The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued a pirate broadcasting notice to Tao and Persephone Lundolos of Booneville, Mississippi, about pirate radio broadcasts allegedly coming from property they own there. Hosting an unauthorized broadcast could result in a fine of up to $2.45 million for the property owners, the bureau said in a letter Friday.
The Enforcement Bureau has extended the deadline to Oct. 17 for responses to its 2025 equal employment opportunity audit letters and will allow stations targeted in the audit to keep their responses to questions about diversity practices private, said a public notice Friday. Responses had been due Sept. 22.
The FCC unanimously approved a $40,000 forfeiture against Wilner Baptiste for operating a pirate radio station in Spring Valley, New York. Baptiste operated “M-One Radio Live,” also known as “M-One Live Radio," according to the forfeiture order. Enforcement Bureau field agents traced Baptiste’s signal in February and June 2024, and the FCC issued a notice of apparent liability against him in September 2024 (see 2409260026).
The full FCC has voted to reject the Weather Alert Radio Network’s appeal of a 2024 Media Bureau decision rejecting 105 WARN applications for low-power FM stations in nine U.S. states and the U.S. Virgin Islands, said an order Thursday. WARN’s applications didn’t meet FCC requirements for a public safety radio service, and it didn’t provide any documentation that it had been in contact with state, local and national public safety entities, the order said. “Because WARN had not established that a public safety organization had officially authorized it to provide a public safety radio service on its behalf in the relevant proposed service area,” it didn’t meet the agency’s requirements that it have jurisdiction in its service area.
The FCC unanimously approved a $920,000 forfeiture and a $60,000 notice of apparent liability against pirate broadcasters, according to items in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. The forfeiture order was against Masner Beauplan of Middetown, New York, for operating an unauthorized station called “Radio Leve Kanpe” in Irvington and Maplewood, New Jersey, from November 2023 until January 2024. The NAL targets Radio Energy Inc. and its owner Pelege Marcellin for operating unauthorized AM stations near Boston called Radio Energy Boston in 2024. The stations stopped operating after they were inspected by FCC field agents, the NAL said. While searching for information on Radio Energy Boston, field agents found a news article announcing Marcellin’s purchase and renovation of a broadcast studio to establish a local radio station. Marcellin has 30 days to reply to the NAL.
Nexstar CEO Perry Sook said at investor conferences last week that he expects the FCC will act on the national ownership cap by the end of the year and possibly as early as this month. “I think we have a pretty clear line of sight” that the cap will be eliminated, Sook said at a Bank of America event Thursday. Sook said he had “a high degree of confidence in the Trump administration,” as well as FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and DOJ Antitrust Division Chief Gail Slater. Carr has been “very adept and very clever” by using an open national cap proceeding that had lain "dormant through the Biden administration and the [Jessica] Rosenworcel FCC, and reviving that by refreshing the record,” Sook said. Nexstar Chief Technology Officer Lee Ann Gliha said at Citi's Global TMT Conference on Wednesday that “we feel like we’re pushing on an open door, a bit.” Nexstar needs the cap to be eliminated to allow its proposed $6.2 billion purchase of Tegna to proceed (see 2508190042).
Since April, NAB has aired “nearly a quarter million” TV and radio spots across 192 media markets pushing for Congress and the FCC to relax broadcast ownership rules, the trade group said in a release Thursday. A campaign spot released last week called on viewers to “keep football free” by texting in support of relaxing the rules. “Supporters have sent more than 174,000 emails and 34,000 tweets directly to members of Congress and FCC commissioners,” NAB said. A national survey of likely voters conducted in August showed that 83% of respondents preferred games on broadcast over streaming, the group said. “The FCC must act quickly to level the playing field, so broadcasters can continue investing in the content communities rely on most,” NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt said in the release.
The FCC Media Bureau will gradually lift a freeze on major changes for low-power TV, Class A stations and translators through a phased process that involves temporarily reimposing modification freezes, said a public notice Wednesday. The notice also announced that there will be a 121-kilometer limit on station relocations and that new station applications will be accepted.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr signaled his support for the ATSC 3.0 transition in a release Tuesday on a Media Bureau public notice clarifying 3.0 application procedures. “Americans across the country will benefit from Next Gen TV and the improved viewing experience that it enables,” Carr said in the release. “That is why the FCC is working to support and encourage a timely transition. As the broadcast industry continues to evolve, we want to be sure that they can do so while maintaining their core public interest obligations.”
A long-stalled proceeding on the transfer of an FM translator station to convicted sex offender and Lake Broadcasting CEO Michael Rice has been terminated after Rice’s death in August, said an order Thursday from FCC Deputy Associate General Counsel Michael Janson. The proceeding dates back to a 2012 proposed sale of a Montgomery, Alabama, translator by Patrick Sullivan to Lake Broadcasting (see 1905310053). That deal was designated for hearing because Rice previously had licenses revoked for making misrepresentations to the FCC and because of his conviction for several child sex offenses in 1994.