Satellite Feed Drops Stormfront and David Duke Radio
This past Thursday, both “Stormfront Radio” and neo-Nazi David Duke’s radio program were dropped by their satellite provider.
On his radio broadcast yesterday, former Klan leader Don Black, the host of “Stormfront Radio,” confirmed that his satellite access had been cancelled and blamed that cancellation on “Jewish supremacists.”
The cancellation comes in the wake of a major Southern Poverty Law Center exposé of “Stormfront Radio,” which documented the program’s extensive anti-Semitism and racism. The SPLC’s report also revealed that the show was being streamed into Europe via a French-owned satellite, Hot Bird 13A. That satellite is owned by Eutelsat, a Paris-based corporation.
The SPLC contacted Eutelsat to ask them whether their broadcast of hate radio into Europe might not violate various European countries’ hate speech laws. The company told SPLC that it was investigating and, soon after, the satellite contract was apparently dropped.
The American company that worked as the middleman (or reseller) with Eutelsat to put Don Black’s material onto the Hot Bird is Global Star Radio Network (GSR), based in Orrtanna, Pa., and owned by Todd Waite. As of today, GSR’s website is no longer showing Stormfront Radio or David Duke’s show as part of its programming, though both shows were listed yesterday. In addition, Hot Bird 13A is no longer advertised as one of GSR’s satellites. When called, Todd Waite refused to comment on the record about what exactly had happened.
Though Waite has apparently let Black and Duke go, he has not dropped Jeff Rense’s program. Both Black and Duke’s shows are part of the Rense Radio Network and their archives are stored there as of today (formerly they were on GSR). Rense has frequently interviewed anti-Semites on his program including both Black and Duke and Holocaust deniers Ernst Zundel and Texe Marrs. On air yesterday, Black said he had the “complete support of Jeff Rense.”
GSR continues to run radical right programming, but apparently no longer in Europe because it lost the Hot Bird and now only has Galaxy 19, which is owned by Intelsat, a company based in Luxembourg. Besides Rense, other GSR programming includes Scriptures for America, the racist ministry of now deceased Christian Identity preacher Pete Peters, and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ program. Luxembourg has laws against Holocaust denial, but is unclear if they apply to materials broadcast on Galaxy 19 into North America.
