 |
 A worker disables a transmission tower that was used by a 14-year-old to operate a pirate radio station. Kenneth Jackson/Ottawa Sun |
OTTAWA - An Ottawa youth's pirate MIX FM 91.9 radio station went off the air ... again ... today after authorities searched his father's hotel to find the transmitter.
RCMP and Industry Canada officials returned this morning to the Saade International Hotel on Bank St. in Gloucester attempting to shut it down. The unlicensed station is operated by 14-year-old Jayhaed Saade and has been on and off the local airwaves for the last couple of months.
Jayhaed had hidden some of the equipment and would not tell police ... or even his father Georges Saade ... where it was located.
Georges Saade said the RCMP called pretending to rent a room, because the hotel door was locked at 9 a.m. He said the Mounties had to call in a locksmith to gain access.
Jayhaed was mad, yelling at the police and was crying at one point, he said.
George Saade said he was told no charges would be laid but the RCMP and Industry Canada wanted all the radio equipment. A technician also scaled a transmission tower outside the hotel to render it inoperable.
|
Jayhaed Saade has received two orders from Industry Canada to turn the station off. The first time, Dec. 3, he shut down the broadcasts for a day.
He went off the air again Dec. 14 only to go back on Dec. 24. The station has been broadcasting ever since.