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Another crackdown on Boston-area pirate radio stations

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Re: Another crackdown on Boston-area pirate radio stations

#31

Post by tapoxi »

happytiger wrote: post #19

We need more punks running pirate radio and less Clearchannel corporate nonsense. Like anybody’s life is better because of corporate radio… I for one welcome the interference. What is Radio being used for that’s so critical these days anyways beyond emergency spectrum stuff (that doesn’t get messed with on these spectrums to begin with)? Just remember that the system generally wants to shut down any media it can’t co…

I'm a little biased here, since my family runs a small Boston-area AM radio station, but... no? It's not a huge business, but it is a full-time job for a few people and carries advertisements for local businesses. There are other local stations keeping the spirit alive as well (WJIB, rip Bob Bittner).

Sure, you'll anger the bigger stations, but you'll also hurt all the smaller stations that play by the rules and do something interesting, and interfering with that will only hasten their inevitable death to newer (and cheaper) technologies. There are plenty of other, open broadcast mechanisms to use out there.

Re: Another crackdown on Boston-area pirate radio stations

#32

Post by ilamont »

don-code wrote: post #5

The Boston radio dial feels like it's been bled dry of culture in the last decade. To name a few of the old stations, WFNX and WBCN had a marked impact on the city's music scene, beginning in the 60s and sadly coming to an end around 2010. They carried local artists, broke some big names (WFNX introduced Nirvana to mainstream media, for instance), and often sponsored local music events. The radio dial now is now most…

WMBR at MIT is still awesome. Some of the DJs have been there since the 80s. I listen in the car and sometimes the 2 week archive if I miss a show:

https://wmbr.org/cgi-bin/arch

The other thing that makes up for the dearth of quality commercial radio in Boston is the ability to stream stations from all over the world. I stream to WMHT classical from Albany and the BBC Radio new music channels even though I don't live in the broadcast areas.

Re: Another crackdown on Boston-area pirate radio stations

#33

Post by ooterness »

cf100clunk wrote: post #14
kyledrake wrote: post #3

I wrote a book on low power AM broadcasting. It's pretty rare that pirate stations cause meaningful interference, they operate at very low wattages (sometimes 100 watts or less) and usually have low pass filters installed in-line that prevent harmonics interference, whereas commercial stations operate at 100,000 watts and are far more likely to cause interference issues even when designed correctly. It's more likely…

> I wrote a book on low power AM broadcasting. Sound great. I hope you'll post a link. > they operate at very low wattages (sometimes 100 watts or less) Since the original article is about a station on the shoulder of the TV VHF-Low and FM bands here's my take on it. Even a very low power transmitter rated 100 watt ERP. Frankly the pirate's rig might even achieve ERP levels in the 6-8 kw range if they get lucky, enou…

Sorry, but no. EIRP is actual power plus antenna gain; ERP is the same thing minus 3 dB.

By definition, an omni antenna has low gain. Narrow directional antennas will have high gain, resulting in higher EIRP, but would not be suitable for covering a whole city.

Re: Another crackdown on Boston-area pirate radio stations

#34

Post by sleepybrett »

hutzlibu wrote: post #30
stracer wrote: post #28

Fascinating how terms such as "pirate station" get into common language and nobody is getting a pause. Pirates are people who ransack other ships on the sea. The term has originally nothing to do with not having a license. Is a ship crew who sails the seas without a license a group of pirates? No. Is this a language psyop to implant people with a negative view of people who do stuff without official license?

"No. Is this a language psyop to implant people with a negative view of people who do stuff without official license?" If it is, it was quite succesfull, as at least some of them are using the term themself, also in the warez scene (pirate bay). Romanticizing pirates is not a new thing (while ignoring the bloody murder part).

see also 'jay walking'

Re: Another crackdown on Boston-area pirate radio stations

#35

Post by JKCalhoun »

sonicanatidae wrote: post #18
don-code wrote: post #5

The Boston radio dial feels like it's been bled dry of culture in the last decade. To name a few of the old stations, WFNX and WBCN had a marked impact on the city's music scene, beginning in the 60s and sadly coming to an end around 2010. They carried local artists, broke some big names (WFNX introduced Nirvana to mainstream media, for instance), and often sponsored local music events. The radio dial now is now most…

College stations are usually the hold outs for non-mainstreamed music, in my experience. I was also a college DJ, so +1 for college radio, even if your tower can't reach past the parking lot. ;)

Agree.

It's almost like there should be a station in every metropolitan area that is reserved for public access — divide the week up into 30-minute spots and let the public sign up for those slots to DJ.

Re: Another crackdown on Boston-area pirate radio stations

#36

Post by dtx1 »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #22
dtx1 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it's of course easier to do it on the web, the innate locality of pirate stations has a certain appeal. And of course the cat and mouse game and the "illegality" of it makes them feel more special then just a random webstream

There is also the question of discoverability, especially unsought discovery. Nobody casually scrolls through urls and and finds a radio station.

I suspect people don't do that with radios anymore either but it spreads through word of mouth

Re: Another crackdown on Boston-area pirate radio stations

#37

Post by sonicanatidae »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #35
sonicanatidae wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

College stations are usually the hold outs for non-mainstreamed music, in my experience. I was also a college DJ, so +1 for college radio, even if your tower can't reach past the parking lot. ;)

Agree. It's almost like there should be a station in every metropolitan area that is reserved for public access — divide the week up into 30-minute spots and let the public sign up for those slots to DJ.

AM radio is kinda like that now.

Air time on AM is cheap, like super cheap, so often people rent their own airtime and do shows. Nothing amazing, but it does happen quite often.

Re: Another crackdown on Boston-area pirate radio stations

#38

Post by soupfordummies »

Seems like a good topic to ask about this:

As you may remember, around 2009 or so, the US mandated that all TV signals had to be sent digital. And of course if you set up an antenna, you can receive crystal-clear HD broadcasts of local TV stations over the air.

However, I used to live near a lot of towers and I was actually able to pick up a stray ANALOG station. It was a Spanish-language station but it came through. I didn't even know my HDTV was capable of picking up an old analog station but there it was.

Am I confused about the law about digital transmission or was maybe this just some old station that they never bothered to update to digital?

Re: Another crackdown on Boston-area pirate radio stations

#39

Post by s1artibartfast »

dtx1 wrote: post #36
s1artibartfast wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also the question of discoverability, especially unsought discovery. Nobody casually scrolls through urls and and finds a radio station.

I suspect people don't do that with radios anymore either but it spreads through word of mouth

Interesting, why do you think that? My assumption is that it would basically be the same as always.

Re: Another crackdown on Boston-area pirate radio stations

#40

Post by JKCalhoun »

kyledrake wrote: post #3

I wrote a book on low power AM broadcasting. It's pretty rare that pirate stations cause meaningful interference, they operate at very low wattages (sometimes 100 watts or less) and usually have low pass filters installed in-line that prevent harmonics interference, whereas commercial stations operate at 100,000 watts and are far more likely to cause interference issues even when designed correctly. It's more likely…

I miss the serendipity of radio when driving though.

Thinking of some tech where low-power transmitters around the city could packet-dump compressed audio to some kind of car receiver that would then play, at a specified time/schedule, audio content (podcasts, music, etc.).

The car receiver could indicate which channel/content you prefer and then passing a transmitter would dump you the day's-worth of compressed content for that day's schedule.

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