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?