The Federal Communications Commission has upheld a proposed $25,000 fine against a Florida low-power FM which it said not only failed to comply with LPFM technical rules and did not have working Emergency Alert System equipment but when field agents came to inspect the station, they were refused immediate entry into the building. Jupiter Community Radio did not deny the allegations brought against WJUP-LP Jupiter, FL. But in an effort to get the fine reduced, it disputed how the forfeiture was calculated.

The Media Bureau issued the fine against WJUP-LP based on what it says was monitoring that field agents did of the station in February 2020. They determined the station was operating with both a transmitter power output and an effective radiated power that exceeded the parameters for low-power stations. They also discovered the station was using an unauthorized antenna from an unauthorized location.

Based on the agent’s observations, the station was operating with an effective radiated power of 177 watts instead of the authorized 20 watts and with a two-bay antenna instead of the single-bay antenna specified in its license.

After being held at bay for several days, when field agents finally got into the studios located inside the Omega Church in March 2020, they also discovered that there was no EAS equipment installed.

In response to the proposed fine, WJUP-LP said that it should be given a lower penalty or none whatsoever arguing that the FCC should take into account its past good behavior and promises to make operational changes. It also argued the FCC used the wrong base forfeiture when determining its penalty. By its reading, the fine should have been $8,000 – with half for exceeding power limits and the other half for operating at an unauthorized location. It did not provide any evidence however that EAS was installed at the station.

In its response, the Commission says it found none of WJUP-LP’s arguments persuasive and its $25,000 fine stands, saying the broadcaster “willfully violated” FCC rules by operating the station with a transmitter power output that was 222% of the authorized level and with an antenna that was not permitted.

“Since 2000, the Commission has not authorized LPFM stations with powers exceeding 100 Watts effective radiated power,” the FCC says in the 11-page decision . “Jupiter willfully located the transmitter for its station at the transmitter site, instead of the authorized site, even if doing so was a mistake on its part,” it adds.

The FCC also points out that the Commission has long held that a licensee’s remedial steps taken in response to an enforcement action are not a reason to reduce a forfeiture. “And here, Jupiter has yet to remedy the problem, but rather has only stated that it ‘is taking steps’ to be ‘more readily available to permit access to the station,’” the order says.

Enforcement Bureau Regional Director Dedrick Roybiskie also acknowledges that the FCC issued an order to former Jupiter Community Radio President Wayne Manning in 2017 to power down a pirate station he was allegedly operating at 104.1 FM in West Palm Beach.

The Commission has ordered WJUP-LP to pay the fine, but the lengthy order does not order the station to reduce its power or go silent until it moves its antenna to the right location. There is no indication that any of the technical changes to bring the station into its power limits have been made to date.

The situation of WJUP-LP has drawn fire from within the low-power community. REC Networks said when the fine was first proposed two years ago that a case like this is one of the reasons why commercial broadcasters oppose allowing LPFM stations to increase power to 250 watts.

“Just because the station has an LPFM class of service, or perhaps the words ‘community radio’ in their name, it does not give them a get out of jail free card with REC, and nor should it in the pro-LPFM community. These are basic responsibilities for broadcasters and LPFM has been given a luxury of reduced responsibilities compared to their high-power counterpart,” REC’s Michelle Bradley said in a statement .

REC also accused the FCC of turning a blind eye to what has become a marketplace of buying and selling LPFMs in Florida despite rules against those stations being sold.

“This is the cancer that has taken place in Florida, a state rich in pirate radio culture and the overall disregard for Commission rules, mainly in an effort to make a profit off of LPFM stations,” Bradley said. “Not all LPFM stations in Florida are bad actors, but there seems to be a culture of questionable LPFM activity in that state.”