Category: FCC

FCC Watch: Enforcement Action Continues Apace

In the first three months of the year the FCC’s executed about half the total enforcement actions conducted last year, which broke all previous records.
Among the latest batch to be contacted is Pirate Cat Radio, the dual radio/TV station simulcast in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The FCC issued separate warning letters to two people – usually a single person gets the heat first. Not sure which one of them is the infamous Monkey Man, though you can now see him unmasked in a mini-documentary on Pirate Cat recently found on Current TV. He and a couple other DJs explain why they so love microradio.

FCC Watch: Enforcement Tempo Quickens

The New York office has been spending a lot of time in New Jersey, perhaps in response to the state’s attempt to assert enforcement jurisdiction over the airwaves. (Meanwhile, in Florida, the FCC’s busy busting construction crane operators cursing on two-way radio frequencies licensed to a hospital.)
Out west, Berkeley Liberation Radio got another visit and the Portland Radio Authority is off the air after same. Free Radio Santa Cruz‘s Skidmark Bob did a long interview with BLR volunteer Gerald Smith, where the connection between the current station its evolution from roots in Free Radio Berkeley is vividly described. Field agents have also paid respects to stations in Nevada and New Mexico. Continue reading “FCC Watch: Enforcement Tempo Quickens”

Hams In Decline

According to this handy web site, which tracks the amateur radio licensing statistics of the FCC, the number of licensed hams has been in a steady decline for the better part of three years. The numbers (as of January 2006) show that there are just over 660,000 amateur radio license-holders in the United States, a decline of nearly 28,000 since mid-2003 (in chart form, since 1997).
On average, between 1,000 and 2,000 new amateur licenses are issued every month, although a larger number expire. By decade, amateur radio licenses have been in a net growth pattern until the year 2000; for this decade the aggregate growth number is negative. Interestingly, less than half of all hams are members of the American Radio Relay League. Continue reading “Hams In Decline”

FCC Seeks $302.5 Million For Fiscal Year 2007

The ’07 budget figures represent about a 4% increase over the FCC’s actual budget for fiscal year 2006 (which ends in the fall), though it is less than what was initially requested for FY ’06.
The agency’s news release notes that some of its request (just over $1 million) will be designated toward “replac[ing] Mobile Digital Direction Finding (MDDF) vehicles that are used to support public safety entities (e.g., emergency responders, police, fire departments) in the resolution of harmful interference to their communications systems.”
According to the budget proposal itself (see the document linked as “FY 2007 Performance Budget”), the FCC maintains a fleet of 76 MDDF vehicles. Continue reading “FCC Seeks $302.5 Million For Fiscal Year 2007”

Enforcement Action Database Cracks 1,000 Actions

Just caught up on the FCC’s last two months of activity. It’s been a busy winter: 274 enforcement actions for 2006 and counting.
This includes fines, or threats of fines, of $10,000 against the transmitter-hosts of both microstations in San Diego, though escalating the enforcement process up to that level of severity remains mostly outside the FCC’s standard protocol (in related news, the agency’s Inspector General is planning an audit of its regulatory fee-collection process, something not done since 1999). Continue reading “Enforcement Action Database Cracks 1,000 Actions”

Sirius Wants Stern Pirates Silenced

Ah, the exquisite irony of indecency fine-money levied against the “old” Howard Stern radio program paying the wages of FCC field agents as they investigate acts of unlicensed broadcasting involving relays of Stern’s “new” show. Sirius has indeed petitioned the FCC to investigate the pirate rebroadcasters. The complaint reportedly only references the stations in New York and New Jersey, however, not those in the Midwest.
Patrick Reilly, Sirius flack, says: “Given the quality of Howard’s show, listening to it on a pirate radio is no way to listen to it.” I’d say the format fits the forum just fine, and I’m kind of surprised Stern’s not at least leaving the underdog alone here. I guess $500 million will do that to you.

rfb v. FCC In Stasis

When the FCC was denied an injunction against radio free brattleboro in March of 2004, Federal District Judge J. Garvan Murtha suggested the agency and station enter into talks to try to figure out a compromise whereby rfb might broadcast legally. Instead the FCC went to a Federal Magistrate and got a warrant to execute a station raid in June of 2005. Instead of playing ball with rfb, the FCC went and found a friendlier court. Justice in action?
This week radio free brattleboro’s attorney formally announced the collapse of all dialogue, as civil actions still wend their way through two courts in Vermont. Continue reading “rfb v. FCC In Stasis”

The Enforcement Action Database: An Overview

Enforcement Action Database Index
What is the Enforcement Action Database?
The Database collects instances of FCC enforcement activity against unlicensed (pirate) radio stations in the United States. It was initially started with the idea of developing a better understanding of how the FCC conducts enforcement activity against pirate stations. This primarily involves tracking the use of the enforcement tools the FCC has at its disposal, and the patterns of their usage.
While unlicensed broadcasting does occur on other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, the Enforcement Action Database focuses only on activity in the broadcast (AM, FM, and shortwave) bands. Continue reading “The Enforcement Action Database: An Overview”