In 2022 I was lucky enough to walk the streets of Flatbush and Brooklyn with Professor David Goren, the creator of the ‘Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map’, seeking out the myriad of pirate radio stations that were located in that area. In 2023 I came across an excellent video from Ringway Manchester about pirates in the New York area and they mentioned how a new crackdown had begun in New York by the FCC against the illegal broadcasters.
At this point we must mention President Donald Trump (yes, I must) as during
his singular term in office in January 2020 he signed a new Act that would
attempt to tackle the issue. The PIRATE ACT, standing for Preventing Illegal
Radio Abuse Through Enforcement, was designed like legislation in Ireland not
just to go after the transmitters and studios of pirate broadcasters but also
to implement penalties against landlords and landowners who provide space for
the stations. In the video they spoke about a landlord, Michelle Hepburn, in
Mount Vernon who had received a notice from the FCC that pirate transmissions
had been traced to a building she owned and that as a result she was liable for
fines in excess of two million dollars. This set me off on a trawl to find out
more about this station which was broadcasting Caribbean music.
When I searched for pirate radio activity in the Mount Vernon area of
the Bronx in New York, the name Dexter Blake appeared and he is a fascinating
character. His first brush with the FCC dates to August 13th 2008
when the FCC traced broadcasts on 101.5mhz FM to Mount Vernon and a Caribbean restaurant
known as The Linkage based at 78 East 3rd Street. The radio station
was known as Linkage Radio. In March 2009, Dexter was issued with an official ‘Notice
of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture’. Dexter was deemed as ‘apparently, wilfully
and repeatedly violated Section 301 of the Broadcasting Act 1934.’
Dexter was born in Jamaica before immigrating to the United States. He
made the headlines in 2017, when it was reported that when Dexter attempted to
bring his two young children from the Caribbean Island to join him in the Big
Apple, part of the visa process that a DNA test was required from both children
and to his shock and horror it turned out that he was not the father to either
child. According to reporter Claude Mills,
‘A popular Jamaican radio disc jockey is devastated
this afternoon after he got a letter from a DNA agency informing him that the
two kids he had fathered with two Jamaican women were not his biological
children. He said that he had spent close to US$300,000 on both his kids since
their birth.
DNA tests are required by the US Embassy in
Kingston as a vital part of its immigrant visa process over the years has
confirmed that a number of women are assigning paternity of their children to
the wrong man, a term called ‘jackets’ in the Jamaican vernacular. The number
of ‘jackets’ was contained in a diplomatic cable captioned ‘fraud summary’ and
covered the period March 2009 to August 2009. According to the leaked
diplomatic cable, the US Embassy in Kingston “often requests applicants to
undergo DNA testing because their fathers’ name is either not on the birth
certificate at all, or was added many years after their birth”.
However, one in every 10 men who turns up at the US Embassy is told the DNA test proves that he is not the biological father of the child he is filing for.’
According to the Radio World newsletter in July 2010
‘The
Federal Communications Commission has confirmed a $10,000 fine in the case of a
radio pirate in New York. The Enforcement Bureau said Dexter Blake didn’t
respond to a notice of apparent liability it issued in March of last year for
an unlicensed transmitter on 101.5 MHz in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., northeast of
Manhattan.
In
the summer of 2008, agents out of the New York Enforcement Bureau office traced
transmissions to the Linkage Caribbean Restaurant and spotted an FM antenna on
the roof. Taken up by the building super, they saw coaxial cable going through
a duct to the first floor where Linkage Caribbean Restaurant operated.
The
agents said they talked to restaurant workers, who called Blake; one of the
agents spoke to Blake, who admitted to operating the station, according to the
commission. The commission staff also reported it had done an Internet search
and found a website called “Linkage Radio,” which identified Dexter Blake, “DJ
Linkage,” as the owner of the station and restaurant.
The FCC remained on his trail and in May 2010 transmissions on 101.5mhz was traced to 238 3Rd Street, Mount Vernon. The building owner, NWO Properties Corporation received a NUO a Notice of Unlicensed Operation’.
Dexter Blake championed Caribbean artistes in New York giving them an outlet on the air and even created an annual awards ceremony to celebrate the music. In May 2016 in a report published by the New York State Broadcasters Association, ‘Field Measurements of Unauthorized FM Band Radio Signals In New York, NY Metropolitan Area’, they identified 2874 Grand Concourse Bronx, NY as the location of pirate transmissions on 104.5 which was a second frequency now being used by Linkage Radio. They described the signals as a ‘very strong pirate signal’.
The Notice of Forfeiture did not put him off the air and his next brush with the law was in 2017 when the landlord of the restaurant he was now located in received a NUO, the owner of the 53 Sea Lounge, Bar and Restaurant, George Brown received the notice to his business at 53 Mount Vernon Avenue. The station was now broadcasting on 104.5mhz FM. The station was described in an article in The Radio World as not only the HQ for Linkage Radio but also as ‘a cosy spot to play checkers and chow down on curry shrimp’
His most recent brush with the FCC was when transmissions on 104.5 were traced to Michelle Hepburn building at 159 South 13th Avenue, Mount Vernon. As the landlord, Ms. Hepburn received the notification and was threatened with fines in excess of $2million if the broadcasts continued from her building.
The station continues today playing their cat and mouse game with the FCC. A check on MapQuest shows the location of the station at 5 Fulton Avenue, Mount Vernon. We hope that Dexter and Linkage Radio has many more years of out running the law and entertaining his loyal listeners. His station can be found on Tune-In
No comments:
Post a Comment