[00:00.000 --> 00:00.840]  Thanks, everybody.
[00:01.500 --> 00:02.760]  Really glad you all came.
[00:04.460 --> 00:06.280]  That's what you're supposed to say with my radio.
[00:06.640 --> 00:07.660]  Are you hearing me?
[00:10.340 --> 00:10.780]  No?
[00:10.780 --> 00:12.060]  Give me a little more...
[00:12.060 --> 00:12.740]  There you go.
[00:13.760 --> 00:15.880]  And do we have...
[00:15.880 --> 00:18.100]  I don't have much in the way of presentations.
[00:18.320 --> 00:21.200]  This is really going to be a lot of audio.
[00:21.420 --> 00:23.640]  Some talking, too, so close your eyes.
[00:23.820 --> 00:25.680]  Put your ears on, good buddy, as they say.
[00:33.390 --> 00:34.420]  We're looking for video.
[00:34.780 --> 00:35.030]  Yeah.
[00:35.840 --> 00:36.560]  Laptop video.
[00:37.200 --> 00:37.920]  There we go.
[00:39.200 --> 00:40.560]  Okay, so...
[00:42.150 --> 00:43.580]  That's the logo I use.
[00:43.760 --> 00:46.460]  I have a Facebook page, the Flatbush Pirate Decoder.
[00:46.840 --> 00:50.680]  I left my cape at home, unfortunately, with the same thing.
[00:50.960 --> 00:58.360]  So, I'm going to start off by giving you a little immersion in what I hear from my listening posts in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
[00:59.300 --> 01:05.050]  And then we'll move on and talk about the specifics and the history of pirate radio in New York City.
[01:05.050 --> 01:06.110]  Bye.
[01:24.340 --> 01:25.740]  Bye.
[01:32.580 --> 01:34.600]  servicio a twist...
[01:36.660 --> 01:38.700]  toys in the Hits and more...
[01:40.300 --> 01:41.960]  locking down the street.
[01:46.760 --> 01:49.240]  triple nine HD in the mix.
[01:56.260 --> 01:57.700]  We jump, pull away, start smashing.
[01:57.840 --> 01:59.540]  She gives me water as they can't pass it.
[01:59.740 --> 02:00.600]  Aye, what am I saying?
[02:01.400 --> 02:03.000]  99.9.
[02:03.280 --> 02:05.020]  Where the woman has come from daddy?
[02:06.560 --> 02:08.920]  Where the woman has come from daddy?
[02:09.620 --> 02:09.780]  Yeah.
[02:10.240 --> 02:12.400]  Where the woman has come from daddy?
[02:12.500 --> 02:17.920]  Start listening to the radio more than listening to TV.
[02:18.060 --> 02:19.120]  Now, let's be real.
[02:19.800 --> 02:20.540]  TV, you see.
[02:21.180 --> 02:23.780]  Radio, your dry imagination.
[02:24.300 --> 02:24.820]  Conclusions.
[02:25.760 --> 02:27.320]  You draw your own picture.
[02:27.940 --> 02:30.120]  You hold it faster than...
[02:30.120 --> 02:31.280]  Well, you just lay back.
[02:31.400 --> 02:32.740]  Okay, the TV is going to show me.
[02:33.180 --> 02:40.440]  Whereas, if you really do it from the radio, there are so many things you can imagine.
[02:42.020 --> 02:43.980]  There are so many things you can put together.
[02:44.620 --> 02:47.940]  You listen to the voice of the people.
[02:50.560 --> 02:54.040]  You listen to the voice of the people.
[02:56.120 --> 03:00.140]  You listen to the voice of the people.
[03:02.710 --> 03:06.260]  You listen to the voice of the people.
[03:32.260 --> 03:36.100]  I listen to some radio because it's a sense to know exactly where you are.
[03:36.260 --> 03:48.420]  And that's why I'm telling you, Flatbush, when I'm listening to the radio session, I'm trying to just, like, get the music from the environment where I live, which is basically giving back to me with the Asians, the Chinese, and the Jamaican.
[03:48.800 --> 03:49.600]  So I got it.
[03:50.940 --> 03:52.840]  Dead vibes, rock the glass!
[03:53.740 --> 03:54.720]  You kidding me?
[03:55.120 --> 03:56.380]  You stick around, stick around.
[03:56.700 --> 03:59.760]  But remember, I give up, and I give up, and I give up, and I give up.
[03:59.760 --> 04:00.420]  Touch that guy.
[04:00.420 --> 04:00.960]  Touch that guy.
[04:00.960 --> 04:02.320]  It's Roadblock Friday.
[04:02.820 --> 04:04.140]  Yo, this is Koundo1.
[04:04.140 --> 04:08.820]  You're listening to New York City High Energy Station, Vibes Up Radio HD.
[04:09.160 --> 04:11.000]  Vibes Up, how you bad, sir?
[04:11.160 --> 04:12.420]  How you bad, sir?
[04:12.560 --> 04:13.860]  How you rude, sir?
[04:14.060 --> 04:16.080]  New York City want a taste of that.
[04:16.220 --> 04:19.440]  Vibes Up Radio, it's just too real and dangerous.
[04:19.780 --> 04:21.460]  Number one, cause you know it's dangerous.
[04:21.900 --> 04:25.280]  This is Monjigan and the Viking of Soka being a Vibes Up Radio HD.
[04:25.500 --> 04:27.080]  Big Soka truth ready to explode.
[04:27.260 --> 04:27.700]  Get me ready.
[04:27.860 --> 04:28.320]  Get me ready.
[04:28.540 --> 04:29.360]  I said we're ready.
[04:29.540 --> 04:30.000]  Get me ready.
[04:30.000 --> 04:31.040]  This is Monjigan.
[04:33.380 --> 04:38.920]  New York City's number one choice for Caribbean entertainment, Vibes Up Radio HD.
[04:39.280 --> 04:43.520]  We are the station that moves the streets of New York, one beat at a time.
[04:43.920 --> 04:45.500]  We're your high energy station.
[04:45.900 --> 04:47.500]  Make no mistakes about it.
[04:47.720 --> 04:49.160]  Please don't touch that dial.
[04:49.500 --> 04:53.580]  Vibes Up Radio HD will be right back after these words from our sponsors.
[04:55.440 --> 04:56.380]  So, and we're back.
[04:56.520 --> 04:57.740]  I guess that's me, the sponsor.
[04:58.960 --> 05:03.620]  So, there's a little immersion in Brooklyn Pirate Radio.
[05:05.260 --> 05:06.820]  Now, I hear...
[05:06.820 --> 05:09.240]  I'm trying to advance the slide here.
[05:09.840 --> 05:10.100]  Hold on.
[05:14.470 --> 05:16.930]  Hmm, I don't know why I've lost control.
[05:24.020 --> 05:24.700]  There we go.
[05:27.280 --> 05:32.320]  So, that's my listening post where I'm on the third floor of a wood frame house in Flatbush.
[05:34.740 --> 05:44.100]  And I've been interested in serious listening to first shortwave radio and pirate radio.
[05:44.320 --> 05:55.360]  But back in the 70s, early 80s, when I was listening for pirates, you could only hear them in where I was living on shortwave, you know, from places around the world or across the country.
[05:55.460 --> 05:57.960]  In Washington, D.C., there were no local pirates.
[05:57.960 --> 06:06.380]  I started traveling up to New York City in the 1980s, and there were actual FM pirates.
[06:06.620 --> 06:12.220]  There were a couple, very discreet, just in a couple frequencies late at night, W-H-O-T, W-F-U-N.
[06:12.400 --> 06:14.680]  We'll be hearing a little more about them later.
[06:14.920 --> 06:27.500]  In the mid-90s, the pirates began to proliferate about 95, 96, and they would pop down on top of licensed broadcasters or on adjacents.
[06:27.960 --> 06:35.820]  They'd interfere with each other, and despite enforcement by the FCC, there are just too many stations to control.
[06:36.680 --> 06:42.060]  It would take like a quasi-military effort to take them off the air, and it wouldn't last for long.
[06:42.160 --> 06:50.300]  They'd be right back on because what happened in 96 is there were access to information on the Internet on how to build kits.
[06:50.300 --> 07:03.480]  There was a micro-radio movement, Steven Dunifer was building FM transmitters, and the dollar entry came down very far, so it was much easier to get on the air.
[07:03.480 --> 07:17.200]  And at the same time, there was a telecommunications act of 1996, which limited local, you know, there was less diversity, there were more, more people were owning several stations.
[07:18.740 --> 07:27.480]  So, with the cheap technology, people started to figure out how they could get on the air and serve their communities.
[07:31.650 --> 07:33.690]  That's the Sony F1HD.
[07:34.910 --> 07:37.190]  A really great FM receiver.
[07:37.970 --> 07:39.010]  Very selective.
[07:39.410 --> 07:41.850]  So, I can hear about 36 stations on that.
[07:42.010 --> 07:44.870]  If I go down to the first floor, I can probably hear about 20 to 25.
[07:44.870 --> 07:51.350]  I'm really sort of DXing, if you know the term, sort of really listening hard for as many stations as I can hear.
[07:51.550 --> 07:57.610]  But for the average person in Flatbush, in their car, or in their kitchen, they probably hear 20, 25 stations.
[08:02.290 --> 08:12.650]  So, for a long time, when the scene started in 96, I was a new father, and I was really intrigued by the growing pirates, but it was just, it was too much.
[08:12.650 --> 08:20.730]  And in a few years, there were at least 25, you know, all the way up the dial from 87.9 to 107.9.
[08:22.370 --> 08:25.750]  And it just seemed too crazy and chaotic to even make sense of.
[08:25.810 --> 08:31.190]  There would be different stations on, you know, different frequencies every night, or the same frequency.
[08:31.290 --> 08:32.870]  There would be different stations alternating.
[08:34.090 --> 08:36.510]  A couple years ago, I had a little more time on my hands.
[08:36.510 --> 08:47.450]  And I decided that I was going to really hone in and try to figure out who was on the air and who were they broadcasting to.
[08:48.210 --> 08:54.930]  So I started to record intensively and posting on SoundCloud.
[08:55.370 --> 09:02.670]  The first up was a sort of quick and dirty band scan between quarter of midnight and after New Year's Eve.
[09:05.610 --> 09:07.390]  And there's some pretty cool stuff there.
[09:07.530 --> 09:08.390]  I'll play you a sample.
[09:14.350 --> 09:16.130]  It's time to turn up!
[09:16.430 --> 09:17.770]  Synchronize your watches!
[09:18.010 --> 09:20.670]  Bring your loved ones and real friends close!
[09:20.890 --> 09:23.830]  Cause we are only seconds away from a new year!
[09:24.150 --> 09:25.390]  Let's count it down!
[09:25.790 --> 09:34.510]  10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1!
[09:34.510 --> 09:36.430]  Happy New Year!
[09:37.130 --> 09:40.690]  Somebody, everybody, make some noise!
[09:43.970 --> 09:48.890]  If you know that this year's gonna be New Year, show me that New Year's dance right about now!
[09:49.090 --> 09:51.290]  Put your hands up in the air and give me that dance!
[09:51.610 --> 09:51.990]  Come on!
[09:52.250 --> 09:52.690]  Come on!
[09:53.270 --> 09:55.770]  Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to 2015!
[09:56.270 --> 10:00.890]  You know we out here to have a good time tonight, so it's time to turn all the way up!
[10:01.250 --> 10:02.090]  Let's go!
[10:02.090 --> 10:02.270]  Let's go!
[10:03.430 --> 10:04.010]  Let's go!
[10:04.290 --> 10:04.290]  Bring in the air!
[10:07.490 --> 10:08.070]  Let's go!
[10:08.810 --> 10:09.250]  Let's go!
[10:09.350 --> 10:09.350]  Let's go!
[10:09.370 --> 10:10.070]  Turn up time now!
[10:11.430 --> 10:13.850]  Turn up time now!
[10:14.090 --> 10:15.070]  We made it!
[10:15.390 --> 10:15.910]  We made it!
[10:18.390 --> 10:18.970]  Let's go!
[10:37.870 --> 10:40.310]  I'm about to take a brief commercial break and get right back to you.
[10:40.350 --> 10:41.210]  Don't change that dial.
[10:41.330 --> 10:41.870]  Don't go nowhere.
[10:41.970 --> 10:42.590]  Leave it sticky.
[10:42.850 --> 10:43.370]  Stay right here.
[10:43.510 --> 10:44.090]  Triple nine.
[10:57.890 --> 10:58.450]  All right.
[10:58.590 --> 10:59.750]  Not the file I intended to play.
[10:59.950 --> 11:00.510]  Sorry about that.
[11:02.230 --> 11:03.090]  Here's the file.
[11:16.670 --> 11:26.410]  The file that's somehow slowly loading is from a Haitian broadcaster and they're going, banané, banané, which is what I called the file.
[11:26.630 --> 11:28.230]  It should be on in a second.
[11:39.820 --> 11:40.320]  Hmm.
[11:49.870 --> 11:50.470]  All right.
[11:50.630 --> 11:53.270]  Well, we'll go back to that if we can.
[11:53.670 --> 11:58.370]  So let me just test another file to make sure I'm getting playback here.
[12:25.910 --> 12:26.480]  All right.
[12:26.600 --> 12:30.000]  So now on July 4th, I have some files.
[12:35.060 --> 12:37.740]  Well, I'll go to the backup CD.
[13:16.740 --> 13:18.180]  All right.
[13:18.280 --> 13:18.760]  We fixed it.
[13:19.060 --> 13:19.880]  How embarrassing.
[13:20.360 --> 13:20.680]  Okay.
[13:24.580 --> 13:25.860]  So happy new year.
[13:25.860 --> 13:26.700]  Happy New Year!
[13:26.700 --> 13:27.760]  Happy New Year!
[13:28.100 --> 13:28.680]  Happy New Year!
[13:29.300 --> 13:29.680]  Happy New Year!
[13:29.940 --> 13:30.520]  Happy New Year!
[13:30.720 --> 13:37.680]  Hi, this is Celine, Edeline, Gautier, William Charles, French Charles, Happy New Year!
[13:38.200 --> 13:41.860]  Tony Joseph, Carmel Dobreys, La Petit Troil-Dia.
[13:42.360 --> 13:46.320]  La Petit Troil-Dia is a fan of the class group.
[13:46.680 --> 13:47.400]  Be careful!
[13:50.140 --> 13:52.520]  Happy New Year to all the fans of Caraïbe by Night!
[13:54.660 --> 13:56.160]  So, Happy New Year, y'all.
[13:56.420 --> 13:57.680]  Now, we've...
[13:57.680 --> 14:03.860]  So, that was the first band scan that I put up on SoundCloud and attracted some attention.
[14:04.100 --> 14:09.600]  And then, on 4th of July 2015, I did a two-and-a-half-hour band scan.
[14:10.660 --> 14:20.140]  The reason why I'm doing it on holidays is because that's probably when they're the most stations and they also talk about, sort of, the holiday and, you know, events going on in the community.
[14:20.140 --> 14:24.740]  So, here's a little bit of 4th of July sound.
[14:29.820 --> 14:30.340]  Spoken界 letzt!
[14:30.340 --> 14:31.820]  MEMORIES ON THE WATER!
[14:31.900 --> 14:32.760]  MEMORIES ON THE WATER!
[14:32.980 --> 14:33.700]  On the water!
[14:34.060 --> 14:34.560]  On the water!
[14:35.460 --> 14:35.620]  on the water!
[14:35.720 --> 14:36.740]  mu efforts, man!
[14:37.140 --> 14:37.980]  Memories on the aoara!
[14:39.960 --> 14:40.480]  levelled head
[14:43.760 --> 15:01.060]  zawar nam To all Irish Dam listeners out here, good evening.
[15:01.160 --> 15:01.700]  How are you doing?
[15:01.700 --> 15:02.800]  It's a beautiful weekend.
[15:03.040 --> 15:05.060]  It's 4th of July weekend.
[15:05.460 --> 15:06.700]  And you know what it is?
[15:06.800 --> 15:09.040]  It's our memories on the water.
[15:09.800 --> 15:12.720]  4th of July weekend takeover.
[15:13.280 --> 15:13.440]  Yes.
[15:15.540 --> 15:20.100]  Still about spending our start of the program, which is of always what good is, as I usually do.
[15:20.540 --> 15:22.480]  I hope you're having a pleasant evening.
[15:22.480 --> 15:24.320]  Good afternoon, New York City.
[15:24.460 --> 15:26.340]  Good afternoon, each and everyone on the outside.
[15:28.320 --> 15:31.400]  This is Hype FM 94.5 on the dial.
[15:33.380 --> 15:35.180]  Or in the tuning app.
[15:36.420 --> 15:38.680]  Hype FM HD, New York City.
[15:40.160 --> 15:42.860]  It is July 4th, right about now.
[15:44.380 --> 15:47.100]  And the sun definitely is out.
[15:47.500 --> 15:51.560]  All my people who are worried that they barbecue all the little limes would be...
[15:52.720 --> 15:54.160]  ...interrupted because of the weather.
[15:55.120 --> 15:57.760]  And it's beautiful on the outside right about now.
[15:59.600 --> 16:03.440]  So good afternoon to you if you're celebrating July 4th.
[16:03.900 --> 16:04.780]  Independence Day.
[16:04.960 --> 16:06.160]  Happy Independence to America.
[16:08.360 --> 16:11.160]  Happy birthday to anybody celebrating their birthday today.
[16:11.280 --> 16:12.560]  Big you up, big you up, big you up.
[16:15.440 --> 16:19.300]  People don't forget today is Saturday, so our lounge is on tonight.
[16:19.300 --> 16:19.600]  Big you up.
[16:20.420 --> 16:20.780]  Big you up.
[16:20.780 --> 16:20.820]  Big you up.
[16:20.820 --> 16:21.740]  Mr. OK.
[16:22.180 --> 16:22.900]  Here we're back.
[16:23.720 --> 16:24.120]  So...
[16:26.880 --> 16:31.900]  I put that up and a lot of people started to call me and say, hey, I want to write an article on this.
[16:32.140 --> 16:33.220]  So I'm writing...
[16:33.220 --> 16:36.620]  I'm working on an audio documentary and these are excerpts that I'm playing.
[16:36.860 --> 16:40.080]  So I started to back off a little and not post so much public material.
[16:40.080 --> 16:43.340]  I have a lot of things tonight I'm sharing with you that I haven't played publicly.
[16:43.600 --> 16:46.140]  But this is on my SoundCloud site.
[16:46.800 --> 16:49.520]  SoundCloud.com slash shortwaveology.
[16:49.820 --> 16:53.420]  Shortwaveology is where I do investigations of shortwave radio material.
[16:53.420 --> 16:56.560]  But I have a lot of pirate stuff up there as well.
[16:58.000 --> 17:00.220]  And, gee, what's this about?
[17:03.380 --> 17:07.500]  Well, so I started to collate as much information as I could.
[17:07.640 --> 17:08.740]  I was keeping a log.
[17:09.080 --> 17:16.420]  When pirates are mentioned online, mostly you get big lists of frequencies and not much else.
[17:16.540 --> 17:18.560]  There's a Twitter list called BK Pirate Watch.
[17:18.560 --> 17:20.020]  They trade some info.
[17:20.320 --> 17:35.360]  A lot of people on the list are mostly folks split between annoyance with interference to license stations, particularly WFMU, which is kind of interesting because I think your average WFMU listener is sort of predisposed to liking pirate programming or,
[17:35.380 --> 17:38.500]  you know, that kind of activity.
[17:38.940 --> 17:43.820]  But WFMU is really bothered by pirates and has been for about 20 years.
[17:44.040 --> 17:49.820]  So BK Pirate Watch, an interesting list, is sort of very much saying, you know, who are these people and get them off the frequency.
[17:50.240 --> 17:52.240]  And I was trying to figure it out.
[17:52.420 --> 18:09.160]  So the two gentlemen here, I really can't say too much about this, but Matt Blaze and Ed Cummings came up with a Rode and Schwartz direction-finding radio just to sort of solve some of our curiosity about where stations were.
[18:13.940 --> 18:14.920]  There's Ed now.
[18:15.140 --> 18:24.840]  Ed wanted me to let you know that this is a photo, or Bernie S, also known as Ed Cummings, Ed is violating the ECPA in this picture.
[18:28.920 --> 18:46.120]  What's happening here, interestingly enough, is that we were going through the band and we came across a station that had a sub-carrier channel where you, in major cities, you can buy a special radio and often ethnic and religious broadcasters, at least historically,
[18:46.120 --> 18:50.820]  broadcast on the sub-carriers which they lease from regular stations.
[18:51.520 --> 19:00.260]  And one of the pirates had an SCA and I happened to have an SCA receiving radio, so we tuned it in and nothing was there.
[19:00.420 --> 19:04.620]  So it may just have been set on the receiver, but it was kind of interesting.
[19:05.120 --> 19:12.300]  Well, what's also interesting about SCA is New York City is probably one of the few remaining cities where there are a lot of SCA broadcasters.
[19:12.840 --> 19:16.780]  Many of them are Haitian, which is the neighborhood I live in.
[19:17.020 --> 19:18.420]  They serve Flatbush.
[19:18.940 --> 19:29.580]  But they're now competing with probably nine pirate Haitian stations, which are just... there are probably at least six between 87.9 and 91.9.
[19:31.160 --> 19:34.100]  And there we are in Prospect Park, out in the field.
[19:38.700 --> 19:43.620]  Now, I don't want to say too much more about that because, actually, I'm working on some documentation projects.
[19:43.720 --> 19:50.260]  And one of them is the Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map, which I'm working on getting some funding for.
[19:50.400 --> 19:51.620]  I want to make an online archive.
[19:52.240 --> 19:54.760]  It won't be location, so that's what I want to say.
[19:54.860 --> 19:57.560]  And I have inroads to talking to pirates.
[19:57.560 --> 20:01.100]  I don't want people to think that I'm trying to show where they are.
[20:01.100 --> 20:03.380]  So the map will be like coverage area.
[20:03.600 --> 20:04.620]  You click on a node.
[20:04.860 --> 20:06.180]  You'll hear a sample of the station.
[20:06.320 --> 20:08.900]  You'll hear interviews with listeners, with station personnel.
[20:09.600 --> 20:13.320]  So this is sort of a logo I'm using for fundraising at the moment.
[20:13.340 --> 20:19.580]  I'm going to use a really interesting program called ArcGIS, which is a story mapping program.
[20:19.720 --> 20:21.300]  You can do lots of things with it.
[20:21.320 --> 20:23.600]  Anyone here use ArcGIS?
[20:25.020 --> 20:27.960]  If you do, talk to me later.
[20:30.400 --> 20:33.580]  So I really started to intensify my listening.
[20:34.420 --> 20:40.070]  And so working on the story map.
[20:40.530 --> 20:44.270]  And I'm going to concentrate on where I am in my neighborhood.
[20:44.270 --> 20:49.410]  But I've also... there's this great foundation called the Awesome Foundation, where they give you...
[20:49.410 --> 20:51.010]  They give away $1,000 a month.
[20:51.150 --> 20:56.750]  So I want them to buy me, which I don't think they will, an ELAD, SDR, software-defined radio.
[20:56.910 --> 21:02.710]  So I can go to different points around Brooklyn and capture six megahertz of the FM band at a time to hard disk.
[21:02.930 --> 21:07.650]  Then tune through and kind of do a better job figuring out what's going on.
[21:07.650 --> 21:10.910]  But I have made a little bit of progress.
[21:11.090 --> 21:11.550]  And here,
[21:15.520 --> 21:18.520]  my pride and joy...
[21:23.090 --> 21:26.110]  This is a cello board that I've put together.
[21:26.510 --> 21:29.210]  Too bad the resolution is not so great.
[21:29.450 --> 21:33.050]  But we start here at 87.9 and
[21:37.980 --> 21:42.560]  go up to 107.9.
[21:42.620 --> 21:46.400]  I've been able to find websites for a lot of these stations.
[21:46.400 --> 21:48.920]  I'd say probably about three quarters of them have websites.
[21:49.120 --> 21:51.340]  I've been able to figure out the names.
[21:59.640 --> 22:00.520]  Gosh darn it.
[22:00.660 --> 22:01.740]  All these technical difficulties.
[22:01.960 --> 22:07.600]  Well, this is kind of appropriate because the pirates are full of technical difficulties themselves.
[22:08.620 --> 22:10.160]  As you'll soon hear.
[22:11.100 --> 22:11.940]  There we go.
[22:15.560 --> 22:19.140]  Anyway, so this is going to form the basis of the map.
[22:19.480 --> 22:21.300]  I'm gathering information and notes.
[22:21.720 --> 22:27.000]  And this is kind of cool for me anyway to see all the information in one place.
[22:27.060 --> 22:32.900]  So I've been able to see, oh, these are regulars or these people don't come on as often.
[22:33.460 --> 22:36.820]  Or, you know, someone who's been on for 10 years, suddenly they're off.
[22:36.820 --> 22:37.280]  What happened?
[22:37.280 --> 22:37.980]  Were they busted?
[22:38.440 --> 22:40.260]  Did their transmitter break?
[22:40.500 --> 22:44.160]  It's hard to know sometimes exactly what's happening.
[22:45.840 --> 22:48.740]  So what's nice about Trello is you can also filter.
[22:49.360 --> 22:52.860]  So, for instance, here are all the stations that are currently on the air.
[22:55.160 --> 22:59.740]  Here are the stations I've heard that are off the air that I've been tracking for a couple years.
[23:00.940 --> 23:02.940]  Here's the ones that are in Flatbush.
[23:03.440 --> 23:06.420]  And I have some additional feathers here.
[23:08.660 --> 23:14.880]  These are Orthodox Jewish stations of which where I live, they're mostly Caribbean pirates.
[23:15.060 --> 23:20.080]  But there are probably about five Orthodox Jewish stations in the Midwood and Borough Park neighborhoods.
[23:20.620 --> 23:29.540]  And Orthodox Jews have been at Pirate Radio in Brooklyn since about 1997-98 with Radio Moshiach, as they like to say.
[23:29.900 --> 23:33.180]  It's WWMN, we welcome Moshiach now.
[23:33.340 --> 23:34.140]  Moshiach is the Messiah.
[23:34.680 --> 23:39.540]  And they say, give us an hour of your attention and we'll bring you the redemption.
[23:42.200 --> 23:45.940]  And try as I might, I could not find that specific file.
[23:47.260 --> 23:53.860]  I'm going to go back to photos for a minute just to show you a couple of close-ups of screenshots from some of the websites.
[23:56.260 --> 23:57.580]  There's Radio Moshiach.
[23:57.740 --> 23:59.600]  That's about as much as they had.
[24:05.380 --> 24:06.660]  This one is kind of interesting.
[24:06.840 --> 24:10.120]  They're from Essex County, New Jersey, like 28 miles away.
[24:10.380 --> 24:13.380]  And I'm able to get them kind of on and off.
[24:13.380 --> 24:19.960]  They have a college radio station vibe, which is a little bit different from the way the others sound.
[24:22.400 --> 24:24.000]  This is Radio Liberté.
[24:24.180 --> 24:25.780]  We'll hear a lot of samples tonight.
[24:26.140 --> 24:26.640]  All right.
[24:26.940 --> 24:29.240]  We'll stick on Radio Liberté for a moment.
[24:30.460 --> 24:30.960]  Okay.
[24:31.160 --> 24:32.060]  Time for more audio.
[24:33.720 --> 24:39.540]  And where I live, as I said, there are mostly Caribbean stations, some Jewish stations, some Spanish stations.
[24:40.220 --> 24:50.000]  But on any of the stations, even though they're directed very specifically toward a certain audience, Brooklyn's multicultural bones always seem to shine through.
[24:50.400 --> 24:54.900]  And I'm going to pay two samples back-to-back, which will sort of demonstrate that.
[24:56.120 --> 24:58.640]  Everybody should praise the Lord.
[25:13.860 --> 25:16.440]  Our Lord is great and greatly to be praised.
[25:17.400 --> 25:20.200]  In the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness.
[25:21.460 --> 25:24.460]  Beautiful for situation is the joy of the whole world.
[25:24.640 --> 25:25.590]  The joy of the whole world.
[25:25.860 --> 25:28.260]  Is Mount Zion on the side of the north.
[25:28.540 --> 25:30.380]  The city of the great King.
[25:30.960 --> 25:31.540]  Praise Him.
[25:34.310 --> 25:35.210]  Praise Him.
[25:36.030 --> 25:39.190]  From the rising of the sun until the going down of the same.
[25:39.570 --> 25:41.730]  The name of the Lord is to be praised.
[25:41.730 --> 25:42.410]  Praise Him.
[25:42.570 --> 25:43.130]  Ah-ha.
[25:43.410 --> 25:44.210]  Praise Him.
[25:47.350 --> 25:49.370]  To all my Jewish people up there in Crown-Eyes.
[25:50.590 --> 25:51.120]  Vus maxta.
[25:52.410 --> 25:52.610]  Ah.
[25:52.850 --> 25:55.170]  Praise Him everybody should praise the Lord.
[25:56.130 --> 25:57.230]  Everything is good.
[25:57.410 --> 25:57.730]  Oh yeah.
[25:58.990 --> 25:59.090]  Oh yeah.
[25:59.090 --> 25:59.670]  Molkishim.
[26:00.170 --> 26:01.110]  Everybody should praise the Lord.
[26:01.130 --> 26:01.850]  Thank God.
[26:03.150 --> 26:04.070]  Good afternoon!
[26:04.730 --> 26:06.030]  Oh yeah.
[26:07.010 --> 26:09.650]  Everybody should praise the Lord.
[26:22.870 --> 26:34.230]  We'll see
[26:37.600 --> 26:37.860]  you in the next one.
[26:56.240 --> 27:00.840]  Rewch, Yamod, memcumum echered, אלו כן הוצרו מגינם.
[27:01.000 --> 27:05.360]  Netszah Israel, לעולם לא ישקר בנים, ישובו לי גבולה.
[27:06.480 --> 27:11.000]  Rewch, Yamod, memcumum echered, אלו כן הוצרו מגינם.
[27:11.420 --> 27:16.500]  בזכות וגם בחסד הארצי שלנו, דם שנשבח כמה עם בשנים שכבר נדפנו.
[27:16.620 --> 27:21.680]  לא נאבט הארשתונות, נתאמץ ולא ניסוק, כי יבינו עוד איתנו ואיננו מה לידור.
[27:21.840 --> 27:24.020]  גם ישמאלים קשים אותנו, לונטש.
[27:28.260 --> 27:29.140]  So, what's that?
[27:29.240 --> 27:31.160]  That's Hebrew dance hall reggae.
[27:32.620 --> 27:35.880]  And the first station, I just love that track.
[27:36.100 --> 27:37.520]  It was a longer sample.
[27:37.620 --> 27:39.560]  I tried to cut my samples mostly down to a minute.
[27:42.220 --> 27:48.620]  He was greeting his Spanish listeners, and in that segment he's greeting his Yiddish-speaking listeners from Crown Heights.
[27:48.620 --> 27:54.740]  So, it's just kind of interesting how the different influences of Brooklyn keep shining through.
[27:55.840 --> 27:57.980]  So, here's something I did the other day.
[27:58.260 --> 28:02.790]  I got up at 7 in the morning, and every hour or so...
[28:03.240 --> 28:05.920]  Again, sorry for the... it looks like it's in Hebrew almost.
[28:06.720 --> 28:11.720]  At 7 in the morning, there were 24 stations on the air.
[28:11.800 --> 28:12.620]  This is during the weekday.
[28:12.760 --> 28:17.040]  And evenings and weekends, there are like a full boat at 36.
[28:17.040 --> 28:23.400]  During the week, at 7, there were 24.
[28:24.860 --> 28:27.860]  Then down to 16, by 9, 12.
[28:28.380 --> 28:30.980]  Then at 10, down to 11 stations.
[28:31.120 --> 28:33.660]  Of which 4 stations were carrier only.
[28:33.920 --> 28:35.540]  There was no signal there.
[28:35.740 --> 28:41.780]  They were just holding down the frequency, probably trying to keep it from someone else using it.
[28:41.780 --> 28:43.620]  So, then we go along during the day.
[28:44.860 --> 28:46.580]  Goes down 1 at 2.30.
[28:46.960 --> 28:53.940]  And then at 3.30, we're up to 13, 5, 23.
[28:56.300 --> 28:58.240]  7 o'clock, we're at 28 stations.
[28:58.280 --> 29:00.980]  And then by 8 o'clock, we're at 31 stations.
[29:01.580 --> 29:04.360]  And see, you know, I just left it there.
[29:04.480 --> 29:07.100]  So, you could see some of the flow.
[29:07.100 --> 29:09.860]  Sometimes during the day, they'll go down to as low as 4 or 5.
[29:10.400 --> 29:11.840]  But there's always someone on.
[29:12.340 --> 29:14.520]  There are some big players that seem to be on all the time.
[29:14.680 --> 29:22.240]  And as a carnival comes up in autumn, which is the big celebration in Brooklyn for the Caribbean communities, more stations are on.
[29:22.380 --> 29:25.660]  And there do seem to be more on in the summertime.
[29:29.220 --> 29:30.360]  So, let's see.
[29:31.160 --> 29:43.580]  The Orthodox Jewish station is kind of interesting because on that frequency, 91.9, which is the old traditional pirate frequency from years ago, when there are only one or two on.
[29:44.080 --> 29:49.160]  I started hearing WCBS FM, the ALDI stations, for weeks, cutting in and out.
[29:49.300 --> 29:50.900]  And it wasn't parallel with the stream.
[29:51.120 --> 29:53.720]  It was, like, delayed by, like, three minutes.
[29:53.740 --> 29:54.520]  It made no sense.
[29:54.680 --> 30:00.300]  And then one day, that Dancehall Reggae came on and Hebrew versions of Let It Be.
[30:00.580 --> 30:03.940]  And then, like, three weeks later, they're off the air and they've been gone for months.
[30:04.260 --> 30:08.040]  So, that kind of gives you some of the flow.
[30:12.970 --> 30:20.570]  So, next up... So, the big flavors are soca and reggae.
[30:20.950 --> 30:27.250]  But if you listen long enough, you'll hear some other anomalies that come into play.
[30:27.510 --> 30:37.770]  Here on 91.7, which is a popular frequency for a Haitian station, La Vase du Poupla, where you heard, sort of, their sign-on ID in the opening segment.
[30:37.770 --> 30:43.210]  This is a station that came on the air one time only, at least as far as I heard them.
[31:22.240 --> 31:27.980]  This is a station that came on the trip.
[31:29.100 --> 31:30.700]  Anyone know what language that is?
[31:33.990 --> 31:36.590]  I've been told either Turkish or Uzbeki.
[31:36.750 --> 31:38.610]  Now, they do say Turku FM.
[31:39.730 --> 31:40.590]  I'm not sure.
[31:40.910 --> 31:49.950]  So, for the next several days, I set up my recorder because I capture a lot of these recordings by sitting on frequencies and waiting for something to happen and never heard them again.
[31:50.150 --> 31:59.130]  So, I have a theory and I'm also gathering evidence that it's true that some of these stations are owned by the programmer.
[31:59.210 --> 32:00.570]  And they program one flavor.
[32:00.890 --> 32:04.190]  Others, they own the transmitter and they broker time.
[32:04.430 --> 32:07.070]  They actually seek clients to pay for time.
[32:07.170 --> 32:11.030]  So, maybe it was like, hey, you want to hear what your program might sound like on the air?
[32:11.230 --> 32:15.110]  And where I live, I'm not far from a Turkish and Uzbeki area.
[32:16.250 --> 32:18.870]  So, I thought that was kind of interesting.
[32:19.710 --> 32:25.210]  And some other... We're going to start to skip ahead because time is galloping by.
[32:25.550 --> 32:27.390]  But there's some other interesting flavors.
[32:27.510 --> 32:29.150]  There's a station, a volume...
[32:31.370 --> 32:32.790]  volume 107.1.
[32:32.950 --> 32:33.570]  They play reggae.
[32:33.710 --> 32:34.810]  They're a big player.
[32:34.950 --> 32:35.730]  They're there a lot.
[32:35.970 --> 32:39.390]  And one day I tuned in and I heard two hours of avant-garde jazz.
[33:04.000 --> 33:07.980]  In your face, all over the place.
[33:08.420 --> 33:10.060]  We're online.
[33:10.540 --> 33:11.440]  24-7.
[33:11.640 --> 33:12.620]  24-7.
[33:12.780 --> 33:15.340]  You're listening to the hottest Internet station.
[33:15.520 --> 33:16.860]  It's volume radio, baby!
[33:17.080 --> 33:19.580]  www.teamvolume.com.
[33:20.900 --> 33:26.220]  You're listening to the hottest Internet radio station.
[33:31.080 --> 33:34.980]  So, the next day I was waiting, you know, like, putting my recorder on.
[33:35.260 --> 33:36.960]  And they never played jazz again.
[33:37.340 --> 33:38.400]  So, what happened?
[33:38.540 --> 33:40.920]  Was it like someone's iPod just kind of wandering around?
[33:41.080 --> 33:42.400]  It was really well-curated.
[33:42.560 --> 33:47.580]  I mean, I know it's not avant-garde per se, but they were playing Ornette Coleman and all sorts of things.
[33:47.720 --> 33:50.660]  And then they went into sort of jazz-flavored hip-hop and R&B.
[33:51.460 --> 33:55.000]  So, I would love to know the stories behind some of these.
[33:55.000 --> 34:05.040]  There's also, um, here's, uh, sort of, I talked about stations holding down frequencies before.
[34:05.180 --> 34:11.420]  The Orthodox Jewish stations go off the air on the Sabbath, and they keep their carrier on all weekend.
[34:11.460 --> 34:15.780]  And one weekend I heard the Kol Ha Shalom, the Voice of Peace, 88-7.
[34:16.040 --> 34:17.480]  They've been on for about 10 years.
[34:20.910 --> 34:22.470]  That was on the whole Sabbath.
[34:36.150 --> 34:40.870]  So, I, you know, I kept it on for a couple hours until they fixed the problem.
[34:41.090 --> 34:42.830]  So, I honed in on that.
[34:42.950 --> 34:46.990]  And, of course, they wouldn't know something is wrong because they're not allowed to be listening to the radio.
[34:46.990 --> 34:50.070]  Or, if they are, they're not allowed to reveal that they were.
[34:51.850 --> 34:54.950]  And there's another station, J-Root Radio, 95-1.
[34:55.730 --> 34:57.930]  And, oh, man, the time's going really fast here.
[34:58.450 --> 35:00.710]  Um, they were on all weekend, too.
[35:00.810 --> 35:01.590]  And I texted them.
[35:01.890 --> 35:03.170]  And they said, no, we're not.
[35:03.250 --> 35:05.290]  And they actually figured out it was a timer problem.
[35:05.650 --> 35:07.290]  I'm going to jump ahead a little bit.
[35:07.690 --> 35:11.570]  Um, so, let's go back into history.
[35:11.710 --> 35:12.850]  How did this scene start?
[35:13.170 --> 35:17.070]  In the 80s and early 90s, there were two main frequencies for pirates.
[35:17.190 --> 35:19.230]  91-5, 91-7.
[35:19.230 --> 35:23.830]  And, um, this is one of the stations you could hear.
[35:28.620 --> 35:30.920]  It's new.
[35:32.800 --> 35:34.980]  It's now.
[35:36.680 --> 35:39.460]  It's hot.
[35:40.500 --> 35:41.700]  91.
[35:44.620 --> 35:46.860]  And a half.
[35:58.910 --> 36:08.090]  So, there was pretty typical of the pirate of the day, sort of, you know, kids playing radio or young men playing radio, often who maybe they worked in broadcast, compile some gear.
[36:08.270 --> 36:19.810]  But then along came a station, WBAD, um, which sort of broke the mold and is sort of a precursor to the, all the multi, um, ethnic pirates that are on the air today.
[36:19.810 --> 36:21.510]  It was a hip-hop station.
[36:21.650 --> 36:22.810]  They played underground hip-hop.
[36:23.270 --> 36:27.330]  And they became very popular, um, with artists.
[36:27.430 --> 36:28.410]  And they broke a lot of artists.
[36:28.570 --> 36:35.130]  So, here's an excerpt from an interview I did with DJ Cintronics, who used to run the station.
[36:35.130 --> 36:39.810]  My name is Dave Cintron, and I go under DJ Cintronics.
[36:40.210 --> 36:42.630]  You know, that's my, you know, radio name.
[36:42.630 --> 36:43.870]  They are outlawed.
[36:43.870 --> 36:52.730]  Fellow Americans, it is with the utmost pride and sincerity that I present this recording as a living tester in a recollection of history in the making during our generation.
[36:53.430 --> 36:55.630]  Allow me to reintroduce myself.
[36:55.790 --> 36:56.890]  My name is Cintronics.
[36:57.270 --> 36:57.830]  Check this out.
[37:01.380 --> 37:03.860]  This DJ, he gets down.
[37:04.000 --> 37:04.640]  Go DJ!
[37:04.940 --> 37:07.760]  And now, report from our investigative team.
[37:07.980 --> 37:11.400]  We're about to take you inside the secret world of pirate radio.
[37:13.800 --> 37:15.280]  It felt good, you know.
[37:15.460 --> 37:18.700]  I mean, you're doing something that no one else is doing.
[37:18.860 --> 37:20.340]  And you're doing a good job.
[37:20.480 --> 37:22.000]  You're having a lot of listeners.
[37:22.560 --> 37:33.320]  It almost felt like I was dominating the hip-hop industry because, you know, we were playing that stuff that no one, you know, wouldn't play on the commercial stations.
[37:34.080 --> 37:35.440]  And it felt good.
[37:35.600 --> 37:36.740]  It was crazy.
[37:37.260 --> 37:39.600]  That's why they call us the Outlaw of the Airwaves.
[37:39.720 --> 37:41.300]  I mean, that's why they called me that.
[37:41.300 --> 37:43.280]  And I ran with that ever since.
[37:43.520 --> 37:44.280]  I told you, man.
[37:44.560 --> 37:45.120]  I told you.
[37:45.240 --> 37:46.080]  Don't go for me.
[37:46.620 --> 37:48.740]  No, but you wouldn't let you ride your stuff.
[37:49.180 --> 37:50.040]  Look at you now.
[37:50.400 --> 37:51.680]  How many people ready to rock the house?
[37:51.940 --> 37:56.000]  We broadcasted, I believe it was like 5 to midnight or something like that.
[37:56.080 --> 37:58.540]  I'm not sure exactly because it's been a long time.
[37:58.540 --> 37:59.580]  Oh, yeah.
[37:59.780 --> 38:00.020]  Okay.
[38:00.040 --> 38:07.340]  And, you know, on a Sunday night where, you know, you didn't have to worry about the FCC really going and looking for anybody.
[38:07.720 --> 38:07.820]  You know?
[38:08.220 --> 38:09.860]  You had to worry about the FCC.
[38:11.000 --> 38:18.200]  And, you know, there would be times that, you know, we would broadcast and then you would get like a station.
[38:18.200 --> 38:21.220]  You know, they knew we were broadcasting at that time.
[38:22.040 --> 38:26.920]  And we had a situation one time that they broadcasted over us.
[38:27.540 --> 38:31.580]  And that was like a total disrespect because we took pride in what we did.
[38:32.220 --> 38:34.240]  So we knew who these guys were.
[38:35.240 --> 38:37.120]  And, you know, we were like the FCC.
[38:37.580 --> 38:41.680]  We had a tracker and we tracked them down and I made them shut it off.
[38:41.940 --> 38:42.380]  You know?
[38:42.480 --> 38:43.420]  And they actually did.
[38:45.700 --> 38:51.800]  And we had a situation also, I believe, somewhere in downtown Brooklyn where they did the same thing.
[38:51.960 --> 38:57.820]  And we, you know, well, I mean, these guys, you know, they wouldn't shut it off.
[38:57.820 --> 38:59.500]  And we said, hey, what are you doing?
[38:59.680 --> 39:01.740]  You know, you know, this is our time slot.
[39:02.080 --> 39:03.740]  You can't broadcast over us.
[39:03.800 --> 39:05.080]  And he told us, screw you.
[39:05.740 --> 39:10.780]  So we went up and we tracked them because we had the tracker and we cut their wires.
[39:24.470 --> 39:25.630]  He's an amazing guy.
[39:25.910 --> 39:28.710]  I've tried to reach him for a long time and he called me on Sunday.
[39:28.710 --> 39:33.650]  And so I like threw the script out the window and I'm going to make an hour documentary on his story.
[39:33.850 --> 39:34.890]  It's really interesting.
[39:35.610 --> 39:41.250]  I'm going to kind of abandon the script and cram in some sound in the next 10 minutes and take a few questions if I can.
[39:41.390 --> 39:43.830]  But I'll be around to talk to people after.
[39:44.090 --> 39:44.990]  Thanks for bearing with me.
[39:45.070 --> 39:46.510]  Sorry for the little technical difficulties.
[39:47.350 --> 39:48.890]  Here's Ken Friedman of WFMU.
[39:49.650 --> 39:54.930]  Basically, at that time, DJ Syntonix was on the air from 94 to 95.
[39:56.210 --> 40:01.230]  And he told me that it really got out of control and he could not keep people off the frequency.
[40:01.550 --> 40:03.850]  And he ended up being busted in another story.
[40:04.330 --> 40:13.790]  And starting around that time, Ken Friedman, the station manager of beloved WFMU, the Plucky Freeform station, started to hear about pirates.
[40:13.790 --> 40:26.470]  In one case, I filed a complaint about a pirate outside of Newark, New Jersey, that was broadcasting at the same frequency as our 90.1 FM upstate New York station.
[40:26.470 --> 40:31.730]  And it was operating not only as a pirate radio station, but also as a...
[40:31.730 --> 40:37.610]  Not only as a pirate using the non-commercial band, but they were operating commercially.
[40:38.070 --> 40:44.130]  And they were selling ads, and they had sponsors, and it was a very long running operation.
[40:44.130 --> 40:45.150]  It was a business.
[40:45.470 --> 40:52.530]  It was a pirate radio station on the non-commercial band that was running as a commercial business With impunity for years.
[40:53.270 --> 40:59.290]  And I had my FCC lawyer file a complaint to make sure I did it right because I felt like I had all the information on them.
[40:59.430 --> 41:10.110]  They were being so blatant or they were being so brazen about what they were doing in terms of giving out mailing addresses and phone numbers and website addresses and email addresses.
[41:10.990 --> 41:15.950]  And we filed a complaint and then we found out that the FCC already knew about them.
[41:16.050 --> 41:20.810]  That the FCC had already received numerous complaints about the same station and they had yet to take any action.
[41:22.650 --> 41:25.530]  And that station is still on the air.
[41:25.750 --> 41:27.850]  The story I'm working on...here we go.
[41:29.910 --> 41:32.510]  So this is the big difference.
[41:32.830 --> 41:38.330]  Before 96 it was like hobbyists and enthusiasts who wanted to get their message on these two frequencies.
[41:38.730 --> 41:40.830]  They cooperated to a degree.
[41:41.150 --> 41:42.330]  They shared the frequency.
[41:42.810 --> 41:44.630]  96 it starts to get out of control.
[41:45.130 --> 41:47.670]  Enforcement, FCC enforcement really can't handle it.
[41:47.810 --> 41:48.670]  There's deregulation.
[41:49.490 --> 41:50.810]  They have very little budget.
[41:50.830 --> 41:53.110]  And that's really continued to this day.
[41:53.690 --> 41:58.830]  And just to hear what Ken was talking about, here's sort of a typical ad on some of these stations.
[41:59.290 --> 42:00.930]  Are you struggling with weight loss?
[42:01.150 --> 42:01.990]  We have the solution.
[42:02.230 --> 42:03.330]  The gut buster package.
[42:03.550 --> 42:09.130]  It's like I couldn't come up my step without like holding on and, you know, breathing short.
[42:09.610 --> 42:13.470]  And then some of my clothes I couldn't wear them for a good time.
[42:13.470 --> 42:14.630]  So you was overweight.
[42:14.810 --> 42:15.810]  You had no energy.
[42:16.090 --> 42:16.730]  I was overweight.
[42:16.930 --> 42:17.670]  Cut busters.
[42:17.930 --> 42:19.210]  I gave my son some.
[42:19.490 --> 42:21.510]  He was losing his belly too.
[42:22.110 --> 42:26.590]  And I mean, this gentleman, if you ever see his belly, he has no more tummy.
[42:26.770 --> 42:27.470]  I have none.
[42:27.470 --> 42:28.070]  Oh, yeah.
[42:28.070 --> 42:29.490]  And your tummy's gone too?
[42:29.950 --> 42:31.470]  So your tummy's gone too?
[42:31.590 --> 42:32.010]  My God.
[42:32.150 --> 42:33.510]  No, that's how my clothes do.
[42:34.030 --> 42:34.770]  Go, mommy.
[42:34.770 --> 42:34.850]  Go, mommy.
[42:35.010 --> 42:36.010]  The gut busters.
[42:36.230 --> 42:37.630]  To get the gut buster package.
[42:37.630 --> 42:50.950]  917-533-2576.
[42:55.630 --> 42:56.830]  Cut busters.
[42:57.290 --> 43:00.950]  917-533-2576.
[43:01.310 --> 43:05.770]  917-533-2576.
[43:07.170 --> 43:09.490]  Now, what's... Did you get the number, by the way?
[43:10.430 --> 43:17.250]  Now, when I was cutting the sound yesterday, there was actually... I had missed a part where they...
[43:17.250 --> 43:20.590]  Someone came and said, you can get it at 917... at Yanni's Market.
[43:20.670 --> 43:22.150]  And they said, call 917.
[43:22.450 --> 43:23.830]  They did it three more times.
[43:27.110 --> 43:28.650]  So, I want to play you something.
[43:28.770 --> 43:37.030]  I went out into the community because I wanted to find out, aside from an insufferable radio geek like myself, who wants to find out how many stations are.
[43:37.110 --> 43:40.090]  I want to find out who in the community is really listening to these stations.
[43:42.050 --> 43:47.310]  The story I'm working on is about stations that people set up on top of apartment buildings.
[43:47.450 --> 43:47.690]  They do.
[43:47.890 --> 43:48.830]  They're not able to do it.
[43:48.890 --> 43:49.750]  The college ones does.
[43:49.910 --> 43:50.590]  I don't.
[43:50.710 --> 43:51.870]  And I want to tell you one thing.
[43:52.030 --> 43:52.570]  I don't give a f*ck.
[43:52.790 --> 43:53.170]  Have a good day.
[43:57.090 --> 43:57.490]  Yep.
[43:58.530 --> 43:59.710]  But I persevered.
[44:00.090 --> 44:03.750]  And here's some... here's some comments about...
[44:03.750 --> 44:06.870]  how... how they regard the stations in the community.
[44:09.390 --> 44:12.650]  Well, there's... Christ Christian Temple.
[44:12.810 --> 44:14.030]  They have a radio station.
[44:14.210 --> 44:17.290]  But right now, it's not of the antenna needs fixing.
[44:17.570 --> 44:21.730]  But now, but it used to be... because I used to... I used to speak on that station.
[44:21.950 --> 44:22.030]  Oh.
[44:23.990 --> 44:28.030]  When you were on the station, were you aware that it was not a legal station?
[44:28.030 --> 44:29.370]  No, I don't know.
[44:30.170 --> 44:31.170]  I don't know.
[44:31.450 --> 44:33.550]  I asked to come speak on the station.
[44:33.710 --> 44:34.190]  I don't know.
[44:34.430 --> 44:35.630]  Legal or illegal.
[44:36.070 --> 44:36.730]  Well, you know.
[44:36.870 --> 44:38.190]  I want the word to go too.
[44:38.790 --> 44:40.270]  So, I preach the word.
[44:41.470 --> 44:41.930]  So...
[44:43.330 --> 44:45.190]  So, I don't know if he was illegal.
[44:46.350 --> 44:47.170]  I don't know.
[44:47.170 --> 44:51.230]  But I think that when you have a DJ or somebody who's just like... you know, talking to you.
[44:51.390 --> 44:52.150]  And people are calling.
[44:52.570 --> 44:54.170]  I don't think that they're illegal one.
[44:54.290 --> 44:56.950]  Because when people are just like taking the phone and calling the station.
[44:57.470 --> 45:00.070]  And they have an interactive interaction with the public.
[45:00.930 --> 45:03.090]  I don't think that this is illegal.
[45:03.350 --> 45:07.290]  Because for that... to have a number, I think that you have to just like register yourself.
[45:08.090 --> 45:09.690]  But I never ask myself the question.
[45:10.070 --> 45:14.670]  I think it's an alternative from the regular stuff that you get every day, even though it's illegal.
[45:15.410 --> 45:16.290]  Yeah, it's not.
[45:16.630 --> 45:19.830]  I mean, it's still there, so it's not that illegal, though.
[45:21.710 --> 45:23.230]  I think he kind of hit it on the head.
[45:23.330 --> 45:25.330]  They're still there, so are they really illegal?
[45:28.690 --> 45:31.970]  Boy, so much more to play, but I'm just going to pick a few things.
[45:38.250 --> 45:44.430]  Not only do they cause interference to license stations, license stations have a real hard time dealing with them.
[45:44.630 --> 45:46.510]  They also can interfere with each other.
[45:46.750 --> 45:51.810]  Here's a station, Ecuadorian, Andean-flavored station from West Orange, New Jersey.
[46:17.160 --> 46:20.080]  That's the local Flatbush Caribbean station sounding odd.
[46:23.100 --> 46:26.440]  So they just jumped right on top of the main street station.
[46:26.740 --> 46:27.940]  That happens a lot.
[46:28.120 --> 46:33.040]  I'm going to play my last bit of sound from John Anderson, DIYmedia.net.
[46:33.040 --> 46:34.480]  He watches the pirates.
[46:34.620 --> 46:37.040]  He has a really interesting enforcement database.
[46:37.380 --> 46:39.200]  He's like, how do you handle this problem?
[46:39.580 --> 46:44.240]  Especially with some of the interference they cause and the, you know, skipping CDs.
[46:44.460 --> 46:47.460]  I won't play that at the moment, but you can check on my SoundCloud site.
[46:47.460 --> 46:49.440]  I have a lot of interesting anomalies.
[46:49.740 --> 46:57.460]  So he posits a harm reduction model, like using needles or contraception.
[46:57.460 --> 46:59.020]  And this is his analog.
[46:59.340 --> 47:00.960]  And when he's done, I'll take questions.
[47:01.560 --> 47:06.420]  I think we should look at the same type of perspective when it comes to pirate radio.
[47:06.740 --> 47:11.980]  There are ways by which unlicensed stations can clean up their own acts.
[47:12.220 --> 47:18.160]  They can share the spectrum more effectively and reduce the potential for interference among their licensed neighbors.
[47:18.420 --> 47:22.680]  There are ways by which they could even share frequencies and time.
[47:22.680 --> 47:28.160]  So a station might be on the air for eight hours a day and then they go off the air and another station goes on the air for eight hours a day.
[47:29.140 --> 47:35.580]  Repeat as a way of improving their ability to communicate to their audiences or their communities.
[47:36.860 --> 47:39.640]  And mitigating some of those negative problems.
[47:39.860 --> 47:49.160]  But just like needle exchanges and early attempts at birth control among teenagers, those things were criminalized in and of themselves.
[47:49.160 --> 47:53.460]  because you were considered to be aiding and abetting a problem.
[47:54.140 --> 47:56.160]  So I almost think that maybe...
[48:01.970 --> 48:03.610]  I'll talk about technical difficulties.
[48:03.850 --> 48:10.270]  Anyway, he's saying that, you know, there's not going to be any more low power FM frequencies.
[48:10.490 --> 48:11.130]  So what are you going to do?
[48:11.250 --> 48:15.610]  You're going to try maybe send out an engineering team, clean up the station, maybe talk about how to share.
[48:16.990 --> 48:20.110]  I'm going to put up a slide with some contact, but I'd love to take some questions.
[48:20.110 --> 48:22.630]  Thanks for hanging in and listening with me.
[48:37.260 --> 48:39.420]  What sort of power are these stations running?
[48:39.580 --> 48:41.020]  What kind of antennas do they use?
[48:41.180 --> 48:43.160]  Do they use transmitter popping?
[48:44.000 --> 48:45.300]  Can you repeat the question?
[48:46.400 --> 48:47.660]  What power are they running?
[48:48.320 --> 48:50.560]  And what kind of antennas do they use?
[48:51.440 --> 48:53.880]  Ed, can you speak to what kind of antennas they're using?
[48:54.080 --> 48:55.820]  I had some photos, but...
[48:58.120 --> 49:02.000]  The gentleman asked, what types of power are some of these stations running?
[49:02.280 --> 49:03.780]  And what type of antennas are they using?
[49:05.180 --> 49:08.880]  I've done some direction finding of some of these stations.
[49:09.340 --> 49:14.800]  And many of them are using an under-$100 antenna called a Comet 95 SL.
[49:14.980 --> 49:18.100]  We talked about it in the last edition of Austin Booker, where David was our guest.
[49:18.320 --> 49:20.100]  And some of the power levels are what?
[49:20.520 --> 49:22.920]  10, 20, 30 watts, sometimes more?
[49:22.920 --> 49:25.540]  Part of them were, I've heard 500.
[49:25.840 --> 49:26.160]  Wow.
[49:27.480 --> 49:32.860]  And I've heard them, you know, that station from West Irons, New Jersey is about 16 miles away.
[49:34.300 --> 49:44.040]  But another thing that Angel Lopez, the guy who talked, who said there was still kind of legal, he's like, sometimes he has to give up on them because he's in his car and it's very spotty reception.
[49:44.720 --> 49:49.240]  David mentioned he has some pictures, but he first got permission from this New York...
[49:49.240 --> 49:50.580]  He didn't want to say this, but I'll say it.
[49:50.760 --> 49:56.940]  The New York State Broadcasters Association commissioned a study, actually a series of studies, about these pirate stations.
[49:57.400 --> 49:59.100]  We would say we're going to provide to Congress.
[49:59.240 --> 50:04.880]  It did provide to Congress to try to, you know, compel the FCC or maybe give the FCC more funding so they can enforce these things.
[50:05.260 --> 50:12.580]  And then they reneged on their permission to allow David to show these pictures because he found out it was going to be at a hacker conference.
[50:12.580 --> 50:14.500]  And then he was worried about his shit getting hacked.
[50:14.820 --> 50:19.240]  So, if anybody wants to email me, BernieS at 2600.com.
[50:19.660 --> 50:20.880]  BernieS at 2600.com.
[50:20.940 --> 50:25.260]  I will send you a copy of the New York State Broadcasters Association's report on these stations.
[50:25.520 --> 50:29.960]  And it's fascinating with pictures, locations, antennas, I mean, power levels.
[50:30.120 --> 50:31.020]  It's fascinating.
[50:31.320 --> 50:32.380]  It's sort of total expose.
[50:32.680 --> 50:35.160]  It's a little slanted to the broadcaster's point of view.
[50:35.420 --> 50:35.880]  Good info.
[50:35.980 --> 50:41.120]  Also, go to DIYmedia.net and his latest blog post is all about that.
[50:41.120 --> 50:43.060]  You said frequency hopping.
[50:44.620 --> 50:45.060]  Transmitter hopping.
[50:45.060 --> 50:45.160]  Pardon me?
[50:45.700 --> 50:46.400]  Transmitter hopping.
[50:46.580 --> 50:47.680]  What do you mean exactly?
[50:51.120 --> 50:53.120]  You know, I don't think they care that much.
[50:54.100 --> 50:58.440]  I don't think they go to any extraordinary security measures.
[50:58.720 --> 51:01.140]  You can see these antennas when you're walking down the street.
[51:01.860 --> 51:05.760]  When they do get busted, I think they move the transmitter.
[51:07.080 --> 51:10.700]  You know, they buy another one or they may move from time to time.
[51:10.700 --> 51:13.000]  I don't think they have two different ones.
[51:14.160 --> 51:17.380]  They're not very sophisticated operators, a lot of them.
[51:17.500 --> 51:18.980]  Do they have presence on the New York State?
[51:20.020 --> 51:20.500]  Both.
[51:20.860 --> 51:21.520]  I've heard both.
[51:22.180 --> 51:22.660]  Yes?
[51:23.140 --> 51:23.820]  What's different?
[51:28.030 --> 51:33.470]  Well, in New York, I think it's good to be discreet, which the New York City scene is not.
[51:33.470 --> 51:37.630]  But a lot of them go in a regional frequency.
[51:37.830 --> 51:39.290]  Don't go right next to WMIC.
[51:39.530 --> 51:41.350]  Don't go right next to the big players.
[51:41.710 --> 51:46.170]  And I'm not a lawyer or anything, so don't use this in court.
[51:46.670 --> 51:47.650]  Be on a regional.
[51:47.790 --> 51:49.370]  A lot of them are on regional channels.
[51:49.530 --> 51:54.310]  So in Brooklyn, I might hear really strong stations from Long Island, from the Jersey Shore, from Connecticut.
[51:54.310 --> 51:57.490]  And a number of stations go on those frequencies.
[51:57.870 --> 52:07.330]  So mid-afternoon, you know, 1063, which is a country music station from the New Jersey Shore, will suddenly turn into a Caribbean flatbush station.
[52:07.490 --> 52:12.690]  And so I don't think that their listeners are really hearing the bite.
[52:12.690 --> 52:16.110]  So, you know, try to be cagey.
[52:18.310 --> 52:21.170]  One more piece of advice for the fellow who asked.
[52:22.410 --> 52:25.090]  Amazon sells very nice low-power transmissions.
[52:27.570 --> 52:29.830]  They sound nice and they work well.
[52:30.050 --> 52:31.150]  Well, look on eBay.
[52:31.450 --> 52:35.270]  I have some slides, but I just kind of had to jump over a few things.
[52:36.170 --> 52:36.310]  Yes?
[52:37.290 --> 52:40.570]  The pirates seem to cater to particular communities.
[52:40.930 --> 52:41.030]  Right.
[52:41.030 --> 52:43.770]  To what extent are they interacting with each other or supporting each other?
[52:46.810 --> 52:47.670]  Not a lot.
[52:48.170 --> 52:52.950]  I think like DJ Sintronics was talking about, I think there's some rivalry.
[52:53.570 --> 52:57.470]  But I have heard recently through John Anderson, who we're both trying to get...
[52:57.470 --> 53:02.050]  I have some inroads to some of the pirates, but they've not wanted to talk on the record as yet.
[53:02.330 --> 53:06.330]  That preacher that I found on the street, he was on a pirate station.
[53:06.430 --> 53:08.650]  He didn't even know it was a pirate station.
[53:09.650 --> 53:12.310]  But I've heard that they do have some loose cooperation.
[53:12.850 --> 53:13.390]  There you go.
[53:13.950 --> 53:14.170]  Yes?
[53:14.390 --> 53:16.330]  What was the model number of the F1 receiver?
[53:16.630 --> 53:18.570]  The F1 HD, Sony.
[53:18.910 --> 53:22.010]  It's an HD receiver as well.
[53:22.150 --> 53:24.030]  Really nice, selective, sensitive radio.
[53:25.330 --> 53:28.330]  Talk to me and I'll tell you how to get a cheaper one.
[53:28.330 --> 53:29.330]  Yes, in the back.
[53:30.370 --> 53:41.470]  Some of the FCC commissioners have recently said on the record, they're no longer going to go after the pirates unless there's public safety issues.
[53:42.030 --> 53:47.110]  So I'm going to ask you mystically, like, in a joking way, why are we paying taxes?
[53:47.450 --> 53:48.290]  Why did we...
[53:48.290 --> 53:52.290]  Have you spoken to the FCC and why aren't they taking you to the FCC?
[53:53.490 --> 54:01.870]  I've not spoken to them yet, but I did speak to that gentleman that was referred to, David Donovan, the head of the New York State Broadcasters, and he used to work for the FCC.
[54:03.110 --> 54:12.230]  Basically, it's...they don't have the money and they've been trying to criminalize it more in New York and New Jersey to give it a little bite.
[54:12.430 --> 54:21.050]  The broadcasters wrote Wheeler...actually, the Congress people wrote on behalf of the broadcasters, Congress people in New Jersey and New York.
[54:21.590 --> 54:24.310]  And Wheeler wrote back and was like, well, you know, it's a problem.
[54:24.410 --> 54:26.230]  We know about it and there's not much we can do.
[54:26.630 --> 54:28.790]  So they're not spending a lot of money on it.
[54:28.790 --> 54:36.550]  But they did propose some measures to try and like, if you're hosting one, you know, you're letting people have space, you could be liable.
[54:36.710 --> 54:40.590]  They're trying to criminalize it, but there's no teeth at the moment, you know.
[54:40.810 --> 54:43.490]  So I just think, you know, it's been this way for 20 years.
[54:44.050 --> 54:45.310]  There's safety in numbers.
[54:45.570 --> 54:47.270]  They're not all going to go down.
[54:48.350 --> 54:48.790]  Yes?
[54:49.150 --> 54:51.650]  What kind of antenna are you using for receiving?
[54:52.010 --> 54:54.630]  Ah, I'm using the trusty Godar.
[54:54.890 --> 54:56.270]  It's G-O-D-A-R.
[54:56.270 --> 54:59.250]  They have some interesting shortwave and FM antennas.
[54:59.410 --> 55:00.350]  Look on eBay.
[55:01.550 --> 55:04.450]  I could have it out, swiveling around, but I just put it on a chair.
[55:04.710 --> 55:07.670]  It's like an FM HDTV antenna.
[55:08.190 --> 55:10.190]  And it's very directional and it's good.
[55:10.230 --> 55:13.510]  Because sometimes some of these frequencies are three channels.
[55:13.670 --> 55:13.850]  Yes?
[55:14.990 --> 55:17.290]  I come from the other side of the Atlantic.
[55:17.290 --> 55:21.590]  And we have a slightly different situation regarding pirate broadcasting.
[55:21.850 --> 55:31.710]  I just wonder what is the situation of medium wave or AM and shortwave pirate radio stations here in the area and in the United States?
[55:33.530 --> 55:36.470]  In the New York area, there's just one pirate.
[55:37.510 --> 55:39.010]  And actually, I couldn't find them yesterday.
[55:39.190 --> 55:40.230]  It was Radio Mo Shiok.
[55:40.390 --> 55:42.290]  Give us an hour of your attention and we'll bring you the redemption.
[55:42.670 --> 55:43.770]  They're on 1640.
[55:44.030 --> 55:44.930]  They used to be on...
[55:44.930 --> 55:48.770]  They used to announce as, we're on 1620 to 1640.
[55:50.230 --> 55:51.730]  And they've been on a bunch of FM.
[55:51.870 --> 55:52.710]  That's the main one.
[55:52.790 --> 55:56.010]  I know in Boston there are some more medium wave pirates.
[55:56.010 --> 56:00.530]  And shortwave are not any that I'm aware of in the immediate area.
[56:00.730 --> 56:05.250]  But across the United States, if you tune into the 6-1...
[56:05.250 --> 56:06.670]  I'll tell you the frequencies.
[56:08.070 --> 56:09.390]  Thank you, 6925.
[56:09.790 --> 56:11.090]  Thank you so much.
[56:11.530 --> 56:12.330]  We've got to wrap up.