2 days ago
City's 1st Hispanic radio station still off the air weeks after copper theft
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The owner of the city's first Hispanic radio station says he still doesn't know when they will be back on the air after copper thieves caused extensive damage to their transmission equipment last month.
Sergio Butron, the owner of Butron Media, discovered the theft on May 18 after Radio Ambient 1030 AM lost its signal.
Butron said the thieves broke through a chain-linked fence on Jackson Avenue to access the radio transmitter towers.
Copper thieves knock radio station off the air: MPD
He said they stripped the transmission facility of copper cables and copper components. The estimated damage was around $160,000.
'They also broke down doors to get into the dog houses of the station towers. Most of the things they broke have been repaired and reinforced,' said Butron. 'It's infuriating, it feels helpless, but above all, it's frustrating to see years of work reduced to nothing,'
Ambiente 1030 AM was the first Hispanic station in Memphis. Butron said they've been in the market for 30 years.
He said thanks to the cooperation from the community, the police were able to make arrests in the case.
Butron said a day after the burglary, someone contacted the station and told them they saw masked men walking through the neighborhood with copper cables.
'We passed this information to MPD, and on Tuesday the 20th, around 1 p.m., the same neighbors saw people burning cable. They called us, and we immediately contacted MPD, which led to the arrests,' Butron said.
MPD said Kyle Walton, 35, Terrence Goodman, 32, and Jonathan Yarbrough, 52, were taken into custody when they were caught burning the casing of the copper cables in front of a house in the 1700 block of National Street.
They were charged with burglary of a building, theft of property, and tampering with evidence.
Butron said since the break-in, they've beefed up security at the transmission site. He said they now have a camera system that is being shared with and monitored by MPD.
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