FCC ups the ante for Miami FM bandit

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Yet another member of the south Florida FM pirate fleet has been cited by the FCC – it has progressed to the forfeiture order phase with a buccaneer operating in the reserved band at 90.1 MHz, despite the cited pirate’s protests of innocence.


Nounoune Lubin of North Miami told the FCC that she had no way of proving a negative, but claimed that at no time has she ever operated a radio station.

However, the FCC tracked a signal operating on 90.1 MHz to her residence on numerous occasions. There it noted coaxial cable coming out of a window and hooked to an antenna on the property. The FCC said that on two occasions, Lubin personally signed a notice of inlicensed operation.

The FCC said that even if Lubin did not technically operate the station, she certainly was aware of it, thanks to the efforts of the FCC agents who tracked it to her property.

“Moreover,” the FCC stated, “at a minimum, Ms Lubin allowed the radio station equipment to remain in a residential space under her control and could have removed or unplugged the equipment at any time.”

The FCC tracked the signal to Lubin’s residence on four separate occasions beginning 9/9/09 and issued a notice of liability on 9/2/10. The repetitious nature of the violations caused the FCC to double the standard fine – it has ordered Lubin to fork over $20K.