Pay up, Johnny Peralta.
That’s the message from the Federal Communications Commission, which on Thursday confirmed a penalty of more than $2.3 million against Peralta for allegedly operating a pirate station on 105.7 MHz in the Bronx in New York City.
The word “flagrant” does not appear in the text of the forfeiture order, but perhaps it should have.
“Peralta has engaged in the longstanding illicit operation of an unauthorized radio station, known as ‘La Mia Radio,’” the commission wrote in its forfeiture order.
“Some of the most egregious pirate radio operations are run by individuals who have ignored prior enforcement actions by the commission. This is one such case. As such, it merits the strongest possible enforcement measures to the fullest extent of the law.”
This is a followup to a notice of apparent liability issued in November.
The FCC said then that the station has continually identified itself on the air as La Mia Radio since at least 2018. It said its enforcement activity over several years included multiple field strength readings, photos of antenna equipment and a notice of unauthorized operation left at the site. The antenna appears to have moved between a couple of locations.
The forfeiture is under the terms of the PIRATE Act, which became law in 2020, so the FCC said it is based only on broadcasts between November 2022 and February 2023, when agents performed field strength measurements and when La Mia Radio was advertising on-air programs on its website.
The FCC said Peralta has been identified in multiple newspaper articles and social media accounts as the station’s owner and director. And La Mia Radio continues to show up in online activity.
The website Al Momento published a story in July reporting that “Dominican radio broadcasting entrepreneur Jhonny Peralta led the relaunch of his radio station ‘La Mía Radio 105.7 fm’ with a luxurious and modern booth, located in the Bedford Park Blvd sector of the Bronx.” (Peralta’s first name sometimes appears spelled as Jhonny.)
A photo of the nattily outfitted studio also appears on Instagram.
The website of La Mia Radio lists its address only as the Bronx, N.Y. Radio World has reached out to the organization for comment.
In January a copy of the NAL was sent to Peralta by first class mail and certified mail, return receipt requested. “Although the certified mailing was returned unclaimed, the first class mail was not returned,” the FCC wrote.
Of course, collecting the fine is another matter. Forfeiture collection historically has been very spotty in the case of pirate radio operations.
But the commission noted that if it doesn’t hear from Peralta within 30 days, the case may be referred to the Department of Justice. Perhaps this penalty, compared to others in the past, is more likely to get DOJ attention due to the size of the fine and the attention to the problem of pirate radio in the halls of Congress since passage of the PIRATE Act.
Last October the FCC confirmed a similar fine against another operator in New York City, Radio Impacto 2. There has been no subsequent news from the commission about that case so presumably the fine has not been collected.
