More pirates walk the FCC plank

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FM buccaneers in Kansas and Florida have been busted by FCC agents. The Midwest pirate was given a standard fine, but the pirate operating in the Miami market not only had a prior, but was running an new operation apparently designed to evade the authorities.


Glenn Rubash was using 88.3 MHz to ply the airwaves of Manhattan KS from a garage owned by a second party. The garage owner believed Rubash’s operation was legal because Rubash is in fact a licensed amateur radio operator with call sign KC0GPV.

However, the amateur license does not open up 88.3 to Rubash, and his operation on that frequency has earned him the standard notice of apparently liability for a $10K fine.

It was a different story for Fabrice Polynice of North Miami FL, who was not only operating on 90.1 MHz, but was doing it from three separate locations, “presumably to evade detection,” as the FCC put it.

Agents traced all three to their sources and found more than enough program content similarities to conclude that they were all part of the same operation. One factor was the presence of “DJ Paz,” who in fact is Polynice and the use of the phrase “Touche Douce” to describe the station.

Not only was Polynice making a special effort to avoid being caught, he also continued to broadcast after one of his three station locations was shut down by federal marshals, proving that Polynice was aware of the illegal nature of his activities.

Further, he had been caught operating a pirate station, eventually earning a conviction that resulted in his spending a year under community supervision.

Given all this, the FCC added $15K to the standard fine and is hitting him with a NAL for $25K.