The morning show at WBAB/Long Island was reportedly "hijacked" on Wednesday when someone broke in on its broadcast, possibly by using an illegal transmitter, and began playing part of a Country-style song that included racial slurs. Now, the station is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the hacker. They have also asked the FCC to investigate. "This was not a child's prank. This was a federal offense," PD John Olsen said at a press conference Thursday, according to New York Newsday. "Clearly someone has a bone to pick with WBAB."

The show's hosts, John Parise and Roger Luce, along with the station's technicians, were unable to block the pirate transmission as it was happening. After the uninvited song ended, Parise and Luce stressed to listeners that their broadcast had been taken over and they had no part in playing the song. It is likely that the hacker used an illegal transmitter and a small antenna to intercept the high frequency microwave signal the station sends between its studios in Babylon and a transmitting tower about six miles away, GM John Shea told Newsday. 

"You have to be technologically pretty proficient in order to know how to do it," Olsen told the newspaper. "The equipment is probably readily available and if you know how to put the equipment together, then it's something that's possible."

A similar incident occurred about two weeks ago with WBAB's sister station, WBLI, with the same song. The stations both share a studio.