FCC: Law & Order Out of Order
By Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/19/2005 6:01:00 PM
Broadcasters are known for hounding the FCC to crack down on pirate-­radio operators, the unlicensed broadcasters who beam political rants, underground club music and anything else they want from jury-rigged basement transmitters.
Pirates rarely check whether the channels they commandeer are open, and consequently their broadcasts can produce interference that wreaks havoc on legally operating stations. It was embarrassing enough, then, that on June 8 the FCC’s enforcement bureau accused that upstanding citizen of the broadcasting world, NBC Universal, of piratical behavior, fining the company $10,000 for unlicensed radio transmissions. But even worse: the source of the illegal transmissions was NBC’s Law & Order. No, Dennis Farina and S. Epatha Merkerson weren’t taking advantage of a little down time to D.J. a rogue jazz program. The Law & Order crew in New York was using high-powered walkie-talkies, officially known as portable radio transceivers, to communicate during production of the show, causing interference on the city’s public-safety radio pool -- the communications setup for New York’s police, fire and other emergency departments. After receiving a complaint on March 22 (the FCC declined to identify who filed it), an agent from the FCC’s New York field office used a mobile transmission-monitoring vehicle to track the offending signal. The sleuth ended up at Universal’s studio at Pier 62 on Manhattan’s West Side. NBC U explained that the L&O crew wasn’t aware that they needed a license for the radios. The studio had relied on an outside vendor to supply radios for years but then decided to purchase its own equipment instead. The seller never let on about that little license thing. “Universal Television takes seriously its obligations to comply with FCC requirements,” the company said in a statement. But the studio also said that, although it “disagrees with the current outcome,” it is reviewing the decision and considering its options. And while you guys are discussing your options, play it safe and use a land line.
No related content found.
