What Rob Does at Work

People often ask us what Rob's job is at the radio station. The easiest answer is, "Whatever needs to be done!". Occassionally his job title is "Pirate Hunter". Specifically pirate radio broadcasters, no swashbuckling ;) Every few months a different pirate broadcaster picks the Call's frequency to set up shop. It's been everything from Israeli dance music to hardcore, ultra-offensive rap. This time it was a Haitian station. Rob made the bust in just two days and here are the pictures to prove it!

What there are no pictures of is how he found the pirate. Pirates notoriously broadcast at night; some of the more brazen ones are on during the day. So last night Rob got a couple of friends to go with him to the area he suspected to find the station and they located the antenna. Basically the way you do it is to get a small battery powered radio with a telescoping antenna and drive until you get closer to the signal. As the signal gets stronger, you push the antenna shorter. When the antenna is folded up and you can still get the signal, you know you are very close. After that you can wrap the whole radio in aluminum foil to block the signal. It will only pick the station up when you are right next to the antenna.

This is a picture of the antenna being used to broadcast the Haitian station on 91.9. You can see police cars next to the building - Rob used to call the FCC first, but he's found he gets faster results by involving local law enforcement. So he called the police and they came out to meet him at the location. The police asked Rob to go with them to look around the building (it was a club) and let them know what he thought looked like broadcasting equipement.

This is what they found. Rob said that this type of radio equipment could easily be moved to another location to "set up shop" - which might happen. But hopefully they will think twice about picking 91.9!


These are just some other pirate antennas Rob found in the same area.
South Florida is a real hotbed for pirate radio. For whatever reason the FCC doesn't have a very good handle on what is going on down here.
Sometimes the landlords don't even realize what's on their roof. A few years ago the Call was being pirated by a guy who just wouldn't quit. Finally they were able to shut him down by winning a lawsuit against his landlords, who finally kicked him out and off the air! Since then, all Rob really has to do is approach the landlord of the building and tell them about the lawsuit and they take care of the pirate.

So tomorrow Rob can get back to his regular work :)