Berkley Liberation Radio FCC comes a knockin (yet again)

3/10/06 - FCC Watch: Enforcement Tempo Quickens [link to this story]

The New York office has been spending a lot of time in New Jersey, perhaps in response to the state's attempt to assert enforcement jurisdiction over the airwaves. (Meanwhile, in Florida, the FCC's busy busting construction crane operators cursing on two-way radio frequencies licensed to a hospital.)

Out west, Berkeley Liberation Radio got another visit and the Portland Radio Authority is off the air after same. Free Radio Santa Cruz's Skidmark Bob did a long interview with BLR volunteer Gerald Smith, where the connection between the current station its evolution from roots in Free Radio Berkeley is vividly described. Field agents have also paid respects to stations in Nevada and New Mexico.

For the year, there have already been 52 documented enforcement actions against more than two dozen stations - well ahead of pace to surpass last year's record-setting numbers. However, the increased action is purely administrative at this point: visits and warning letters. It's enough to scare some off the air, but not everybody.

Folks like DJ Johnny Silver of Iron Action Radio seem wholly unconcerned with a smackdown. Although his station is the talk of the town, and he's starred in three mini-films wildly dramatizing a confrontational scenario, Silver says he's prepared for enforcement action. He says he'll take the station "to the next level," as defined by the cult favorite Pump Up The Volume.