KWAW 100.3 DJ John Pangelinan on Thursday afternoon said their live radio broadcast was cut off, but their online streaming was still running.
KWAW 100.3 FM’s live broadcast was abruptly cut Thursday afternoon due to copper wire theft.
The cost of re-installing the radio station’s transmitter line is estimated to be between $8,000 and $10,000.
More than 600 feet of copper wire was stolen, and the panels, door locks and door of the transmitter building on Mount Tapochao also need to be replaced.
The Department of Public Safety had been notified about the incident and had sent police officers to the transmitter’s location.
John Pangelinan, KWAW’s DJ Sun, told reporters that “everything was really fine this morning [but] just as I came here for the afternoon broadcast, boom, we got cut! What in the world?”
He said his boss came in and told him to check the radio system to see if everything was okay.
“Our system was okay, but for radio broadcast all we heard was static,” Pangelinan said.
He said they later learned that their transmitter’s copper wire on Mt. Tapochao was stolen.
“There’s a lot of cases [like this] where a lot of copper wires are being stolen, for quick money, I just hope it does not happen anymore. Stealing is a sin, and I believe that. I just hope whoever did that could just learn that they don’t have to do it,” he said.
“I feel bad for our listeners, who have been asking us about our radio signal for the past couple of days…and I told them that our crew recently just fixed our signal, and I feel bad for the crew. They did the hard work, then just like that it’s gone — it’s just sad,” he added.
He said for now, “they have no live broadcasting,” but they will continue streaming on KWAW’s Facebook page.
