Neal Davis of Fort Lauderdale FL has been bringing radio programming to the Miami market featuring a DJ by the name of Shawty Pimp and associated with Facebook page Ninetysixonefm Realsideradio. It’s been putting out a signal on 96.1 MHz – but unfortunately Davis lacked a license to do so.
Responding to complaints, FCC field agents tracked the signals to a commercial property on three separate occasions in the first quarter of 2011 – 1/21/11, 3/8/11 and 3/10/11.
This case actually involved the local police. The FCC described the bust, saying, “While monitoring the station on March 10, 2011, agents from the Miami Office heard a male voice identify himself as ‘Shawty Pimp.’ On the same date, the Fort Lauderdale Police Department executed a search warrant at the commercial property and found Mr. Davis operating the Disc Jockey equipment. After the location was secured, agents from the Miami Office inspected the unlicensed radio station and observed a Facebook page for ‘Nintysixonefm Realsideradio’ on a laptop in the station and an envelope addressed to Neal Davis near the DJ equipment. The agents also observed the transmitter displaying 96.10 MHz. An agent from the Miami Office subsequently found information on the Internet advertising 96.1 FM, including a phone number that agents previously heard broadcast on 96.1 MHz and information for a DJ that goes by ‘Djshawtypimp.’”
The FLPD positively ID’d Davis and Shawty Pimp as being one and the same by comparing photographs of the latter with the driver’s license photo of the former.
Davis has been hit with the standard $10K fine for unauthorized operation of an FM facility.
