Hope Fm was NOT hacked, says Communications Authority

Christian radio station, Hope FM, was not hacked, the Communications Authority has said. Instead, the station’s technical staff inadvertently switched it off for three hours, causing adjacent Islamic sation IQRA FM’s content transmitters to filter through Hope FM.

The radio station, run by Nairobi Pentecostal Church, went off air shortly after 11pm on Tuesday. CA explained that on Tuesday at around 11.30pm, Hope FM technical staff switched off their Studio Transmitter Link (STL) to Limuru to carry out maintenance. However, the staff forgot to switch off the receiver at Limuru.

“This resulted in the STL receiver at Limuru picking up broadcasts from adjacent transmitters and feeding them to the Hope FM transmitter. This was the source of the interference experienced by Hope FM listeners last night. Some of the adjacent transmitters include those of IQRA FM, whose broadcasts filtered in to the Hope FM transmitters,” CA said in a statement.

Listeners said they were able to tune in to the radio station yesterday morning. Questions had started emerging on whether hackers had infiltrated the radio station during the off-air moment. There was uproar on social media, with many calling for investigations into the incident. But officials from the Communication Authority of Kenya (CA) explained the incident was caused by a technical hitch.

Earlier the station had said: “The Hope FM management is taking up the matter with the regulator, that is the Communication Authority of Kenya, to correct the anomaly.” It continued: “We also wish to assure our stakeholders, clients and esteemed listeners who flooded the social media platforms with messages of concern that the management is following up on the matter to get to the bottom of it.”

The authority warned Kenyans against making unsubstantiated allegations over what happened. Recently, a hacker infiltrated the website of The Star newspaper.