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Grex > Music2 > #101: The Demise of Classical Music Radio, and Other Radio Complaints |  |
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| Author |
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| 25 new of 107 responses total. |
carson
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response 61 of 107:
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Dec 23 23:59 UTC 1997 |
(it looked pretty neat in _Pump Up The Volume_, too.)
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raven
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response 62 of 107:
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Dec 24 00:03 UTC 1997 |
Well a) Just because something is illegal doesn't mean you shouldn't do it,
look at the civil rights movement of the 60s laws were broken for the greater
good. There are dozens of pirate radio station operating right now that the
FCC is doing didley about. b) That may all be changing a Federal judge in
I beleive Miami ruled recently that the severity of FCC was an unconstitutional
restriction of 1st amendement rights to free speech. <Now back to your
item on the demise of classical programming on the radio>
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orinoco
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response 63 of 107:
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Dec 24 03:44 UTC 1997 |
'pirate radio' meaning what, exactly?
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aruba
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response 64 of 107:
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Dec 24 06:23 UTC 1997 |
Radio stations which operate without a license from the FCC, I believe.
It seems to me there are some good reasons why the FCC sells licenses; it
keeps two stations from broadcasting on the same frequency and running over
each other. If the FCC didn't step in, the strong stations would bully the
weak staions off the air, right? I guess you could argue that the license
system amounts to the same thing - the rich stations can afford to be on the
air and the weak ones can't.
The license system is like Roberts Rules of Order for radio. :)
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orinoco
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response 65 of 107:
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Dec 24 18:12 UTC 1997 |
Is it just me, or would that be impossible to do surreptitiously?
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lumen
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response 66 of 107:
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Dec 26 02:00 UTC 1997 |
I need a dictionary..surreptitiously?
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orinoco
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response 67 of 107:
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Dec 26 03:36 UTC 1997 |
Without being noticed.
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rcurl
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response 68 of 107:
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Dec 26 04:52 UTC 1997 |
It is noticed alright - but pirate stations generally operate from
off-shore, outside the territorial limits of the USA.
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raven
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response 69 of 107:
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Dec 26 06:08 UTC 1997 |
re # 68 Big irate stations oerate offshore but there many (dozens
of irate stations that oerate in US cities such as Chicago, Miami and
Berkely just to name ones I know of. <one of my keys isnt working, guess which
one>
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omni
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response 70 of 107:
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Dec 26 20:12 UTC 1997 |
Being that I do have a FCC license in my pocket, I'm not going to do anything
to upset the applecart. I like having what I worked my ass off for, and I want
to keep it that way.
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lumen
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response 71 of 107:
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Dec 27 03:29 UTC 1997 |
*shrug* How hard it is to fight against consumerism.
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orinoco
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response 72 of 107:
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Dec 27 03:50 UTC 1997 |
raven - how do those Chicago, Berkely, Miami, etc. stations keep from getting
busted then?
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raven
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response 73 of 107:
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Dec 27 03:59 UTC 1997 |
re #72 They have guts and just keep broadcasting despite FCC harresment.
Stephen Dunifer in Berkley is legendary in free speech circles. Do a search on
the web if you want more info.
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goose
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response 74 of 107:
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Dec 29 17:28 UTC 1997 |
RE#60-61 -- The "sniffer vans" aren't even vans. They are generally
Ford Tarus Wagons, that are so well disguised that even the trained eye
would have diffuculty noticing one. The FCC scares you into thinking they
are big brother. They are part of the problam with broadcasting today.
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bruin
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response 75 of 107:
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Dec 29 18:44 UTC 1997 |
You're lucky you don't live in the United Kingdom. They require radio and
television _owners_ to be licensed (to support the BBC).
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scott
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response 76 of 107:
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Dec 29 19:28 UTC 1997 |
The other kind of pirate station is "micropower", under 5 watts or so. Now
one watt is actually pretty powerful, but if the signal only gets around your
neighborhood, and nobody complains, your chances of getting found are pretty
low. The FCC can't just cruise those vans/cars around in hopes of catchiing
Neighbor Johnny broadcasting at .5 watts... not enough money.
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orinoco
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response 77 of 107:
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Dec 29 23:26 UTC 1997 |
(Correct me if I'm delusional, but I remember hearing that Commie High was
operating a micropower station briefly. Is this just Tom Dodd's overactive
imagination, or did this really happen?)
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rcurl
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response 78 of 107:
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Dec 30 06:28 UTC 1997 |
Low power transmitters in the FM broadcast band are quite legal and
sold openly. I have a small one for broadcasting tape and CD players
to an FM radio - at home or in my car. The power is milliwatts, but I
don't know what the power limit is.
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carson
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response 79 of 107:
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Dec 30 19:58 UTC 1997 |
re #77: (very briefly. rusty memory says it was during the Stone School
years. I could pribly dig out an old _Communicator_ for more
information.)
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raven
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response 80 of 107:
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Dec 30 21:36 UTC 1997 |
Should we start a pirate radio item in the cyberpunk or hardware conferences
and take our (interesting) drift elsewhere?
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orinoco
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response 81 of 107:
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Dec 31 02:54 UTC 1997 |
I'm actually finding the drift a lot more interesting - and educational - than
the original ranting :)
(carson, I'm pretty sure it wasn't when they were at Stone School. Tom said
the water stains on his ceiling were from Commie students who damaged the roof
putting up the antenna)
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rcurl
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response 82 of 107:
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Dec 31 20:17 UTC 1997 |
Further to #78: I forgot to mention my TV signal retransmitter, also
legal, for distributing my cable signal to a secondary TV set. There are
also transmitting microphones for home use. FM is rather adaptable for
this local use because the signals do not interfer when there is a
significant difference in signal strength, unlike AM, where you can hear
even weak signals superimposed on strong signals.
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scg
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response 83 of 107:
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Jan 4 19:59 UTC 1998 |
I was one of the poeple involved in the CHS radio station. We started it at
Stone School. We took apart one of those Fisher Price "Mr. Microphone"
things, and soldered in inputs a mixing board, which we had a tape deck and
a microphone plugged into, and that was our transmitter. The range was most
of the school building, plus a little bit of the school's back yard. Since
the Mr. Microphone transmitter is sold in toy stores, I'm assuming it's
probably low enough power that it's legal, or at least that the FCC doesn't
care. Since our signal wasn't making it off school property, and we were
using a frequency that wasn't being used by anything else in the area, I can't
imagine anybody having complained about it. A station that could reach an
audience bigger than a school building would probably be a very different
story. There was an attempt after we moved back into the downtown building
to get the radio station restarted, with somewhat bigger goals. I think
somebody did look at putting an antenna on the roof, and also started going
through the paperwork to apply for an FCC license for a low powered high
school station, much like the Plymouth-Canton high schools have. It never
got very far before everybody pretty much lost interest.
As for FCC licensing, I'm glad to hear they enforce it. Without it there
would be a huge mess, since people broadcasting on top of eachother would make
radio unworkable. The reason radio works is because radio stations have
distinct frequencies, and somebody needs to keep track of allocating them.
Like it or not, the radio spectrum is quite limited. Even if it wasn't, there
would need to be somebody in charge of deciding who got what frequencies to
keep people from stepping on eachother. I don't think you'll find any
resource like that that doesn't use some system like that, whether it's radio
(FCC), TV (FCC), Internet IP addresses (IANA), phone numbers (Bellcore, last
I checked, but I think they're transferring the authority to somebody else),
or just about anything else like that you can think of. If the people
involved in using the limited space don't recognize the same assigning
authority, it just won't work.
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diznave
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response 84 of 107:
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Jan 6 21:29 UTC 1998 |
re #18 Dan, the next time you're driving through the Tampa, FL area, check
out 88.5, WMNF (the best radio station i've *ever* heard). They have _The
Polka Hour_, 3 times a week.
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krj
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response 85 of 107:
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Feb 27 21:10 UTC 1998 |
The USA Today for Friday 2/27 has a good article, generally favorable, about
pirate/low power broadcasting. The Berkeley case is being built on
the argument that a system which requires that every broadcaster
have a multi-million-dollar license is an effective abridgement of
free speech.
I also just linked in a big item on Digital Radio, now item #115
in the music conference.
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