AFAIK, all auction proceeds, NAL fines and regulatory fees collected by the FCC go into the general US Treasury. The FCC's operational funding is determined by Congress alone - not by FCC's own actions. Well, outside of any lobbying of Congress that the FCC surely does, but that's no different than ANY organization lobbying Congress for more funds...or to deny someone else funds...so I don't really count that.
FWIW, and not to belittle the folks in the audio & video divisions of the media bureau, but AM & FM is not really where the FCC's chief focus is these days. Starting with Kennard, and really getting into it under Powell, the FCC has focused more on wireless internet and cellphone issues. They're both substantially larger industries and both have far greater revenue potential for Congress...so Congress has lobbied the FCC to focus more on it, too. Along the same lines, Congress's budgeting was not kind to the enforcement bureau, which has had to scale back operations to a smaller number of regional offices instead of dozens of local offices. The EB is also dealing with trying to patrol multi-billion dollar companies producing non-compliant TX and RX gear all over the place, thanks to the explosion of Part 15 devices in many different bands. Unless a pirate radio station is causing substantial interference (as measured by number of listener complaints) to a station, the return on investment for an enforcement action is mighty low. In other words, there are bigger fish to fry. (shrugs)
It doesn't help that the FCC can't do an equipment seizure alone...IIRC they must have the US Marshalls service do it for them. To say the Marshalls are a little busy since the Dep't of Homeland Security was created would be a significant understatement.
BTW, don't forget that we had a time when there was no FCC and it was a total disaster. Dozens and dozens of stations all crammed into the same market, all stomping on each other and trying to "shout" above the noise by increasing wattage. And that was back when it was JUST the AM band. No FM, no TV, no DTV, no internet, no cellphones, no anything else.
FWIW, and not to belittle the folks in the audio & video divisions of the media bureau, but AM & FM is not really where the FCC's chief focus is these days. Starting with Kennard, and really getting into it under Powell, the FCC has focused more on wireless internet and cellphone issues. They're both substantially larger industries and both have far greater revenue potential for Congress...so Congress has lobbied the FCC to focus more on it, too. Along the same lines, Congress's budgeting was not kind to the enforcement bureau, which has had to scale back operations to a smaller number of regional offices instead of dozens of local offices. The EB is also dealing with trying to patrol multi-billion dollar companies producing non-compliant TX and RX gear all over the place, thanks to the explosion of Part 15 devices in many different bands. Unless a pirate radio station is causing substantial interference (as measured by number of listener complaints) to a station, the return on investment for an enforcement action is mighty low. In other words, there are bigger fish to fry. (shrugs)
It doesn't help that the FCC can't do an equipment seizure alone...IIRC they must have the US Marshalls service do it for them. To say the Marshalls are a little busy since the Dep't of Homeland Security was created would be a significant understatement.
BTW, don't forget that we had a time when there was no FCC and it was a total disaster. Dozens and dozens of stations all crammed into the same market, all stomping on each other and trying to "shout" above the noise by increasing wattage. And that was back when it was JUST the AM band. No FM, no TV, no DTV, no internet, no cellphones, no anything else.
