It was only when he realized that the FCC's rules forbid such licensing that he contracted with Pacifica to come in under their umbrella. It is a situation that has been evolving for the last thirty years. The programmers' power has been fed by management who have been content to let them go their own way, rather than get embroiled in a destructive battle for control. The cant at the FCC is that commercial broadcast operations are owned by various publically documented licensees. In truth, the owners are the radio and television program sponsors.
Commercial operators float new programs each year like trial balloons.
This insures their staying power. The Pacifica programmers are a feisty bunch. They have gotten to where they are because of survivability, longevity, and powerful political in-fighting skills. They are usually highly committed, deeply involved, and very sophisticated in the ways and the use of media. It is real power, but it is strange and idiosyncratic one, more akin to the anarcho-syndicalists of Barcelona of 1935, rather than Berkeley or New York of 1999.