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for ~ bo ut 10 years, has know n Rolle for abou t
the same lengt h of time and has exchanged
communication, with him. At lime s. these
communications were normal , but at o thers
Rolle was transmitti ng foul and obscene statement
s concerning La Busier, his wife and
child, other amateu rs, and thr eats to peo ple.
Accord ingly, La Busier made tape record ings,
talked to law enforcement officers, and filed
the criminal charges on which Rolle was
convicted. La Busier also introduced a handwrilt
en let ter, dat ed Octo ber 29, 1969, which
he had received from Rolle. Th e letter. written
in advance of u s~ r io us operati on which he
was about to undergo, may generally be
described as a confession of im pro per con duct
to w"rd La Bu,ier and othe r ham opera tors,
and a request for fo rgiveness.
Mrs. La Busier. also an amat eur, ident ified
various por tions of the trans cript of which she
had made th e taping, or had p~ rso nall y he"rd
at the time, identifying th e voice of W9FC E us
that of Rolle 's. Mrs. La Busier was the subject
of th e dd~ma t or y remarks which led to
Rolle's conviction, and on other occasions "s
well, induding threat s of bodily harm, The
rr ovoeati,'e n a t u r~ of these r~m~ rk s is indio
eated by the transcript of December 16, 1968 ,
when Mr, . La Busier, in retaliation. threa te ned
to "hlow that beady lillie head of yours
iR olle' s) righ t off your should ers ,"
Mrs. Stolle, an aunt of Rolle'.1identified a
portio n of the tran script where she rernon ­
str n t ~ d with Rolle o n December 16, 196 8, in a
transm ission from the La Busier station, for
state ments he had bcen making and in which
he described himself as "dead drunk." Shc
furthe r confirmed thre ats which Rolle had
made to "get " or "do harm" to La Busier, his
family, and others if he shou ld have his license
revoked _ specifi cally that he wo uld bomb
their ho uses.
Mrs. Familton, anoth er ama teur, describ ed
a number of transmissions by Rolle, whose
voice she recognized, of the Same natu re as
those in th'_ FCC exhibit, and independently
verified seVfral of the instances in that tr anscript,
including threats against th e lives ~ f
herself and oth er memhers of the St. LoUl'
Repeat er Club. She also described an instance
in March 1970 , when she personally met Rolle
and he apologized for th e things he had said ,
explaining that he had teen under a considerable
stra in and not feeling well She also
described an instan ce befo re Rolle's eonviction
in Decembe r 1969, when, afte r she
Ilad made a test call, Rolle came on and
characte rized her as a "fa t old whore:' Again,
while her family was on an automobil e trip
during which her four children became boistero
u" her husband made a transmission fro m
their mobi le unit, at t he conclusion of which
Rolle came on and characte rized th e children
as a "bu nch of bastard s: ' T he St. Louis
Repea ter Club, of which she is secret ary, had
expelled Rolle from memb ership because of
his co nduct on the air,
Rolle's Defense
Rolle, testify ing in his own behalf, catcgorically
denied making any such tr ansmissions,
or that he had ever used obscene o r
Findings of Fact
Rolle, using st ation W9FCE, did make the
tran smissions which served as the basis of the
show cause ord er. The stat eme nts include
trans missions which RoUe himself conceded
to be obscene; much profa nity, defama tory
statements of the nat ure on which he was
prosecuted: and thre atenin g sta teme nts of the
following nature,
" ... I said I woulda ru n into both cars
tod ay when you were at that house only
thi ng I did n' t want to hurt Harol d Weiss.
Luckily, he was standing th ere or I would a
hurt a whole bunch of ot her people. Th at
was my int ention ,"
" ... She see me on the street, I don't run
CauSe I carry a .25 automatic on me at ~ ll
ti mes. And I know how to uSe it. . . . "
" Stupi d, got someth ing to tell you. You'r e
go nna have an accident between Godrey and
:>b cDon ald coming hom e some evening
here - some w~y, somehow. But you're
gon na have an accident and it' s gon na be
fatal."
. . . I ever see any of yous e in person, I'm
gonna blow your damn head' off. "
" . . . You people ain't fit to live, a nd by
golly , vou won't much longer ."
These sta tements (all from FCC staff Exhibit
2) are against a background of Mr
Rolle's formidable appear" nce , which is described
in the record as "un usually large 'in
height and weight ," Rolle is described as being
6 ft I I in. tall and weighing in eXCeSS of 400
pounds, which is co mpatible wit h the obscrvatio
ns of the hearing examiner
ConclUSions
The Bureau concluded that respondent's
actions are not consistent with the purposes
for which amateur rad io is inte nded and are
clearly, as charged, contrary to the public
interest, convenienc e, and necessity, Also, as
charged, it was conclude d that these action s
would warr ant the Commilsion in refus ing to
grant an ap plicat ion filed by responden t for
an amateur radio license, With respect to
re,pondent 's plea for clemency, th e Bureau'
conte nded that due to the complete lack of
candor exhibit ed through denial and subsequent
admission of the matte rs charged, the
defense of effect s of drugs and alcoho l is not a
mitigation of the offense. Pointing to the
heinous natur e of the tr ansmissions , th e Bureau
urged the imposition of the most severe
sanctio ns available - revocation of the station
license and suspensio n of the operator license.
Respondent, on the o ther hand , urged that
he not be penalized for having exercised his
righi to a heari"g, as he feels the Bureau
suggested. T he proposed findings the n discuss
Rolle's phys ical and mental makeu p, largely in
terms not supported by the record . The
record did verify , however, that threats Rolle
had made were subs equently denied or forgott
en by him ; he worried a lot about having
his license revoked; and he has difficu lty
finding employ ment because of his huge bulk
char acter, and financial, tech nical and other,"
it appears to have activated only the citizenship
and technical requir emen ts (Sect ion'
97.37 -97.49 of the Rules and Regulatio ns) .
While Rolle' s actions are clearly not compatible
with the basi, and purpose of amate ur
radio service (Section 97. 1l , the hearing eXaminer
found noth ing in th e regulations which
would auth orize a refusal to issue a sta tion
license to Rolle, no twith standing his reprehensible
cond uct , so long is he possessed an
operators license , nor did t he Bureau cit e any .
Section 312 of th e Act under whieh this
action is taken, paragraph (d) , placed a 'pccific
burden of proof on the Commission , or
in this case, the Bureau . The Bureau has not
sustained that burden of showing a pro pel
basis for the revocation of the station license
The Surpr;"e Kicker
The prop osed findings cited no regulation
actively triggers it with tone. The fact th. at the I and the U.S. - all ,the fo rei ~.n lallds rC(l'iHr
user station does have t one won ld be suf_ better marks for Improv1l1g their produ.-!s
Ificient to asssure that he is moni to nng the over the past decade than dId the U.S. TI",
repeate r output. If the repea ter the n mal- best endorsement went to Japan , wit h 65',001
funct ions - or its emissio ns are contrary to the nat ional sample and 79 ':1- of tile Iligll·
the requirements of Part. 97 - the user station income sample asserti ng thai J"palleSc' goods
can shut off his tone eq uipment to keep are better than they were 10 years ago. In
further signals from going through the re- contrast, only 33% of the n ~ t i o n a l s"ml'l t' and
peete r. 27% of the high-income respondent s noted
Oth er methods of repeater shutd own in- improvement in U.S. goods. F urthermore.
elud e transmission of a carrier for a specified o ne-third of both groups claimed tll.Jt Amentlme,perio
d (say 3 minute,)~ transmlsslon of a can-made prodllcts are not as l11ill! ,n '1u" I,ty
contmuc us tone for a specifIed period (say 10 as the y were ,a decade ",go. Th i.1 LS, hy far, the
seconds), or the SImple act of refraining from brs.est negat Ive vote gIven any of the fOIl ,
any tr ansmission for a specifie d period (say 5 nano ns.
minu tes) , When the repeater is thus Shu t Even while believing that the qllality of
down , the repeate r cont rol licensee can be U.S. products are declining, Americans stLi l
noti fied and repairs can be initiated. have the greatest amount of co nfide nce in
If the no-mo nitor propo sal is passed by the domestically produced goods. Of eight pro­
FCC, this step would mark the mos t signifi- ducts meaS surveyed - mostly in the e l~ecan!'
advance in repeater-rulemaking since th e trontcs field - o nly Jap an and West Germa ny
log-signing requir ement was dropped several approa ch the· U.S. in making produc ts with
..---- --- comparable acceptance to American consumers.
In near ly all prod ucts area, sllrveyed in the
Blind Ham Uses Repeater Newsweek stu dy , the U.S. maintains a command
ing lead over its nearest com petitors in
To Repo rt Blaze
both national and high-income samples, In tile
by Ji'/ WSN
area of color TV, 76% of the national sample
:t i~~ l~ i:e~ ~~~ i~et~e ;:~O ~d~ ~~~ I ~I J ~ ;:t~~~ I ; ~".. " &U , I
of inconsi,t eney with the general standard of
Section 307( a) of the Act doe' not meet the
test of Section 303(m)( l) (A). As in the
instance of the stat ion license, the show cause
order omitted reference to the specific prohibiti
on dealing with pro fane or obscene
words, lang uage or meaning, Section
303(m)(l )(D). Accord ing to FCC Exam iner
A QR RR was p l ~ c e d on the WA1KFY repeater
in Marlbo ro, Mass. on November 29,
1970 by WlFCJ, a sightless amateur who
reported a fire in his building wit h accompanying
heavy smoke . T here was no telephone
in' the apartment and th e FM tra nsceiver was
d ose at hand , Th e call was received by
WI ELU and WAI NPT, who called the Cambridge
(Mass.) fire and police departments.
Wl FCJ remained at his rig until the police
arrived and was one of the last persons to be
evacuated from the building. Th ere were no
injuries, but damage was exte nsive and heavy
Frederick Denniston , there is 110 direct prohibition
agaillst Ihe lise oj ama le"r radi o fo r
criminal purposes. which, if here pre,c nt
would be conclusive in view of Rolle's crim
Ina! conviction for certai n of the acts here
involved
The show cause order cited tile making by
Rolle of "c ommu nications of a th reatening,
abusive and/ o r indecent nature;" and th e
propose d findi ngs of the Bureau conclu de tha t
losses w~re
he had , in fact, done so. This quoted language
suffered by WlF CJ and several
~ .. ... , other occupan ts.
is a modification of the language v, " ..
stat ute and Section 9 7.1 19 of the Rules and
Regulations against "obscene, indecen t Or
profane" as used in 28 USC 2464 , which bot h
the show cause order and the Bureau eschew,
but the Bureau d id not explain such a shift in
language.
A review of Part 9 7 convinced the hearing
examiner that Rolle's conduct had at least
violated Sect ion 97 .1 15 prohibiting the transmission
of nlllsic, Sect ion 97. 125 prohibiting
willful and maliciou s interference, and Section
97.JJ9, The BlI r~ au substitu te, which it employed
in the show cau,e order, and the
language of Section 97 .1 19, however , have
onc word in common - "in dece nt" - one
definition of which i, " morally unfit to be
seen or heard." Rolle's language clearly met
this test, and the hearing examiner so co n­
eluded. To tha t ex tent , the " cause for the
proposed suspension" required by Section
303(m)(2) had been prop erly gi\'en and was
sustained by the reco rd.
The FCC report sum marized : " , . the
Bureau would revoke the station license on a
charge of there being warrant for refusa l to
grant a license on an original application . The
regulations, however, do not specify an y basis
on which an original application co uld be
News Page Two
refused in t he light of the conduct involved ;
nor doe' the Bureau indicate a basis o utside
the regulation which would sustain the action.
The charge wit h respect to the o pera tor
license is violation of statute or Commission
regulation but the specificatio ns of the charge,
"threalening" and "abusive," are found in
neither. While the word " indecent " is in th e
charge and is in Section 97. 119 of tile Rules,
the failure to cite th at section, and especially
th e av oidance of citation to Section
303( m)(I)(D), dealing specifically with "indecent
" language on the air ,. raises sub­
Stantial do ubt as to whether a prop er basis has
been sho wn for suspension of the operator
license. Surely, the genera l public and especially
the amat eur radio operators, who
have been subjected to ~ b us e by actions such
as disclosed here , arc ent itled to better pro kction
in the form of clear-cut regulatio ns and
supp orting procedures to eliminate such activities:'
The license for amateu r radio sta tion
W9FCE was NOT REVOKED, but the Technician
amateu r radio opera tor license issued to
Armond J. Rolle was SUSI'ENDED unt il
November 1, 1971
has a "great amount of co nfidence" in tile
U.S. product, 25% for second -place Japan ,
For black-and-white TV the U.S. has a 79% vs
32% "gre at confiden ce" lead over seco nd·
place Japan. In the cat egory of radio, hi-fi,
and tape recorders, the U.S. lead over second ­
place Japan i, 69% v, 48%. The U.S. to ps
second-place West Germany in watches 62% vs
41%, in small hou sehold appliances 72% vs
19% and in automobiles 69% vs 37%.
Fo r further information of this survey and
for a demographic analysis of its findings,
conta ct Joh n G. Pontius, Newsweek Home
Product Advert ising Manager, a t 444 Madison
Avenue, New York NY 200 22.
fCC R(PORlS Issum
Volume 19- of the Seco nd Series of FCC
Reports is now available to the public from
the Superinte nde nt of Do cuments, U.S. Gov.
ernmen t Printing Office, Washington, D.C.,
20402. Volume 19, covering the period from
Septemb er 5, 1969 to Octobe r 17, 1969 ,
conta ins 1,140 pages and is priced at $6
(catalog number 1970 O·LT 374-78 3).
The complete FCC report now consists of
the first series of 4 1 bound volu mes dating
from July 17, 1934, to June 30 , 1965; th e
second series of 19 volumes covering th e
period July 9, 1965 to Octo ber 17, 1969.
Volumes 42 thro ugh 45 (covering docum e nts
not previously prin ted in the repo rts, Safety
and Special Radio Services, and Com mon
Carrier Malters) are now in preparation. A
cumulative index-digest of Volumes I through
IS of the second series is available from the
Governmen t Printing Office for $7.50; a
si",ilar index to the first series will be prepared
.