Feature: Mosquito Fleet Stings NAB
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The fun began in earnest at high noon, just as radio industry conventioneers began arriving to check in downtown. In near-perfect synchronization, at least six microradio stations began playing a special 24-minute culture jam of KJR-FM. KJR is a commercial radio station in Seattle owned by Clear Channel Communications, America's largest radio conglomerate.

The culture jam program used actual liners, promos and songs from KJR itself, and was formatted in the same style as KJR. The DJ on the mic, however, was "Jack Diekobisc" - a member of the infamous media collage collective Negativland. Jack's main role was to hammer home the point - KJR claims to play "only the greatest hits of the 60s and 70s," but in reality nearly a quarter of its playlist is made up of songs from the 1980s. Jack brought this point up repeatedly as he played the very 80s songs found on KJR's own playlist.

Calling KJR and its program director, Bob Case, "a bunch of liars," Diekobisc explained how the station skews its playlist in order to attract a younger "money demographic." But he saved his best vitriol for Clear Channel and the NAB: "They see you as peons, peasants and dollar signs," ranted Jack, "and they'd think nothing of murdering your family execution-style to protect their bottom line if they had to."

We were able to hear six stations performing the simulcast at 94.5, 95.3, 96.9, 99.5, 101.1, and 102.1 FM. There may have been at least three more that joined in after the noon hour, and we do know that some stations continued the loop for as long as seven hours - making sure to hit the ever-popular afternoon "drive-time."

Some Fleet participants actually infiltrated the lobby of the NAB convention hall and stood around with pocket radios tuned to one of the stations, exposing radio professionals to the zinger themselves. Some were apparently fooled into believing that KJR itself was going through some sort of spasm, and were alarmed to hear the DJ go berserk.

If anything, according to one infiltrator, it "inserted an extremely surreal experience into their day." KJR must have also gotten the message: on September 17 it modified both the playlist and profile of Bob Case on its website.

That evening, several stations stayed on the air to conduct open-mic broadcasts, recap the day's events, and taunt the NAB over the air. At least one rogue signal aired a presentation from Negativland's Mark Hosler live from a local theater, and another coordinated with the Seattle IMC's web radio station, Studio X, in an experiment involving signal loops, time delay and audio collage. In total, as many as eight different frequencies were occupied throughout the day and night.

The FCC was nowhere to be seen. A sighting of one suspicious person closely inspecting the location of 102.1 was reported, but an actual encounter never materialized, and the man was not seen again.

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