The Economics of Pirate Radio (2020) | Hacker News Reader

The Economics of Pirate Radio (2020)

ibhof.blogspot.com

89 pointspopcalc13 comments

Interesting to see the other side of the pirate radio story. Pirate radio has been romanticized as anti-corporate, but it’s clear that many of these stations were businesses that were only interested in avoiding regulation and licensing.

> In 2018 the FCC carried out four raids across the United States with levied fines totalling $161,844. From 1998 until 2017 the FCC made 2,187 visits and 148 raids on pirate stations across the country. There were Notices of Apparent Liability fines and illegal broadcasting fines totalling $ 4,701,558 (an average $425). Many of these fines remained uncollected despite the authorities in attempt to collect and court challenges.

If the average fine was $425 and many of them weren’t even being collected, I can see why people would take the risk.

Some much larger fines have been levied recently.

https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-fines-three-pirate-radio-op...

https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-proposes-35-million-fines-m...

https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-proposes-40000-fine-pirate-...

The headache of running a pirate station doesn't seem worth it for any station that actually has the money for the license fee.

A station here use to drive around with transmitters in cars. A ball of wires mixed with naked pcb's. Lots of people calling the hot line when they spotted the evil men with their vehicle hopelessly chasing the signal. They would report on the show where the evil men were driving. It was enjoyable. They borrow different cars regularly since all they could afford was a soldering iron.

They pretend to be sponsored by local businesses they didn't like. This week 20% discount on everything! The evil men would have lots of questions for the business owners. They wouldn't be just promoting you if you didn't pay them!

Now that's the anti-corporate side the original comment was trying to say these stations weren't. Sounds like they had good fun.

It's not the fees, it's the difficult of getting a construction permit in the first place.

The FM band is full.

"Every pirate wants to be an admiral."

How do you reach a commercial audience without being anchored to a big tower?

See also Piratensender Powerplay for a fascinating... documentary... on the topic.

People Just Do Nothing is good too.

Criminally underappreciated.

For a great UK documentary, watch The Last Pirates.

Listen to uk pirate radio archive shows here: www.ridd.im

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