Monday, August 30, 2004
Fwd: Fidel and the FCC
(Forwarded to me by my wife)
Yahoo! News - Radio Hosts to Pay Price for Fooling Fidel
By Jane Sutton MIAMI (Reuters) -
Two Miami radio hosts who duped Cuban President Fidel Castro with a prank call are soliciting pennies from their fans to pay a $4,000 fine proposed by U.S. regulators
because of the on-air stunt.
Talk radio host Enrique Santos said the fine made no sense, so he and co-host Joe Ferrero will pay it with 400,000 cents, delivered in person to the Federal Communications Commission in Washington.
"We prank-called a head of state in a country that is considered hostile to the United States. He's a violator of human rights and they're fining us $4,000," Santos said on Tuesday. "We just find it absurd."
Santos and Ferrero host "El Vacilon de la Manana," or "The Morning Joker," show on Spanish-language radio station WXDJ-FM in Miami. On June 17 they phoned Cuba's foreign relations ministry and pretended to be aides to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an admirer of Castro. They said Chavez needed to speak urgently to Castro because he had lost a suitcase full of sensitive documents during a recent trip
both leaders made to Argentina. The call was transferred through several government officials and when Castro came on the line, the pranksters used recorded snippets from a Chavez speech to make it seem the Venezuelan leader was calling -- phrases like "Fidel," and "How are you?" After getting Castro to agree to hunt for the suitcase, they called him a killer and told him he was on a Miami radio show. Castro replied with a string of curses and hung up. The call was broadcast five times over two days, to the delight of Miami's Castro-loathing Cuban exiles. But the FCC ruled last week that the station violated a regulation requiring that participants in phone conversations be told in advance if the call is being broadcast.
"It was in fact the intention and result of WXDJ's actions to fool and surprise the recipients of the call," the FCC said.
The commission proposed a $4,000 fine against WXDJ and gave it 30 days to pay it or contest it. Santos said station managers had not decided which to do, but that he and Ferrero would hold an on-air penny drive outside a furniture store on Thursday to raise money for the fine.
"The listeners are just outraged," he said. "We're asking people to just go through their drawers and cars for any old pennies and drop them off." The FCC said it acted because it received an informal complaint about the call, but did not say who complained.
Copyright 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Yahoo! News - Radio Hosts to Pay Price for Fooling Fidel
By Jane Sutton MIAMI (Reuters) -
Two Miami radio hosts who duped Cuban President Fidel Castro with a prank call are soliciting pennies from their fans to pay a $4,000 fine proposed by U.S. regulators
because of the on-air stunt.
Talk radio host Enrique Santos said the fine made no sense, so he and co-host Joe Ferrero will pay it with 400,000 cents, delivered in person to the Federal Communications Commission in Washington.
"We prank-called a head of state in a country that is considered hostile to the United States. He's a violator of human rights and they're fining us $4,000," Santos said on Tuesday. "We just find it absurd."
Santos and Ferrero host "El Vacilon de la Manana," or "The Morning Joker," show on Spanish-language radio station WXDJ-FM in Miami. On June 17 they phoned Cuba's foreign relations ministry and pretended to be aides to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, an admirer of Castro. They said Chavez needed to speak urgently to Castro because he had lost a suitcase full of sensitive documents during a recent trip
both leaders made to Argentina. The call was transferred through several government officials and when Castro came on the line, the pranksters used recorded snippets from a Chavez speech to make it seem the Venezuelan leader was calling -- phrases like "Fidel," and "How are you?" After getting Castro to agree to hunt for the suitcase, they called him a killer and told him he was on a Miami radio show. Castro replied with a string of curses and hung up. The call was broadcast five times over two days, to the delight of Miami's Castro-loathing Cuban exiles. But the FCC ruled last week that the station violated a regulation requiring that participants in phone conversations be told in advance if the call is being broadcast.
"It was in fact the intention and result of WXDJ's actions to fool and surprise the recipients of the call," the FCC said.
The commission proposed a $4,000 fine against WXDJ and gave it 30 days to pay it or contest it. Santos said station managers had not decided which to do, but that he and Ferrero would hold an on-air penny drive outside a furniture store on Thursday to raise money for the fine.
"The listeners are just outraged," he said. "We're asking people to just go through their drawers and cars for any old pennies and drop them off." The FCC said it acted because it received an informal complaint about the call, but did not say who complained.
Copyright 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
