State-Level Challenge to Florida's Anti-Pirate Law?

The only attempt made so far to challenge Florida’s law making radio piracy a state felony involves a petition from the American Radio Relay League asking the FCC to issue a declaratory ruling nullifying the state law on jurisdictional grounds. Although the FCC has been historically very aggressive in asserting its jurisdictional superiority when it comes to regulation of the airwaves, in the cases of Florida and New Jersey it’s looked the other way – the ARRL’s petition has languished in the FCC’s circular file for 19 months now.
But Rayon Payne, of all people, thinks Florida’s law can be successfully contested at the state level. He recently called the Florida Secretary of State’s office and asked for a license to broadcast. Payne’s premise is, if the state of Florida wants to assert some sort of policing authority over use the public airwaves, then it should include a licensing power as a part of that authority.
There’s something patently unjust about a state enforcing rules of access to a public resource without providing the proper mechanisms to lawfully use the resource. In Payne’s words, “It’s like the state saying, if you want to drive in our state, you have to go to Alaska to get the driver’s license.”
Payne says the person he talked to at the Secretary of State’s office could not wrap their brain around this concept, and eventually the call ended in frustration. He’s considered filing a formal challenge to the anti-pirate statute in state court, and he would be an excellent candidate: Payne certainly doesn’t want to run afoul of federal law again, and if he can find state-level purchase to resume broadcasting he’d jump at it.
There are a couple of downsides to this tactic. The statute’s language explicitly refers to the FCC as the primary licensing authority that the state seeks to uphold; this may be enough to convince a judge that there’s no need for the state to get involved in the licensing process itself. In Payne’s specific instance, given his prior encounters with the state, it is not predisposed to doing him any favors, and that may be enough to taint any challenge he raises.
However, such a challenge would certainly catch the notice of the FCC, which would be compelled to intervene in the issue and take an actual position on the crucial jurisdictional question.