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from the nobody-had-a-flashlight-(you'll-need-to-RTFA) dept.
FCC tries to make Miami pirate radio station walk the plank
"Pirate radio" in 2017 takes many forms, but here's one: a north Miami couple hosting a transmitter in their backyard shed while a DJ's signal is piped in over the Internet and promoted on Facebook—even after multiple warnings from the government and a gear seizure by the US Marshals. Oh—did I mention the $144,344 fine? Not that anyone's likely to pay it.
Welcome to 90.1 MHz, "Radio Touche Douce," a Haitian music station appearing to be so obviously illegal that it even has the ability to unite the current fractious set of FCC commissioners. It's not even a secret; as the Miami Herald notes, the station is "the pulse of the Haitian music industry in Miami, organizing some of the most popular big-ticket parties while promoting bands and guiding konpa music fans to the next hit." But that doesn't mean it has been easy to shut down.
Here, in statements pulled right from FCC documents, is the story of how Radio Touche Douce has operated for years right under the nose of government investigators—and how the FCC has now upped the ante.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30 2017, @10:06PM (1 child)
Nothing I'm seeing specifies how many Watts they were running.
A decade ago, a guy in the Bay Area had a Christmas lights display [google.com] in his yard, animated to a Trans-Siberian Orchestra song.
He had a micropower transmitter so that you could drive by and tune it on your car radio.
(100mW is legal without a license.)
On days with just-right atmospherics, I can receive an FM station that has a 42 Watt output, [wikipedia.org] licensed under a special community radio thing. [wikipedia.org]
(Some days it's down in the mud and some days KGB in San Diego, on the same frequency, walks all over it.)
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30 2017, @10:49PM
From what I can decipher out of the complaint. They exceeded part 15 rules. Meaning more than 100 milliwatts.
People like this are exactly why we have the FCC. They tromp all over the place and they do not care.