FCC Increasingly Proactive on Pirate Radio
There are signs the FCC is more proactive about pirate radio enforcement, broadcast industry officials said in interviews. They didn’t cite examples, but broadcasters facing a high volume of pirate activity said their encounters with officials about unlicensed broadcasters have been more positive under the new administration. Enforcement officials are “taking a more proactive role” and the commission has undergone “an attitude change” toward pirate radio, said David Donovan, president of the New York State Broadcasters Association.
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Having vocal radio supporter Ajit Pai as chairman and Commissioner Mike O’Rielly in the FCC majority lends to that perception, industry officials said. O’Rielly was vocal about pirate radio as a minority commissioner (see 1603020057), and raised the issue in Senate testimony earlier this month and in a speech before the Hispanic Radio Conference Tuesday. FCC “failure to properly address” pirate radio “highlights a deficiency in the Commission’s enforcement tools and undermines our overall credibility,” O’Rielly said Tuesday in prepared remarks.
Pai “has made clear that confronting pirate radio is an enforcement priority for the agency,” a spokesman said. Pai asked the Enforcement Bureau to “review its policies related to pirate radio and work to find ways to further bolster the Commission’s capabilities on this front,” the spokesman emailed. “The Chairman and Bureau leadership have also worked closely with the FCC field office staff to reaffirm that essential part of the Commission’s enforcement mission.” In a visit to the Miami FCC field office Tuesday, O’Rielly asked bureau officials “whether seizing pirate equipment found in common areas could aid their efforts” and discussed raising fines or penalizing advertisers or landlords that harbor or fund unlicensed broadcasters, he said. The FCC website shows numerous notices of unlicensed operation issued in recent months.
The enforcement tools the FCC already has would likely be sufficient if they were used in a more timely way, said Massachusetts Broadcasters Association Executive Director Jordan Walton. He’s hopeful unlicensed broadcasters will be more of a priority under the Pai FCC, he said. Pirate radio “causes havoc” for adjacent stations and prevents listeners from receiving emergency broadcast messages, Walton said. O’Rielly raised recent piracy issues in Massachusetts during in Senate testimony (see 1703080070), and suggested legislation to increase the FCC ability to seize radio equipment from unlicensed broadcasters.
“Efforts are being made to step up enforcement,” Donovan said. But the FCC may not be able to completely remove broadcasters’ past issues with pirate radio enforcement. One bone of contention between broadcasters and the previous administration was a staffing reduction at EB offices. Pai’s FCC will remain bound by those budget decisions for this year, and is now operating under a federal hiring freeze that limits the agency's ability to address staffing issues (see 1703220041), said a broadcast official. Enforcement against unlicensed broadcasting was the reason for the FCC’s founding, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford. Even if the FCC’s role were reduced as has been suggested by some in Trump’s administration, it would make sense for the commission to prioritize stamping out radio piracy, he said.