Country music makes waves on police radio

Reuters

DOLLY MIXTURE: A small radio operator's technical problems sent country music over the police radio in Christchurch.

Relevant offers

A small-time Christchurch radio station operator has unwittingly picked a fight with the police and the Economic Development Ministry and it could cost him $30,000.

John Downey's Radio Redwood is a Low Power FM [LPFM] station that broadcasts nostalgia and classical music over 107.5FM to a small radius of listeners.

The station operates on a free spectrum licence that bans broadcasting at higher than 0.5 watts of power.

But when Christchurch police began reporting country music blaring through their communications network, they found Mr Downey at the end of the radio waves.

Police ICT manager for the South Island John Coleman says the music disrupted every part of the network.

"Broadcast radio signals were very clearly heard for an hour at a time on police vehicle radios, police portable radios and by the police dispatcher in the Southern Communications Centre," Mr Coleman says.

The station was closed until the technical problems could be resolved, following an investigation by the ministry's radio spectrum monitoring staff and police engineers.

Radio Spectrum Management (RSM) group compliance manager Chris Brennan says he is considering prosecuting Mr Downey under the Radio Communications Act. That could lead to a fine of $30,000, although Mr Downey says his not-for-profit organisation "could not afford anything like that".

Mr Downey says the power issue was due to a technical fault which has been repaired – and he is back on air.

"The adjustment we had on the transmitter to keep it down to the legal level was faulty," he says. "Even when we got it down to the legal level it was still interfering with the police band so we had to do some serious repairs on it, and as far as I know our technician reckons everything's okay."

Mr Brennan says the LPFM spectrum licences are active on what would otherwise be a "guard band" to keep commercial stations from straying into the aeronautical or emergency services range. He says the RSM is also keen to ensure LPFM stations don't take advantage of their free licences by expanding their broadcast range and advertising power.

Mr Downey says he plays little advertising and derives no regular income from the station. But Mr Brennan says he wants to "deliver a message" to make sure LPFM broadcasters pay attention to their licence conditions. "We believe there is sufficient technical evidence here to support a prosecution," he says.

- © Fairfax NZ News