California: Free Radio Santa Cruz issued a news release about the recent visit by FCC field agents David Doon and David Hartshorn, accompanied by a couple of bad photos of the duo in action. This supplements the audio clip captured by Skidmark Bob. Freak Radio is now operating at 101.1 FM and according to the Davids only merited a visit for their long-running unlicensed status, not because of any complaints of interference or spurious emissions.
Montana: The same morning as Freak Radio’s visit, FCC agents with armed backup executed a raid against Burton James’ mobile home microstation in Butte. His operation had been on the air for three years there and James claims to have been an active microbroadcaster for more than a decade in multiple states. He shrugged off the raid, according to the Montana Standard: “‘It really doesn’t matter,’ he said. ‘The transmitter was eight years old. It’s on its way out. I was intending to get another one.'” Continue reading “Scene Reports: California, Montana, Michigan”
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Scene Reports: Washington, Texas, Vermont
Two reports from Free Radio Olympia confirm a male/female team of agents from the FCC’s Seattle office were first caught snooping on the property around 3:30 yesterday afternoon. Confronted by someone, the agents finally identified themselves and were repeatedly denied entry to inspect the station.
After more than 20 minutes of getting nowhere the agents retreated to their “mini-van/suv type” vehicle, where reportedly “the female fcc agent called into the studio with a cell phone.” Don’t know if the call was broadcast, or if anything was taped, but the FCC went away after that. Continue reading “Scene Reports: Washington, Texas, Vermont”
Liberation Radio Raid Update
A statement released by the station coupled with an excellent phone interview of Liberation Radio volunteer Karoline Hatch by Skidmark Bob clarifies things quite a bit.
Factual corrections: While the swarm of law enforcement involved in the raid numbered more than two dozen, only ~15 were federal officers. They were assisted by 10 San Francisco police officers (in contravention of the wishes of the city’s Board of Supervisors), although an IMC report cites Supervisor (and mayoral candidate) Tom Ammiano and SFPD chief Alex Fagan denying any city involvement. Continue reading “Liberation Radio Raid Update”
Irony on the Side of the Road
Mad props to Alan Freed of Beat Radio for sending this picture in. The billboard’s location – and whether this is a genuine or “jammed” message – are unknown.
Clear Channel’s Outdoor division is currently the fastest-growing in the conglomerate, recording more than $400 million in revenue during the first quarter of 2003.
Dutch Pirates to Protest Crackdown En Masse
Little warning of a big event taking place in the Netherlands this weekend in protest of the Dutch government’s recent mass auction of the radio spectrum and companion crackdown on the vibrant pirate scene. The news comes from Vrije Radio:
“The Dutch government’s recently implemented Zerobase Radio Frequency Policy is designed to control and regulate free use of the ether by commercial radio stations. On May 23 this year most available space on the Dutch airwaves was auctioned off to the highest bidder. It should come as no surprise to anyone that as a result of this auction it has become clear that for the next eight years only the biggest, most commercially and mainstream oriented stations will be able to exploit the remaining Dutch frequencies. The government’s claim to preserve diversity in the new airwave distribution has proven to be a fraud.”
“The Zerobase Policy acknowledges only two kinds of radio: public and commercial. Any radio formats that don’t fit within either of these categories have in effect become criminal organisations. Zerobase’s nasty little brother “Project Etherflits”, an initiative of the Department of Economic Affairs, has since March of this year been pro-actively identifying and tracking “illegal” broadcasters throughout the North and East of the country, confiscating studio equipment and imposing large fines. Many stations have already been forced off the air.” Continue reading “Dutch Pirates to Protest Crackdown En Masse”
Collage Files Restored, Expanded
The temporary hiatus of the media collage and Mbanna Kantako file archives turned into an unexpected server demise, but all affected files have now been restored. I took the opportunity to catch up on new additions to the Truthful Translations of Political Speech collage galleries: there are several new collages sprinkled throughout, both audio and video.
Not surprisingly, the majority of them have something to do with George W. Bush, who is now the subject of 30 translations. Choice bits from the latest batch include submissions from The Mentally Ill, Skidmark Bob, Muckrakor Media, and Warp Records. Continue reading “Collage Files Restored, Expanded”
Please Pardon the Hiatus
Completely unexpected life trauma has resulted in my emergency relocation. This occurred, ironically, just hours after I penned the ditty below.
As a result, I’ve been without internet access since then, although the phone company tells me my dial tone and DSL will be installed sometime next week (hopefully by mid-week at the earliest). Continue reading “Please Pardon the Hiatus”
Collage Gallery Expanded
More MP3s are online now. The Truthful Translations of Political Speech gallery has been expanded (New Nixon, Bush I and II stuff) and a new gallery has been added: Celebrity Speech.
Notables skewered in the new section include Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, among many others. I especially like Rush Limbaugh’s tribute to fascism and Paul Harvey’s ode to his bong.
There will be more galleries to come in the coming weeks as the media collage section gets more fleshed out. Spread the joy of open source music far and wide!
Site Stuff: Media Collage Section Inaugurated
This has been a long time in coming: our expansion into the exploration of media collage. Kicking things off is the first feature, Truthful Translations of Political Speech. Consider it a taste of things to come.
Open-source art is cool – look for lots more in the near future as the section gets fleshed out.
Summer Break?
May I be frank for a moment? HTML sucks. For building a huge-ass website, it sucks. Problem is, it’s the only code I know.
For now, the plan is to resurrect the site in HTML, which is obviously taking longer than expected. Then we can experiment. I know the design needs work, but the priority here is resurrection, not eye candy. Take your info straight for a while. Continue reading “Summer Break?”