Forty FCC contacts with New York microcasters so far this year

DIYmedia does an excellent job breaking down all the information from the Federal Communications Commission web site about enforcement actions against microcasters. DIY's latest chart shows 40 contacts with New York microcasters plus a number from northern New Jersey, which sounds like a major increase until you look closer and see that most "contacts" are letters to the same people over and over again.

The FCC typically investigates and observes stations, then sends warning letters and makes "casual" visits to the locations of the transmissions, before moving on to search warrants and $10,000 fines. But they count all these actions as contacts. So Arlene Capell (3), Kacy Rankine (5, $10,000 fine last notice), Elroy Simpson (7, $10,000 fine), Carmen Spencer (3, warning letter), Denver McIntyre (2, warning), Moises and Juan Cabrera (2, $10,000 fine), Shawn Deroux (2, $17,000 fine), Denyse Roberts (2, warning), and a handful of real estate shops (presumably, they are sending letters to landlords too) made up almost all of the New York microcasting contacts so far this year.

New York City metropolitan microcasters used 87.9, 89.7, 90.1, 90.9, 94.5, 95.9, 96.1, 96.7, 99.1, 102.3, and 103.1. Most contacted seem from the reports to be ethnic or religious minorities, with music programming that does not exist on much of the rest of the New York City dial. The FCC continues to miss many NYC-based microcasters, such as the hip hop station that's on from 10 p.m. to midnight on 91.9-FM, and the other night time hip hop station on 88.7.