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Feds move to shut pirate Haitian radio station in Roslindale
By adamg on Fri, 05/31/2013 - 2:04pm
Federal agents last week raided an unlicensed radio station broadcasting from a Roslindale Square office building.
Although Bel Top Boston, which bills itself as the "top Haitian news station in Boston" was off the air this afternoon, past history suggests owner David Cange will try to return to the air at 88.5 MHz. In 2010, he ignored a warning from the FCC to stop broadcasting from the same building, 4258 Washington St., which is better known for the Vouros Greek bakery and the El Chavo Mexican supplies store.
In a statement, US Attorney Carmen Ortiz said:
It is a potential hazard to public safety for pirate radio stations to broadcast illegally and interfere with critical radio communications. The U.S. Attorney's Office will work in conjunction with the FCC to identify and seize equipment from these pirate broadcasters.
The statement says the feds acted on a complaint from a licensed station. The statement does not specify which one, but WRRS in Middleboro began broadcasting on 88.5 last summer. That might explain why the FCC and the US Attorney's office haven't taken similar action against better known pirate stations in Boston, including one founded by two men running for mayor this year.
The feds add they moved to seize equipment only after Cange apparently ignored a couple of warnings earlier in the year.
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Comments
Mexican supplies store?
What exactly are Mexican supplies?
It's basically a Mexican convenience store
They sell Mexican foods, but also stuff like Mexican wrestling masks.
antenna location?
Almost a 1/3rd of a V/m at 62m? This is a health hazard. Do these people know what they are doing? Is the antenna on a pole?
Shut them all down, hurry !
Since low power licenses were made widely available starting several years ago there really is no legitimate reason to continue to allow pirate stations at all. Practically every one is foreign language. So far most of the ones that they have gone after were shut down because of interference with official 2 way channels and not necessarily for interfering with licensed broadcast radio. Is FCC pulling punches for politics ?
reminds me of the days when
Jack Campbell, a big Ted Kennedy supporter, owned WPLM, 99.1 FM. 50,000 watts. I suspected that they were illegally boosting the power (it was coming out of the hot water base boards in my Duxbury home). I called the FCC and they were anxious to help until they heard which station it was. Suddenly, crickets.