FCC Adds Insult to Injury for Alex Jones, Shuts Down Radio Station That Carried His Show
Controversial right-wing radio host Alex Jones found it even harder to reach his audience this week when the Federal Communication Commission took action against what it believes is an illegally operated radio station carrying his program in the Austin, Texas, area.
According to the Austin American-Statesman, a federal lawsuit claims 90.1 FM, broadcasting as Liberty Radio, had been operating as a pirate station and without proper FCC licensing for the past five years.
The agency revealed that it received a complaint about the frequency’s transmission and performed an analysis leading them to the source of the signal.
Houston-area agents traveled to Austin and used specialized equipment to track the station to a pair of apartment buildings in the city.
The buildings were located on the east side of Austin in the Orchard Plaza complex on East 52nd Street.
As a result of its findings, the FCC moved to take the radio signal offline for the time being and impose a $15,000 fine on the defendants in the case, identified as Walter Olenick and M. Rae Nadler-Olenick.
Both apartment buildings cited in the investigation had previously been owned by a company linked to the defendants and had been hit with a number of nuisance complaints in the past.
As The Hill reported, they have reportedly refused to pay the fine and said they would treat federal agents as trespassers on the property.
Though a website for the station indicated that it had not broadcast over radio airwaves since last year, officials say it continued to air via online streaming and a “listen line,” as described in the suit.
As of Wednesday, Liberty Radio programming had been replaced by a religious broadcast.
Of course, the latest interruption comes on the heels of a widespread ban on Jones’ content by several of the world’s most influential tech firms.
Twitter suspended his account for seven days in response to a complaint that one of his video links violated the platform’s policies.
Several other companies, including Apple, YouTube and Facebook, have stripped most or all of Jones’ content and his InfoWars brand from their platforms.
In statements acknowledging the action against his accounts, representatives offered statements explaining their decisions.
“Upon review, we have taken it down for glorifying violence … and using dehumanizing language to describe people who are transgender, Muslims and immigrants, which violates our hate speech policies,” a Facebook spokesperson said.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said he believes his temporary action could cause Jones to reconsider the type of content he posts.
“I feel any suspension, whether it be a permanent or a temporary one, makes someone think about their actions and their behaviors,” Dorsey said.
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