By Charles Thomson, Basildon 14 August 2014
An OAP cancer survivor has been prosecuted for setting up a radio station to support fellow sufferers.
Brian Barfoot, 70, of Wickford, Essex, appeared at Basildon Magistrates Court last Friday, August 8, to admit broadcasting from a pirate radio station.
He insisted he had only created the station to offer advice and support for men with cancer, claiming there was a bias in the media towards women's charities. He said complicated registration processes had deterred him from seeking a radio licence.
He pleaded guilty to one charge of establishing or using a wireless telegraphy station without a licence and one charge of being in charge of a premises and knowingly failing to prevent its use for unlawful broadcasting.
He ran the station – named in court documents as Monster House Radio – from a unit in Russell Court, Wickford. He was ordered to pay £250 in fines, £500 in prosecution costs and a £20 victim surcharge.
Full story (and photo of defendant)
http://www.yellowad.co.uk/news.cfm?id=27259&headline=Pirate%20radio%20station%20scuppered%20as%20plug%20pulled
(via Mike Terry, BDXC-UK Yahoo group)
Good for Mr Barfoot. His station reminds me of Tony Page's important disability awareness station Radio Ability that ran in 1993 via Radio Atlantis on 6400 kHz. I hope that he returns to the air soon. I'm glad to see that, despite the draconian provisions of the Broadcasting Acts 1990 and 1996, the magistrates are only levying relatively small fines on pirate operators.
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