DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. — The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau late Thursday issued warnings — but not Notices of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture — to thirteen individuals landowners in the New York metropolitan area for apparently allowing unlicensed radio broadcasts from their respective properties.
It’s an official notice that, if no action is taken to stop the FM pirates, fines totaling nearly $2.4 million could be levied by the Commission.
The potential fines come as a result of the January 2020 signing by President Trump of the PIRATE Act, which gives the Commission more ammunition in its decades-long quest to squelch buccaneer FM broadcasters from Jamaica Plain to Jamaica, Queens, and onward to Miami-Dade County, Fla.
Under the legislation, if the FCC determines that a party continues to permit any individual or entity to engage in pirate radio broadcasting from any property that they own or manage, they are culpable and subject to fines from the Commission.
The Notices of Illegal Pirate Radio Broadcasting sent July 11 by David C. Dombrowski,
Regional Director of Region One within the FCC Enforcement Bureau, target properties identified by field agents from the Enforcement Bureau as sources of pirate radio transmissions.
The illegal radio broadcasts, and locales, are as follows:
BROOKLYN
- 80 Lenox Road in the Prospect Lefferts Gardens area of Brooklyn, just east of Prospect Park: an unlicensed FM at 90.9 MHz emanating from a property managed by Dira Realty
- 770 New York Avenue at Clarkson Avenue in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn: an unlicensed FM at 106.3 MHz in a residential building managed by 770 Realty LLC
- 2030 Nostrand Avenue at Farragut Road in Brooklyn’s Little Haiti: a pirate FM station at 90.5 MHz from a building owned by W 2030 LLC
- 936 East 92nd Street, at Foster Avenue in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn: an unlicensed FM at 91.9 FM from a building owned by the Royen A. Wedderburn 2021 Irrevocable Trust
- 220 E. 35th Street, between Church and Snyder Avenues in Brooklyn, near Holy Cross Cemetery: an unlicensed FM at 105.5 MHz from a building owned by CRR Ross LLC.
THE BRONX
- 2518-2522 University Avenue in The Bronx: a pirate radio station at 90.9 MHz in a building owned by 2522 Realty LLC.
- 1601 St. Nicholas Avenue at West 190th Street in the Fort George area of The Bronx: an unlicensed FM at 94.9 MHz from a property managed by 601 at 190 Company LLC
- 2691 Reservoir Avenue, at Knightsbridge Road in The Bronx: an unlicensed FM at 88.9 MHz from a property owned by Parkash 2691 LLC
NEW JERSEY
- Mt. Vernon Place at Sanford Avenue in Newark, N.J., blocks away from the City of Irvington: an unlicensed FM at 90.9 MHz from a building managed by 803 Sanford LLC
- A Sanford Avenue home in Newark: an unlicensed FM station at 102.5 MHz from a home owned by Roy, Annette and Gladys McClaire.
- A home on Tiffany Place in Irvington, N.J.: a pirate radio station serving Haitian Creole listeners at 91.7 MHz from a house owned by Gais Jeune and Isabel Moriceau.
- A home on Schofield Street in Newark, N.J.: a FM station at 105.5 MHz operating without a license from a home owned by Hubert and Rosemise Exantus.
NEW YORK STATE
- A house on Gerow Avenue in the Rockland County city of Spring Valley, N.Y.: an unlicensed FM at 94.1 MHz from a home owned by Rene and Pierre Baptiste
The notices formally notify each of the landowners of the illegal broadcasting activity occurring on their property; inform landowners of their potential liability for continuing to permit such activity to occur on their property; demand proof that the illegal broadcasting has ceased on the property; and request identification of those engaged in the illegal broadcasting.
The PIRATE Act requires the FCC to conduct periodic enforcement sweeps and grants the Commission authority to take enforcement action against landlords and property owners that willfully and knowingly permit pirate radio broadcasting on their properties.
Pirate radio broadcasting has been a problem since the late 1990s in South Florida, expanding to the New York Tri-State Area and the Greater Boston Area in the 2000s. In many cases, operators are multicultural immigrants who use the unlicensed stations to reach underserved audiences. Alas, the operations are not permitted under FCC regulations and, as such, unlawful.
