Posted on 09/30/2011 7:42:34 AM PDT by raccoonradio
BRIDGEWATER —
An Easton man faces charges that he threatened to “come in with a gun and shoot up the place” if the radio station at Bridgewater State University did not play a song he requested.
BSU’s radio station WBIM received multiple calls from a man requesting a song they didn’t have, said program director and junior Thomas Hanley.
When the man called back, he threatened to “come in with a gun and shoot up the place,” according to Eva Gaffney, a spokeswoman for the university.
When radio employees reported the call Monday night, BSU police sent officers to the Rondileau Campus Center, said Chief David Tillinghast.
Police closed the center at 10:30 p.m. and remained there throughout the night and Tuesday, said Tillinghast.
Tillinghast said police traced the calls to a cell phone and cross-checked the last name with alumni records, which led to a South Easton residence.
Bridgewater State University police arrested Alex H. Finnegan, 24, of 93 Village St., South Easton, Tuesday about 5 p.m.
Finnegan, a past DJ at WBIM (91.5 FM), graduated in May with a communications degree.
Tillinghast said police knocked on the door Tuesday, but no one answered, so they got a warrant to enter. Finnegan was found on the second floor, and police seized a cell phone, but did not find any weapons.
Finnegan was charged with making a threat with serious public harm, a felony, and making a threat to commit murder, a misdemeanor.
He was arraigned Thursday at Brockton District Court and held in lieu of bail at Plymouth County Jail. Neither Finnegan nor his attorney could be reached for comment on Thursday.
Finnegan released a written statement to police: “The threats I made were completely a joke with no intentions of ever being made a reality. I am truly sorry that I scared anybody and wasted the resources of BSU doing so.”
When arrested, police said, Finnegan wore an orange WBIM T-shirt, and had a WBIM bumper sticker on his car.
Radio station employees say they had never heard of the song Finnegan requested – it was by a band known as Rufio – and suggested he call back the following week.
According to Gaffney, the campus remained quiet after the incident was made known via email alert to students and staff.
“Everything was very stable here, no one seemed overly concerned,” she said.
But according to Tillinghast, police received multiple replies to the follow-up email they sent once they made the arrest.
Said Tillinghast, “There were some really heartfelt thank you’s we received from students.”
Read more: http://www.enterprisenews.com/archive/x609832497/Past-student-threatens-BSU-radio-station-with-gun-when-they-don-t-play-his-song#ixzz1ZRkrXHuZ
Once got a request at my college radio station MANY years ago from an inmate at Salem Jail asking for War Pigs by Black Sabbath. No threat. He wanted me to dedicate it to the Marblehead Police. I think we had it and I said I’d play it but sorry, would not do the dedication. “Pumped Up Kicks” in news this wk when someone posted a threat to a middle school on the song’s YouTube video—giving the time and place when a supposed Columbine-type event would happen (”better run run run, outrun my gun”)..
Play Misty for Me
BS University - must have a lot of alumni who are dims.
Such INCOMPLETE reporting!
Did they play the song or NOT?
um, that is why we have napster? choose your own songs?
They said they didn’t have the song. I suppose they could have gotten it online via YouTube or Grooveshark if they had to.
“Number one with a bullet”
They should find the song and play it in an endless loop in his cell for as long as he is in the pokey. lol
Also in Bridgewater...the other Bridgewater State. Albert
DeSalvo the Boston Strangler (supposedly?) was an inmate;
briefly escaped but caught and transferred to Walpole.
Wikipedia:
>>Bridgewater State Hospital, located in southeastern Massachusetts, is a state facility housing the criminally insane and those whose sanity is being evaluated for the criminal justice system. It was established in 1855 as an almshouse. It was then used as a workhouse for inmates with short sentences who worked the surrounding farmland. It was later rebuilt in the 1880s and again in 1974. Bridgewater State Hospital currently houses 386 inmates all of whom are adult males. The facility was the subject of the 1967 documentary Titicut Follies. Bridgewater State Hospital falls under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Department of Correction.
Bridgewater State U. has a football team? I went to Salem State U. (Salem State College at the time) and we never had one
That must be one helluva song
My alma mater.
I know one guy with a degree from Bridgewater State... He’s a “No Labels” guy. So, yeah, he’s basically a Dim.
My son and daughter both attend SSC (now U). Great school.
ah, heard of, never saw
Ah—I grad. in ‘84 but have stayed with coll. radio station (91.7 WMWM) from 1981 until now and still going strong!
New buildings up or going up: new library, perf arts ctr,
new dorms, bus. ctr etc.
Sorry, I was being snarky.....when I read “BSU”, I naturally thought of my beloved BOISE State University.
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