August 2018 – DIYmedia

This is unusual: the Federal Communications Commission has instigated a civil lawsuit in the Western District Court of Texas against Walter Olenick and M. Rae Nadler-Olenick, the proprietors of “Texas Liberty Radio,” which until late last year occupied 90.1 FM in Austin, Texas.
The facts are fairly clear: sometime in 2013, the FCC received a complaint about Texas Liberty Radio’s existence. That August, field agents from Houston traveled to Austin and found the station, measured its power, and confirmed it did not have a license. The recently-filed court documents contain some hand-written notes from field agents about the station, including the possible apartment it was broadcasting from, license plate numbers of cars in the parking lot, and notes on the station’s programming, which field agents noted included stuff from “Alex Jones” and “infowars.” Continue reading “FCC Sues Unlicensed Station to Collect Fine”

David Goren is a radio producer and journalist with an inherent love of radio sound. I originally found him through his blog, Shortwaveology, which documents interesting finds on the shortwave radio spectrum, whether it be curious programming from a variety of international origins or ephemera like clicks, buzzes, and interval tones. Goren spent time at Wave Farm last year for a residency in which he explored the sun’s effect on shortwave radio propagation.
Goren also lives in the Ditmas Park section of the Flatbush neighborhood in Brooklyn – which just so happens to be one of the hottest spots for unlicensed AM and FM broadcasting in the New York metropolitan area. A few years back he invited me to his house, where I drooled at the listening post he’d set up to scan the bands for pirate signals, including a plethora of antennae and receivers with computers set up to record stations. Continue reading “Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map Seeks to Expand Citywide”