[00:04.230 --> 00:11.790]  I have my friend Tim Smith with me, and Craig, I don't have your last name, but in this business, a lot of people don't give their last names.
[00:12.090 --> 00:12.610]  Garg.
[00:12.750 --> 00:13.670]  Garg, matey.
[00:14.790 --> 00:17.030]  Garg, matey, give me a cup of garg.
[00:18.410 --> 00:19.350]  Pirate Radio.
[00:21.590 --> 00:30.750]  Pirate Radio and I have had a lot of experience, and I guess one of the reasons you folks here are here is to...
[00:30.750 --> 00:37.330]  get a more in-depth perspective on free radio, pirate radio, whatever you want to call it.
[00:38.350 --> 00:44.310]  I myself have been involved in broadcasting one way or the other, I guess, for the last 30 years.
[00:45.170 --> 00:57.010]  And it started with me back in the 1960s, when I was about 15 years old, and I saw a program on NBC television.
[00:58.030 --> 01:01.070]  In fact, Tim, why don't you hand me that shortwave radio?
[01:01.170 --> 01:02.070]  Oh, this one here.
[01:02.270 --> 01:09.110]  Yeah, because, you know, we've been looking at computer screens and all kinds of fancy new technology and wireless.
[01:09.450 --> 01:11.110]  You know, something old is now something new.
[01:11.790 --> 01:17.890]  Well, the wireless that I grew up with was a lot bigger than this, but this is what we're talking about today.
[01:17.890 --> 01:26.330]  This is a Radio Shack DX 396 AM FM shortwave receiver.
[01:26.850 --> 01:29.630]  So, the theme of the program is right here.
[01:30.350 --> 01:39.470]  But anyway, back when I was a younger lad, saw this program on NBC television about the golden days of radio.
[01:39.470 --> 01:40.410]  It was a documentary.
[01:40.770 --> 01:41.470]  It was in black and white.
[01:41.830 --> 01:42.910]  It was in the 60s.
[01:43.030 --> 01:43.730]  It was on TV.
[01:45.430 --> 01:52.790]  And they were talking about how radio came into the lives and into the homes of people all across this great land.
[01:53.790 --> 01:59.030]  And how, this is back in the, like, 20s and 30s, when there wasn't any television.
[01:59.270 --> 02:02.590]  A little bit experimentally, but not any television broadcasting, as we know.
[02:02.590 --> 02:03.650]  Certainly no computers.
[02:04.230 --> 02:10.130]  And phone lines, well, they were strong, but it was pretty expensive to make a long distance call back in those days.
[02:10.370 --> 02:12.570]  So, people had radio, brought it into their homes.
[02:13.250 --> 02:21.230]  Fireside chats by FDR, The Shadow, you know, CBS Mystery Theater, all the different stuff that they had.
[02:21.630 --> 02:24.090]  The soap operas during the day, news reports.
[02:24.690 --> 02:29.510]  People would come home after a hard day's work and crowd around the radio, and they'd listen.
[02:29.510 --> 02:32.730]  And they'd use their mind to paint pictures.
[02:33.830 --> 02:41.190]  So, as a young kid, I saw this, and I said, gee, I want one of these radio stations.
[02:41.450 --> 02:42.250]  I really do.
[02:43.130 --> 02:46.690]  And I said, my heavens, how do I go about doing this?
[02:48.090 --> 02:57.070]  So, you know, as a young lass, I told my mother about it, and she said, well, why don't you write a letter to the federal government?
[02:57.070 --> 03:01.630]  And ask them how you can get your own radio station.
[03:03.050 --> 03:05.490]  Oh, yeah, you have some old stuff there.
[03:05.870 --> 03:06.650]  That's good.
[03:07.870 --> 03:09.750]  And so, I promptly did that.
[03:10.670 --> 03:30.830]  And I got this nice little form letter back, you know, informing me that radio stations, especially, because I lived in Yonkers, New York at the time, cost millions and millions of dollars to build, and that we suggest that you get into ham radio if you have any interest in radio.
[03:31.590 --> 03:34.890]  So, I said to myself, this will not do.
[03:36.050 --> 03:37.330]  I want to broadcast.
[03:37.770 --> 03:46.050]  I mean, a lot of my friends in school were kind of, especially in the older grades, were kind of dabbling around in ham radio and stuff like that, which was great, fascinating.
[03:46.670 --> 03:47.930]  But I wanted to broadcast.
[03:48.230 --> 03:58.670]  I wanted to be one of these people that had access to the airwaves, got on the air, and talked to people, play music, maybe kind of inspire listeners.
[04:00.330 --> 04:26.870]  So, I think about a year or so passed, and finally, I had had it, and I dug up the equipment, and in the basement of my parents' house at 245 Neeland Avenue in Yonkers, New York, in October, I think of 1968 or 1969, I don't even remember, I put on a 50-watt AM radio station,
[04:27.310 --> 04:33.550]  with the call letters WRAD, R-A-D standing for the first three letters of radio.
[04:34.210 --> 04:40.150]  Went on the air with 50 watts, a little bit above the AM broadcast band, like people are doing now, in 1620.
[04:41.510 --> 04:59.490]  And we put, we silkscreened, actually, we silkscreened pictures of Mr. Natural, which is on the top page there, plastered it all over the high school, Lincoln High School that I was going to, saying that, you know, a new radio station is going to take to the air.
[05:00.790 --> 05:23.610]  And sure enough, I think it was October 22nd of 1968 or 1969, we went on the air, and we broadcasted, the only records and music I had came out of my father's record collection, and he had a combination of cha-cha music and some Beethoven stuff, so the first musical selections were not the greatest thing.
[05:23.690 --> 05:34.070]  But we went on, we operated for about three days, about an hour each afternoon, because I'd get home from school about 3.30, we'd go on the air at 4, and we'd operate until 5.
[05:35.010 --> 05:41.390]  Usually by 5 o'clock, my mother was hanging around the kitchen, beginning to prepare supper, so I figured that would be a cool time to go off the air.
[05:41.570 --> 05:47.070]  Because, you know, when you run a pirate radio station, you've got to kind of fit it into your lives at the time.
[05:47.790 --> 05:52.210]  So we operated for about three or four days, and oh, everybody, you know, was listening to us.
[05:52.210 --> 05:58.370]  You know, all of our friends in high school were picking it up all over the southern part of Yonkers, New York.
[05:58.610 --> 06:04.390]  Why, even some of the teachers, even the principal of the high school was listening, saying, they should be arrested for what they're doing.
[06:04.790 --> 06:23.970]  But, actually what happened after three days, there was a knock, knock, knock at the front door of the house, and I remember I walked out of the basement, because the basement had its own entrance, and I walked around and up the driveway, and I looked where the front door of the house was,
[06:24.050 --> 06:35.230]  and just like in the movies, I see two guys with dark hats and black trench coats standing there, and I'm saying, it's the Federales.
[06:35.290 --> 06:43.550]  And I quickly run back into the basement, and a couple of my friends, you know, we were doing the programming together, I said, the FCC is here, and they were gone.
[06:43.890 --> 06:46.650]  Just like, bing, just like in a cartoon.
[06:46.870 --> 06:48.130]  They were like out the back door.
[06:48.410 --> 06:54.330]  I ran out the back door, and I went over to my friend's house, and I stayed there for a couple of hours.
[06:54.590 --> 07:11.290]  And then I came back, and my mother, who ran interference, actually she was pretty cool, she said, well, they went downstairs, and they took some tubes out of your transmitters, and, you know, they wanted you to see this letter that what you're doing is against the law.
[07:11.670 --> 07:12.930]  My mother was very cool, though.
[07:13.030 --> 07:14.170]  She invited him in the house.
[07:14.470 --> 07:19.310]  They, you know, had him over, you know, served him some tea and cake and stuff like that.
[07:19.410 --> 07:26.230]  And they said, well, you know, your son is a very intelligent person, but what he's doing is definitely against the law, and he can't do that anymore.
[07:26.990 --> 07:28.030]  And that was it.
[07:28.150 --> 07:33.290]  So I got home, and my father said, well, son, you know, it looks like you really can't do this.
[07:33.890 --> 07:35.710]  I hate to be told I can't do things.
[07:35.950 --> 07:37.810]  I think a lot of you people don't like that, right?
[07:38.490 --> 07:41.390]  A lot of you people don't like to be told, can't do this!
[07:43.050 --> 07:43.410]  Yeah.
[07:43.410 --> 07:54.110]  So, needless to say, they removed some of the tubes of the transmitter, they cut some cables out of the transmitter, and I guess within an hour or two, I patched everything back together.
[07:54.110 --> 07:58.390]  I remember they took the transmitting tubes out, and they said, oh, he'll never find these.
[07:58.670 --> 08:05.750]  You know, there were 807s and HK-60s and all these weird kind of old transmitting tubes, because it was a military surplus transmitter from World War II.
[08:06.710 --> 08:19.270]  So, I remember that weekend, my friends and I went down to the Canal Street area here in New York City, which was a great place to get stuff, and I picked up a set of tubes for five bucks or something like that, went back, stuck them in, and sure enough,
[08:19.330 --> 08:21.270]  a month later, we were rocking and rolling again.
[08:21.270 --> 08:31.710]  So, speeding all this up, going through the multiple radio stations we had, we went to FM, and again, I met a couple of other people.
[08:31.930 --> 08:35.770]  We set up a station in North Yonkers, we set up a station in South Yonkers.
[08:36.030 --> 08:46.090]  We exclusively operated on 1620 AM and on 87.9 FM, which I think some people pirate in the New York City area still.
[08:46.090 --> 08:52.470]  That's a guard band between the aural carrier of Channel 6 and the beginning of the FM broadcast band.
[08:52.810 --> 08:55.090]  So, we did that for quite a while.
[08:56.070 --> 09:06.470]  Through the years of 1971, we actually had 30 or 40 people working at the station, all my friends from the high school, all the kids in the area.
[09:06.470 --> 09:17.150]  And you know, it was really cool, because we were doing stuff creatively with the pirate stations, or the free radio stations as we called them.
[09:18.150 --> 09:29.310]  We were probably one of the very first stations, remember this is 1970, 1971, that began to take live phone calls over the air without a delay.
[09:30.970 --> 09:43.110]  And we would invite people to get access to radio in the New York area by calling us up, and we would just patch them directly using a crude phone patch at the time.
[09:43.270 --> 09:47.370]  Because you know, the phones, telephones back in the 60s and 70s were sacred stuff.
[09:47.950 --> 09:49.510]  Nobody could touch the phones.
[09:49.870 --> 09:53.770]  But we figured a way to patch the phone lines over the air and things like that.
[09:55.350 --> 10:06.090]  And we, of course, were playing all the latest rock and roll music, which was, you know, exploding in diversity in the late 60s and early 70s.
[10:06.330 --> 10:09.430]  It still is, but you know, it was kind of a special time then.
[10:10.010 --> 10:13.630]  And we were really, really having a lot of fun.
[10:14.810 --> 10:24.950]  And I think contributing to the radio art in itself, you know, making an absolute, well, hopefully a positive contribution, getting a lot of people on the air.
[10:25.050 --> 10:26.450]  We had political programs.
[10:26.510 --> 10:28.870]  Of course, it was the war in Vietnam at that time.
[10:29.210 --> 10:31.410]  I know I'm talking ancient history here, but it was.
[10:31.530 --> 10:34.650]  It was the war in Vietnam and a lot of people were very upset.
[10:35.210 --> 10:37.970]  And a lot of my friends and high school buddies were upset.
[10:38.190 --> 10:40.830]  And, you know, back then, who had access to radio?
[10:41.330 --> 10:42.250]  There was no access.
[10:42.530 --> 10:49.630]  I mean, radio was very much controlled by, especially in the New York area, by major family concerns in business.
[10:49.630 --> 11:02.250]  So, you know, it was unheard of for anybody to get any air time to broadcast anything that would rock the boat or the status quo, unless there was some commercial purpose for it.
[11:03.650 --> 11:07.710]  So, we ran this station until August of 1971.
[11:07.710 --> 11:11.030]  And we were promptly busted, and busted good.
[11:12.750 --> 11:17.590]  They came in with tractor trailers and federal agents.
[11:18.010 --> 11:21.610]  And they shut our station down August 12th of 1971.
[11:22.030 --> 11:23.930]  They arrested myself and my partner.
[11:24.550 --> 11:28.090]  They brought us down to Foley Square, threw us in a jail cell.
[11:28.590 --> 11:31.330]  And when we were in the jail cell, you know, it's really funny.
[11:31.790 --> 11:33.030]  Because I always remember this.
[11:33.630 --> 11:38.690]  We're in the cell and, you know, there's mother rapers and father rapers.
[11:39.230 --> 11:41.570]  All kinds of weird people in that cell.
[11:42.190 --> 11:46.710]  And they come up to us and they say, Alright, what are you in for?
[11:48.550 --> 11:49.950]  Running a radio station.
[11:49.950 --> 11:52.530]  They looked at us and just went to the other side of the cell.
[11:52.710 --> 11:54.250]  But, you know, anyway.
[11:55.350 --> 11:56.530]  We got out.
[11:56.590 --> 11:57.410]  We were arraigned.
[11:57.590 --> 12:10.350]  We were charged with several counts of violating the Broadcasting Act, the Telecommunications Act of 1934, which basically states by those people, Thou shall not transmit without license.
[12:11.010 --> 12:14.150]  We were not fined because they didn't think of doing that back then.
[12:14.210 --> 12:15.130]  They do that a lot now.
[12:16.450 --> 12:18.930]  And we were released in our own recognizance.
[12:20.350 --> 12:22.390]  We had good representation.
[12:22.790 --> 12:25.450]  We got off with about a one year of probation.
[12:25.770 --> 12:29.010]  And they did confiscate all of our equipment.
[12:29.730 --> 12:31.530]  And there was a lot of it.
[12:31.610 --> 12:34.490]  Because we had a lot of different transmitting gear.
[12:34.630 --> 12:40.030]  We were also experimenting with television before they finally lowered the boom.
[12:40.650 --> 12:44.970]  We were putting some signals on Channel 6 in the New York City area.
[12:45.190 --> 12:47.670]  Definitely getting a lot of people upset with that.
[12:47.670 --> 12:51.150]  And television equipment back then was really expensive.
[12:51.370 --> 12:54.670]  I mean, a TV camera was hundreds of thousands of dollars.
[12:55.410 --> 13:00.710]  But we were playing around with old surveillance cameras that we dug up surplus and things like that.
[13:00.930 --> 13:03.850]  And surplus World War II television cameras.
[13:04.050 --> 13:05.190]  It was a different time.
[13:05.190 --> 13:16.490]  The availability of equipment to do free radio now is a thousand times fold than what was available back in the 60s and 70s.
[13:17.250 --> 13:21.570]  So the moral of the story is we did it.
[13:21.710 --> 13:22.410]  We got busted.
[13:22.410 --> 13:26.570]  And then I got into more legitimate type of radio.
[13:26.790 --> 13:28.090]  But I still pirated.
[13:28.930 --> 13:36.150]  And my last official pirate radio station was shut down in 1982.
[13:37.330 --> 13:46.250]  And that I had moved to Maine, up in northern Maine, but I built a radio station up there that used a 400-foot tower.
[13:46.430 --> 13:47.090]  It was a legal station.
[13:47.250 --> 13:55.790]  But at night, we would take the 400-foot tower and feed 1620 AM into it and propagate all over the east coast of the United States.
[13:56.530 --> 14:01.290]  And finally, the FCC kind of... they didn't really bust us, but they kind of got tuned to it.
[14:01.410 --> 14:02.730]  So we shut down.
[14:03.010 --> 14:07.330]  And that was the last pirate radio that I did.
[14:08.370 --> 14:12.990]  I did try to cover radio in the New York City area.
[14:13.210 --> 14:20.790]  Because I always wanted to put a high-powered, legal free station in the New York City area.
[14:20.790 --> 14:35.910]  And back in 1987, I parked a ship off of the coast of Long Island, New York, and went on the air with 5,000 watts on 1620 and 1,000 watts on 103.1.
[14:36.530 --> 14:39.250]  And that lasted a total of about four days.
[14:39.430 --> 14:41.870]  It's always the three- or four-day magic thing there.
[14:42.490 --> 14:47.670]  And then, well, they came out with more than the FCC, and they shut us down.
[14:47.670 --> 14:52.170]  But I don't consider that a pirate station.
[14:52.310 --> 14:57.410]  I consider that perfectly legal because we were outside of the three-mile territorial limit.
[14:58.070 --> 15:04.530]  So now, fast-forwarding and going through other miscellaneous commercial stations that I've been involved with.
[15:04.530 --> 15:10.430]  So now, about four years ago, I set up...
[15:10.430 --> 15:10.810]  Oh, thank you.
[15:11.390 --> 15:13.710]  Yeah, that's great.
[15:14.830 --> 15:16.690]  So we operated...
[15:16.690 --> 15:19.990]  Unfortunately, the station didn't last very long.
[15:20.170 --> 15:21.690]  But it definitely made a lot of waves.
[15:22.770 --> 15:29.110]  But fast-forwarding to what's happening now is there's a different kind of radio that's available.
[15:30.950 --> 15:36.570]  And pirate radio now is now spending a lot of time on something known as shortwave.
[15:37.090 --> 15:39.430]  How many of you know what shortwave radio is?
[15:39.630 --> 15:40.470]  Raise your hands.
[15:40.670 --> 15:41.190]  Ah, good.
[15:41.590 --> 15:43.370]  I'm not speaking to the completely ignorant.
[15:43.590 --> 15:44.310]  Who doesn't know them?
[15:44.510 --> 15:45.130]  You don't know them.
[15:45.470 --> 15:46.250]  I know nothing.
[15:46.450 --> 15:46.690]  Nothing.
[15:47.810 --> 15:49.650]  As I said, this is a shortwave receiver.
[15:49.650 --> 16:07.650]  Four years ago, after 13 years of fighting with the Federal Communications Commission, they finally granted me a license to build a 50,000-watt shortwave station on my property in Northern Maine.
[16:07.790 --> 16:10.690]  The same property that we pirated out of back in 1982.
[16:11.610 --> 16:14.430]  And I operate a radio station along with Tim.
[16:15.750 --> 16:18.590]  That's known as WBCQ, the planet.
[16:19.630 --> 16:21.350]  And we went on the air.
[16:22.650 --> 16:24.610]  You can show some of those pictures.
[16:27.070 --> 16:30.650]  Yeah, this is a more pastoral shot of the station.
[16:30.870 --> 16:32.530]  That's the entrance of the station.
[16:32.670 --> 16:35.210]  Northern Maine is in the middle of nowhere.
[16:35.610 --> 16:36.730]  Complete with trailers.
[16:37.470 --> 16:40.750]  And buses for storage and all this stuff.
[16:40.990 --> 16:45.030]  Yes, it's your down-home Tobacco Road radio station.
[16:45.410 --> 16:51.010]  But we built this station, as I said, about four years ago, in 1998.
[16:52.410 --> 16:56.370]  And we operate it as a...
[16:56.370 --> 17:01.870]  Some people call WBCQ the country's first licensed pirate.
[17:02.430 --> 17:08.990]  What we do is, we offer air time to anyone that wants to get on the air, like you.
[17:10.810 --> 17:12.890]  WDCD and some of the folks.
[17:13.250 --> 17:13.270]  Off the hook.
[17:13.270 --> 17:14.170]  Off the hook, right.
[17:15.910 --> 17:17.810]  And we offer air time.
[17:18.050 --> 17:23.570]  We have to charge a nominal fee for it, because running a 50-kilowatt transmitter is very expensive.
[17:24.170 --> 17:26.590]  In fact, that's one of our transmitters there.
[17:26.590 --> 17:34.770]  And we operate this station, and it has the philosophy of giving people access to the airwaves.
[17:34.890 --> 17:40.650]  And giving them an opportunity to get their message uncensored.
[17:40.650 --> 17:42.910]  And you guys can attest to that.
[17:44.250 --> 17:47.210]  Uncensored over our airwaves.
[17:47.210 --> 17:55.310]  Now, shortwave, I believe, is turning into this kind of marvelous old underground medium.
[17:56.270 --> 18:08.450]  As people throughout the world are getting more discontent with the humdrum of local AM and FM, they're going out and they're buying shortwave radios, which are very inexpensive.
[18:08.450 --> 18:12.190]  I mean, you can spend $20 on one, you can spend $2,000 on one.
[18:12.290 --> 18:12.970]  They go the whole game.
[18:13.070 --> 18:16.250]  But this one was, I don't know, 70 bucks or so.
[18:17.790 --> 18:18.990]  And, yeah, on this one.
[18:19.070 --> 18:20.230]  Oh, yeah, SW1.
[18:20.570 --> 18:22.630]  I go, was this like $200 or something like that?
[18:22.730 --> 18:23.670]  I had a flea mark for $40.
[18:23.950 --> 18:24.970]  Ah, what a bargain.
[18:25.090 --> 18:26.070]  I wish you'd find one for me.
[18:26.250 --> 18:29.310]  I had one, but it got all wrecked when I dropped it into the salt water.
[18:29.390 --> 18:30.150]  That was the end of that.
[18:30.330 --> 18:31.090]  I agree with you.
[18:31.250 --> 18:31.350]  Yeah.
[18:31.570 --> 18:32.730]  Oh, and this is a...
[18:33.410 --> 18:39.990]  Yeah, this is a, well, the front panel for a car radio that Sony makes, which also picks up shortwave.
[18:42.150 --> 18:47.530]  And so, you know, there's lots of opportunities to get shortwave radios now.
[18:47.630 --> 18:56.190]  But you know what's happening with shortwave is people throughout the country and the world are tuning into shortwave now to hear wild and wacky stuff.
[18:57.490 --> 19:04.110]  And WBCQ, I am proud to report, definitely has a lot of wild and wacky stuff on it.
[19:04.550 --> 19:07.470]  Take down a website, wbcq.net.
[19:08.290 --> 19:13.950]  In your spare time, go to it, and you can download our complete broadcast schedule.
[19:14.230 --> 19:15.430]  I can give you a tip.
[19:15.590 --> 19:16.770]  The weekends are the best.
[19:17.890 --> 19:19.090]  Unfortunately to...
[19:19.090 --> 19:29.570]  Well, I can't say unfortunately, but the reality is to keep money coming into the coffers, we do sell time to religious organizations.
[19:29.970 --> 19:30.650]  The Bible beaters.
[19:30.650 --> 19:32.250]  Yes, we do.
[19:32.430 --> 19:34.410]  We do sell time to the Bible beaters.
[19:35.310 --> 19:35.810]  Yes, we do.
[19:35.810 --> 19:41.890]  But we do that because it costs a lot of money to run the transmitters and pay people to operate them.
[19:41.890 --> 19:46.530]  You know, one transmitting to it was $8,000 and we have to replace it.
[19:46.610 --> 19:47.950]  I mean, it's big stuff.
[19:48.150 --> 19:54.910]  But the government requires an international shortwave station to have a minimal output power of 50,000 watts.
[19:54.950 --> 20:02.050]  So we have to adhere to the FCC's rules, even though we could do the same with 10, but it's the government.
[20:02.850 --> 20:04.230]  And that's one of our transmitters.
[20:04.810 --> 20:06.030]  They are actually under construction.
[20:06.030 --> 20:07.450]  That's why it looks a little messy.
[20:08.390 --> 20:08.730]  And...
[20:08.730 --> 20:09.270]  Photos.
[20:09.530 --> 20:10.530]  Yeah, they're old photos.
[20:10.770 --> 20:11.710]  Couldn't find any new ones.
[20:11.890 --> 20:12.290]  But anyway.
[20:14.390 --> 20:18.870]  And, you know, so as I said, we charge a nominal fee and we get people on the air.
[20:18.950 --> 20:21.590]  But it's actually a very fascinating radio station.
[20:22.250 --> 20:34.910]  And I believe that even with the internet, which is a great resource in which we use now to connect a lot of people up, we just, some of our clients, we just pick up off their website and broadcast them on shortwave.
[20:35.230 --> 20:42.850]  But the nice thing about shortwave is, and the nice thing about radio is, is that it's simple.
[20:43.370 --> 20:48.090]  And to most people, it's so simple, they can just pick up a receiver and tune it in.
[20:49.010 --> 20:59.530]  And I know that a lot of you here, a lot of you folks here this morning are probably here because you're interested in putting your own radio station on the air.
[20:59.670 --> 21:00.610]  Now I can say this.
[21:00.970 --> 21:02.270]  I have to say this.
[21:02.370 --> 21:03.670]  And you know why I have to say this.
[21:03.870 --> 21:12.790]  As a licensed broadcaster, I cannot advocate or encourage any of you to build your own pirate radio station.
[21:13.150 --> 21:14.270]  Buy them pre-made.
[21:14.270 --> 21:15.150]  Okay.
[21:15.630 --> 21:18.090]  I can't do that.
[21:19.030 --> 21:23.210]  But I can certainly understand why you would want to.
[21:24.030 --> 21:28.330]  Because unfortunately, the government has not, even with the LP-FM.
[21:28.410 --> 21:30.050]  How many of you know about Low Power FM?
[21:30.630 --> 21:31.190]  Yeah.
[21:31.370 --> 21:35.310]  Even with LPFM, they haven't done what we all hoped they would do.
[21:35.410 --> 21:42.030]  And that is provide bands of frequencies where people could literally put on amateur broadcasting stations.
[21:42.850 --> 21:44.010]  Easily and simply.
[21:44.310 --> 21:50.970]  Where you just send in an application, find a frequency, which you'll probably have to share with lots of others, and go on the air.
[21:51.490 --> 21:55.750]  LP-FM is still, you know, there's only a certain number of stations.
[21:55.990 --> 22:05.890]  Congress definitely squelched it back because the major FM and broadcasters in this country were so afraid that there was actually maybe something different on the air.
[22:06.870 --> 22:09.690]  But, so many of you are probably thinking about this.
[22:09.690 --> 22:18.730]  What I have learned through the years is people that engage in free radio and pirate radio are at risk of several things.
[22:19.210 --> 22:27.070]  If you put a station on the air, the new tactic that the government does now is they come in and they arrest all of your equipment.
[22:28.230 --> 22:33.510]  Meaning if you set up a station like this on shortwave, you know, using a converted ham transmitter.
[22:33.790 --> 22:35.210]  Do we have any FM stuff here?
[22:35.490 --> 22:38.030]  No, just shortwave, just high frequency stuff.
[22:38.450 --> 22:45.810]  Because, you know, there are plethoras of FM transmitters that you can buy from all kinds of companies.
[22:45.930 --> 22:48.610]  One that comes to mind is Ramsey Kits.
[22:49.250 --> 22:51.210]  They sell, they're on the net, Ramsey.
[22:51.510 --> 22:53.990]  They sell all kinds of FM transmitters.
[22:54.150 --> 22:55.490]  You know, you can literally just plug and play.
[22:55.630 --> 22:56.230]  You buy these things.
[22:56.370 --> 22:57.590]  You know, we had to build them from scratch.
[22:57.590 --> 22:59.690]  I mean, back in the 60s and 70s.
[22:59.790 --> 23:02.230]  And today you just send away and get one.
[23:03.030 --> 23:07.590]  But you go on the air and generally they'll give you a few warnings.
[23:07.910 --> 23:14.670]  You know, they might knock on your door or they might fine you $10,000 or something like that.
[23:14.670 --> 23:16.170]  But generally they'll give you a few warnings.
[23:16.350 --> 23:20.970]  If you don't stop, they'll come in there and they'll start dragging your equipment and dragging things out.
[23:21.570 --> 23:23.930]  Anything that's attached in line from your transmitter.
[23:24.130 --> 23:27.410]  If you have a computer hooked up to a transmitter to run your audio from, they'll take that.
[23:27.630 --> 23:27.850]  Yeah.
[23:28.170 --> 23:29.770]  Well, they'll go beyond that.
[23:30.010 --> 23:31.350]  I mean, they'll take furniture.
[23:31.510 --> 23:33.130]  It depends how nasty they want to be.
[23:33.350 --> 23:34.430]  They'll take furniture.
[23:34.630 --> 23:35.590]  They'll clean your house out.
[23:35.730 --> 23:39.070]  Because they'll say, well, everything here was used in the commission of this crime.
[23:39.230 --> 23:40.270]  The entire record collection.
[23:40.390 --> 23:41.030]  Oh, absolutely.
[23:41.110 --> 23:41.630]  Records go.
[23:42.190 --> 23:43.590]  You know, CDs gone.
[23:43.590 --> 23:45.630]  Now, they don't do this that often.
[23:45.870 --> 23:47.330]  I mean, the FCC is like anybody.
[23:47.610 --> 23:49.470]  They always look, you know, like any bureaucracy.
[23:49.490 --> 23:51.950]  They always look for the easy, fast, cheap way out.
[23:52.150 --> 23:54.710]  So generally they give a couple of warnings and whatever.
[23:54.890 --> 24:02.470]  But there have been some, you know, pirate broadcasters that get on the air and they fight them and they lose.
[24:02.810 --> 24:05.930]  And then they come in and they rape and pillage.
[24:07.770 --> 24:17.590]  But, I can tell you this, after all the years that I've done radio, if you're going to do any kind of free radio, make sure you're doing it for a good reason.
[24:18.810 --> 24:24.770]  If you want to get on the air and just play music and basically radio masturbate, it ain't worth it.
[24:24.770 --> 24:25.530]  Go on the internet.
[24:25.970 --> 24:27.710]  You know, set up an internet radio station.
[24:28.930 --> 24:29.410]  You know.
[24:31.250 --> 24:33.090]  Yeah, I know, I know, I know, I know.
[24:33.190 --> 24:38.190]  That's a whole different problem now, which is disgusting, but that's the way it is.
[24:38.370 --> 24:42.990]  Anytime anybody develops something good and fun, there are all these people that figure out how to make money out of it.
[24:45.510 --> 24:56.190]  So, if you're going to take a transmitter and do something with it that is not, you know, the status quo or however you want to call it, just be careful.
[24:56.350 --> 24:57.410]  Make sure it's for a good reason.
[24:57.850 --> 25:04.130]  Anytime that we would do pirate radio, we did it because there was a reason.
[25:04.130 --> 25:12.910]  You know, whether it was allowing people to get access and have free expression, to express a political dissent.
[25:13.470 --> 25:20.210]  In fact, I don't think there are any clandestine radio, you know, clandestine stations.
[25:21.210 --> 25:25.350]  In other words, politically motivated stations currently operating in the country.
[25:25.470 --> 25:26.070]  There have been.
[25:27.090 --> 25:35.650]  But, in other words, if you're going to do it, which I can't encourage you to do, but if you're going to do it, make sure it's for a darn good reason.
[25:35.930 --> 25:44.310]  You know, if you just want to get on the air and play music and whatever and listen to yourself, you know, that there are risks involved because they also fine.
[25:44.790 --> 25:46.330]  They also will fine you.
[25:46.750 --> 25:48.650]  And the fines are usually hefty.
[25:48.730 --> 25:51.370]  They usually try to give you a whopping fine.
[25:51.550 --> 25:59.050]  You know, like they'll start out with $20,000 and then you'll piss and moan and cry at them and then maybe they'll reduce it to five or whatever.
[26:00.150 --> 26:09.510]  And a lot of people I know that have gotten bagged and heavily fined, a lot of them have never really paid the fine, but it's still pending and it's still in action that they've got to deal with.
[26:09.930 --> 26:13.190]  So if you're going to do free radio, make sure it's for a good reason and a good cause.
[26:13.350 --> 26:19.490]  And as I said, I can't advocate it because of my position, but I do understand why it happens.
[26:19.490 --> 26:31.430]  There are communities, there are groups of people that want access to radio in a community or a city and there just aren't any channels left and there's just no way for them to do it.
[26:31.670 --> 26:34.250]  And they get frustrated and they go on the air.
[26:35.030 --> 26:38.050]  And I understand that because I was one of those people.
[26:39.710 --> 26:51.030]  We do at WBCQ have airtime and we make it available at special rates for people that are trying to do free radio on something really different.
[26:51.670 --> 27:03.690]  So if any of you out there are actually ever thinking of really doing some radio broadcasting and you want to get on the short waves, which covers at times all over the world.
[27:03.950 --> 27:07.190]  You know, we beam our signal out of Northern Maine using this stuff.
[27:07.550 --> 27:10.750]  In fact, I think there's a picture of our, yeah, that's one of our antennas.
[27:11.930 --> 27:16.950]  It's a, it kind of looks like a gigantic TV antenna, but the elements are like 60 feet long.
[27:17.650 --> 27:18.350]  Yeah, that's better.
[27:18.970 --> 27:27.950]  We beam out, you know, using antennas like this at a Northern Maine, meaning that we beam towards Mexico, but obviously the United States is in the way.
[27:27.950 --> 27:30.910]  So we cover, we cover a lot of the US.
[27:31.170 --> 27:32.510]  We get into Europe.
[27:33.010 --> 27:34.350]  We get your signal out.
[27:34.570 --> 27:38.610]  So if you want more information on us, go to WBCQ.net.
[27:38.830 --> 27:41.690]  We also have a site at WBCQ.com.
[27:42.670 --> 27:47.290]  That's, we have an audio stream there for our main service on 7415.
[27:47.630 --> 27:50.770]  So WBCQ.net, WBCQ.com.
[27:51.150 --> 27:53.450]  And don't forget Complex Variables Studio.
[27:53.450 --> 27:53.730]  Right.
[27:53.730 --> 27:58.630]  Well, we have lots of photographs at ComplexVariablesStudio.com.
[27:58.950 --> 27:59.850]  I'm not going to write that down.
[27:59.850 --> 28:00.590]  No, don't write that down.
[28:00.730 --> 28:02.070]  I can't even type it in.
[28:02.110 --> 28:02.650]  It's all one word.
[28:05.570 --> 28:06.170]  ComplexVariablesStudio.com.
[28:06.410 --> 28:10.590]  That will, that will get you to a site where we have lots of photographs.
[28:11.430 --> 28:13.650]  And so you can see pictures of the station.
[28:14.170 --> 28:18.590]  But we can help get your signal and your message on the air.
[28:19.150 --> 28:20.270]  The rates are low.
[28:20.430 --> 28:22.270]  We charge a fee, you know, per hour.
[28:22.390 --> 28:24.630]  But we have to because it's electricity.
[28:24.870 --> 28:32.870]  And obviously we have to hire, you know, I have people that help us and got to pay them something to operate the equipment.
[28:35.170 --> 28:37.050]  And, you know, we'll get you on the air.
[28:37.150 --> 28:41.990]  But I do encourage everyone out there to invest in a shortwave radio.
[28:42.510 --> 28:47.730]  And write our frequency down of 7415, my dear friend.
[28:48.610 --> 28:51.210]  Because that's where we operate on the shortwave.
[28:51.870 --> 28:53.710]  That's our main frequency.
[28:53.990 --> 28:55.850]  Our main frequency out of Maine.
[28:56.390 --> 28:59.270]  Is 7.415 megahertz.
[29:00.070 --> 29:03.990]  And a good time to listen is on the weekends.
[29:04.710 --> 29:06.970]  Especially tonight, 8 to midnight.
[29:07.310 --> 29:11.590]  When Radio New York International goes on the air from Brooklyn, New York.
[29:12.690 --> 29:12.890]  Yeah.
[29:16.710 --> 29:20.630]  Excuse me, there is a mic up there, if you could kindly use it.
[29:25.830 --> 29:26.670]  By anything...
[29:26.670 --> 29:27.010]  By anything...
[29:27.010 --> 29:28.110]  Oh, I hate this.
[29:28.790 --> 29:29.570]  I know, isn't it...
[29:29.570 --> 29:30.030]  Go ahead.
[29:30.250 --> 29:31.390]  I hear you fine.
[29:31.570 --> 29:34.650]  By censor, do you mean people can say any foul language they want?
[29:34.730 --> 29:38.270]  Because I'm an amateur radio and I was told that using foul language over the airwaves...
[29:38.770 --> 29:45.630]  All right, well, we have programmers, one of them sitting right here, that use four-letter words on WBCQ.
[29:45.710 --> 29:53.010]  I mean, obviously we don't really encourage it, but we do not tell people that they can't say this or they can't say that.
[29:53.010 --> 29:59.230]  We tell them to use good judgment in, you know, whatever they're doing.
[29:59.450 --> 30:08.290]  But we do have programmers that play music and comedy bits that have some of the, you know, George Carlin's Seven Dirty Words in it.
[30:08.290 --> 30:08.450]  Right.
[30:08.450 --> 30:09.910]  And I don't get hung up on it.
[30:10.030 --> 30:10.470]  I don't.
[30:11.330 --> 30:13.830]  Is there anything you can say that the FCC was asking for?
[30:13.950 --> 30:14.570]  I mean, like...
[30:14.570 --> 30:15.470]  They haven't yet.
[30:16.130 --> 30:17.050]  But can they?
[30:17.750 --> 30:23.610]  Well, the government can come in any time and query us on whatever we program.
[30:23.610 --> 30:33.890]  But actually, in all honesty, the FCC, I know many of you might find this hard to believe, the FCC has actually been very good to our station.
[30:35.390 --> 30:41.090]  They have cut us a lot of leeway because they know who we are from our past.
[30:41.710 --> 30:53.830]  And they have not ever, ever bothered us for any of our programming content because they don't like to get into that because of something called the First Amendment.
[30:55.030 --> 31:00.570]  And WBCQ is a member station of FARTS, the First Amendment radio transmitting society.
[31:00.790 --> 31:05.770]  And we are also a station that is dedicated to free speech.
[31:06.130 --> 31:07.570]  That is what we do.
[31:08.710 --> 31:10.070]  Can I ask a question?
[31:11.130 --> 31:11.490]  Hello.
[31:11.930 --> 31:16.230]  Since you started to discuss the Constitution, I'd like to raise a point.
[31:16.230 --> 31:25.410]  The Federal Communications Act quotes its source of authority as the Interstate Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.
[31:25.650 --> 31:26.230]  Is this correct?
[31:26.610 --> 31:28.930]  I believe that's one of the basis for it.
[31:29.030 --> 31:29.230]  Yes.
[31:29.770 --> 31:33.390]  Commerce is the practice of exchange for the purpose of gain.
[31:34.290 --> 31:47.050]  So if you're advertising any products, you have to have a license from the United States Agency, the FCC, to advertise and other activities pursuant to that trade.
[31:47.590 --> 31:51.730]  If you're not doing any trade, why do you have to ask for a license?
[31:52.770 --> 32:07.650]  Because, listen, I hear what your argument is, and it actually goes beyond that because a lot of people that have pirated have actually said, well, if our signal does not go over state boundaries, then why does the FCC have jurisdiction?
[32:10.790 --> 32:22.670]  The federal government under acts of Congress claims authority over anything transmitted from its shores and into its shores.
[32:22.890 --> 32:24.810]  John Gotti claimed authority, too.
[32:24.930 --> 32:26.030]  He had a gun in his pocket.
[32:26.030 --> 32:26.250]  Right.
[32:26.450 --> 32:32.850]  Well, listen, I hear what you're saying, and your argument is arguments that we have used in court.
[32:33.130 --> 32:36.170]  But the courts do not recognize it.
[32:36.290 --> 32:40.730]  They really look at the FCC as the ultimate licensing authority.
[32:41.090 --> 32:52.570]  And if the FCC comes out and says, we are going to start licensing the beams of light coming out of these spotlight projectors, it can happen.
[32:52.570 --> 33:00.850]  I don't know how the action would be framed, but there are activist lawyers that probably would refer to this.
[33:01.030 --> 33:04.710]  There's an action or a type of action called, quote, warranty.
[33:05.090 --> 33:14.170]  The FCC should be asked in a hearing to show their authority and what its nature and extent is.
[33:14.170 --> 33:16.810]  By the way, sir, they've been challenged like that.
[33:16.950 --> 33:17.210]  Good.
[33:17.510 --> 33:29.190]  And unfortunately, the people that have operated free radio stations have challenged them on similar to the issues that you're bringing up, and the courts don't see it.
[33:29.310 --> 33:30.570]  They just don't see it.
[33:30.710 --> 33:31.410]  Keep it up.
[33:31.650 --> 33:32.450]  The U.S. district courts, when they operate in the states, have very limited jurisdiction.
[33:36.630 --> 33:46.290]  I question whether they have the capacity to hear any cases at all involving citizens of states when they're not doing interstate commerce.
[33:46.570 --> 33:51.670]  They don't have the capacity to hear 95% of the cases they pretend to hear.
[33:51.670 --> 33:53.710]  I'll give it back to you.
[33:53.810 --> 34:06.550]  Before we take any more questions, my brother in arms here, Tim Smith, Tim Tron, has been involved in radio and in ham radio for years and years and years.
[34:06.710 --> 34:08.970]  And I'm sure that you have something...
[34:08.970 --> 34:10.230]  It's a little bit of a different take.
[34:10.390 --> 34:13.030]  Yeah, I'm sure you have something to add to this.
[34:13.050 --> 34:13.730]  Oh, I do.
[34:13.850 --> 34:15.310]  So, please, by all means.
[34:15.350 --> 34:15.530]  Okay.
[34:18.190 --> 34:21.030]  Well, I'll take the microphonium podium.
[34:21.550 --> 34:28.930]  But, you see, Alan's pirate efforts were a lot more flamboyant and a lot further ahead than mine ever got.
[34:29.090 --> 34:32.990]  But the big difference is, is he was busted.
[34:33.510 --> 34:34.670]  I never was.
[34:34.870 --> 34:37.610]  So, certain facts I'm going to have to withhold.
[34:38.630 --> 34:44.570]  But it all started back many, many, many years ago when I was just a little booger.
[34:44.570 --> 34:46.530]  I loved to listen to the radio.
[34:46.770 --> 34:52.150]  I loved to listen to rock and roll music, which was back in the 50s when it was all beginning to evolve.
[34:52.450 --> 34:56.010]  And the phenomena of radio fascinated me, no end.
[34:56.890 --> 35:02.490]  So after a while, I started beginning to wonder, how does this thing work?
[35:02.710 --> 35:08.810]  Then one day when I was about nine and a half years old, my dad brought home a copy of the Radio Amateur's Handbook.
[35:08.810 --> 35:19.890]  And I pawed through that thing, and I saw these construction articles on building receivers and building transmitters, and I didn't begin to know or understand what really was going on.
[35:20.070 --> 35:29.830]  But as time went on, when I was about 12 years old, I started building my first two-tube AM radios to listen to, well, rock and roll music on.
[35:29.830 --> 35:33.970]  And I liked listening to music on something that I built.
[35:34.210 --> 35:38.170]  But after a while, I was saying, well, what is it to a transmitter?
[35:38.650 --> 35:49.650]  And you'd see in the catalogs these so-called wireless phono oscillators, basically a little one-tube transmitter where you'd take the output of your pornograph, jack it in, and listen to it through the radio.
[35:49.650 --> 35:52.550]  A very rudimentary transmitter at best.
[35:53.230 --> 35:58.830]  But I began to figure out that there's a lot more to a transmitter than just one tube.
[35:59.570 --> 36:09.430]  Then one time when I went to summer camp, I attended an electronics kind of class or activity or whatever you want to call it.
[36:09.430 --> 36:14.770]  And the most popular thing were these little kit transmitters made by this company known as Night Kit.
[36:14.770 --> 36:16.550]  That was a real transmitter.
[36:16.870 --> 36:23.190]  It had a real oscillator, a real modulator, and a real speech input section, if you will.
[36:23.770 --> 36:30.770]  Well, they cost $12.95 in 1962, and I begged and pleaded with my mother for one.
[36:30.910 --> 36:32.370]  And gosh, it was too cheap.
[36:32.530 --> 36:34.710]  But I got one under the Christmas tree.
[36:34.950 --> 36:40.330]  And I had the whole thing together, all set up, ready to rock and roll.
[36:40.330 --> 36:44.250]  I had a hundred feet of wire up as an antenna, and I hooked it on to it.
[36:44.990 --> 36:47.370]  And needless to say, the range was pathetic.
[36:49.010 --> 36:51.790]  And I kept wondering, how am I going to improve this thing?
[36:52.050 --> 36:53.670]  How am I going to make it better?
[36:54.010 --> 37:05.490]  And I lay in bed at night thinking about those two tube radios I built and how one stage was an RF amplifier that took the signal from the antenna, amplified it, and fed it to a detector.
[37:05.770 --> 37:13.550]  And I said, hmm, maybe I can turn this thing around ass backwards and make an amplifier for a transmitter.
[37:14.490 --> 37:17.070]  Well, I had quite a stock of parts.
[37:17.430 --> 37:33.830]  And back then, parts were had from old TV sets, and a friend of mine and I would get up every Saturday morning and pedal our asses down to the local town dump and strip parts out of old TV sets, transformers, tubes, capacitors, resistors, on and on ad nauseum.
[37:34.330 --> 37:40.030]  So I threw together an amplifier using what was known as a horizontal sweep tube output.
[37:40.350 --> 37:47.950]  The horizontal sweep section of a TV set involved the most amount of power in the set, so obviously the tube involved was largest.
[37:48.210 --> 37:50.430]  Forget about today's TV sets.
[37:50.430 --> 37:55.650]  The transistors that they used just are unsuitable for broadcast work.
[37:55.870 --> 37:57.590]  So I built a little amplifier.
[37:57.990 --> 37:59.250]  It sort of worked.
[37:59.710 --> 38:00.730]  It amplified.
[38:01.230 --> 38:02.330]  It doubled the range.
[38:02.490 --> 38:05.210]  But things like tuned circuits I did not understand.
[38:05.210 --> 38:15.650]  Then one day, dawn broke over marble head, and I pieced together a transmitter that probably delivered about 25 watts output, which I still have.
[38:16.310 --> 38:19.310]  It's in rough shape, but I still have the thing.
[38:19.310 --> 38:24.770]  And I'd load the thing, which is a term used to couple into the antenna.
[38:25.870 --> 38:31.410]  And I called a buddy of mine up, who lived about eight miles away, and he started tuning around.
[38:31.590 --> 38:37.770]  Now, I set my station down around 800 on the dial, just a bit above WABC.
[38:38.430 --> 38:39.690]  And he's tuning around.
[38:39.690 --> 38:41.990]  I'm hearing this stuff in the background, and whoa!
[38:42.510 --> 38:43.390]  There it is!
[38:43.450 --> 38:44.530]  It's like, wow!
[38:44.890 --> 38:46.370]  My signal's getting out!
[38:46.690 --> 38:48.110]  Man, that was cool!
[38:49.070 --> 38:52.230]  So, after school every day, I was on the air.
[38:52.370 --> 38:54.810]  But basically, I built this transmitter for a friend of mine.
[38:54.970 --> 38:55.850]  It was a birthday present.
[38:56.010 --> 38:59.510]  So after about three weeks, he got his present.
[38:59.750 --> 39:02.910]  But in the meantime, my mother was full of questions.
[39:02.910 --> 39:07.110]  So she wrote a letter to the FECI, better known as the FCC.
[39:07.730 --> 39:15.170]  And they responded back with a little pamphlet entitled, Does my transmitter need a license?
[39:16.130 --> 39:22.730]  Well, after that point, I kind of operated in a clandestine manner when it came to doing pirate radio.
[39:22.990 --> 39:28.050]  But my other transmitters that I built up did not quite equal what I had built and given to my friend.
[39:28.590 --> 39:39.530]  About the same score, amateur radio always interested me to hobnob with other people that were into rolling their own transmitters together and just using them to communicate and have a good time with.
[39:39.670 --> 39:47.550]  And I started listening around on the old Hallicrafter shortwave radio that was given to me as a Christmas present that my mother found in a neighbor's trash can.
[39:47.550 --> 39:52.570]  With great interest to the ham radio people on AM on 75 meters.
[39:53.150 --> 39:59.030]  Then in time, I started thinking about, well, I really want to get into ham radio.
[39:59.290 --> 40:01.950]  But the Morse code was a huge stumbling block.
[40:01.950 --> 40:06.710]  So I got on as what was known as a bootlegger or just simply a boot.
[40:07.790 --> 40:17.550]  Well, a few months later, I eventually thought of learning the Morse code, which I did, and then I finally went through the upgrades and all that kind of thing.
[40:17.630 --> 40:23.630]  But my fascination for music and broadcasting and entertainment never left me.
[40:24.150 --> 40:28.790]  Well, back in the early 70s, you see, just backing things up a bit.
[40:29.690 --> 40:32.990]  Most of my operation has always been on amplitude modulation.
[40:33.310 --> 40:34.930]  Most people operate sideband.
[40:35.330 --> 40:37.270]  I don't care for sideband particularly.
[40:37.510 --> 40:38.930]  I don't care for the audio quality.
[40:39.110 --> 40:40.650]  Granted, it's more spectrum efficient.
[40:41.430 --> 40:44.370]  And it's better as far as bang for the buck.
[40:44.490 --> 40:47.950]  But in terms of audio fidelity and simplicity, forget it.
[40:48.390 --> 40:50.190]  Don't even waste your time with it.
[40:50.190 --> 40:53.950]  Yet, I understand a lot of today's shortwave pirates are using it.
[40:54.150 --> 40:59.910]  Well, you can't listen to it because it gets very, very wearing on the nerves after a while.
[41:00.090 --> 41:02.010]  You just don't want to listen to it at all after a while.
[41:02.310 --> 41:03.090]  Turn it off.
[41:03.930 --> 41:13.430]  But at any rate, I started listening around on other bands either side of the amateur bands, such as the international shortwave bands, and discovered the 49 meter band.
[41:14.070 --> 41:17.850]  And in the daytime, it was virtually vacant except for a few Canadians.
[41:17.850 --> 41:22.470]  Now, one thing about ham radio, it's strictly verboten to play music.
[41:22.890 --> 41:38.470]  Yet, my friends of mine and I would get on and drop tunes occasionally to test our transmitters, and would get all the old buzzards all in an up-rage and out-roar and whatnot, and, oh, these damn hippie kids are playing music on the air.
[41:39.010 --> 41:46.750]  So I started thinking about 49 meters and said to myself, Now, here's a chunk of spectrum that's not being used during the daytime.
[41:47.090 --> 41:48.490]  Why don't we make use of it?
[41:49.550 --> 41:54.670]  So, it's no big thing to move an amateur transmitter out of the amateur bands.
[41:54.670 --> 42:00.230]  I had a bunch of crystals in the 6 megahertz range, and I started passing them out to my buddies.
[42:00.510 --> 42:07.790]  And before you know it, we were all up on 49 meters every Saturday morning after partying from the night before Sunday.
[42:08.650 --> 42:12.870]  And we'd just spin tunes back and forth, back and forth, no IDs.
[42:13.570 --> 42:19.570]  Then one of the guys got on there and opened up the microphonium and said, This is WTKZ Florida.
[42:19.950 --> 42:23.750]  Well, there's a little publication known as, well, it wasn't the ACE.
[42:23.950 --> 42:25.110]  It was another publication.
[42:26.310 --> 42:32.850]  And there were all these loggings for these unidentified music stations on 49 meters.
[42:32.850 --> 42:39.250]  And the only clue they gave was a station calling itself WTKZ in Florida.
[42:39.850 --> 42:44.270]  And then after a while, I said, hmm, this is possibilities.
[42:46.150 --> 42:54.310]  Well, a little while later, I wound up being chief engineer of a little AM day timer piss hole in the snow.
[42:54.470 --> 43:02.390]  And I had to cart around this console which had a little mixing board and two turntables all the time to do the remotes that they did quite a few of.
[43:02.390 --> 43:04.290]  But there'd be times when they weren't using it.
[43:04.350 --> 43:09.270]  And I'd bring the thing into my ham station, which was a whole building that I occupied.
[43:09.770 --> 43:14.010]  And I would have these parties and the guys would come up and we'd really get trash.
[43:14.250 --> 43:23.730]  And I'd take my kilowatt AM transmitter, fire it up on 1580, and put good old WXNZ, as it was known as, on the air from time to time.
[43:23.730 --> 43:28.550]  But then one time, it was a great fall day.
[43:28.790 --> 43:32.490]  The smell of fall in the air, the leaves, nice warm day.
[43:32.950 --> 43:35.610]  I've always been a druggie, especially back then.
[43:35.950 --> 43:38.990]  So I did a hit of acid and I'm feeling good.
[43:39.730 --> 43:43.810]  And a friend of mine was living next door in a rented cottage.
[43:43.810 --> 43:48.950]  And we dragged the board over, set it up, and then when it hit me, I ran back.
[43:49.130 --> 43:50.190]  Grabbed the tape deck.
[43:50.550 --> 43:51.990]  Grab a pile of records.
[43:52.150 --> 43:53.230]  Grab this, grab that.
[43:53.530 --> 43:58.650]  And then I decided to do a spoof on your typical shortwave broadcast station.
[43:58.650 --> 44:04.470]  Now, you tune across, at least back then, mostly political bullshit and the Bible beaters.
[44:05.270 --> 44:06.290]  What time is it?
[44:07.150 --> 44:07.710]  Okay.
[44:08.770 --> 44:12.370]  Alright, well, I'm just going to quickly fast forward it.
[44:12.470 --> 44:14.550]  Radio Timtron Worldwide was born.
[44:14.710 --> 44:22.310]  But because my voice was so recognizable, I only broadcasted it once or twice, and then I quit.
[44:22.310 --> 44:29.630]  And then I sidled up with a buddy of mine with a different radio entity, which was more or less produced and put together.
[44:30.010 --> 44:33.730]  But you may ask, why was I never busted?
[44:34.270 --> 44:39.650]  You see, most pirates tend to cling to a frequency, and they operate there.
[44:39.830 --> 44:42.150]  They give out their phone number, they give out their address.
[44:42.710 --> 44:46.770]  Me, my voice was not used on it for one thing, for another thing.
[44:46.770 --> 44:53.070]  I always went from frequency to frequency to frequency within bands designated for broadcasting.
[44:53.070 --> 45:02.930]  Do not operate outside a band, because that's when people start beginning to wonder, why is a station playing music in an area where it's not supposed to be?
[45:03.470 --> 45:13.510]  And then the other people who like having their station heard will say, well, if you're in an area where all the others are, how are you going to be found?
[45:13.510 --> 45:24.270]  But down the road, one of the other guys involved with the whole thing managed to get a mail drop, which was used by a lot of pirates, and was widely publicized in PopCom.
[45:24.690 --> 45:27.050]  And the letters started pouring in.
[45:27.630 --> 45:31.870]  So you shoot a signal into the air, where it lands, I know not where.
[45:32.130 --> 45:40.970]  But in 1987, a friend of mine who did a lot of the, I wouldn't say the programming, but he was basically the announcer.
[45:41.330 --> 45:47.830]  He and I came to a vast disagreement as to how the thing was to be programmed and which direction it was going.
[45:48.210 --> 45:51.590]  At that time, I was chief engineer of an AM-FM combo.
[45:51.850 --> 45:58.230]  And what I would do is I would make use of the record library and the production studio to assemble the broadcasts.
[45:58.230 --> 46:00.250]  But that was in 1987.
[46:00.350 --> 46:03.510]  I hung my guns up then, and that's the way it's been.
[46:03.630 --> 46:06.950]  And then, finally, hooked up with Allen.
[46:07.190 --> 46:13.250]  But at that particular point in time, I also moved to Maine as well, unbeknownst of Allen and his escapades.
[46:14.070 --> 46:17.690]  But the other thing is, I live out in the country.
[46:17.890 --> 46:18.970]  There are no neighbors.
[46:19.090 --> 46:20.390]  At least there were no neighbors.
[46:20.390 --> 46:24.850]  Because that's the thing that will really ruin any sort of a free radio operation.
[46:24.850 --> 46:28.810]  Our neighbors, where your RF signal is getting into their toaster.
[46:28.810 --> 46:30.410]  It's getting into their hearing aid.
[46:30.530 --> 46:31.850]  It's getting into their this.
[46:32.110 --> 46:34.590]  It's getting into his wife's vibrator.
[46:34.770 --> 46:37.990]  And they don't want to hear this thing.
[46:38.190 --> 46:40.550]  So they call the federales.
[46:40.890 --> 46:45.010]  So that's just some advice from me.
[46:47.670 --> 46:59.970]  From where things are going now, and being that the FCC's resources are more and more limited, that pirates are like annoying flies that buzz around and buzz around and annoy them.
[47:00.750 --> 47:06.410]  But then again, when they come and slap you, from what I've been hearing, it is bad news.
[47:06.890 --> 47:08.530]  And I'll just leave it at that.
[47:08.810 --> 47:09.090]  Okay.
[47:10.530 --> 47:11.350]  Go, Craig.
[47:11.450 --> 47:12.130]  I'll go quickly.
[47:16.640 --> 47:17.840]  I am a Canadian.
[47:18.600 --> 47:19.740]  And I've always found it bizarre.
[47:19.900 --> 47:21.020]  Like, I drive tractor-trailer.
[47:21.200 --> 47:27.300]  I operate a shortwave pyro station from my tractor-trailer as a relay station for other stations.
[47:27.700 --> 47:29.840]  They'll mail tapes or CDs to me.
[47:30.180 --> 47:34.700]  And I air them from the truck with up to a kilowatt sometimes.
[47:34.900 --> 47:35.480]  A thousand watts.
[47:36.320 --> 47:42.680]  My main mobile transmitter that I use is that one there.
[47:43.160 --> 47:44.380]  Which isn't too...
[47:44.380 --> 47:46.320]  It's a modified amateur radio transmitter.
[47:46.520 --> 47:49.760]  It didn't take too much to modify it, to broadcast where I want it to.
[47:50.440 --> 47:52.880]  Just two diodes, snip them off, and that was it.
[47:55.620 --> 48:00.560]  And that transmitter there will broadcast right down through the AM broadcast band into Longwave if I want.
[48:01.320 --> 48:03.980]  I've played around with Longwave, which is kind of fun to do.
[48:03.980 --> 48:09.820]  For home use, that's my home setup here on the left side.
[48:10.100 --> 48:11.780]  Or right, whichever side it is.
[48:12.640 --> 48:14.620]  Another amateur radio transmitter here.
[48:15.100 --> 48:16.780]  No modifications on this one.
[48:16.900 --> 48:18.060]  It'll transmit just about anywhere.
[48:19.980 --> 48:23.160]  That would be a Yaesu 101P.
[48:24.840 --> 48:27.900]  I have a little oscilloscope here so I can monitor how my signal sounds.
[48:28.120 --> 48:29.700]  Usually sounds like shit for my house though.
[48:30.940 --> 48:34.320]  An antenna tuner and a phone patch speaker unit.
[48:34.540 --> 48:36.720]  I can patch phone calls through the air if I want.
[48:37.240 --> 48:38.640]  Which is kind of fun to play around with.
[48:48.210 --> 48:55.010]  If anybody has been following the shortwave pirate stuff recently, you may hear a lot of talk about what's called the grenade.
[48:56.010 --> 48:57.010]  This is a grenade.
[48:57.390 --> 48:59.630]  This is a 10 watt AM transmitter.
[49:00.510 --> 49:01.370]  Crystal control.
[49:02.330 --> 49:03.570]  Little tiny crystal.
[49:03.870 --> 49:05.750]  That controls the actual frequency that it's on.
[49:05.850 --> 49:08.150]  This one is for 6955.
[49:09.090 --> 49:11.050]  Oddly enough, that's where a lot of pirates are these days.
[49:12.010 --> 49:13.910]  Yeah, 10 watts, totally portable.
[49:14.730 --> 49:15.690]  Back packet.
[49:17.370 --> 49:18.210]  Dipole antenna.
[49:20.530 --> 49:21.750]  And an audio source.
[49:22.410 --> 49:23.590]  And a small battery pack.
[49:23.730 --> 49:25.490]  I got a little gel cell battery pack.
[49:25.650 --> 49:27.550]  It's only about the size of this radio.
[49:28.390 --> 49:30.230]  All fits in a backpack or a hip pouch.
[49:30.330 --> 49:31.910]  Whatever you want to carry it in.
[49:32.490 --> 49:33.870]  Saunter it into the bush somewhere.
[49:34.630 --> 49:35.390]  Sling up your antenna.
[49:36.010 --> 49:36.610]  Play your show.
[49:37.430 --> 49:37.990]  Take it down.
[49:38.410 --> 49:38.830]  Leave.
[49:39.710 --> 49:42.070]  The FCC can do direction finding.
[49:42.070 --> 49:44.730]  They can find you within five minutes.
[49:45.090 --> 49:47.510]  They can find you within a 10 mile circle.
[49:48.930 --> 49:53.450]  And if you're in the same spot for more than two or three broadcasts, they'll catch on.
[49:53.570 --> 49:59.230]  It's like, well this station, it seems to come from this 10 mile circle every Friday night at 10 o'clock.
[49:59.230 --> 50:00.170]  I'm going to go there.
[50:00.990 --> 50:05.510]  I just wait in this 10 mile circle until they go on the air and do the close direction finding.
[50:06.430 --> 50:10.350]  So like, if you do stuff, move around a lot.
[50:10.550 --> 50:11.270]  Which is great.
[50:11.470 --> 50:12.150]  What I do.
[50:12.310 --> 50:13.830]  I drive to the tractor trailer like I said.
[50:15.170 --> 50:16.150]  I live in Canada.
[50:16.310 --> 50:20.690]  I've broadcast from 10, no, eight Canadian provinces.
[50:21.070 --> 50:24.390]  All 48 states down here except for Alaska and Hawaii.
[50:24.390 --> 50:27.870]  I carry a tube of caulking with me to seal the windows in case it's got a Hawaiian load.
[50:28.750 --> 50:29.850]  And down into Mexico.
[50:30.050 --> 50:33.170]  Because I'm a Canadian truck driver, I can cross into Mexico with my truck.
[50:33.330 --> 50:35.810]  So I've broadcast from two of the Mexican provinces as well.
[50:37.790 --> 50:40.290]  And locations for me is kind of fun to do as well.
[50:40.290 --> 50:45.610]  I've broadcast actually the picture of the FCC sign.
[50:45.830 --> 50:48.230]  That was taken at the Laurel, Maryland.
[50:48.910 --> 50:54.570]  Their main FCC monitoring location where they actually monitor the frequencies from.
[50:55.070 --> 50:56.510]  That's at the end of their driveway.
[50:57.050 --> 50:58.650]  They weren't looking out the window that day.
[51:00.990 --> 51:04.270]  I tend to do stuff like that.
[51:04.410 --> 51:08.550]  A little on the brave side sometimes or just bloody stupid I guess.
[51:09.730 --> 51:12.310]  I've crossed international borders while on the air.
[51:12.510 --> 51:16.810]  In the middle of the show I was crossing down from Windsor, Ontario into Detroit, Michigan.
[51:18.130 --> 51:21.150]  And I'm rolling over the Ambassador Bridge and I'm still doing my show.
[51:21.310 --> 51:23.790]  I've got the headset microphone, a four channel mixer on my lap.
[51:24.210 --> 51:27.270]  Two of these CD players strapped up on the dash.
[51:28.370 --> 51:32.950]  And the song ended just as I was rolling up to the booth to clear my load at customs.
[51:32.950 --> 51:35.890]  So I just opened the microphone up and let it on.
[51:35.890 --> 51:37.390]  And I broadcast to a U.S.
[51:37.450 --> 51:38.150]  custom agent.
[51:38.730 --> 51:41.410]  Thankfully he didn't ask, say, my name or anything over the air.
[51:41.510 --> 51:42.470]  Which would have been really nasty.
[51:43.150 --> 51:44.310]  But, uh...
[51:44.310 --> 51:46.610]  And, you know, you have fun stuff like that.
[51:47.210 --> 51:50.030]  For me, breaking the law with the transmitter.
[51:51.410 --> 51:53.170]  Making a tape, anybody can make a tape.
[51:54.010 --> 51:56.570]  The actual illegal part is putting it on the air.
[51:57.150 --> 51:57.950]  As a pirate.
[51:58.950 --> 52:00.150]  So if, um...
[52:01.130 --> 52:02.430]  Is there any questions?
[52:02.590 --> 52:04.570]  We've got about six minutes left.
[52:05.270 --> 52:06.730]  Questions, questions, questions, questions.
[52:07.750 --> 52:09.370]  How much was all your equipment?
[52:11.990 --> 52:12.430]  Um...
[52:12.430 --> 52:13.690]  That was around 300 bucks.
[52:14.690 --> 52:16.190]  I've had that for about 10 years.
[52:16.990 --> 52:20.750]  This transmitter was given to me by a friend at church, actually.
[52:20.970 --> 52:22.630]  His father-in-law died and gave it to me.
[52:23.770 --> 52:24.130]  Uh...
[52:24.130 --> 52:25.570]  This was, uh...
[52:25.570 --> 52:26.170]  How much was that?
[52:26.530 --> 52:26.790]  Uh...
[52:26.790 --> 52:27.070]  Birdie?
[52:27.850 --> 52:28.210]  Grenade?
[52:28.330 --> 52:29.230]  How much was, uh...
[52:29.230 --> 52:30.190]  Animal Target based?
[52:32.930 --> 52:34.630]  The grenade was, uh...
[52:35.190 --> 52:36.230]  It's about a hundred dollars.
[52:36.810 --> 52:36.890]  Yeah.
[52:36.970 --> 52:38.290]  Built by, uh...
[52:38.290 --> 52:39.650]  The radio animal, uh...
[52:39.650 --> 52:41.090]  Sort of an infamous, uh...
[52:41.090 --> 52:42.090]  Pirate operator.
[52:42.330 --> 52:42.950]  Yeah, he sort of left...
[52:42.950 --> 52:43.850]  Yeah, he sort of left the, uh...
[52:43.850 --> 52:45.570]  The pirate hobby and has become a furry.
[52:46.490 --> 52:46.850]  Uh...
[52:46.850 --> 52:50.590]  For those of you who don't know what a furry is, it's these guys that dress up in, like, fur suits and go to cons together.
[52:50.690 --> 52:50.910]  But, uh...
[52:50.910 --> 52:52.030]  Could you hold that grenade up a second?
[52:52.630 --> 52:53.670]  That, uh...
[52:53.670 --> 52:54.510]  Doesn't look, uh...
[52:54.510 --> 52:55.070]  Like much.
[52:55.290 --> 52:56.070]  But, uh...
[52:56.070 --> 52:57.790]  That 10-watt transmitter...
[52:57.790 --> 52:57.890]  Uh...
[52:57.890 --> 52:58.490]  I'll give you an example.
[52:58.550 --> 53:00.630]  A couple years ago at a shortwave, uh...
[53:01.290 --> 53:01.530]  Uh...
[53:01.530 --> 53:02.610]  Gathering with, uh...
[53:02.610 --> 53:03.930]  Hobbyists, uh...
[53:03.930 --> 53:04.750]  North of Philadelphia.
[53:05.430 --> 53:05.910]  That...
[53:05.910 --> 53:08.230]  That little box transmitted a, uh...
[53:08.230 --> 53:08.950]  A skit we did.
[53:09.790 --> 53:10.750]  And, uh...
[53:10.750 --> 53:12.870]  It was, uh...
[53:12.870 --> 53:14.770]  Confirmed as having been received by, uh...
[53:15.210 --> 53:16.570]  Two listeners, uh...
[53:16.570 --> 53:18.630]  Each about 500 miles away...
[53:18.630 --> 53:19.970]  In different directions.
[53:21.050 --> 53:21.770]  And, uh...
[53:21.770 --> 53:24.510]  It sounds pretty amazing that a 10-watt transmitter can make that kind of range.
[53:25.190 --> 53:26.630]  That's what's possible with shortwave.
[53:27.030 --> 53:27.370]  You're...
[53:27.370 --> 53:28.390]  You're trying to think of...
[53:28.390 --> 53:33.030]  Most of you probably think of radio in a conventional sense, where you've got local AMFM stations that are very powerful.
[53:33.030 --> 53:36.370]  That's not necessarily necessary with shortwave.
[53:36.590 --> 53:37.490]  So, uh...
[53:37.490 --> 53:41.870]  An awful lot can be done with a little bit of power and just a modest antenna.
[53:42.290 --> 53:42.490]  Yeah.
[53:42.710 --> 53:43.070]  Conditions.
[53:43.530 --> 53:45.290]  It has a lot to do with conditions as well.
[53:46.410 --> 53:46.770]  Uh...
[53:46.770 --> 53:49.390]  There's a whip antenna at the side there, at the end of this table here.
[53:49.710 --> 53:52.170]  That's the whip off my truck that I use for broadcasting.
[53:52.170 --> 53:58.090]  And I've been logged into New Zealand, Australia, Europe, all over Europe, Soviet Union.
[53:58.450 --> 53:59.090]  Stuff like...
[53:59.090 --> 53:59.830]  Just using that one in ten.
[54:00.330 --> 54:01.770]  And a hundred watts out of this transmitter.
[54:21.710 --> 54:22.150]  Um...
[54:22.150 --> 54:23.450]  I've been telling them what to say or do.
[54:23.670 --> 54:25.370]  But, um...
[54:25.370 --> 54:32.170]  As far as commercial licensed stations go, there are safe harbor hours between certain hours during the night, where basically they have...
[54:32.170 --> 54:35.830]  They're supposed to have free reign over their material.
[54:36.130 --> 54:36.690]  Uh...
[54:36.690 --> 54:38.090]  Why don't you think, uh...
[54:38.090 --> 54:41.450]  Why don't you think most commercial radio stations don't take advantage of this?
[54:41.930 --> 54:42.690]  They're scared.
[54:43.790 --> 54:44.130]  Uh...
[54:44.130 --> 54:49.150]  The FCC has actually hammered commercial stations with heavy fines for...
[54:49.150 --> 54:57.310]  Mainly when they get on and talk about excretory functions and things like that in a derogatory way or some way they don't like.
[54:58.030 --> 54:59.550]  Shortwave is a little different.
[54:59.970 --> 55:02.930]  One of the reasons why we have...
[55:02.930 --> 55:08.530]  We don't censor our programs, period, is because we're an international service.
[55:08.530 --> 55:26.110]  Meaning, if somebody from the United States listens to WBCQ and calls up the FCC and says, Well, I heard the show WDCD using all kinds of four-letter words, including the F word and the C word and everything else.
[55:26.670 --> 55:27.270]  Once.
[55:27.370 --> 55:28.450]  What are you going to do about it?
[55:28.570 --> 55:31.830]  Well, they would reply, um...
[55:31.830 --> 55:39.870]  It's an international broadcasting station and we generally do not get involved with programming of international shortwave stations.
[55:39.870 --> 55:51.070]  So the government, as far as shortwave is concerned, has taken a stance where if they get a domestic complaint in this country, they will not honor it.
[55:51.110 --> 56:00.750]  But if they get a complaint from, say, a government or something from out of the country, that actually turns into a State Department issue and goes beyond.
[56:00.750 --> 56:17.610]  Now, to kind of further focus on your thing, a lot of stations in this country are just scared of being fine for broadcasting material that has a lot of questionable language in it.
[56:17.670 --> 56:20.990]  And they just opt not to do it because they don't want the hassle.
[56:20.990 --> 56:21.070]  Thank you.
[56:22.510 --> 56:35.630]  An example is, I guess, well, of course, broadcasters like Howard Stern, you know, do it and the FCC has fined his radio company numerous times and they just pay the fine.
[56:36.470 --> 56:40.370]  Because they've got the millions or the hundreds of thousands of dollars to do it.
[56:40.490 --> 56:42.010]  So it really is up to the station.
[56:42.010 --> 56:50.310]  I think what you're going to find is, in the next five or ten years, a lot more broadcasters and stations in the United States are probably going to loosen up a little bit more.
[56:50.950 --> 56:59.930]  Because, you know, ever since 9-11, you're seeing documentaries and programs that have actual audio clips of people doing stuff.
[57:01.910 --> 57:04.350]  And they're using all kinds of four-letter words.
[57:04.530 --> 57:05.710]  So I think it's changing.
[57:06.090 --> 57:09.070]  At WBCQ, as I said, we don't censor our programs.
[57:09.070 --> 57:12.110]  The programmers get on and start using the four-letter words.
[57:12.830 --> 57:16.510]  Sometimes there are a few eyebrows and a few, hey, you know, I hope you know what you're doing.
[57:16.730 --> 57:20.090]  But generally, we find people that have something meaningful to say.
[57:20.550 --> 57:22.930]  They, you know, use good judgment.
[57:23.170 --> 57:24.450]  I have one more question.
[57:24.670 --> 57:26.350]  Quickly, because I think we only got two minutes.
[57:27.290 --> 57:28.290]  Yeah, we only got two minutes.
[57:29.150 --> 57:38.470]  Are there any opinions or anything you'd like to say about the, at some point, the probable governing cannibalizing your, you know, shortwave?
[57:38.470 --> 57:45.290]  And, you know, ham frequencies to, you know, sell it off to commercial interests?
[57:45.550 --> 57:48.750]  High-frequency broadcasting, they can't do that.
[57:48.850 --> 57:59.710]  Because high-frequency broadcasting is regulated by actually a worldwide body known as the ITU, the International Telecommunications Union.
[57:59.710 --> 58:04.510]  You see, shortwave frequencies, unlike AM and FM, are shared by everyone in the world.
[58:04.730 --> 58:13.070]  Like, we operate on 7415, and I can guarantee you there are other stations around the planet that operate on 7415 also.
[58:13.530 --> 58:18.570]  So, if the government comes in and says, well, we're going to auction off 7415, there's no mechanism to do that.
[58:18.570 --> 58:22.630]  I mean, I assume they could do that someday, but I don't think that will, I don't...
[58:22.630 --> 58:31.530]  We don't see any way that there's a mechanism to do that, because these frequencies are on a shared, non-interference basis worldwide.
[58:32.190 --> 58:34.250]  We've got one minute, one question.
[58:35.390 --> 58:37.790]  Not really a question as much as a response.
[58:38.450 --> 58:44.310]  From in the commercial radio community, there has been some changes in FCC policy lately.
[58:45.050 --> 58:57.410]  And you used to, in order to complain about vulgar or inappropriate content, provide a written transcript of a program and or a cassette tape of the program to the FCC.
[58:57.830 --> 59:01.250]  In the last two, three months, maybe, they changed the law.
[59:01.250 --> 59:09.910]  So, now you just have to tell the FCC about it, and you have to provide no written evidence and no actual taped evidence of any violation.
[59:10.410 --> 59:15.190]  And the FCC will pursue and go after stations for vulgar and decent material.
[59:15.790 --> 59:27.550]  Also, in the last year, basically since the chairman changed, there's been a marked increase in the amount of prosecutions and number of stations that they've gone after for different content.
[59:27.730 --> 59:28.010]  I know.
[59:28.090 --> 59:30.950]  So, there are a lot of stations out there that are getting scared.
[59:30.950 --> 59:31.270]  Yeah.
[59:31.710 --> 59:36.730]  And, unfortunately, the FCC does do what we call in the business, clean sweeps.
[59:37.150 --> 59:44.570]  That somebody gets a hair in their you-know-what, and they go out and they start, you know, picking off stations one by one.
[59:44.830 --> 59:50.830]  I guess we've got to close, but all I can say is, if you're interested in free radio, do your homework.
[59:51.110 --> 59:52.610]  A lot of information is on the net.
[59:52.750 --> 59:53.890]  There's a lot of books available.
[59:53.890 --> 59:58.890]  I think there's some books available at the pocket calculator booth down on the second floor.
[59:59.710 --> 01:00:00.810]  Just be careful.
[01:00:01.110 --> 01:00:02.430]  Use good common sense.
[01:00:03.090 --> 01:00:08.350]  And check out our website at wbcq.net to learn a little bit more about International Shortwave.
[01:00:08.690 --> 01:00:13.250]  And if you want access to the airwaves, you know, we can help you out.
[01:00:13.250 --> 01:00:20.190]  But there's tons of books around with the technology and how to do it, because there's a lot of people that want access.
[01:00:20.470 --> 01:00:30.550]  And hopefully, someday, the government will really listen and start licensing amateur radio stations on the shortwave, on the AM, on FM, etc., etc.
[01:00:30.550 --> 01:00:31.790]  Thank you.