frankie811
Member
PROVIDENCE – Last summer, agents from the New York enforcement bureau of the Federal Communications Commission traveled through a thickly settled section of the Mount Pleasant neighborhood searching for a pirate.
Riding in an unmarked vehicle, the agents circled the blocks of duplexes along Pomona and Armington avenues as their sophisticated direction-finding equipment zeroed in on the whereabouts of an unlicensed radio signal transmitting off the hill.
Like a hound on scent, their device led them onto Hendrick Street, where they slowed outside a beige and white two-story apartment house on a corner with an unobstructed view of the Rhode Island State House in the distance.
Today, an odd-looking antenna stands on the roof of the house. Secured by a four-legged metal base, it is a thin, white shaft, about two feet long and positioned vertically.
One morning last week, a woman stepped out of the adjacent garage. Yes, she lived in the house, she said. No, she didn’t know much about the radio broadcasts allegedly coming from inside the house.
She suggested a reporter call the man from the FCC ‒ “the one who sent the letter.”
That would be David C. Dombrowski, the FCC’s regional director of enforcement.
If still broadcasting, the letter stated, the operator could be in violation of the Communication Act of 1934 and face significant fines.
The FCC has a name for such illegal activity: pirate radio broadcasting.
Pirate radio stations have been around since the 1960s when music enthusiasts in the United Kingdom, unsatisfied with BBC Radio services, famously set up their own radio stations in ships anchored in international waters and began playing the rock and pop songs they enjoyed.
In the 1990s Stephen Dunifer made national news in the United States for operating a mobile “Radio Free Berkeley,” radio station in California, playing rock music and offering political programing in defiance of the government's restrictions on the public airwaves.
In the last decade pirate radio stations have become even more popular with some immigrant groups and radio hobbyists as inexpensive radio transmitters can be bought online and shipped to your door.
The small stations, with limited ranges, depending on the size of the transmitter, operate on unused frequencies.
They can also cause problems, the FCC says, if their signals interfere with the signals of licensed radio stations or more seriously, interfere with aeronautical communications, such as pilots approaching airports.
According to an FCC website, the agency has enacted enforcement actions in only one Rhode Island case since 2020, but has authorized 22 enforcement actions in Massachusetts and 54 in New York since that time.
Dombrowski declined to discuss the Hendrick Street case, saying it was a pending investigation.
But in a 2019 FCC podcast, he outlined how pirate radio stations operate and their potential danger.
“There is a variety of pirate radio stations out there. They can be just talk radio stations, they could be religious broadcasters, or they could be full-fledged stations that have a staffing of 20 people that make commercials, that create the jingles for their station ID, and the ones that have more money and the money advertisers are the ones that are very hard to distinguish.”
“If you tune your [radio] dial and find some spaces where there is some dead air, well those are intentionally put there in order so that stations don't cause interference to each other,” he said. “If we just let everybody operate where they want it just creates chaos” along the radio frequency spectrum.
Dombrowski said the FCC get complaints from the Federal Aviation Administration “more than a few times a month in New York, and that the pilots are flying over the city and they are trying to communicate with air traffic control and all of a sudden they pick up a radio station.
“So for that period of time they lose communications, and they have to try to find another available channel to keep that communication line open.”
It warned she could face a fine up to $2,391,097 if after the 10 days “we determine that you have continued to permit any individual or entity to engage in pirate radio broadcasting from the property that you own or manage.”
Along Hendrick Street last week, 97.1 FM offered only radio static.
Riding in an unmarked vehicle, the agents circled the blocks of duplexes along Pomona and Armington avenues as their sophisticated direction-finding equipment zeroed in on the whereabouts of an unlicensed radio signal transmitting off the hill.
Like a hound on scent, their device led them onto Hendrick Street, where they slowed outside a beige and white two-story apartment house on a corner with an unobstructed view of the Rhode Island State House in the distance.
Today, an odd-looking antenna stands on the roof of the house. Secured by a four-legged metal base, it is a thin, white shaft, about two feet long and positioned vertically.
One morning last week, a woman stepped out of the adjacent garage. Yes, she lived in the house, she said. No, she didn’t know much about the radio broadcasts allegedly coming from inside the house.
She suggested a reporter call the man from the FCC ‒ “the one who sent the letter.”
That would be David C. Dombrowski, the FCC’s regional director of enforcement.
A pirate radio broadcast in Providence
On Jan. 8, Dombrowski sent a warning letter to the listed owner of the property, Mirlande Lafortune, notifying her that his office was investigating a complaint about an unlicensed broadcast signal emanating from inside the house and operating at 97.1 on the FM dial.If still broadcasting, the letter stated, the operator could be in violation of the Communication Act of 1934 and face significant fines.
The FCC has a name for such illegal activity: pirate radio broadcasting.
Pirate radio stations have been around since the 1960s when music enthusiasts in the United Kingdom, unsatisfied with BBC Radio services, famously set up their own radio stations in ships anchored in international waters and began playing the rock and pop songs they enjoyed.
In the 1990s Stephen Dunifer made national news in the United States for operating a mobile “Radio Free Berkeley,” radio station in California, playing rock music and offering political programing in defiance of the government's restrictions on the public airwaves.
In the last decade pirate radio stations have become even more popular with some immigrant groups and radio hobbyists as inexpensive radio transmitters can be bought online and shipped to your door.
The small stations, with limited ranges, depending on the size of the transmitter, operate on unused frequencies.
They can also cause problems, the FCC says, if their signals interfere with the signals of licensed radio stations or more seriously, interfere with aeronautical communications, such as pilots approaching airports.
According to an FCC website, the agency has enacted enforcement actions in only one Rhode Island case since 2020, but has authorized 22 enforcement actions in Massachusetts and 54 in New York since that time.
Dombrowski declined to discuss the Hendrick Street case, saying it was a pending investigation.
But in a 2019 FCC podcast, he outlined how pirate radio stations operate and their potential danger.
“There is a variety of pirate radio stations out there. They can be just talk radio stations, they could be religious broadcasters, or they could be full-fledged stations that have a staffing of 20 people that make commercials, that create the jingles for their station ID, and the ones that have more money and the money advertisers are the ones that are very hard to distinguish.”
“If you tune your [radio] dial and find some spaces where there is some dead air, well those are intentionally put there in order so that stations don't cause interference to each other,” he said. “If we just let everybody operate where they want it just creates chaos” along the radio frequency spectrum.
Dombrowski said the FCC get complaints from the Federal Aviation Administration “more than a few times a month in New York, and that the pilots are flying over the city and they are trying to communicate with air traffic control and all of a sudden they pick up a radio station.
“So for that period of time they lose communications, and they have to try to find another available channel to keep that communication line open.”
What comes next?
In its letter to Mirlande Lafortune concerning the house on Hendrick Street, the FCC gave her 10 days to respond “by providing evidence that you are no longer permitting pirate radio broadcasting to occur at the property.”It warned she could face a fine up to $2,391,097 if after the 10 days “we determine that you have continued to permit any individual or entity to engage in pirate radio broadcasting from the property that you own or manage.”
Along Hendrick Street last week, 97.1 FM offered only radio static.
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