ok walters said:
First of all I’ll say I certainly hope if you are ever arrested and charged with a criminal offense, that someone who thinks the way you do is not a member of your jury as you would be found guilty before the trial begins. With that, I’ll address your comments one at a time.
I’ll begin with your comment about the FAB. As you know the Florida Association of Broadcasters is political lobbying group. Lobbyist are not necessarily concerned with the rights of the general public so much as it is towards special interest. In this case, the FAB will do whatever its paying members demand in order to keep the paying members happy. This gives organizations a reason to “exist” when there are issues, such as pirate operators, to deal with. And as long as the organization is needed, said organization will also continue to need funding which comes from its member stations and other sources with said funding being used for the “common good” of the “public”. So, again, how has any individual rights been violated and how has any individual within the general public been harmed?
Even without any such legislation, there were already measures in place to deal with pirate radio operators. Either way, this is still a state law that is regulating and criminalizing a federal administrative offense. There is a huge difference between a criminal offense and an administrative sanction.
As for me owning a radio station that is either on or near a frequency used by a pirate, it would not bother me at all because most pirates are smart enough to realize that by operating too close to another licensed facility’s frequencies will compromise their own signal and coverage objectives. If, in fact, my own signal was being compromised, of course I would want the pirate gone. I would not, however, want the pirate arrested and charged with a felony offense. I’m not suggesting there should be no enforcement. As I have stated above, the FCC has always had measures in place to enforce unlicensed “pirate” activity.
As for ad sharing revenue, that is just ludicrous. Most pirates only cover a very small fractional service area covered by a licensed facility. The overwhelming majority of the pirate advertisers have ad budgets so small they are never considered by a licensed facility as an advertising source. There is also no way a pirate station’s existence will devalue a licensed facility in any amount.
As for the pirate in question from rural Summerfield, and it was Summerfield and not Ocala, there are NO licensed facilities in that area other than distant signals from Ocala, Leesburg and WVLG from the Villages which is an AM station. The pirate was operating on 97.7 FM. The nearest FM Signal is WSKY 97.3 which has no marketable signal in Summerfield, nor has Entercom expressed any interest in targeting any potential advertisers from that area, nor was the pirate’s 97.7 strong enough to make any impact within the WSKY service contour area which is Ocala to the North of Summerfield by about 20-miles. The pirate station could not be heard outside of maybe a 10-miles radius of its Summerfield tower location.
