A Florida man who has been in trouble with the FCC before faces a $20,000 penalty for allegedly operating an illegal FM transmitter in Miami.
The local office of the FCC Enforcement Bureau issued a notice of apparent liability to Marckenson Bazile, saying he ran a transmitter on 103.9 MHz from his home. Responding to a complaint, agents said they’d used direction-finding gear to trace broadcasts to his leased property last June. They said they also found information online listing him as a DJ contact for “103.9 Paradis FM.”
It’s not the first time Bazile and the FCC have crossed paths. The commission said that in late 2007 he admitted to operating an unlicensed radio station at Port St. Lucie, Fla., and that the latest incident “demonstrates a deliberate disregard for the commission’s requirements.” It raised the fine amount as a result.
The commission also said that in May of last year, agents met Bazile while investigating an unlicensed station operating on 103.9 MHz from another location. Bazile told them the station was in a locked garage space he was subleasing to someone else.
Subsequently, a “T-Pouchon” was listed online as a contact for Paradis FM. “The photograph of the person listed to the side of ‘T-Pouchon’ was the same individual the agents met on May 25, 2010, Mr. Bazile,” the commission wrote. And a separate user profile for Pouchon linked to an e-mail for Bazile, according to the commission.
He has 30 days to appeal or seek a reduction of the fine.
