Pirates Bedevil Radio, Though U.S. Crackdown Helps

Laws have helped stanch the problem in New Jersey and Florida, the states where commission and industry officials said pirate radios have proliferated the most in the past. It’s a felony in those states to operate an unlicensed station, and local authorities seize equipment and make arrests, heads of the New Jersey and Florida broadcaster associations said. The head of New York’s association said a law making it a misdemeanor to run an unlicensed station there (CD Aug 5 p13) gives local law enforcement a way to shut down stations, aiding the FCC.

Local and federal governments work vigorously to shutter stations they're alerted to, commission and industry officials said. But they said it can cost less than a thousand dollars to set up a pirate station, and it’s easy to move stations, so they interfere with legitimate broadcasts and in some cases nearby airports. The FCC has “done an admirable job through the years -- the problem is sort of like Whac-A-Mole,” an NAB spokesman said of pirates. “As soon as they shut down one, another one pops up.”

Anecdotal and actual complaints persist, including in the Boston and New York markets. Some complaints were voiced Friday at a conference of the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters. At the conference, an aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski discussed efforts of the Enforcement Bureau to shutter pirate radio stations, saying that’s happened in 97 instances this year. “So we've taken some action,” and not just issued fines, said the aide, Jessica Almond. “We obviously take it very seriously. We've received a spate of complaints that pirates are attempting to interfere with airport facilities,” in cases where the Federal Aviation Administration gets involved, she continued. An FAA spokesman had no comment.

One complaint has been pending at the FCC for more than two months. “It’s an ongoing frustration, and they're operating all over the country,” NABOB Executive Director Jim Winston said at the conference. “We ought to get some protection for our frequencies.” He keeps seeing the commission issue forfeitures of about $10,000 for each incidence of unlicensed operation, “and nothing ever happens” because the recipients don’t pay the penalties and keep broadcasting, Winston said. “The Enforcement Bureau needs to shorten the period of time between finding the pirate broadcaster and fining him” and “we need some authority to shut these guys down,” Winston continued.

An alleged pirate in northern New Jersey continues broadcasting for most of the day, every day, said an executive at the company that complained. “It would be nice to think that you register the complaint and the next day they are out there,” Vice President Joe Miller of Educational Media Foundation said of the bureau. “But we recognize the world doesn’t work that way.” The licensee of WKLV Port Chester, N.Y., filed a supplement last month to its July 7 interference complaint (CD July 14 p2) against Jamminz Radio, which EMF says is broadcasting on its same frequency of 96.7 MHz. Jamminz is “on air,” its website says. The alleged pirate had no comment. The station seems to be transmitting from around Orange, N.J., at several hundred watts -- enough to be heard in Manhattan, near Newark Airport and in Staten Island, Miller said. “We're obviously significantly handicapped over a large portion of our area with the pirate on."

Confusing Listeners

Pirate operations confuse listeners of licensed stations, who hear the unlicensed programming on the same channel where they're used to hearing the FCC-approved broadcasters, industry executives said. That’s been an issue for WKLV, which EMF spent $15 million to buy from Cox Media Group in June, Miller said. “It’s a little bit disturbing when people were just getting to know us and all of a sudden the programming changes and the lyrics are different” to Jamminz, he said. Jamminz has Jamaican music, while WKLV’s format is Christian contemporary, Miller noted. EMF hasn’t yet complained to law enforcement authorities in New Jersey, where it’s a crime, he said. Part of the reason: It’s not “exactly clear as to how to seek enforcement of the state law against pirate radio,” broadcast lawyer David Oxenford of Davis Wright, representing EMF, said: “We are looking into that."

It’s the duty of broadcasters to educate prosecutors and police about enforcing laws against pirate radio, said state broadcast association executives. “It’s incumbent upon us to do training” about why it’s important to properly uphold those laws, said President Paul Rotella of the New Jersey Broadcasters Association. The state was the first to implement such a law, about a decade ago, and Florida followed about eight years ago, executives said. “By giving your law enforcement people the tools to prosecute this as a felony, there are a lot more teeth in the bite there, so law enforcement can go after these guys,” Rotella said. “They pack up and do it somewhere else” after only getting a fine from the bureau, he said.

After complaints to the FCC about pirates operating near the New Jersey Turnpike, they quickly ceased operating, Rotella said. “We have not been bothered by that in a long time -- so thank God, we're good,” he said of pirate operations generally in the state. In New York, “we are in the process of talking with law enforcement across the state to set up procedures for working” with them to implement the law, said President David Donovan of the New York State Broadcasters Association. “It helps” the case when a bureau field office “has done terrific work” in quickly tracking down a pirate, but “like most government agencies, they are overburdened, they are overworked” and state laws help by adding local officials into the mix, he said.

Having another federal agency besides the FCC involved can speed up the process of shutting down pirate operations, industry executives said. They said the commission tends to get court approval more quickly to cease operations when agencies like the FAA also are participating. “If the FAA gets involved, everybody moves it up quicker, because you get everybody’s attention” faster, said President Pat Roberts of the Florida Association of Broadcasters. “It’s not just the FCC and a broadcaster complaining, now we've got problems with communications on airplanes.” And the “FCC is doing more than it’s ever done,” the fruits of which have been borne out most in Florida, Roberts said. “I get half the complaints now than I did four years ago."

U.S. Marshals often physically shutter the operations, with an Enforcement Bureau field engineer standing outside, industry and commission officials said. They said that happens after the local U.S. Attorney’s office gets court orders allowing such “in rem” seizures. “The FCC works with the Justice Department, U.S. Marshals, and local law enforcement, as appropriate, to prosecute cases against pirate broadcasters,” a commission spokesman said. Marshals “handle the physical seizure of the equipment,” he noted. A Justice Department spokeswoman had no comment.

An engineer who trains people to set up radio stations, and sells starter kits to unlicensed operations, said government efforts to portray enforcement as vigorous are overblown. Of the bureau’s shutting down 97 stations year-to-date, “I think they're probably exaggerating,” said Stephen Dunifer of Free Radio Berkeley, fined $20,000 in the 1990s by the FCC for unlicensed operations in a case he took to court and ultimately lost. “Mostly they just send warning letters,” he said of the bureau. “I would think a few of them are seizures -- I would seriously challenge that assertion.” Also overblown are the “bogeyman” fears of unlicensed FM operations near airports, Dunifer said. Such operations are unlikely to interfere with narrowband ground-control AM frequencies, he said. More people might seek FCC licenses for low-power FM stations if they could get one to transmit at a power of only 10 watts, not the current 100-watt LPFM minimum, Dunifer said. He’s considering whether it would be worth the $5,000 or so to get one of his transmitters certified for LPFM use from a lab, something full-power radio equipment doesn’t need to go through because it can be “type-accepted,” Dunifer said.

The bureau’s figures for shuttered stations are based on those that have gone off the air because of enforcement activities, the commission spokesman said. Inspection by a bureau agent, a warning letter or notice of unauthorized operation, proposed fine or equipment seizure all may qualify as shut-downs, he noted. “After a shutdown, the agent routinely confirms that a station has gone off the air, either by a site visit or monitoring the frequency used by the pirate,” the spokesman continued. “We've continued to take an aggressive stance in assessing monetary forfeitures against pirates.” The bureau has proposed fines totaling $257,000 so far this fiscal year, he noted. “We also encourage complainants to contact us if a pirate resumes operations after the initial shutdown.”