Thursday, June 23, 2005

Pirates In Vermont? FCC Gets Tough On Radio Outlaws

Authorities Rattle Brattleboro Over Tiny Station That Was A Big Pain In The Butt
So, the FCC finally got around to raiding a pirate radio station in Brattleboro, VT, just over the border with Massachusetts, one that had become a virtual fixture in the community.
The question is what took it so long, given that complaints first surfaced in 2003.
http://www.reformer.com/Stories/0,1413,102~8860~2934641,00.html
Of course, pirate stations are nothing new. But with increasingly crowded airwaves, they often interfere with legitimate signals. Maybe the FCC is too busy with other stuff to go medieval on these rogue signals. Or perhaps they keep popping up in enough different locations that it's hard to pin them down. Or both. The bottom line is they're a pain, even if they might broadcast something you might want to hear.
The New York Radio Message Board is rife with stories about pirates in Brooklyn broadcasting Caribbean and Jewish programs albeit on different frequencies.
And at a time when commercial radio is locked in what could become a mortal struggle with its satellite rivals, anything that diminishes the ability of people to tune in is enough to set off waves of panic in the sales office. But is the FCC listening?

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