Is This Guy For Real?

This "proposal" will go nowhere. That's how the FCC works.

Apparently the FCC Enforcement Bureaus just haven't been collecting enough enforceable fines from anyone to justify their existence. Radio pirates are not that prevalent and even if they were, any fines levied are usually tied up in litigation for years before anything actually gets paid. A few years ago DC ordered the local field offices to do a big push on marine vessels, which didn't yield enough violators, and there are a lot more marine radios than there are pirate broadcast radio stations.

That's not exactly what regulation is supposed to be about. Which is why I believe the FCC might as well sell FM frequencies. That way the new owners would do all the work that has been neglected by regulators.

That's essentially what they're doing the past decade... selling FM frequencies. They made a pile of money the first few auctions, prior to the crash in station values. They're not doing too well lately, auctioning more and more frequencies in small communities with difficult available transmitter sites.

Looks like some of the cuts have been rescinded, thanks to an agreement between a House committee and FCC chairman Tom Wheeler. Instead of keeping only eight of the current district offices open, they'll now keep 15 of them open.