Dozens of Radio Stations Were Knocked Off the Air by Helene

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Hurricane Helene, which has been blamed for at least 90 deaths, also knocked at least 48 radio stations in the southeastern United States off the air, according to the Federal Communications Commission.

Helene made landfall on Thursday. The FCC has released daily summaries of cellular and broadcast station outages based on reporting to its Disaster Information Reporting System.

On Saturday the number of FM and AM stations in the southeast that were off the air was posted at 48. As of Sunday morning, the commission reported, 35 radio stations were off, including 17 in Georgia, 12 in South Carolina and the rest in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia. There were five TV stations off in Georgia and North Carolina.

It’s possible that more stations were knocked off. Reporting to DIRS is voluntary, though a proposal that has been discussed at the FCC this year would mandate that stations participate in DIRS reporting. Broadcasters have pushed back against that idea.

FCC Escalates Enforcement of Pirate Radio in Miami, NYC Metro Area

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FCC Escalates Enforcement of Pirate Radio in Miami, NYC Metro Area

The commission carries out three fines and has three more proposed

The Federal Communications Commission has taken swift action against three pirate radio operators in Miami, Fla., issuing more than $800,000 worth of fines today. The FCC’s hunt to weed out illicit operations, however, is not over.

On Thursday, the commission also proposed fines, totalling $1 million, against three more alleged pirate radio operators in New Jersey and New York.

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ARRL Defends 902-928 Amateur Radio Band

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ARRL Defends 902-928 Amateur Radio Band

ARRL® The National Association for Amateur Radio® has filed comments [PDF] with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) urging that the 902 – 928 MHz amateur radio band be protected. ARRL joins hundreds of licensed radio amateurs who utilize the band in opposing a proposal from NextNav Inc., a licensee in the 900-MHz Location and Monitoring Service (LMS), to completely reconfigure the 902 – 928 MHz band and replace the LMS with high-powered 5G cellular and related location services.

Read more about NextNav’s proposal on ARRL News (8/15/2024)

ARRL’s comments, filed by our Washington, D.C. Counsel on behalf of ARRL members and radio amateurs, point out several problems with NextNav’s request.

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