Just a quicky, thanks to a post on the Free Radio Network’s Grapevine — Doug Brewer, who operated the Tampa, FL based “Party Pirate” unlicensed low-power FM station, until being shut down a year and a half ago, has been hit by the FCC again, according to this “ORDER OF REVOCATION AND OF FORFEITURE” from the Commission, losing his amateur radio license and fined $11,000 “for willfully and repeatedly violating Section 301 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended.” In their order the Feds “conclude, based upon evidence of Mr. BrewerÂ’s ‘pirate radio’ and other unlawful activities, that he lacks the basic character qualifications to be and remain a Commission licensee.”
It seems to me that the FCC has already set the bar pretty low on the “basic character qualifications,” given that they already tolerate the harrassment and generally bad behavior attributed to CEO Randy Michaels and the management of Clear Channel Communications, which owns 460 radio stations (and licenses) in the US. I have a really hard time believing that Brewer’s activities can even hold a candle to Clear Channel’s and wonder when the Commission, in all fairness, will come looking to reclaim those licenses.
Those pesky FCC rules get you every time. At least they were able to site a law from 1934
I wonder how the new head of the FCC will do.