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Senate Passes Pirate Radio-Fighting Bill.

davideduardo

davideduardo

Moderator/Administrator
Staff member
From Inside Radio (a special bulletin)

Legislation that would give the FCC more tools to fight pirate radio has been passed by the U.S. Senate. The Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement or PIRATE Act (S. 1228) unanimously passed the House of Representatives in February 2019 and now goes to the President for his signature.
 
They love their cute-sounding acronyms in Washington, don't they?

Big points:

1) Max fine of up to $100,000 per day -- maximum overall fine: up to $2,000,000
2) Codified federal enforcement sweeps of the top 5 most prevalent pirate metros (Miami, NYC, Boston, SF, and LA seem to always have it bad)
3) Monitoring sweeps to ensure stations have not returned to the air.
4) A list of all pirate and legitimate radio stations searchable through the main page of the FCC (they didn't want to update the AM/FM/TV query, huh?)
5) This bill would not trump (for lack of a better term) any more stringent state or local laws.

Definitely more bite than previous pirate laws, but how will the government collect this money? Probably the same way they do it now (which is, they rarely do).
 
Those pirates are a big problem.

I'm think all the interference from these flat panels could be considered pirate broadcasting. The interference is killing AM (and SW).
Georgia has a law with a catchy acronym. The GANGSTA law stands for Georgia Anti-Neighborhood Gang and Street Terrorism Act.
Our tax dollars at work!
 
seattlesarchiebunker said:
4) A list of all pirate and legitimate radio stations searchable through the main page of the FCC (they didn't want to update the AM/FM/TV query, huh?)
Click to expand...

Give pirate stations free publicity and a way for people to find them which they don't currently have? All at taxpayers expense?

Only a knucklehead bureaucrat could come up with that one!
 
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The one thing I'm not seeing is any additional funding for the FCC to staff this additional work.

I guess that comes up in the next appropriation hearings? You can bet it will come up.
 
Yup. Without funding for people to actually make the sweeps/raid the stations/prosecute the offenders
the whole thing is just a toothless paper tiger.
 
The FCC is entrusted with policing the most valuable resource known to man...the electromagnetic spectrum.
They are expected to do it with 14 field offices and 34 field engineers. Congress is happy to add more duties to their jobs, but waits until a few days after the budgets are approved to announce it.
Who is going to pay for this? What other duties will have to slide to, basically, appease some FM broadcasters in a few markets?
With all the noise and the intentional interference out there, is the presence of steel-drum rythms and commercials for bars and beauty shops really the most pressing issue we have? And, can they be heard over the noise anyway?
 
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kf4rca said:
I'm think all the interference from these flat panels could be considered pirate broadcasting. The interference is killing AM (and SW).....
Our tax dollars at work!
Click to expand...
Flat panel TVs, plus switch-mode power supplies, LED bulbs, curly fluorescent bulbs, battery chargers and UPS, digital displays, car alarms, streetlights, motor speed controllers, traffic signals,......
 
....most home appliances, solar power systems, electric and hybrid cars, leaky cable tv systems, bad thermostats, electric fences, computers and their accessories, faulty power lines, unlicensed broadband equipment (often illegally modified for more range and to operate on unauthorized frequencies), booster amplifiers that are unnecessary.
Add in the junk that comes off many assembly lines, that has no semblance to the one unit that was submitted to get FCC certifications.
Plenty more, but my fingers are tired.
 
kenglish said:
The FCC is entrusted with policing the most valuable resource known to man...the electromagnetic spectrum.
Click to expand...

More valuable than diamonds or oil? Maybe. The fact is the FCC is primarily a regulatory agency, and this new law mainly increases the fines they can impose. They are lawyers, not policemen. For the most part, the FCC needs to outsource the policing part to other agencies.
 
So, who should we call? The local police department? Sheriff's Office?
They don't know anything about radio waves. If you could get them to come out on a noise issue, they would just roll down their window, say "I don't hear any noise", and leave.
The FCC has an Enforcement Bureau, but is it only there to write letters, pleading with people to not jam airport radar or block important communications?
 
kenglish said:
So, who should we call? The local police department? Sheriff's Office?
Click to expand...

The FCC subcontracts with local law enforcement, so the call goes to the FCC. I didn't see anything in this new law that gives them jurisdiction over someone's private property. When the president sends federal troops into a state, they have to be invited by the governor.
 
You mean that I didn't have to let those FCC guys in, after all? I thought I was in deep doodoo.
I'll have to go on-line tonight and order a replacement transmitter and antenna.
Thanks for the info.
 
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