed itself as operating under the title of a law breaking "PIRATE" radio station and resents the claims being made against it.
Station participant Bruce LaFountane stated "The studio clearly broadcast a phone number, anyone could have called us and requested a tour, we would have welcomed anyone in right then and there, offered them a coffee and proved that there was no illegal transmitting equipment operating at our studio location and if there was anyone doing anything illegal with our audio feed on the FM band, we would have been more than happy to assist in tracking it down. But that is not how things were done. The station was accused and called a Pirate, not the transmitter operators".
The end of an era
The WXTZ 87.9 Norwich staff first became aware on March 10 of the slanderous remarks that were taking place and realized that it was about to be held accountable for the actions of those who were re-transmitting the WXTZ 87.9 Norwich signal with their personally owned transmitters. The station was also concerned about the condition of the other remaining translators, what their RF power outputs were, as those privately owned translators were not being monitored by the station and the station did not require any written authorization from the participants to re-broadcast the station's audio stream, therefore, the station could not confirm if anyone that was participating, was operating in violation of any federal or local laws.
Because of what was taking place, a final decision was made.
On March 16, 2015, at 7:20 PM EST, WXTZ 87.9 Norwich, interrupted its Internet feed to announce it was canceling its program schedule effective immediately and advised any of its participating 87.9 MHz FM translators to cease broadcasting the station immediately. The Internet feed from the studio was suspended shortly thereafter and the alleged, last known translator, is said to have gone silent sometime on the morning of March 17, 2015.
Decisions have been made that there is no way to conduct such a service on the radio broadcast band without being subject to strict FCC rules and very limited signal range and complaints from other local licensed radio stations. What was thought to be a great idea, turned out to be a waste of time and money and there was too much legal liability at stake even though the station did not own or operate the transmitters that carried its signal on air.
WXTZ 87.9 Norwich was retired, the Facebook page and Twitter accounts were deleted thereafter. After doing so, Those that wanted WXTZ 87.9 Norwich shut down, accused the owners of those pages of attempting to hide and delete evidence that claimed the station participated in illegal pirate radio operations. The Facebook page and Twitter accounts were deleted because they no longer served a purpose. Bruce Edwards who was a voice on the radio station could not believe that such accusations were made when it was our right to delete what rightfully belonged to us and that in doing so, should not have caused anyone to accuse us of attempting to delete any evidence. We, in no way ever willfully or intentionally asked anyone to operate in violation of FCC rules. Why is the studio being held responsible by "these people" when we have repeatedly said the studios, which was the only part of the station we were legally responsible for, never used an on site transmitter, nor did we own or operate such broadcast equipment which involved needing any valid FCC authorization to operate. Unless the FCC tells us that we need an FCC license to operate a web based Internet stream, then I see no intentional and willful violations being committed by us. However our words continue to fall on deaf ears.
In April 2015, a decision was made to give Internet Radio a try, where there would be absolutely no permission granted to anyone to re-broadcast the station on any over-the-air radio broadcast bands, including the AM or FM broadcast bands. The Facebook page was saved hours before it was scheduled to be deleted and it was renamed with a temporary name that was intended to take it away from any further reference to the FM radio broadcast band. The station wished to save and include its already established Facebook fan base with the future re-launch on the Internet. The page is now geared toward being an Internet-based Radio Station page. Even though the station has signed off of the FM band with no intentions of ever returning to the radio broadcast airwaves, the station is still being harassed and stalked by the same group of people who claimed that the station intentionally and willfully operated in violation of FCC rules and intentionally and willfully operated as a "pirate radio station". "It is sad when you didn't break any rules, but people still place a criminal name on you because you're in the most vulnerable position, this is the case when you do not hide your identity, it is easier for them to blame you for the actions of what other people did or might have done"
This is the final entry related to this radio station. The staff members associated with this radio station have lost interest in any further launch dates. This includes any future plans of launching an Internet Radio Station.
The radio station related Facebook and Twitter accounts were finally permanently deleted and removed from the web and all of the radio station's Facebook page subscribers were removed from the page before the final deletion was performed.
All of the studio owned equipment was sold off as secondhand equipment, and so WXTZ 87.9 Norwich goes down in history as Norwich, Connecticut's first part 15 radio station.