March 20, 2006
Flying To Hip Hop

Imagine you are a pilot about to land at Miami International Airport. You wait for clearance to land, but what you hear is a Busta Rhymes remix. Most likely not what you would want to hear when trying to land a Boeing 767.
A pirate hip hop station called Da Streetz is interfering with pilots and control towers in Miami. Officials discovered a large radio antenna mounted next to a warehouse in Opa-locka used for transmission, but the DJ was no where in sight. According to a story by The Miami Herald what was found and confiscated were "three computers, a monitor, a mixing board, a stereo compressor, a microphone, a two-deck CD player, a telephone, a DSL modem, two stereo speakers, three gray three-ring binders and 10 cases filled with CDs."
While Da Streetz doesn't interfere everyday, the problem became serious enough to call in Federal Communications Commission officials and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. According to The Florida Association of Broadcasters there have been as many as 20 pirated stations playing in South Florida on any day of the week.
photo credit: google images