NEW YORK — Sixteen New York and New Jersey property owners have received warnings from the Federal Communications Commission (or FCC) for apparently allowing illegal radio transmissions from their properties.
“The law is clear: Owners can no longer turn a blind eye to pirate radio operations on their property,” FCC Bureau Chief Loyaan Egal said in a statement. “Such activities may interfere with authorized broadcast signals and do not fulfill the emergency alerting responsibilities of legal radio stations.”
The FCC can impose a fine of more than $2 million if it determines that the owners continued to allow any person or entity to participate in the pirate radio broadcast.
Illegal Pirate Radio Broadcast Notices sent out on Tuesday “formally notify property owners of illegal broadcasting activity occurring on their property; inform property owners of their potential liability for allowing such activity to occur on their property; require proof that the unlawful transmission cease on the property and request the identification of the person(s) involved in the unlawful transmission,” the FCC said.
Some of the pirate radio broadcasts issued from the warnings were located in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Newark, Irvington and Paterson.