The Oppenheimer Report 8/19/19

Around 10:45 p.m. on Shauna’s birthday last week we got a text message from one of our friends and fellow volunteers at the radio station, informing us that he was unable to tune in to the FM signal for Hunters Bay Radio and it appeared to be off the air. He asked if in our location we were experiencing dead air, and indeed we were. When we called Managing Director Jeff Carter to inform him, he quickly logged in and determined that there was no transmission from the radio tower. Early the next morning, Jeff and Grant Nickalls drove up to the tower to discover that someone had broken into the building that houses our broadcasting equipment, and that there was evidence of a fire. After further investigation, Jeff learned that the fire had occurred roughly one week earlier, but the station had never been informed. It was the thick black smoke and soot from said fire that had eventually damaged our equipment. There was evidence that an accelerant had been used, and clearly that would indicate that this was not an accidental fire. 

The following day, on the Hunters Bay Radio Facebook page, Jeff posted a notice along with photographic evidence of the damage. He learned that the police had inspected the scene of the crime, shortly after it had initially been reported by the person who had discovered it. Oddly, the police had come to the conclusion that this crime was a simple break and enter, and not arson. The tower is in the middle of nowhere, almost a kilometer past a locked gate which had not been opened. In other words, someone had to have driven to that remote location, parked a vehicle, walked with a container of accelerant, probably with a crowbar as well, pried open a heavy-duty steel door to the transmission building, and set a fire which in turn damaged thousands, maybe tens of thousands of dollars in broadcasting equipment. My understanding is that this is, by definition, arson, and a Federal offense. Our station, along with the owners of the building, have offered a $1000 reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone involved in this crime. It seems suspicious to me that someone would travel such a great distance into the middle of nowhere to break into a relatively well-secured building, carrying a flammable substance, simply to perform a random act of vandalism. I was at the building with Jeff on Saturday and personally witnessed the destruction. The stench from burned electrical equipment was almost unbearable. It is puzzling and frustrating that no one thought to contact our radio station to inform us about the crime, so that we could have inspected our equipment earlier. Perhaps if we had been afforded a little lead time the resultant damage could have been lessoned.

Of course, there are those who think this might have been an attack on our station, but I really have no idea who would do something this despicable. There are other businesses who operate equipment in that tower building; perhaps it was someone with a grudge against one of them. Regardless of the motive, a Federal crime was committed in our community, and we urge local law enforcement officials to find the people responsible. These officials publicly criticized our station for representing this fire as an act of arson when, by definition, it was. Not only did this cowardly crime destroy thousands, maybe tens of thousands of dollars in valuable equipment, but someone out there in our community probably knows who did it. We didn’t even realize there had been a crime committed until our equipment failed, a week later. Whether our station was the target or not, the end result is that our community radio station, which has pumped over $100,000 back into local businesses and charities, and provides countless other services to the local community, is for the time being, compromised. We are now forced to use our limited funds to get back up and running at full steam. You may have noticed that the FM signal is weaker than it was previously. Hopefully, that will be rectified soon. Shame on whoever is responsible. You did a very bad thing to many good people.  

Written by Jamie Oppenheimer ©2019
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
jamieoppenheimersongwriter@gmail.com

Jamie Oppenheimer, Songwriter, Author, Blogger, Radio Producer, & Host has been writing THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT every MONDAY since 1992 and has published the articles on his blog since 2006. We are including Jamie's weekly reports, as a new feature of #HuntersBayRadio, The Bay 88.7FM.
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