] A radio station that crank-called Cuban President Fidel
] Castro and broadcast the recording should be fined
] $4,000, the Federal Communications Commission said.
]
] The Spanish-speaking hosts of "The Morning High Jinks"
] used snippets of an earlier prank involving Venezuelan
] President Hugo Chavez to move the call from a
] receptionist up the chain to Castro in a five-minute
] broadcast June 17.
]
] The hosts of the show on WXDJ-FM, Joe Ferrero and Enrique
] Santos, fed pleasantries to Castro before breaking in and
] calling him an assassin. The conversation ended after
] Castro denounced the callers with a stream of
] vulgarities.
]
] The FCC concluded Friday that the station should be fined
] for the broadcast. It rejected the station's claim that a
] rule requiring people to be notified before their voices
] are used does not apply to people in Cuba.
]
] Payment of the fine or a request for cancellation or
] reduction is required within 30 days.
]
] It was unclear whether the station had been fined for the
] prank involving Chavez five months before.
]
] There was no answer at the station's business line
] Saturday, and a call to the station's Washington attorney
] was not immediately returned.

The federal government has no sense of humor. -LB

$4,000 fine for station that cranked Castro