Austin Pirate Station Airing Alex Jones Faces $15K Fine

RADIO ONLINE | Thursday, August 16, 2018

Texas Liberty Radio

A pirate radio station in Austin -- that aired controversial talk host Alex Jones and his Liberty Radio network -- is off the air after the FCC issued a $15,000 fine. Calling themselves Texas Liberty Radio, the operators say they have been off the air at 90.1 since December and are looking for another tower site. According to the Austin Statesman, a suit was filed this week in U.S. District Court in Austin accuses Liberty Radio of operating without federal authority since at least 2013.

According to court documents, FCC enforcement agents from Houston investigated the pirate station at 90.1 FM after the agency received a complaint. Using a signal locater, agents traced the signal to the Orchard Plaza apartments in East Austin. It appeared that the illegal station was being operated out of some sort of maintenance or utility room there. Walter Olenick and M. Rae Nadler-Olenick, who are listed as the two defendants in the federal lawsuit over the pirate outlet.

Jones' controversial content is not at issue, the station was operating illegally and a look at Libery Radio's website at LRN reveals a page entitled, "I want my own LRN.FM radio station." It describes a means of receiving its network feed off of free Ku-Band FTA satellite downlinks and two different FM transmitters that can be bought to air pirate signals. Find it at lrn.fm/broadcast/station/