Pirate Radio

["Bob Nelson...WMWM" <bobonradio@yahoo.com>]

(The following is a post I did for a couple
radio-based
Yahoo Clubs I belong to; figured you may enjoy it.)

Have bumped into some pirate stations in the past.
Just today I was in Haverhill, MA and heard
a pirate at 88.7 playing excerpts from "South 
Park" and "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" with some
police radio scanner calls in the background.
Unusual, though not sure how long I'd want to
hear that. (Of course some pirate stations are
so weak that when you're in the car it doesn't
take long for the signal to fade away.)

Some pirate stations like the late lamented Radio
Free Vermont (Rutland VT) were so good you wished they
could get FCC approval to go on for real!
(Instead, such stations get warnings from the
FCC to shut down or face big fines.) The Boston
area had "Radio Free Allston", an unusual,
locally-active station at 106.1; they have since
resurfaced legally at a couple AM frequencies
(http://www.abfreeradio.org)
So they're legal now. But you can only pick them
up for a few blocks.

At a time when radio is doing simulcasts and
satellite feeds, local radio is a cherished
commodity...The FCC seems to want to protect
the bigwig, boring stations at the expense of
locally based pirate stations. Sure, some pirates
aren't worth hearing...but some are! 
 

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