Someone Keeps Hacking Radio Stations To Play "Fuck Donald Trump"

Small stations in multiple states have unexpectedly found themselves playing the YG song since Trump's inauguration.

A community radio station in South Carolina that normally plays oldies and beach music on Monday said it had been hacked to play an anti-Trump song.

In a message to fans of Sunny 107.9, President Frank Patterson of the Lake Keowee Broadcasting Group wrote that the station had been hacked.

"This is NOT our broadcast!" he wrote on Monday. "We at WFBS do not take political views! The FCC and WFBS are working to fix this situation ASAP."

The station, which covers 10 miles of Salem, South Carolina, was the latest noncommercial radio station to unintentionally broadcast YG's "FDT (Fuck Donald Trump)."

View this video on YouTube

youtube.com

Monday's apparent hack followed similar "FDT" broadcasts on small stations in other states.

On Jan. 20, the day of Trump's inauguration, a low-power station in San Angelo, Texas, that normally airs R&B oldies played the song. Other stations hacked that day included El Jefe 96.7, a Spanish-language station in Murfreesboro, Tennessee; Mother of the Redeemer Radio 103.5 in Evansville, Indiana; and Crescent Hill Radio, a nonprofit station that plays local music in Louisville, Kentucky.

"OK, not funny. some one has hacked into out transmitter tower, and the FM was playing a mp3 clip repeatedly of %$^# Donald Trump," Crescent Hill Radio posted on Facebook on Jan. 20, according to the Courier-Journal.

Radio Insight reported the hack was done through a Barix Exstreamer, an audio over IP device that isn't by default secured. A similar hack last year took over radio stations with an explicit furry podcast.

Barix's founder Johannes Rietschel told BuzzFeed News that the company's products are among the most commonly used by small radio stations because of their simplicity. But, he added, they're not meant to be linked to the internet without a firewall — something he compared to leaving a door unlocked. Unsecured devices are easily identifiable via a shodan search engine, and all internet broadcasters — those using Barix devices as well as competitors — should take prevention steps, he said.

"It’s like with your home router, your car, your house," he said. "With significant interest to take over the devices for political messages or even blackmailing, there will be more takeovers and maybe even 'hacks.'"

Meanwhile, other radio stations have been playing the song intentionally. A pirate radio station in Seattle has been looping the song for a week, Q13 Fox reported. Other stations are playing a radio edit of the song as part of their regular broadcast rotation.

Skip to footer