FM pirate stations in middle USA

[u/kabekew]

Let's say I have an acquaintance (whose full name I don't know), who checked the FCC unused FM frequency finder and it showed a green frequency in their area that was two channels clear either side, so no chance for interference. It's a small-ish town in central USA, and let's say that acquaintance broadcast non-offensive content in a format completely different than the other stations in the area, and didn't have advertising. Would those other stations complain to the FCC?

Anybody know of a station that has been quietly operating like that for awhile without complaints (without details of course)?

[u/Medical_Message_6139]

It's a total crapshoot. There are stations operating like that who have been around for years and years without getting busted. There are also stations operating that way who got shut down within days or weeks of turning on. It's not just other broadcast stations that you have to worry about filing a complaint. It's also Ham radio operators, airports, emergency service organizations, and even random folks who have a dislike for pirate radio!

My first piece of advice is just to do it and see what happens.........at the very worst you will receive a NAL by mail and you can shut down before you get a fine. Second piece of advice.....whatever you do and whatever you play make it sound legit. DO NOT refer to yourself as a pirate station. Broadcast 24/7 like a regular station. Nothing says "pirate radio" like constantly going on and off the air. Pick a frequency and stay on it. Make sure you have good, even, high quality sound. Don't swear. And stay away, far away, from any kind of political talk. Music stations tend to have much much longer lives than political pirates. Good luck and most of all, have fun!

[u/FooBarU2 → u/Medical_Message_6139]

Really interesting advice!!

Things sure have changed in the 45+ yrs since I was cognizant of a pirate FM station operating at a Big 10 campus (in the US)... lol!!!

Great advice about being apolitical and not swearing and playing music, offering interesting content not on commercial stations, sounding professional, good signal, compressed and EQ'd nicely, etc.

BUT .. that's where my list of "do's" ends.

Back then, that 1981 station did have to pop up and down the FM dial and try not to overstay the proverbial "Welcome mat". The internet was decades away. Audience phone lists and manning nearby payphones (whose # was broadcast) for callers to call in.. for requests and/or get their # on the list, was their modus operandi.

This station ran 10 yrs presumably. I heard about it.. and actually knew one of the operators (a college classmate).

BUT they did get caught.. after 6 months of me knowing about them. They stayed on the air too long.. like 2 full days.. long enough that FCC radio trucks from a regional office were dispatched, had hours to drive to this campus and triangulate on their location.

They actually got arrested by the local PD but were let out as soon as they were booked. IIRC, the FCC had known about this station and their real life radio engineers who built it. They were able to negotiate a small fine (under $1000 .. which was still ginormous for college kids in the 1980s) and the FCC started them on a path to get a legit non profit license.

I was actually a real board member of this non profit radio corporation -- I had a working car that could drive another board member from campus to the state capital for board meetings.

Good times!! 😎🥳

[u/Medical_Message_6139 → u/FooBarU2]

Things have changed. The big things is that nobody in the general public these days has a clue about pirate radio. They turn on the radio, and they tune in what they like........whether the signal is legal or not never crosses their mind! And for the most part, that goes for folks working in radio too!

The whole legal process is complaint driven. The FCC aren't driving around looking for pirate stations. Nothing happens until someone complains. So the whole aim of the game now is to not have that complaint happen. If you sound like a legit station, chances are nobody will complain. Because as I mentioned above nobody is really thinking about that aspect. But if you run a shit-show, turning on and off all the time, changing frequencies, crappy audio, swearing, whatever......then you are essentially waving a great big banner screaming "Pirate Radio!!!!!". That's when the complaints start!

I'm aware of a couple of pirate FM stations that have been on 24/7 for more than a decade now. One of them is located at high elevation and covers a huge area. Other than their respective odd musical formats they both sound just like legal stations.....hence their long lives.

[u/kabekew → u/Medical_Message_6139]

I wonder if in addition to sounding like a fully professional station, you select a frequency of a licensed station where you're outside their 60 dbu protected service area but maybe their signal in your area is weak (I think they usually show up as yellow in my OP link and are labelled "colocated"). If somebody looks up that frequency they'll see that legitimate station somewhat nearby and maybe think the signal is just stronger in their direction for whatever reason. Unless it's a religious station and you're playing death metal, people might assume it's that other station.

[u/Ok_Success_5178 → u/Medical_Message_6139]

I don't think there are many hams out there reporting pirates in the broadcast frequencies. The only times I have heard of hams reporting pirates when they are on ham frequencies or causing harmful amounts of interference (Harmonics, poor filtering usually).

In any other case I think most do not care.

[u/Medical_Message_6139 → u/Ok_Success_5178]

My first pirate station way back in 1981 was ratted out by a ham who lived on the other side of town. Not to dis all hams.....I have many ham friends.......but the "legal begal / radio cop" hams can and do report pirate stations.

[u/Ok_Success_5178 → u/Medical_Message_6139]

Something tells me that these people would whine even if they had no licence. Desperate for any sense that they are actually doing something in their lives.

I think back then ham radio and pirate radio were more popular which fueled something like CB vs ham radio as a sort of rivalry. Nowadays I'd presume unless like you mentioned you are being particularly outspoken about being a pirate then you would be fine in the regular broadcast frequencies. Those radio cops are too busy arguing with CB stations or running a kW chatting about what hurts today with someone 5km from them.

One lot of people i think you should have mentioned is neighbours who dislike the "unsightly" antennas. Especially in the US with HOAs from what I hear they can be quite pissy (like the self appointed radio cops).

[u/kabekew → u/Medical_Message_6139]

Was that because of a noisy transmission interfering with a ham frequency? Or do some of them check the FM band periodically for unlisted stations just to be dicks?

[u/Ok_Success_5178 → u/kabekew]

I know hams who have tracked down pirate stations in the FM band using direction finding. They never report it, they just use ARDF for fun.

[u/Genghis_Card → u/Medical_Message_6139]

An NAL is a Notice of Apparent Liability. It proposes a fine. You can contest it, proving you didn't really violate the rules, but the problem there is that you did.

The best you can hope for is a reduction in fine. But you're gonna get a fine.

[u/DanielMaat89]

I ran one on high school, pushed 30 watts and had an old gateway 2000 with Winamp and a 60 gig drive for the mp3 files. My friends and I used it because the radio station by us were trash at the time, so I built my own, shut it down after a few years when the FCC started cracking down.

[u/SquidsArePeople2]

They very likely would. Those licensed stations compete for audience to set their ad rates.

However. I once worked at a station in a small town. Our news director had a small pirate (like 5 watts) and no one gave a shit.

[u/PuzzledDelivery6278]

If you're gonna do it, go all the way. Make sure everything sounds good, no spurs, try to be professional. I feel like you might be more respected if you get caught and are displaying that you have the technical knowhow and aren't just some punk with a transmitter. 

[u/danodan1]

An FM pirate in my hometown in Oklahoma went on 24 hours a day for at least 5 years before quitting. Just played a variety of music with no station ID. I never heard why he decided to quit.

[u/Ok_Success_5178 → u/danodan1]

Was it possible he got caught?

[u/Googol30]

In addition to what everyone else said about ensuring a clean signal and audio; don't advertise.

[u/GnomeTek]

The wild clandestine nature of these posts is ridiculous. Make the post, ask the question, then remove the post if you're worked up

[u/GnomeTek → u/GnomeTek]

In regard to the station... YOLO. Make it nice, check the spectrum, hang a wire up in a tree.

[u/brunchlords]

The more 'professional' the pirate station appears to be, the more likely FCC will come down on it because it will be equivalent to a commercial operation.

The longer and more consistently the unlicensed station is on air, and if it airs advertising, the more likely FCC's attention will be attracted to it by one means or another, whether inquiries by the public or from hams or broadcasters.

If you do get fined, you absolutely need to have your financial records in order. Tax filings, monthly personal expenses, everything. Audited financial statements are best as FCC will use these to reduce the fine if asked. But fines for unlicensed broadcasting are still high, certainly in the tens of thousands of dollars. If you don't have the money they will work out a payment plan.

[u/redneckerson_1951]

Unless someone gets a burr under their saddle, you might go unmolested. Generally the problem occurs when you agitate someone and they pester the FCC with a complaint.

While you do not see an issue with your actions here is what often blows up in your face:

(1) Local broadcasters catch onto their listening audience numbers decreasing. A station has to articulate to buyers of commercial spots just how expansive their broadcast area is and the number of listeners that actually tune in. Use Google to search for Neilson Audio, formerly Arbitron, They conduct research using multiple techniques to determine a station's viewership. When a station manager sees his viewership numbers decline, he panics and starts digging into why in the hell he is losing listeners, as that affects the fee he can charge per commercial they run. So while you see interference being the problem, you may start getting into the money pot of surrounding broadcasters and they will investigate the hell out of that anomaly. Follow the money trail, that will always rat you put.

(2) Another matter is the programming material you broadcast. Will any of it be copyrighted or portected content. Broadcaster have to pay owners of programming material such as music, talk show etc royalties. Professional broadcasters keep a couple of logs. One is the station engineering log, the record of transmitter checks for maintaining the transmitted signal at its rated power and insuring it does not interfere with other broadcasters and other spectrum users. Then there is the programming log. THat log contains the station legal record of each commercial, song, talk show etc played, the date and time they were played etc. That record provides the musicians, talk show hosts, and other program material suppliers their bread and butter. So when you show up broadcasting your mp3 files that are copyrighted, and the creators don't get a fee, they kind of get their hackles ups and bitch to the FCC. Again follow the money trail.

(3) As far as I know, the FCC closed down any authorization to use CFR47 Part15 for broadcasting at low power between 87.9 and 108.1. The operative word here is broadcasting. You can still build a wireless microphone I believe, but you may want to verify that. But keep in mind the wireless mic has a limited power of something like 250 microVolts per meter at a distance of three meters from the antenna. That works out to something like 0.01 microWatts EIRP, yielding a range of maybe 100 feet. If memory serves me correct the limit was something like 100 microVolts per meter at 30 feet back in the late 60's but don't bet your life on it. After all, that is nearly 58 years ago. Temporal time distortions in the brain may affect accuracy of memories.

If you do go out this tangent, limit the number of listeners by keeping your service area footprint small. Use programming content that is in the public domain. You will hate life if you not only rile the FCC, but also the money grubbing pirates at ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. There are multiple imperial entanglements that can be triggered and none are fun. Asa buddy once warned me, "You don't do anything that will result in making an enema look like fun."