Plans are in

place to put a stop to rap radio signals bombarding the Swanson Road area

of Fayette County, said Fred Oliver, assistant Fayette schools superintendent

and a resident of the area.

After Wes Wilkins

of Gaelic Glenn subdivision warned the Board of Education Monday that

nearby schools are receiving the unwanted radio signals along with Gaelic

Glenn and Pendleton subdivisions, Oliver said he has been told the problem

is being worked on.

Representatives

of the school system met with radio station officials, he said, and were

told that guy wires on a 500-foot tower that holds the radio station's

antenna will have to be grounded.

"If we

can get together, we can eliminate this problem," Oliver said. He

added that plans are to approach the Fayette County government for permission

to extend the height of the tower to 515 feet. That might help get the

radio signals out of the neighborhood, experts say.

But 500 feet

is the maximum tower height allowed under Fayette law. Extending it will

require a special exception.

The county

Zoning Board of Appeals will consider the variance request at its March

25 meeting, 7 p.m. at the County Administrative Complex.

"It's

coming through on the telephone, television, stereo and computer speakers,"

Wilkins told The Citizen last month.

"It's

24 hours a day," he said, "and sometimes some pretty obscene

things come out of the mouths of those disc jockeys. That's where free

speech needs to end is when I can't turn it off."

When the problem

first started, Wilkins said, he thought it was a flaw in his telephone.

He called BellSouth, who sent a technician out. "When he saw the

tower, he said, 'That's your problem,'" said Wilkins.

Radio station

WHTA 107.9 responded to the community's concerns by sending technicians

out with filters, Wilkins said, but that solution was unsuccessful.

Neighbors have

asked for help from the Federal Communications Commission, but so far

the agency has taken a hands-off attitude, he said.

An FCC spokesman

told The Citizen that the agency won't get involved until the community

and the radio station have exhausted all possible solutions. "If

there is no solution and the station is doing nothing wrong, many times

these communities have to live with it," said a spokesman, who added

that the problem is "not uncommon."

Phone calls

from The Citizen to the radio station have not been returned.