87.9 near Cosby TN

[MickeyD]

so the rationale for allowing pirates is...
"I see a bank was robbed. Oh, good...it wasn't my bank. No problem."

Unless you are a member of the FCC what can you do about it? They aren't enfocing their own rules anymore. This all began with Radio Goldfield in Nevada. Harry Reid said give a pirate a license.

 

[abccbsnbcfox]

C'mon guys.. I think we are debating a moot point.

If it is reported to the Enforcement Bureau, the FCC will investigate pirate stations.
They will do it.
It doesn't take a lot of money, nor travel.

The FCC Enforcement Field Office for the Southern Region is in Atlanta..from there, every single month they roll out unmarked vans with 100+ antennas and dishes on them, making sure everybody is on frequency, transmitter logs are up to date, everybody is paying for the right to broadcast, and nobody's interfering with anybody else. The truck is full of waveform monitors and technical gear. I have looked inside one once. If you're off-frequency even slightly, get ready for inspection, and you'll think you're in boot camp.

I saw one of the vans parked in the Kroger's parking lot on Kingston Pike, on the Mayo's end three Saturdays ago, conveniently near Citadel's microwave cluster on Old Kingston Pike. Later, I noticed the same van parked in the Union parking lot right beside WATE-TV.

Yes, they do conduct field tests of signals, broadcast, microwave and otherwise.
On a regular basis.

If somebody reports a pirate station, they WILL go check it out.
It is a hassle, but apparently, nobody has reported Cosby yet.

 

[MickeyD]

C'mon guys.. I think we are debating a moot point.

If it is reported to the Enforcement Bureau, the FCC will investigate pirate stations.
They will do it.
It doesn't take a lot of money, nor travel.

The FCC Enforcement Field Office for the Southern Region is in Atlanta..from there, every single month they roll out unmarked vans with 100+ antennas and dishes on them, making sure everybody is on frequency, transmitter logs are up to date, everybody is paying for the right to broadcast, and nobody's interfering with anybody else. The truck is full of waveform monitors and technical gear. I have looked inside one once. If you're off-frequency even slightly, get ready for inspection, and you'll think you're in boot camp.

I saw one of the vans parked in the Kroger's parking lot on Kingston Pike, on the Mayo's end three Saturdays ago, conveniently near Citadel's microwave cluster on Old Kingston Pike. Later, I noticed the same van parked in the Union parking lot right beside WATE-TV.

Yes, they do conduct field tests of signals, broadcast, microwave and otherwise.
On a regular basis.

If somebody reports a pirate station, they WILL go check it out.
It is a hassle, but apparently, nobody has reported Cosby yet.

Maybe things are different there. In Boston there are at least 10 full powered pirates that they know about, handed them letters to shut down and walked away.

 

[abccbsnbcfox]

Upon your tip, I investigated the pirate stations in Boston, and also found these posts on different pirate stations in that area:


"In August, the FCC's Boston-area office shut down 1640 AM Radio Nouveaute and fined it $10,000 after repeatedly ordering owner Sylvane Simon to stop operating without a license. Community leaders say the station was the first of Boston's four Haitian stations, and operated in a studio the size of a large closet on Blue Hill Avenue."

"The landlords at the Westinghouse Plaza are under pressure to boot the pirate broadcasters Hot 97.5 out of their studio, but it looks like the situation has been resolved with a small fine from the FCC for the moment."

"The FCC has ordered a local man to pay a $17,000 fine for running an unlicensed radio station on Blue Hill Avenue. The FCC says Charles Clemons continued to run Touch FM at 106.1 FM even after FCC field investigators - acting on a complaint from engineers at licensed stations - told him to knock it off."

There are more of these.


Seems like the FCC is hardly "walking away" from the warnings once they find the perps. Piraters are hard to pinpoint, because they move from place to place, easy to do in urban areas.

In Cosby, Tennessee, finding them should be easy. Again, the violators need to be reported.
BTW, there is an arrest warrant on file for Charles Clemons.. he failed to pay the $17,000 dollar fine.

 

[YEKIMI]

While I am against the pirates I can also sympathize with them. I had tried for years to get a station licensed for a school that I had attended that had no broadcasting program and even trying to acquire the frequency of another station that used to be opearted by a different school system after they went dark. Year after year rejection by the FCC that "there are no available frequencies AM or FM, in your area that can be operated without causing interference with other stations" even at low wattage. But lo & behold, along comes a church that wanted a radio station and *voila* the "no available frequencies" became "hey, no problem, whatever you want" and it DID cause interference with adjacent frequencies but since it was in the low end of the FM. Since then two more religious stations have signed on also in the same range of the so called "no available frequencies" area. So just goes to show you that the FCC does NOT really "play fair". I have a feeling that some of these pirates may have tried going the legitimate route only to be shot down again and again till they finally said "the hell with them, I'll go ahead and do it anyways"

 

[MickeyD]

Upon your tip, I investigated the pirate stations in Boston, and also found these posts on different pirate stations in that area:


"In August, the FCC's Boston-area office shut down 1640 AM Radio Nouveaute and fined it $10,000 after repeatedly ordering owner Sylvane Simon to stop operating without a license. Community leaders say the station was the first of Boston's four Haitian stations, and operated in a studio the size of a large closet on Blue Hill Avenue."

"The landlords at the Westinghouse Plaza are under pressure to boot the pirate broadcasters Hot 97.5 out of their studio, but it looks like the situation has been resolved with a small fine from the FCC for the moment."

"The FCC has ordered a local man to pay a $17,000 fine for running an unlicensed radio station on Blue Hill Avenue. The FCC says Charles Clemons continued to run Touch FM at 106.1 FM even after FCC field investigators - acting on a complaint from engineers at licensed stations - told him to knock it off."

There are more of these.


Seems like the FCC is hardly "walking away" from the warnings once they find the perps. Piraters are hard to pinpoint, because they move from place to place, easy to do in urban areas.

In Cosby, Tennessee, finding them should be easy. Again, the violators need to be reported.
BTW, there is an arrest warrant on file for Charles Clemons.. he failed to pay the $17,000 dollar fine.

Touch FM and Clemons ( A former Boston cop) are still on the air as is hot97.5 only they have moved to 87.7 with over 1500 watts)
They both stream so you can listen to them. All of the radio stations are in that aprt of town and the FCC has not collected on the fines as of yet. http://hot97boston.com/livePortal/global/us/ma/boston/index.php
http://www.touchfm.org/

 

[MickeyD]

While I am against the pirates I can also sympathize with them. I had tried for years to get a station licensed for a school that I had attended that had no broadcasting program and even trying to acquire the frequency of another station that used to be opearted by a different school system after they went dark. Year after year rejection by the FCC that "there are no available frequencies AM or FM, in your area that can be operated without causing interference with other stations" even at low wattage. But lo & behold, along comes a church that wanted a radio station and *voila* the "no available frequencies" became "hey, no problem, whatever you want" and it DID cause interference with adjacent frequencies but since it was in the low end of the FM. Since then two more religious stations have signed on also in the same range of the so called "no available frequencies" area. So just goes to show you that the FCC does NOT really "play fair". I have a feeling that some of these pirates may have tried going the legitimate route only to be shot down again and again till they finally said "the hell with them, I'll go ahead and do it anyways"

A GOOD Washington Communications attorney can make the difference between getting a licnese or not.

 

[MickeyD]

Upon your tip, I investigated the pirate stations in Boston, and also found these posts on different pirate stations in that area:


"In August, the FCC's Boston-area office shut down 1640 AM Radio Nouveaute and fined it $10,000 after repeatedly ordering owner Sylvane Simon to stop operating without a license. Community leaders say the station was the first of Boston's four Haitian stations, and operated in a studio the size of a large closet on Blue Hill Avenue."

"The landlords at the Westinghouse Plaza are under pressure to boot the pirate broadcasters Hot 97.5 out of their studio, but it looks like the situation has been resolved with a small fine from the FCC for the moment."

"The FCC has ordered a local man to pay a $17,000 fine for running an unlicensed radio station on Blue Hill Avenue. The FCC says Charles Clemons continued to run Touch FM at 106.1 FM even after FCC field investigators - acting on a complaint from engineers at licensed stations - told him to knock it off."

There are more of these.


Seems like the FCC is hardly "walking away" from the warnings once they find the perps. Piraters are hard to pinpoint, because they move from place to place, easy to do in urban areas.

In Cosby, Tennessee, finding them should be easy. Again, the violators need to be reported.
BTW, there is an arrest warrant on file for Charles Clemons.. he failed to pay the $17,000 dollar fine.

There is one thing that I JUST don't understand and that is why the FCC allows FM pirates to pretty much do as they please (unless they do things that would get a licensed station fined or they interfere with a licensed station).

What is the deal with them shutting down AM pirates? That should really be the "we don't care band".

 

[YEKIMI]

A GOOD Washington Communications attorney can make the difference between getting a license or not.

Fine, would you like to give me the money to pay for this attorney? Because I sure as hell couldn't afford one back then and sure can't afford one nowadays.

 

[MickeyD]

A GOOD Washington Communications attorney can make the difference between getting a license or not.

Fine, would you like to give me the money to pay for this attorney? Because I sure as hell couldn't afford one back then and sure can't afford one nowadays.

If you can't afford the attorney, how can you afford to build and operate a station?

 

[YEKIMI]

If you can't afford the attorney, how can you afford to build and operate a station?

It was going to be licensed to the school system if I had been able to obtain a license, they would have been paying. It didn't cost that much back then to start up a station, a lot of the equipment was going to be donated if I had been able to get a license. The school system was ambivalent about the whole thing. The other school station that had gone dark operated on less then 5K a year. Today you can run a station off an Ipod and a computer.

 

[abccbsnbcfox]

That's sad that the school system couldn't foot the bill (which would not have been that much, considering it's in the non-commercial part of the FM band). They could have qualified for a grant or something.

 

[MickeyD]

If you can't afford the attorney, how can you afford to build and operate a station?

It was going to be licensed to the school system if I had been able to obtain a license, they would have been paying. It didn't cost that much back then to start up a station, a lot of the equipment was going to be donated if I had been able to get a license. The school system was ambivalent about the whole thing. The other school station that had gone dark operated on less then 5K a year. Today you can run a station off an Ipod and a computer.

Today most stations ARE run off an Ipod and a computer!

 

[SchlitzBeer]

OK I remember driving on Hooper Highway/321 between Cosby and Gatlinburg about 5 years ago and seeing a wooden/painted sign promoting possibly this pirate, and possibly their makeshift studios when they were on the 91.whatever signal. It is different than the old sign that is posted below Cosby high School. So maybe they are still off Hooper Highway.

 

[kd4rnc1964]

Any of you young turks remember how satellite tv ,that we pay $100 a month for was back in the eighties?
Can you say FREE!! Yes children it was free. As long as you had enough money and real estate to put up the old C band dish in your yard for the dog to *** on. Fine. Guess who screwed that up. Al, the world is burning
Gore. The FCC is government. According to them, they own every wireless signal that man can come up with.
Pirate radio is harmless as long as you don't bother anyone or step on an existing station. It's like operating
on a 2 meter repeater-listen first!

Playing a few tunes and self expression is still legal in the U.S. Besides, what's on the radio these days is slowly becoming garbage like tv. I occasionally listen to pirate radio on shortwave and find it interesting. Pirates are more creative than the money grubbing boneheads that we know as commercial radio today. Bland programming for a lot of money.

What I've read on these posts are the same kind of people that protest against prayer at high school sporting events. By the way, for those people, Madaline Murray Ohare is dead and her body dismembered. Get over it! Sorry guys, I would be a pirate myself but I have an FCC license and what goes around can sometimes catch up with you. Think Part 15. Very low power, your still on the air and its LEGAL.....

 

[kd4rnc1964]

Yekimi:
Try cable radio. We had it at East Tennessee State University. The dorms were wired with cable tv and the student radio station was operated by the broadcasting dept. It was a well kept secret in the local radio market and no one complained except faculty--ha ha. The signal bleeds out of the cable and we could recieve it on 103.9 fm. I'm sure you have audio-visual equipment. Feed a signal into a cable network and there you have it. Let the kids have fun.

 

[Radioceo]

kd4rnc1964

The free C band stuff ended because the providers stopped providing it for free. They encoded everything and charged for what they provided. It's called capitalism. Hey, I'm no Al Gore fan, but I sure would be grateful if you could enlighten me on just how he is responsible for this.

Are you advocating that the 2 meter ham band be open to anyone and everyone who just wants to jump on it? If that's the case, then can't you see how it wouldn't take long before it became as useless as the CB band? Maybe it has, I haven't listened to 2 meters in years.

And you couldn't be more wrong in your assessment of me that I would be FOR the likes of Ohare and anyone else that worked for the elimination of school prayer. And can you not see the paradox in you wanting anyone and everyone to have at will access to the airwaves to express their opinion yet you are all for denying Ms Ohare of the right to express hers?

 

[YEKIMI]

Yekimi:
Try cable radio. We had it at East Tennessee State University. The dorms were wired with cable tv and the student radio station was operated by the broadcasting dept. It was a well kept secret in the local radio market and no one complained except faculty--ha ha. The signal bleeds out of the cable and we could recieve it on 103.9 fm. I'm sure you have audio-visual equipment. Feed a signal into a cable network and there you have it. Let the kids have fun.

Can't do that. Time-Warner cable has the franchise here and had no competition till they p***ed off the city so much that the city started their own cable system. Their agreements with companies like Much Music [if that's who they use, I no longer live there] preclude any competition. The city cable company built a studio at the high school and basically hired the two Time-Warner employees to run it and have students do all the free stuff. It was brought up by me about running a cable-based station like that and the city nixed it. To this day they still refuse. You can't fight city hall.

 

[kd4rnc1964]

Yeah i know about gores involvement in the cable bill. 2 meters these days has its good and bad operators. Worse on hf. I can hear and get into repeaters west of knoxville sw va.and western nc. Most of the time its fun but theres been qrm around knoxville lately. A lot of new operators on the air. They gotta learn like i did. Sorry, ohare was a big mouth liberal. No offense thats another subject for the outside page

 

[abccbsnbcfox]

Said it before, I'll say it again..

Rules are rules..
Don't blame the messenger, blame the message.
If you cannot put a signal on legally, then you're violating the law.
If you're violating the law, then you need to be caught.
If you are caught, you need to be punished.

It's like driving Interstate 81 at 90 miles an hour, just because everybody else is doing it.
If you get caught and the other dude doesn't, you cannot excuse it by saying "well the other driver was doing it, too."

Until IF and WHEN the laws are changed, everybody has to abide by them.

These are all interesting posts, but we're beating a dead horse.