Wednesday, February 27, 2002
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Wednesday, February 27, 2002 |
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Higher tower may solve radio interference By DAVE
HAMRICK
Plans are in place to put a stop to rap radio signals bombarding the Swanson Road area of Fayette County, said Fred Oliver, assistant Fayette schools superintendent and a resident of the area. After Wes Wilkins of Gaelic Glenn subdivision warned the Board of Education Monday that nearby schools are receiving the unwanted radio signals along with Gaelic Glenn and Pendleton subdivisions, Oliver said he has been told the problem is being worked on. Representatives of the school system met with radio station officials, he said, and were told that guy wires on a 500-foot tower that holds the radio station's antenna will have to be grounded. "If we can get together, we can eliminate this problem," Oliver said. He added that plans are to approach the Fayette County government for permission to extend the height of the tower to 515 feet. That might help get the radio signals out of the neighborhood, experts say. But 500 feet is the maximum tower height allowed under Fayette law. Extending it will require a special exception. The county Zoning Board of Appeals will consider the variance request at its March 25 meeting, 7 p.m. at the County Administrative Complex. "It's coming through on the telephone, television, stereo and computer speakers," Wilkins told The Citizen last month. "It's 24 hours a day," he said, "and sometimes some pretty obscene things come out of the mouths of those disc jockeys. That's where free speech needs to end is when I can't turn it off." When the problem first started, Wilkins said, he thought it was a flaw in his telephone. He called BellSouth, who sent a technician out. "When he saw the tower, he said, 'That's your problem,'" said Wilkins. Radio station WHTA 107.9 responded to the community's concerns by sending technicians out with filters, Wilkins said, but that solution was unsuccessful. Neighbors have asked for help from the Federal Communications Commission, but so far the agency has taken a hands-off attitude, he said. An FCC spokesman told The Citizen that the agency won't get involved until the community and the radio station have exhausted all possible solutions. "If there is no solution and the station is doing nothing wrong, many times these communities have to live with it," said a spokesman, who added that the problem is "not uncommon." Phone calls from The Citizen to the radio station have not been returned.
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