[TWIAR] Illegal radio broadcasts interfering with airline pilots in Miami

[Greg Williams]

Illegal radio broadcasts interfering with airline pilots in Miami
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-319radio,0,186617.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

Associated Press
Posted March 19 2006, 12:37 PM EST
 
MIAMI -- Pilots coming and going from Miami International Airport are 
getting an earful of something unexpected: Hip-hop tunes from a pirate 
radio station.

The music comes on a pair of frequencies from a station that calls 
itself Da Streetz.

Authorities traced the signals to a large radio antenna on tower mounted 
on a nearby warehouse in a Miami suburb, but did not find a radio 
transmitter or disc jockey.

And Da Streetz remains on the air, interfering at times with 
communications between pilots and the control tower.

``It's intermittent. Not all day, everyday,'' said Kathleen Bergen, a 
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman. ``But clear communication 
between air control and the pilots is a critical part of flying.''

The Federal Communications Commission and Florida Department of Law 
Enforcement are helping in the investigation. The FAA said it has 
conducted about 30 similar investigations into pirate stations 
interfering with airport transmissions in the past decade.

A Florida anti-piracy law went into effect a year ago that makes it a 
third degree to felony for anyone caught sending transmissions that 
interfere with signals from licensed public or commercial stations, or 
broadcasting without a license.

At the warehouse, state agent Joseph Zeller confiscated three computers, 
a monitor, a mixing board, a stereo compressor, microphone, a two-deck 
CD player, a telephone, a DSL modem, two stereo speakers and 10 cases 
filled with CDs.

Authorities said the owner of the warehouse had no idea the building was 
being used by an illegal radio station.