Austin Radio: Pirate Flagship for Alex Jones, Faces $15K Fine

A pirate radio station that serves as controversial host Alex Jones’ Austin flagship has been knocked off the Austin’s airwaves – at least temporarily – and the FCC has levied a $15,000 penalty that the station’s operators are refusing to pay.

According to The American-Statesman, a lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court in Austin accuses Liberty Radio of operating at 90.1 FM without federal consent since at least 2013. Religious programming was airing on that frequency Wednesday, in place of Liberty Radio.

A check of the Liberty Radio website indicated the station stopped being transmitted over the air in December, but has been streaming online.

According to court documents, FCC enforcement agents from Houston were called to the Austin area to investigate 90.1 FM after the agency received a complaint. Using high-tech equipment, those agents were able to trace the signal to apartments in East Austin.

The agents reported that Liberty Radio was being operated out of some sort of maintenance or utility room at the complex. Travis Central Appraisal District records indicate that up until late last year, the complex – subject of numerous well-publicized city nuisance violations – had been owned by an entity linked to Walter Olenick and M. Rae Nadler-Olenick, who are listed as the two defendants in the federal lawsuit over Liberty Radio.

Court documents show the FCC had tracked the transmissions to a 50-foot tower at an Austin apartment complex owned by an entity linked to the Olenicks.