New York Radio Regulation Pirate Bill Runs Afoul Of FCC Part 15 Rules

John Poet tells us about this ominous threat to unlicensed FCC Part 15 rules.

In all of this, one cannot help but smell the foul odor of big broadcasting companies such as WNBC, ABC, CNN, and others trying to silence everyone but their own interests. FCC rules always have and always will take precedence, even if New York has to learn the hard way about how radio communications laws actually work and who actually has sole authority over radio and TV communications.

Plenty of case law is out here to trump New York in an embarrassing manner. Are there are communications attorneys out here who would like to take a shot at a Federal lawsuit before this bill imprisons innocent people using FRS, CB, and local low power broadcast systems? Radio amateurs with proper licensing are also in the cross hairs of this legislation because none of these radio communications are mentioned in the bill!!! John makes a good point when he states that police and prosecutors have no way of differentiating between pirate radio and FCC allowed FM and AM operations with or without a license.

One mistake Shortwave America can see coming is that properly licensed radio operations can be legally pursued because an amateur radio license does not allow broadcasting and none of the city attorneys, state prosecutors, or police are trained to know the difference between a one way broadcast and a two way radio conversation regardless of whether the station is required to be licensed by the FCC or not.

New York Joins States Passing Pirate Radio Legislation

The New York State Assembly passed legislation recently that was usually a Federal only jurisdiction. This legislation targets pirate radio operators and provides that such operation is a class "A" misdemeanor with the absurd claim that major stations are being drowned out by pirates regularly.

The MAJORITY of pirate broadcasts are on the HF bands, not local FM and AM frequencies! States like New York, Florida, etc. are so close to the Atlantic ocean, a wide open space that often provides natural "E" propagation and may not always be due to illegal in-land broadcasters. Suspiciously, the FCC has not chimed in on this and none of the news articles gives any information about how many of these "interference" cases have been determined to come from in-land broadcasters.

This is not to say that in-land pirate stations don't sometimes drift off frequency due to operator error, or that operators aren't sometimes being malicious. The concern here is that these laws duplicate federal laws already on the books and allow states to regulate a federal set of laws. Can these laws be used as precedents to eventually put licensed amateur operators and licensed broadcasters under the jurisdiction of the state? Can these laws set precedent for new manipulations that would affect properly licensed stations and operators?

How far are the states planning in going in radio regulation before the FCC no longer has any jurisdiction and before FCC pre-emptions no longer valid? We are in the slippery slope everyone!