Anticipating being questioned about what the Enforcement Bureau is doing to combat pirate radio, FCC Chairman Wheeler rattled off statistics to lawmakers even though he wasn’t specifically asked about the topic during the Tuesday oversight hearing.
But several lawmakers are concerned about how personnel cuts in the field offices have impacted enforcement.
At the end of the hearing, lawmakers were trying to leave to go vote. New York GOP Rep. Chris Collins has hammered the chairman plenty of times about pirate radio in previous FCC oversight hearings. Wheeler expected to be questioned about it again, so he said the bureau has taken 91 enforcement actions nationwide through May; that compares to a total of 131 for all of last year.
An enforcement action can go from a letter notifying someone they’re operating an unlicensed, and therefore illegal, station — to a full-blown bust with an equipment seizure.
Pirate radio enforcement now takes up some 20% of the field force’s time, added the chairman.
We reported in his written testimony, he said the agency has shifted its resources to focusing on the worst offenders.
The stats don’t jive with what we reported Monday, that the NYSBA has seen less enforcement, not more, against pirate operators in the New York-New Jersey area.
At least one lawmaker during the hearing objected to the commission’s complaint process.
New York State Broadcaster Association David Donovan agrees, telling RBR+TVBR in an interview the process needs to be more transparent. “We have to be able to track complaints,” regarding interference, for example, “from the time they are filed through disposition.”
Pirate interference in the NY and upper New Jersey area is something the association is going to stay on top of, he said, calling pirate radio interference a public safety and health issue.
