Jean Adelphonse |
Jean Adelphonse ran numerous businesses from a tiny office
at a shopping strip, including a traffic school, tax preparation store and
immigration firm.
But, according to sun-sentinel.com, the entrepreneur's latest venture — a pirate
radio station, situated in the same building where his other businesses are —
got him killed, the Broward Sheriff's Office says.
Adelphonse, 42, was electrocuted in Oakland Park , FL
on Monday night when part of the pirate radio antenna he was installing above
his business office collapsed and struck a powerline, the agency said.
The illegal station would've been the latest one in South Florida , where federal and local officials have
been busy in recent years trying to shut them down only to see more jamming the
public airways with cheaper broadcasting equipment.
"More and more people are trying to find ways to make
money on the side, and they don't have the experience of handling these
antennas," said Broward sheriff's Detective Valerian Perez. Perez adds he suspects the proliferation of
pirate stations will continue to multiply as the costs of setting one up has
become cheaper and with equipment becoming more easily available on the
Internet.
Local, state and federal officials say South
Florida has long been considered a hotbed for pirate radio
stations. Since January 2012, the Federal Communications Commission has filed
legal actions against 50 pirate stations throughout the United States .
Of those, 31 were located in South Florida 's
tri-county area, according to the agency's database.
Chris Jacques, 27, of Boca Raton ,
who runs the licensed station Radio Haiti Amerique International on WHSR 980 AM
Radio in Boca Raton , downplayed the notion that
the illegal stations are filling a gap of Creole and Caribbean
programming.
Jacques said his operation can cost up to $15,000 a week,
and the pirates are just looking to make easy money from advertisers looking
for cheaper rates.
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