http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liwbab0519,0,5192460.story?coll=ny-editorials-headlines By BART JONES Newsday Staff Writer May 19, 2006 WBAB radio executives asked the Federal Communications Commission Thursday to investigate who hijacked their radio signal and broadcast racial slurs, and offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. The station said it was immediately implementing steps to prevent another hijacking after it lost control of its broadcast Monday at 7:10 a.m. for a couple of minutes and the hacker transmitted a country and western-style song attacking blacks. "This was not a child's prank. This was a federal offense," station programmer John Olsen said at a news conference. "Clearly someone has a bone to pick with WBAB." The station at 102.3 FM on the radio dial was rocked by controversy last week after the hosts of the popular Roger and JP morning show, Roger Luce and John Parise, played a fake commercial that contained ethnic slurs targeting the Latino community. At the news conference Thursday, Luce and Parise urged anyone with information on the hacker to come forward. Parise suggested checking Long Island and New York City radio message boards. "The technical types tend to be the ones that chime in on those message boards," he said. John Shea, the station's general manager, said the hacker used an illegal transmitter and a small antenna to intercept the high frequency microwave signal the station sends between its studios in Babylon and its transmitting tower 6 miles away in Dix Hills. Luce said that when a Pink Floyd song was replaced suddenly by static Monday morning, he initially thought it might have been the weather playing havoc. Then, when the country and western-style song came on, he thought a Rhode Island station might have been overlapping with WBAB. When he heard the song's lyrics, he said he knew they'd been hijacked. He and Parise tried to turn off the transmitter, but couldn't because the hacker had taken over the signal, Shea said. The station regained control when the hacker cut out. "I've been in this business 26 years," Shea said, "and it's the first time I've seen it." _________________________________ Attend the Black Hat Briefings and Training, Las Vegas July 29 - August 3 2,500+ international security experts from 40 nations, 10 tracks, no vendor pitches. www.blackhat.com
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