==> AN ERA COMES TO A CLOSE AS RILEY HOLLINGSWORTH, K4ZDH, RETIRES

[Andre Kesteloot]

==> AN ERA COMES TO A CLOSE AS RILEY HOLLINGSWORTH, K4ZDH, RETIRES 

On Thursday, July 3, Special Counsel for the Spectrum Enforcement
Division of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH --
the man who has come to embody Amateur Radio Enforcement -- said goodbye
to the FCC as he retired and began his life as a private citizen. In
May, Hollingsworth announced he would definitely retire; he had
contemplated retiring in January 2008, but cited "several issues on the
table that I want[ed] to continue to work through with the amateur
community." While his successor has not yet been named, he was quick to
point out that the FCC's Amateur Radio enforcement program will
continue.

Hollingsworth said that he has "loved" working for the FCC and has
"always had great jobs, but this one involving the Amateur Radio Service
has been the most fun and I have enjoyed every day of it. I've worked
with the best group of licensees on earth, enjoyed your support and
tremendous FCC support and looked forward every day to coming to work.
The Amateur Radio Enforcement program will continue without missing a
beat, and after retirement I look forward to being involved with Amateur
Radio every way I can. I thank all of you for being so dedicated and
conscientious, and for the encouragement you give us every day." 

Saying it has been a "privilege to work with and for the Amateur Radio
licensees and the land mobile frequency coordinators," Hollingsworth
said that he is "extremely fortunate to work for two wonderful groups of
people: Those at headquarters in the Enforcement Bureau, and for the
Amateur Radio operators." 

Before joining the FCC, Hollingsworth, a South Carolina native,
graduated from the University of South Carolina and Wake Forest
University School of Law. While in high school, he worked as a disc
jockey for WRHI, an AM station in Rock Hill, South Carolina. "It's a
funny thing," Hollingsworth said. "They once held a beauty pageant in
Rock Hill and nobody won!" In the mid-1970s, he was a "Nader's Raider"
and worked on brown lung disease in the North and South Carolina textile
mills.

"Basically I'm just an ordinary guy caught in the cross-hairs of radio
history," Hollingsworth said. "But I am proud of the fact that the
digital clock on my VCR has been blinking for 4 years." 

Hollingsworth told the ARRL he was "so very impressed" with the young
people who are involved with Amateur Radio: "To the very young Amateur
Radio operators I have met who have dreams of being scientists and
astronauts and communications engineers, we will be pulling for you; I
have a strong feeling we won't be disappointed."

Calling the Amateur Radio Service a part of the American heritage,
Hollingsworth explained that he is "going to stay as actively involved
in it as I possibly can. Thank you all for working tirelessly to provide
the only fail safe communications system on Earth and for helping this
country keep its lead in science and technology. What an incredible gift
it has been to work with you every day, and how fortunate we are to love
the magic of radio! Every gift of lasting value comes with
responsibility. We must never forget what we owe for our spectrum
privileges. I will continue working with you in every way I can to
ensure that Amateur Radio lasts a thousand years. "