2001 has been a remarkably quiet year on the American pirate radio scene. It’s not that stations aren’t broadcasting or their numbers aren’t growing; the FCC, it appears, has made microradio enforcement a lower priority.
According to our Enforcement Action Database, which attempts to keep track of the FCC’s enforcement activity, contact with pirates has been seemingly sparse. To date, only 12 enforcement actions have been reported. If this trend continues through the rest of the year, enforcement activity could be as much as 50% down from the previous two years.
In fact, for the entire year so far, the total number of enforcement actions only equals the (past) average monthly activity of the FCC. Continue reading “Enforcement Drought”
Category: FCC
Shortwave Spike
It’s been years since the shortwave pirate scene has been this active.
Normally, the best times to catch pirate broadcasts on shortwave frequencies has been weekend nights. While the spring and summer months tend to see a slowdown in activity due to increased solar and thunderstorm-induced interference, this trend has all but disappeared.
Pirates are popping up at all hours during the week, with some broadcasting marathon shows on multiple frequencies.
In the United States, the FCC has spent the last few years devoting most of its enforcement resources to tracking down and busting FM microradio stations; this has left little effort directed toward monitoring the shortwave band. Continue reading “Shortwave Spike”
Telling it to the Judge
Regional Battles, National Goal
While the June 2001 court victory for Connecticut’s Prayze FM was an important event in the ongoing legal battle between pirate broadcasters and the Federal Communications Commission, it is only one front in a broader challenge to FCC authority currently taking place in the courts.
The Prayze case deserves special mention because of its fundamental attacks on both the FCC’s new low power FM (LPFM) licensing rules and on the general enforcement strategy the agency employs against the free radio movement. It is not the first station to attempt draw governmental blood in the courts, nor is it the only one finding success.
There are at least a half-dozen court cases wending their way through the federal judicial system at the moment. It is important to remember that there are basically three levels of activity in the federal court system: the District Court (where all cases begin), the Appeals Court (who can either uphold, reverse, or remand District Court judge rulings), and the Supreme Court (the ultimate arbiter of chosen disputes). Continue reading “Telling it to the Judge”
LPFM in Court
Prayze FM vs. FCC
Prayze FM has never sought publicity for its fight, preferring to quietly slug it out in court with the FCC over its right to broadcast, license or not.
Since February 1998, Prayze has methodically ground its way through the federal judicial system, winning some small battles and losing some big ones. Until this year.
Now, Prayze is full of hope again, and it holds hope for a forced expansion of the FCC’s new LPFM service as a result of its struggle. Continue reading “LPFM in Court”
FCC: Still a Paper Tiger
Powell’s Master Plan
There’s been little talk of the direction newly-anointed FCC chairman Michael Powell plans to take the agency, outside the mouthing of various platitudes he made following his nomination, where he pledged to make the FCC even more friendly to big business interests in Washington.
Powell has finally unveiled a little more about his strategic plan for the FCC: he presented an outline of it in late May as testimony to a Congressional committee chewing over the FCC’s latest budget request.
From the testimony, it’s clear that Powell is planning on keeping his mitts off the “public interest'” side of the agency’s mission, choosing to focus almost exclusively on providing the best service he can to his “customers” – media corporations. Continue reading “FCC: Still a Paper Tiger”
Parting Ways
There is much news to report as the introduction of America’s new low power FM (LPFM) service continues. While progress is good, it’s apparent now that the service – and its new constituents – are working to separate themselves from the movement of electronic civil disobedience which spurred its creation.
The FCC has been quietly issuing new LPFM station construction permits in small batches; the current count is now up to 41, and it’s expected that handfuls will continue to be released throughout the year.
The lack of fanfare from the FCC, who could certainly use a bit of publicity on an issue like this to at least maintain its rhetorical populism, is a bit disturbing. Continue reading “Parting Ways”
Party Pirate Gives it Up?
Pirate radio blooms around the world for different reasons and faces different challenges, depending on where the station is located and the reasons for going on the air. In the United States, pirates tend to take to the air for political reasons: whether it be to protest the corporate takeover of the local airwaves or to challenge the authority of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), putting a pirate station on the air is a signal of open defiance to the status quo.
Nobody has exemplified this nature of struggle more than Doug Brewer. He joined the ranks of the microradio movement early on in the game, setting up Tampa’s Party Pirate 102.1in 1994 as an outgrowth of a small station he installed to broadcast Christmas music at his home during the holidays.
Listeners in Tampa flocked to the station but the FCC wasn’t pleased; an overzealous crew of enforcement agents based in Tampa made it their mission in life to take the Party Pirate off the air. They began with a visit in 1996 and issued Brewer a $1,000 fine for unlicensed broadcasting. Continue reading “Party Pirate Gives it Up?”
A Slow Demise?
While the Federal Communications Commission continues to slowly move ahead with plans to roll out new low power FM (LPFM) stations, its Chairman is sending mixed messages about the fledgling service’s future.
So far, 25 LPFM applicants have received construction permits for their stations. These permits allow the applicants to build their actual facilities and prepare for broadcasting, but they still require an official license from the FCC before they can flip the switch on regular programming.
The FCC will also complete its first round of application-processing in June, when it accepts LPFM station proposals from the 20 remaining U.S. states and territories who haven’t had a chance to file yet. Continue reading “A Slow Demise?”
The Lucky 25
You’d expect the issuance of the first construction permits for legal low power FM radio stations in more than 30 years to be accompanied by some fanfare. Last week, when the FCC gave 25 LPFM applicants initial permission to start building their stations, it didn’t even bother to issue a news release.
But the ball is rolling now: these selected applicants in five states can now raise their antenna and prepare to start broadcasting. Not surprisingly, none are located in major metropolitan areas, and in many locations the applicants could’ve applied for a full-power FM station license. Continue reading “The Lucky 25”
FCC: New Faces, More Money
There are some big changes on the horizon for the Federal Communications Commission. The changes look ominously negative, but the agency’s general inattentiveness to the renewed insurgence of unlicensed broadcasting can only help the free radio movement as a whole.
The first big change is a personnel shift occurring at the very top of the FCC: three of the five Commissioners have either resigned or are on their way out and president Bush II has formally announced his picks to fill the slots.
The appointments will give Republicans a working 3-2 majority on the Commission. Pending confirmation by the U.S. Senate, a Bush-league FCC is expected to continue the wholesale cell of the public airwaves to the highest bidder; Chairman Michael Powell has already all but declared regulation a dirty word, preferring to let “market forces” (read: corporate interests) rule the roost and direct the construction of tomorrow’s media environment. Continue reading “FCC: New Faces, More Money”