HONG KONG -- Hong Kong's radio waves are in a terrible tangle. The sector is beset with legal suits, contradictory administration and the aftermath of a delightfully silly sex scandal.

Last week the government announced a public consultation on the allocation of a license to Wave Media, a private company aiming to broadcast "information about Hong Kong, the Mainland and the world."

Trouble is, in its battle against unlicensed pirate station, Citizens' Radio, the government has repeatedly said there is no spare spectrum available. That may be difficult to believe when Hong Kong only has three radio broadcast groups, pubcaster Radio Television Hong Kong, Hong Kong Commercial Radio and Metro.

The territory's hilly topography and its proximity to China -- both in the geographical sense (frequencies could overlap) and in the political -- may partially explain that situation.

For years now the government has been fighting an on-off battle with Citizens' Radio, a talk station that has been denied an FM license and occasionally pops up to taunt on one of Metro's frequencies that it says is unused.

Pirate broadcasting is illegal and could encroach on airwaves used by emergency services, thunders the government.

But in January Citizens' Radio, whose backers include Leung "Long Hair" Kwok-hung, a rabble-rousing member of the territory's legislature, challenged the government in court and earned a shock victory.

The court ruled Hong Kong CEO Donald Tsang's "sole unfettered discretion" to grant broadcasting licenses was unconstitutional.

In another devastating ruling, in Februarya different court ruled that the Broadcast Authority had no statutory power to censure Radio Television Hong Kong as RTHK is a government department.

The government hasn't decided whether to reform RTHK or kill it off.

Nearly a year ago an independent panel said Hong Kong needed a "statutory independent public broadcaster."

The government, although it wants a pubcaster, has not committed to RTHK, which it views as sclerotic and occasionally rebellious.

Since that time RTHK has done its darnedest to self destruct.

Among the minor affairs, a presenter was caught fraudulently claiming his mother as a scriptwriting expense.

Worse, in July RTHK's head of programming Chu Pui-hing was photographed with a karaoke hostess at a night club. He turned a moment of embarrassment into a scandal by, literally, hiding from paparazzi behind the woman's skirt while she brazenly gave interviews.

Chu resigned a few days later, but the government fumbled the task of finding his replacement. It rejected 20 applicants and is re-advertising the post, this time allowing candidates without university degrees.

That brought fresh criticism, first that the government had lowered the qualification to favor a particular candidate it had in mind, and provoked scorn from many RTHK staffers for whom degrees are a requirement.

At a highly emotional press conference RTHK talk show host Robert Chow declared himself a candidate in order to fight discrimination against hard-working people without degrees -- though he also said he didn't want to give up his relaxed lifestyle and thought the HK$1.9 million ($245,000) annual salary was too low.

Now, without a hint of embarrassment, the government has found a spectrum for its friends on Wave media.

The board of directors of Wave Media includes legislator Albert Cheng, former education chief Arthur Li, executive counselor Ronald Arculli and David Li, the banker and former executive counselor. Li last month paid $8.1 million to resolve SEC charges, which he has neither admitted nor denied, that in April he tipped off a friend about Rupert Murdoch's then- unannounced bid for Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal.

Wave's promised schedule includes 30 hours per week of programming it describes as "harmonious society" content. That is a phrase rarely heard in Hong Kong and springs straight out of the Politburo handbook.

Hong Kong's airwaves are anything but harmonious these days.