Florida Radio station fined $4000 for crank calling Fidel Castro

The Las Vegas Sun ^

[Sorcerer3]

Fla. Station Fined $4,000 for Castro Prank MIAMI (AP) - A radio station that crank-called Cuban President Fidel Castro and broadcast the recording should be fined $4,000, the Federal Communications Commission said.

The Spanish-speaking hosts of "The Morning High Jinks" used snippets of an earlier prank involving Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to move the call from a receptionist up the chain to Castro in a five-minute broadcast June 17.

The hosts of the show on WXDJ-FM, Joe Ferrero and Enrique Santos, fed pleasantries to Castro before breaking in and calling him an assassin. The conversation ended after Castro denounced the callers with a stream of vulgarities.

[Sorcerer3]

ROTFL!!!!!

[yonif]

Anyone know where I can listen to that call?

[wagglebee]

They should get a reward not a fine.

[Southack]

"The conversation ended after Castro denounced the callers with a stream of [anti-gay, homophobic] vulgarities."

The news media is loathe to print what Castro said because they don't want their hero to be known as anti-gay.

[vbmoneyspender]

The conversation ended after Castro denounced the callers with a stream of vulgarities.

It sounds like the FCC should be fining Castro instead of these radio guys.

[Army Air Corps]

If anything, the Feds should have paid the DJs for annoying that murderous, blood-lusting ghoul.

[nuconvert]

"calling him an assassin."

Ought to give him a raise for that one.

[demlosers]

Hahahaaa...

Hey, I'd like to try. Anyone have Fidel's private number?

LOL!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Castro speaks English.

[Southack]

For those who know Spanish, you can listen to the whole prank with the social engineering and the climax (You must have Windows Media Player version 9):
http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/lamusica/fidel.wax>

[The Raven]

It would have been funnier if they used Monica instead of Hugo Chavez

[prion]

Excuse me? What exactly was the rule that they broke? No annoying foreign dictators?

[yonif]

bump

[BlazingArizona]

Time to cut the FCC's budget by about 80%. That would leave it with enough funding to act as a neutral recorder of ownership claims on the radio spectrum, but for nothing else.

[demkicker]

Why would the FCC be fining them? Did they not bleep out the curse words? I checked the station out on the net and their website is all in Spanish. Tried to find a link but since I'm not bilingual, I didn't have any luck.

[Army Air Corps]

The number is 1-800-A**-HOLE; at least, that is the main number. When the operator answers, just ask for the vicious vampire.

[demlosers]

Excuse me? What exactly was the rule that they broke? No annoying foreign dictators?

I think the FCC fine is for letting Castro's vulgar language hit the airwaves.

[I_saw_the_light]

I wonder if the radio station thinks the $4000 was worth it?
I think I would. Pretty funny.

[Southack]

WXDJ/Miami Morning Hosts Prank-Call Fidel Castro

Joe Ferrero and Enrique Santos, hosts of WXDJ's El Vacilón de la Mañana, gained international notoriety in January for successfully conducting a phony phone call between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and what were actually recorded, random sentences from Cuban President Fidel Castro taken from an earlier conference with Mexican President Vicente Fox.

This morning after their show, Ferrero and Santos called the Cuban presidential palace from a WXDJ production studio, and Ferrero posed as a Venezuelan military leader named "Lt. Camille." After 25 minutes, the duo reached Castro - who stayed on the line for several minutes chatting with what was actually Chavez's voice recorded from the duo's January stunt. "We can't believe it ourselves," Santos tells R&R. "We never thought we would be able to top when we prank-called Hugo Chavez."

After several minutes, Ferrero and Santos ran out of phrases from Chavez and explained to Castro that there were problems with the phone line. Then, Santos asked Castro, "Are you happy with the crap you've done in Cuba?" A stunned Castro was then told that he was on the air and that all of Miami was listening to him.

Clearly insulted after being repeatedly told that he'd been had, Castro called Santos a "faggot" and a "whore" and cursed at him by saying "shit on your mother" before abruptly hanging up. WXDJ will air the bit, which has already become the talk of Miami, at 5pm today. The station also plans to air the bit on an hourly basis tomorrow.

[dead]

I guess all those people who cheer the unelected clods at the FCC (who arbitrarily enforce rules that nobody knows exist) will applaude this silliness as well.

As for me, it's further proof of my argument that the FCC should deal with signal strength only, and leave content decisions to the market.