The FCC has fined a Naples, FL man $10,000 for running an unlicensed station out of a church. Radio Mision Posible got multiple visits and warning letters before getting a pending-fine notice and, ultimately, the forfeiture itself. The Enforcement Action Database has logged 28 actions to-date for the year, bringing the overall running score to 239.
We’ve also updated our Mosquito Fleet Operational Analysis with additional information emailed from fellow participants. It looks like a total of 11 frequencies were occupied during the event, one more than previously estimated. Some frequencies were shared by more than one station. Continue reading “Microradio Notes”
Tag: enforcement
FCC Enforcement Bureau: Year Three Progress Report
Linda Blair, Deputy Chief, FCC Enforcement Bureau (32kbps/22KHz MP3, 2:24, 562K)
Notable quotes/analysis:
“Here in Washington, we have worked closely with other federal agencies concerned with national security and emergency preparedness, and our field agents have helped insure interference-free radio operation for law enforcement and security personnel in venues across the country, including, most recently, the IMF protests here in Washington.” Continue reading “FCC Enforcement Bureau: Year Three Progress Report”
Supreme Court Declines Grid Radio's Appeal
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal of Jerry Szoka and GRID Radio, an unlicensed microradio station in Cleveland, Ohio who’s been sparring with the FCC since 1998 and went off the air after receiving a federal court injunction in 2000.
This is the second microradio case to be declined recently by the Supremes; the first was Minneapolis’ Beat Radio, whose petition for certiorari was turned away last year. Continue reading “Supreme Court Declines Grid Radio's Appeal”
Enforcement Action Database Online, Plea from a Colleague
It’s been tweaked slightly, and there’s still more improvements yet to come, but our world-famous (heh) FCC Enforcement Action Database is back online. One of these days I’ll write a FAQ. The restoration process should go much more quickly now that the two large jobs are out of the way…
On a related note, an online colleague, Lisa Nalbandian, a Master’s student at the UW-Milwaukee j-school, is working on a video documentary about microradio and LPFM. She’s looking for stations (both licensed and not) to speak with, preferably in the Midwest. You don’t have to be on camera if you don’t want to. Drop her a line if you want fame and enlightenment.
FCC Watch: NALs issued, S. Florida Sweep Imminent?
The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau has pushed a little paperwork recently, issuing notices of $10,000 fines to unlicensed radio station operators in Michigan and Brooklyn, NY.
The NY case is interesting, because the accused is the Rev. Dr. Philius Nicholas, uncle of Abner Louima, the Hatian immigrant who was worked over by the NYPD in 1997, most infamously with a toilet plunger. It’s unknown what his radio station broadcast, but I’m willing to bet it had something to do with police brutality… Continue reading “FCC Watch: NALs issued, S. Florida Sweep Imminent?”
Microradio: Moving Forward
As the government increases its police powers to root out “terrorists,” the microradio movement has been waiting quietly to see what changes there would be on the battlefield of the airwaves. If recent events are any indicator, it seems to be back to “business as usual.”
Enforcement agents with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have been busy lately, making contact with stations in Virginia, California and Florida during the last three weeks. The terms of engagement do not seem drastically different than they did before 9/11 – visits and letters are still the primary weapons and the feared influx of SWAT-style raids has not materialized.
In fact, of the three most recent FCC actions, only one has resulted in a fine – the rest were seemingly just for intimidation purposes. Continue reading “Microradio: Moving Forward”
Tit for Tat
In the wake of the recent terror attacks on the United States, paranoia among both the people and the powers-that-be remains significantly heightened.
The Federal Communications Commission has not been immune to this paranoia. Shortly after the strikes in New York and Washington, FCC Amateur Radio Enforcement Director Riley Hollingsworth issued a public plea to the nation’s ham radio community, asking it to scan all radio bands and keep an ear out for suspicious activity, making tapes if possible. As Hollingsworth put it, “You never know.”
FCC agents have also been spotted on the streets of Nashville, Tennessee within the last week reportedly looking for two separate unlicensed outlets. Continue reading “Tit for Tat”
The FCC Awakens
Just two months ago it seemed like the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was taking a break in its enforcement efforts against unlicensed broadcasting.
That break is now over.
Since July, agents with the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau (EB) have definitely been busy in the field, doubling their number of station busts for the year in the course of a scant 60 days. Continue reading “The FCC Awakens”
Links: Separating Transmitter from Studio
The act of broadcasting without a license is a very public thing; it is going on the air that makes it a crime, not what a pirate station does once it’s on. Because of this, a delicate game of balance has to be played by pirate radio station operators. As a pirate garners more notice from a community, the risk of having the powers-that-be notice also rises. But if nobody knows about the station, then what good can it do?
To try and prevent (or at least partially blunt) the eventual enforcement action, pirates have experimented with unique ways of “protecting” their studios. After all, transmitters are replaceable; dedicated people are not.
The easiest way to protect a studio is to separate it physically from the transmitter. Radio authorities find pirates by the signals they produce, and the place where those signals are coming from is the first place they’ll visit. If that place is not the studio, it forces enforcement agents to at least take one extra step to catch a pirate. Continue reading “Links: Separating Transmitter from Studio”
Scene Report: Tucson, Arizona
Within the last two weeks FCC enforcement agents have been spotted and encountered by unlicensed broadcasters in Virginia, Arizona and Colorado. Nowhere have the scene reports been flying faster then from Tucson, Arizona.
Tucson’s crackling with microradio activity. At least three stations have been on the air there recently, which made Tucson a prime target for the latest FCC sweep: we’ve gotten reports from all the affected stations that agents have definitely been nosy, to say the least, to varying degrees.
Contact has ranged from simple warning letters to the confiscation of equipment. In at least one instance FCC agents and their attendant Federal Marshals left a raid location empty-handed after barging in, weapons drawn, insisting there was a pirate radio station in operation there and finding no trace of it. Continue reading “Scene Report: Tucson, Arizona”