Boston Radio: Firefighters Shutdown Nearby Pirate

Firefighters driving to work at the Pleasant Street station in Brockton on the edge of downtown first started reporting interference on their car radios last week. Then, according to enterprise.com, music started playing over the speakers in the station used for dispatching fire engines and garbling emergency communications.

“In the station, those speakers are used to alert firefighter to an incident, and that’s how we get the type of call and location,” said Deputy Fire Chief Kevin Galligan. “Any interference is a serious issue.”

Galligan called officer Scott Uhlman, the Brockton Police Department’s radio guru, and City Councilor Dennis DeNapoli to help him find the source of the interference.

DeNapoli arrived with a frequency finder, an electronic device that can track the source of radio signals. They discovered a satellite dish and an FM antenna on a radio mast directly across the street from Fire Station 1 at 69 Pleasant St..

The antenna extended nearly 60 feet in the air and an unlicensed station was broadcasting on 88.9 MHz, right next to WERS in Boston, DeNapoli said.

The antenna was atop a one-story building that houses several storefronts, one advertising shipping to Haiti and another the Cardoso Driving School.

Uhlman said they approached a group of Haitian men hanging out behind building and asked who owned the radio equipment.

The men did not give a straight answer, but when Uhlman climbed on the roof with a pair of wire cutters, they quickly found the owner, he said.

The station was shut down immediately and the next day, the antenna and radio equipment were gone.

Read More Now.