A longtime pirate radio operator in South Florida agreed to stop broadcasting and pay an $11,000 penalty to the U.S. Treasury through a 20-year consent decree.
Wilfrid Salomon was found to be operating “Radio Ideal,” an unlicensed FM station in and around Broward County, Fla., targeting the Haitian community. Miami field office agents visited locations in the county from which Salomon broadcast in 2017, 2018 and 2023.
Salomon agreed to a penalty of $11,000 paid in $500 monthly installments. He will face an additional penalty of approximately $347,000 if he violates the decree during the 20-year consent period by committing another pirate radio offense or missing a payment.
On three separate dates in 2023, the commission found that Salomon operated the station on 87.9 FM from a location on NW 21st Street in Lauderdale Lakes. Its signal exceeded Part 15 limits.
The commission issued Salomon a notice of apparent liability in 2024 regarding the operation. The NAL proposed a forfeiture of approximately $358,000. Based on Salomon’s history, the commission decided that the proposed penalty deemed an upward adjustment. Prior to the 2020 passage of the PIRATE Act, the maximum penalty for pirate operators was approximately $151,000.
[Related: “FCC Plans to Fine Five Radio Pirates in Florida”]
According to the commission’s account, Radio Ideal had also operated on 107.1 FM. In 2017, agents visited properties in Oakland Park and Lauderhill from which the station broadcast and issued Salomon a notice of unauthorized operation, which the commission stated went unanswered.
U.S. Marshals and officers from the Lauderhill Police Department seized radio equipment at the address Radio Ideal operated from in October 2018. But the signal returned to the airwaves from Lauderdale Lakes and was observed by agents five years later.
Salomon responded to the commission’s 2024 NAL, stating he was unable to pay the proposed amount. Afterward, a bureau field agent determined that the station was no longer operating.
Given Salomon’s claim of financial hardship and that the station went off the air, the commission determined a consent decree with a reduced penalty was appropriate.
The Enforcement Bureau will conclude its investigation as a result.
(Read the details of the commission’s consent decree.)
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Ed. Note: The original version of this story reported that the fine was payable to the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau — we corrected that to note they are payable to the U.S. Treasury. Secondly, it is the commission’s Enforcement Bureau that concluded its investigation, not the Media Bureau.
