Arrrgh! Here be radio...

May 17, 2007 9:01 PM

What is the legal status of offshore (maritime, international waters) broadcasting in the United States? Is there a stateside equivalent of the Marine Offenses Act? What steps would the United States take to hamper the operations of such a broadcaster?
posted by phrontist to Law & Government (2 answers total)

Radio Caroline was back in the days before the EEZ , which changed maritime law quite a bit.

The US does have stations that transmit from Mexico though, like 91X. (Which has apparently been bought by Clear Channel (!) )
posted by fshgrl at 9:23 PM on May 17, 2007

I remember that Mexico used to have much looser restrictions on broadcast wattage than the United States -- not sure if that's still true. But there were at least two stations in Mexico that broadcast at 250,000 watts. I think US stations are limited to 50k.
posted by the dief at 5:12 AM on May 18, 2007