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Despite FCC's Promise To Take Aggressive Action To Stamp Out Radio Pirates, Illegal Stations Are Flourishing (newyorker.com)
Last year, when Donald Trump appointed Ajit Pai chairman of the F.C.C., Pai promised to "take aggressive action" to stamp out pirates. In early May, the Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement, or PIRATE, Act was introduced in Congress; it would increase fines from a maximum of a hundred and forty-four thousand dollars to two million dollars. But the stations aren't going away, The New Yorker reports. From the article: Transmission equipment has only become cheaper and more sophisticated. "The problem, as I see it, is that the technology has gone beyond what the law has been able to do," said David Goren, a local resident who works as a producer on licensed radio shows. Between 87.9 and 92.1 FM, Goren counted eleven illegal stations, whose hosts mainly spoke Creole or accented English. Pirates, he said, "offer a kind of programming that their audiences depend on. Spiritual sustenance, news, immigration information, music created at home or in the new home, here."
Pirate radio? They should make an app for that. Maybe call it Arrrrrrrdio?
Don't worry, I'll show myself out
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
The public airwaves are not a free market and never have been. They've always been tightly regulated.
The reality is that the FCC is an underfunded and incompetent extension of the RF industry. They will attempt to protect broadcast spectrum, and fail. While leaving the rest of the spectrum to rot on the tree.
They rarely enforce and have been reduced, through ongoing budget reductions, to in some cases turning the enforcement over to the actual users of licensed spectrum. They've closed there local offices, fired their engineers, all while giving lip service to the job they should be doing. Heck- I'm pretty sure they do not even have the ability to triangulate to find a pirate station.
They don't even stop illegal radio equipment from being imported- then sold everywhere from big box stores to truck stops.
Good luck... They cannot even clean up problem frequencies where *everyone* knows who the offenders are.
Another consultant who stuck it out.
"We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx..."
Why not just get these people licensed? It seems less expensive than chasing these people around when there's better things the FCC could be doing.
The correct term for them is "undocumented radio stations".
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
it would increase fines from a maximum of a hundred and forty-four thousand dollars to two million dollars.
That will do absolutely nothing to deter the pirate radio stations, which seldom are for-profit entities, but special interest and religious kooks.
They can't afford $144,000 either, so it doesn't matter whether you raise this. As long as people think they won't get caught, it doesn't matter how harsh the penalty is.
Too high fines even work against the intention, in that you might report your neighbor for running an illegal radio station if he was facing a $1,000 fine, but won't do so if he risks $144,000 or $2,000,000. Ruining a person's life is not something all of us are willing to do, even if they were the ones who broke the law.
(This is also why excessive prison terms for certain crimes make things worse, not better.)
Illegal Radio Abuse..... ....as opposed to the legal kind?
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
Do they actually have advertisers? One would think that if an ad for Bob's Discount Autos was heard on a "pirate" radio station then a visit from the FCC and a fine would encourage Bob to not advertise and thus the radio station would go away fairly quickly. If the power requirements are so low that the stations need not advertise then perhaps a more reasonable approach would be a low cost for low power broadcast license?
Most are low power and doing nothing much except be hobbyist projects.
Is that really worth a $2,000,000 Fine?
Just create a special low power license and limit it to noncommercial use.
I'm curious how their audience finds them? If you setup a pirate radio station, do you always use a specific frequency even if you're forced to abandon your transmitter or gets seized?
Is the transmission equipment so cheap that pirate stations essentially don't care if it gets seized? They're probably more worried about finding another choice rooftop location with power than the transmitter itself?
How do they manage backhaul? My guess is that you would have the "studio" and the transmitter at different locations.
Why bother with pirate radio these days?
You can stream anything you like on the internet. Unlike the FM spectrum, there is an unlimited amount of "channels" available. No risk of getting punished. 20 years ago, pirate radio was a desperate way to be heard - or make some money. But now you can do it risk free on the net. So why pirate radio?
Anything you do on the internet is recorded and logged in perpetuity. I'm not sure how Uncle Sam will use your music choice against you. Maybe blackmail you and threaten to tell your SO you listen to nickel back if you don't do as they say.
Best play it safe and listen to pirate radio. Uncle Sam can't log what you listen to over the airwaves. Listen to Nickel Back without fear of repurcussions.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Anyone else getting flashbacks of Naked Gun 2½ when reading these new stupid backward-designed acronyms?
"I'm very proud to welcome our guests from the nation's energy suppliers.
First, head of the Society of Petroleum lndustry Leaders - better known as SPIL, Mr Terence Baggett.
Now, chairman of the Society for More Coal Energy, or SMoCE, Mr Donald Fenwick.
And president of the Key Atomic Benefits Office Of Mankind - KABOOM, Mr Arthur Dunwell."
#DeleteFacebook
Because every link is Rick Astley.
Have gnu, will travel.
Why do law-enforcement agencies feel the need to come up with a cheesy acronym or smarmy rhyme for everything they do? Does some government drone feel a real sense of accomplishment every time they perpetuate this annoying practice?
I'm sure I'd care a lot more about this if I Heart Media didn't own half the spectrum, playing the same garbage across all of it. My wife and I have a game we play in the car, where we try to guess how many stations are playing the latest top 40 hit simultaneously. Highest we've seen is four. Four different stations all playing the same goddamn song at the same time. With internet and satellite radio ubiquitous, we really need to start reevaluating how we prioritize the spectrum.
The public airwaves are not a free market and never have been. They've always been tightly regulated.
No they haven't. They were around a long time before government decided to regulate them.
Can't be having people saying just anything over unused radio frequencies.
There are no unused radio frequencies.
What you think are "unused frequencies" are actually used by a station far enough away that YOU can't hear them, but would be interfered with if there was a station using them where you are.
The fight against the free market continues.
The use of the public airwaves is not a "free market", it is a licensed market. Almost as soon as radio was invented, reasonable people realized it needed to be controlled so it would stay usable. Imagine YOUR delight when your favorite FM station playing your favorite radical hippy music was covered up by a paging system because there were no laws regulating who was licensed to do what. "You can get anything you want, at Alice's BRRRFFZZZZZZQQQQQQQQ..." Now imagine if your favorite FM station that you invested money in installing an external antenna so you could get the news and music you wanted from a distance was suddenly covered up by a pirate station two blocks away that played nothing but Devo songs interspersed with profane rants about the FCC.