Radio station

[killpop99]

I've heard of people starting their own local radio stations. Has anyone ever tried this?

[jimmy_j]

Do you mean an illegal station?

[thousandshirts]

I remember back when I was in high school, some friends and I figured that if we were able to get three panel vans, put a transmitter in each van, synchronize the starting and stopping of transmissions, and move the vans about the region whilst maintaining a relatively triangular position in relation to each other, we had a chance to make a good run at not getting caught. Nothing ever materialized from this, but I can tell you that we did our homework, and that there is a LOT of information out there on pirate radio. I never got around to building those big transmitters I wanted to make, but I've got better things to do (IMHO) anyhow.

However, these days, you can just do podcasts, or make clips and host them on the internet. The local University radio station is strictly internet based; it's probable that a fair percentage of students there don't even own radios. There was a study/questionnaire done with these kind of questions asked, and the percentage, although I don't remember it, was surprising (a lot of dorm residents don't drive, hence no car radio, and use IPOD docks for alarm music, etc), and even if students did own radios, the indication was that they hardly ever used them. If you just want to share your stuff, the Internet is far and away the way to go, and what's more, the local government won't get all pissy about your activities.

In my time the CRTC and the law enforcement authorities were very serious about tracking down pirate radio stations, giving such situations priority over many other things that you'd think would be more serious.

(CRTC = Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission)

[fillmore nyc]

I've heard of people starting their own local radio stations. Has anyone ever tried this?

Funny you should mention this, cause its something I've always thought about. Even being in NY, the local radio stations here suck big time. IF you hear Hendrix, you're gonna hear Purple Haze, or Hey Joe. GOD FORBID they would play Red House, or Machine Gun. Its that way with every band you can name.
I'd love to run the programming for a station. How about the occasional blues artist, like Elmore James? Or some phenomenal local talent like Steve Adelson?? Maybe an Allman Brothers song like Instrumental Illness, instead of Ramblin' Man... again ( )? Maybe we could hear something by Thievery Corporation, instead of hearing the Stones do Start Me Up yet ANOTHER time????

I dunno... maybe advertisers dont want that done, but if it was public supported with donations, Ill bet there would be enough people on the bandwagon to get it going. There is a local station here (WBAI) that is totally listener supported for over 30 years, but they are only talk radio. Psychology programming, health, nutrition, etc. Its really a good station, but there's no music.
I think the same thing could be (and should be) done with music.