Man Charged With Running Creole Pirate Radio Station

By Evan S. Benn, The Miami Herald

Jun. 8–State agents arrested a North Miami-Dade man Wednesday and charged him with operating an unlicensed radio station out of a room he rented from a corrections officer.

Bertral Pierre, 35, had been broadcasting a pirate station called Radio Energy for the past several months, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman Paige Patterson-Hughes. Pierre transmitted Creole-language music on 90.7 FM, she said.

The corrections officer was not involved in the radio station activity and has been cooperating with the investigation, Patterson-Hughes said. The officer rented Pierre a room at a home in the 15200 block of Northeast Eighth Avenue.

The FDLE began investigating in April after receiving a complaint from the FCC. The regulatory agency is able to identify and locate unlicensed transmissions.

It’s the ninth pirate-radio bust in South Florida in the past year.

Such stations are considered problematic because they can interfere with public-safety alerts, weather bulletins and air-traffic signals being broadcast on licensed frequencies.

"The reason it’s an issue is these unlicensed stations can block out Amber Alerts and other important transmissions," Patterson-Hughes said.

In two recent South Florida cases, authorities determined the stations were disrupting air-traffic communication. Investigators do not believe Pierre’s broadcast affected any air-traffic signals.

Pierre was booked at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami-Dade. He is charged with a third-degree felony and faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Miami Herald

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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