Dayum, I’m not gonna lie, I love listening to pirate radio stations. They do, play and say what cannot be said on traditional “dial” radio stations. And when I’m in NYC, I definitely take the opportunity to chune it! Unfortunately, the next time I visit NYC, I won’t be able to tune into 104.7 FM or 91.7 FM, they’re shut down (always thought it was 91.6 LOL!)
According to MyFoxNY, authorities in the Rackets Division of the Kings County D.A.’s office (in other words Brooklyn!), received complaints back in April that led to the arrest of Solomon Malka, 51, for operating 104.7 illegally.
Fox 5 NY:
Investigators set up a sting operation that brought them to a 50-story building on Broad Street in Lower Manhattan. Detectives found illegal radio transmitters on top of the building and Malka inside it.
“He claimed that he was the one who put the antenna up or helped put it up and put the transmitting equipment up and also admitted at that point that he knew they were not licensed,” Vecchione said.
The D.A.’s office gave Fox 5 pictures of the equipment that was seized. The station’s format was Caribbean-style music. Malka is accused of using laptops to play the music.
Then two weeks ago, authorities came to a building on East 76th Street in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn where they found evidence of a second radio station that was also operating illegally. At that point authorities took 91.7 FM off the air, too.
The full investigation eventually included the arrest of a second suspect, Seon Bruce, 40, whom prosecutors say sometimes uses the name DJ Fresh Kid.
Both men have been charged with unauthorized radio transmission and face up to a year in jail if convicted.
The inherent problem here is that the “people” need a voice. Most traditional radio stations are owned by huge corporate media conglomerates that care nothing about the Caribbean demographic. To make matters worse, trying to start a new radio station legally is a multi-million dollar undertaking which is out of the reach of most of those trying to start up a radio station!
To be clear, I am not condoning breaking the law, but I am saying that if the FCC and the government seemingly makes the airwaves available only to those who can afford it… i.e. large, corporate media entities and rich individuals (college radio and non-profit community stations notwithstanding). Unfortunately, if this doesn’t change, folks will find a way around the system…hence, pirate stations.
“Dem A Call Us Pirates, Dem A Call Us Illegal Broadcasters”
This is nothing new, back in the 90s Shabba Ranks released a popular song Pirates Anthem (featuring CoCo T. and Home T.) which talked about this very issue as it existed in Britain.
“if dem broke down one, we build five more strong”…
What’s amazing to me though is that of all the illegal pirate stations out there, TWO Caribbean stations got shut down. I know for a fact there a loads of other pirate stations in New York but WE got we shut down…really? SMDH. For certain, what I don’t want to hear is “radio silence”…
RCS SIDEBAR: To my fellow media personnel, move to the internet and do it legally. I don’t want to see anyone I know going to jail!!!
