Pirate radio station causing problems in Miami

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.
-- The Associated Press

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