User:Jcstats10/Touch 106.1

Touch 106.1 FM

Touch 106.1 FM is a low-power radio station in Roxbury, MA on the southwest side of Boston. The radio station was founded by Charles Clemons, a resident of the area, as well as John Laing and Leroy McLaren in 2005. They adopted the moniker "The Fabric of the Black Community" shortly after coming onto the airwaves, because of their music choices and their works in rebuilding the Roxbury and Dorchester areas.

The Beginning
Charles Clemons was a Boston Police officer stationed in the Roxbury area for much of his 20's and 30's. Most of his duties revolved around walking the streets and connecting with the people in the area, as a patrolman.

After leaving the police force, Clemons decided to take up a livery service. He rented out or drove limousines for events or traveling clientele in the greater Boston area for a few years until 2005.

In 2005, Clemons saw a great need for a voice of the black community in the Boston area. He researched the costs of opening a radio station and was astounded by the million dollar price tag, which it would take to get both a license and equipment. Unable to meet such a cost, Clemons decided to create a radio station anyway and began to rent out a small studio from a friend.

After fifteen months of hard work and pulling some strings, Touch 106.1 FM went on air for the first time in September of 2006.

The Struggle
Touch 106.1 FM wasn't on the airwaves long before the FCC came knocking at their door. Under FCC regulations, hundreds of community stations like Touch 106.1 FM were deemed illegal because they didn't have their licenses. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was supposed to generate more competition amongst radio stations, but it didn't address the idea or existence of radio stations across the country. Community stations were seen as menaces to the FCC because they weren't able to monitor or control the content they were putting into the public sphere. Many community stations were shut down with in a few months of their launch and others like Touch 106.1 FM were fined significant amounts of money that would cripple their existence.

The Support
From the beginning, Touch 106.1 FM was received very well in the black community. Due to their unofficial existence before 2010, no statistics of listeners can be tracked, unless they listened through an internet provider. However many local politicians and journalists banded together with Touch to fight against FCC rulings that the station would need to be taken down. In 2007, over two hundred local residents marched to an FCC office in Quincy, MA from Roxbury to quietly protest their ruling.

During the 2009 Boston Mayoral election, all three major candidates appeared on "The Morning Show" ; Sam Yoon, Michael Flahtery and incumbent Thomas Menino. Despite Touch's battle with the FCC still in the air, the candidates voiced their support for the radio station's works, eventually leading to Touch hosting the 2009 Mayoral Debate in Faneuil Hall. Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick has also been on the show as a guest and has spoken on behalf of the Community Radio Act a handful of times.

Prometheus Radio Project, a social media rights group based out of Philadelphia, has also fought for Touch's cause. After losing his own community radio station, Pete Tridish started the organization to build up more community stations around the country and act as the representative for all station owners in a lawsuit against the FCC. Tridish visited in studio in November,2009 to talk about the process of forming a community radio bill that would allow all community stations to be legalized under FCC law.