[00:36.500 --> 00:36.980]  Tired?
[00:38.480 --> 00:39.400]  Tired, yeah.
[00:40.340 --> 00:47.280]  You know, I'm just leaving on this tour to go to the Midwest to talk to people about Low Power FM.
[00:47.600 --> 00:55.380]  And so I'm leaving out in New York and I was up until I went to sleep on the train over here.
[00:56.220 --> 01:04.160]  So if I start rambling incoherently, someone throw... Y'all are probably pretty good at paper airplanes and all that sort of thing.
[01:05.380 --> 01:09.360]  Yeah, get some ready to keep me on my toes.
[01:10.600 --> 01:14.140]  Oh, not only... you're good too?
[01:14.420 --> 01:15.660]  Oh good, alright.
[01:16.100 --> 01:19.020]  Well, hello, my name is Pete Tridish.
[01:19.160 --> 01:25.580]  I am from the station formerly known as Mutiny, Radio Mutiny in West Philadelphia, 91.3.
[01:25.960 --> 01:39.220]  I am also from the... now I am from the Prometheus Radio Project, which is a group that assists folks that want to apply for or Low Power FM licensed radio stations.
[01:41.480 --> 01:48.460]  I am Andrew Yoder and I publish Hobby Broadcasting and I have written a couple of books about all this stuff.
[01:48.600 --> 01:54.180]  So I have been interested in Power Radio on really any band for about 20 years.
[01:55.360 --> 01:55.980]  So...
[01:58.280 --> 02:16.480]  And what we are going to do is we are going to talk a little bit about both... often I end up giving talks that go as much as two hours just about the Low Power FM at this point because it has become such a complicated and torturous ordeal of a subject.
[02:17.680 --> 02:31.450]  But it's... for now we are just going to sort of talk a little bit about the history of Pirate Radio and how that ended up with us having this sort of Low Power FM ruling that is going into effect over the course of the next couple of months.
[02:31.860 --> 02:38.380]  So... Andrew is going to start a little bit with talking a little bit about early FM pirating.
[02:41.070 --> 02:42.480]  Yeah, it's kind of strange.
[02:42.570 --> 02:46.340]  With the LP FM stuff, I don't really see it as replacing Pirate Radio.
[02:46.480 --> 02:53.140]  It might replace some of the community stations in some locations, but I don't really see Pirate Radio as disappearing.
[02:53.400 --> 02:58.560]  Really, I see it as being something that's kind of complementary to Pirate Radio.
[02:58.900 --> 03:05.800]  And Pirate Radio goes back really right to the very beginning of radio, like KDKA and stations like that.
[03:05.900 --> 03:11.100]  Whenever they were first on, they were just run by ham radio operators without any licenses.
[03:11.460 --> 03:14.540]  And they just broadcasted wherever they felt like it.
[03:14.540 --> 03:20.820]  And then in the 20s, they got into the licensing of the stations.
[03:21.140 --> 03:28.920]  And through all that time, there have been... I mean, the stations like this being called Pirates goes back to the 1920s.
[03:28.920 --> 03:35.800]  So Pirate Radio has been around, you know, really as an entity for 75 years.
[03:36.440 --> 03:41.440]  But the FM band didn't start until the 1940s.
[03:41.680 --> 03:53.420]  And nobody really messed around that much with the FM band experimentally, like in pirate situations until the 1970s, well, 60s for the most part.
[03:53.920 --> 03:56.640]  And the first...
[03:57.280 --> 04:05.040]  Well, a lot of people have said that the FM pirates have started in like the late 80s or early 90s.
[04:05.120 --> 04:05.780]  And that's not true.
[04:06.000 --> 04:11.000]  The first FM pirates, major pirates go back to the late 60s.
[04:11.160 --> 04:12.820]  And there were some hippie stations.
[04:13.140 --> 04:18.910]  And one of the best known stations was a station just up in Yonkers called the Falling Star Network.
[04:19.180 --> 04:23.840]  And they had a couple of AM stations were heard all over the Northeast.
[04:24.020 --> 04:25.480]  And they were also on an FM.
[04:25.480 --> 04:32.020]  And during those days, they got a huge, like 400 pound military transmitter.
[04:32.270 --> 04:35.240]  And they were broadcasting that way.
[04:35.340 --> 04:39.480]  And they had an open door policy in the basement of their house.
[04:39.650 --> 04:43.480]  And they just had anybody coming in and broadcasting, whether...
[04:44.650 --> 04:48.860]  No matter what condition they were in or whatever.
[04:49.520 --> 04:49.900]  Level of skill?
[04:50.240 --> 04:50.760]  Hmm?
[04:50.880 --> 04:51.620]  Level of skill?
[04:52.120 --> 04:53.940]  Level of skill or condition.
[04:55.580 --> 04:56.520]  Temporary impairments?
[04:56.700 --> 04:57.910]  Yeah, temporary impairments.
[04:59.530 --> 05:01.640]  So they broadcasted for a couple of years.
[05:01.640 --> 05:03.550]  And they were closed down by the FCC.
[05:04.050 --> 05:09.400]  And in that time, they actually went to the FCC field offices and applied several times for licenses.
[05:09.740 --> 05:12.100]  And they were actually laughed at by the FCC.
[05:12.150 --> 05:13.460]  And told that...
[05:13.460 --> 05:15.880]  You know, you couldn't have a radio station.
[05:16.080 --> 05:17.820]  Because they were just teenagers.
[05:18.200 --> 05:19.600]  And they didn't deserve to be on the radio.
[05:21.380 --> 05:27.780]  And through that time, there have been, you know, since then, there haven't been too many major operations.
[05:27.840 --> 05:28.860]  But there have been a few.
[05:29.100 --> 05:32.540]  Like in the early 80s, there was a station called Radio Free Ithaca.
[05:32.540 --> 05:37.170]  That was on for... It was another community kind of station.
[05:37.360 --> 05:40.380]  I think they were running 24 hours a day the same way.
[05:41.120 --> 05:53.280]  And so a lot of the FM stations have been people who have either been experimenting with broadcasting just simply as an experiment.
[05:53.500 --> 05:58.790]  Or there have been a handful of the 24-7 kind of collective stations.
[05:58.790 --> 06:05.900]  But really, in the late 80s, that's when the beginning of that happened with Black Liberation Radio.
[06:06.400 --> 06:14.670]  And that was one of the ones that started the popularity of the 24-7 concept for broadcasting.
[06:14.940 --> 06:17.480]  And collective broadcasting.
[06:17.700 --> 06:20.860]  Just having all kinds of people come into a station and broadcast.
[06:23.240 --> 06:25.080]  And you can talk more about that.
[06:26.820 --> 06:32.860]  Yeah, so I guess about 1996, you know, I can mostly just talk from my own experience.
[06:33.980 --> 06:39.640]  Myself and five other people started the Radio Mutiny Collective.
[06:39.740 --> 06:53.080]  The reason we did it was, first of all, we were fairly horrified by the developments in media over the course of the years just prior to that.
[06:53.080 --> 07:01.480]  The Telecommunications Act of 1996 had been passed and was going to allow for an unprecedented consolidation of ownership in media.
[07:01.960 --> 07:11.140]  We were starting to see statistics like, and this is actually a fairly old one, that 10 corporations own 50% of all media.
[07:11.500 --> 07:17.700]  That's not just radio, television, that's newspapers, that's movies, that's music production.
[07:17.700 --> 07:27.740]  And it's projected that within 10 years, it could be that three or four corporations could own 75% of all media.
[07:28.000 --> 07:30.040]  So we were very alarmed by that trend.
[07:30.220 --> 07:36.860]  We were also very alarmed by a number of instances of censorship on national public radio.
[07:38.050 --> 07:41.580]  And the cancellation of different programs in the Philadelphia area.
[07:42.420 --> 07:48.440]  And we had become, we had been made aware of Black Liberation Radio and Free Radio Berkeley.
[07:49.280 --> 07:51.940]  And the successes of Pirates at that time.
[07:52.160 --> 07:53.740]  And so we decided that we would give it a try.
[07:55.480 --> 07:57.600]  And, you know, it started with five of us.
[07:57.740 --> 07:59.580]  None of us with any radio experience whatsoever.
[08:00.670 --> 08:03.620]  None of us with any particular technical knowledge.
[08:03.620 --> 08:08.320]  And it definitely showed over the course of the first bunch of months.
[08:08.660 --> 08:17.260]  It took us about seven or eight months to get on the air and figure out the difference between coaxial cable and audio patches.
[08:17.260 --> 08:23.080]  And we ended up, well, we ended up somehow managing to get on the air.
[08:23.220 --> 08:35.120]  And within a few months of our first broadcast, we were a station that was on the air seven nights per week with over 50 or 60 DJs.
[08:35.240 --> 08:43.600]  And we were really, it became obvious that we had tapped into something that was really something that people wanted to do.
[08:43.600 --> 09:02.020]  And we were fairly, we were really impressed by what happens when suddenly a neighborhood that doesn't have an outlet, that doesn't have any control of its own media, is suddenly able to start, you know, all the talent that starts coming out of the woodworks.
[09:02.280 --> 09:08.810]  I mean, just about every neighborhood that you could think of has someone with a collection of the music of lower Serbia.
[09:09.780 --> 09:11.540]  And, you know, thousands of records.
[09:11.940 --> 09:13.460]  And they'll play them all night long.
[09:13.620 --> 09:18.980]  And they have, just about every neighborhood has someone that can, you know, read the epic of Gilgamesh.
[09:19.640 --> 09:22.700]  And, you know, in ten part serialization.
[09:23.540 --> 09:28.500]  And that is just the sort of thing that you cannot find anywhere on the radio dial.
[09:28.640 --> 09:34.020]  Because it's not stuff that makes money, but it's the sort of programming that really comes from people's hearts.
[09:34.020 --> 09:37.100]  And, and that people put real effort.
[09:37.340 --> 09:41.820]  And it's, it's what can, can create and maintain local cultures.
[09:42.500 --> 09:49.540]  As, as against the sort of the, the Walmart, the Walmart approach to culture that, that we have in America today.
[09:50.240 --> 09:52.360]  So, we were very excited.
[09:52.740 --> 10:00.100]  Of course, when you're, when you're defying federal regulations, there's only so long that it can go.
[10:00.100 --> 10:02.200]  And you can just sort of get away with it.
[10:02.860 --> 10:09.140]  Eventually, radio mutiny was, was first warned by the, by the FCC.
[10:09.980 --> 10:15.160]  And then we got about five or six visits where they just kept on sort of cajoling us to try to go off the air.
[10:15.940 --> 10:24.740]  Each time we decided that we would, we would meet them back with a, with some kind of a, a press stunt.
[10:24.740 --> 10:28.780]  So the very first time they came and they, they tried to, I guess, to shut down.
[10:29.160 --> 10:31.420]  Well, we did shut down for about three days.
[10:31.600 --> 10:33.320]  And then we turned our station back on the air.
[10:33.920 --> 10:37.200]  In front of Benjamin Franklin's printing press in downtown Philadelphia.
[10:37.480 --> 10:45.740]  And we have this big banner that said, 1763, Ben Franklin defies the British by publishing Poor Richard's Almanac.
[10:46.800 --> 10:53.440]  1996, radio mutiny defies the FCC and, you know, in the, in the cause of freedom of speech.
[10:53.880 --> 11:12.240]  And so every time we, we met them with another press stunt and we, we started bringing, you know, bringing the issue further and further into that public consciousness, trying as hard as we could to embarrass the FCC into changing its policies, uh, into,
[11:12.640 --> 11:18.000]  uh, coming up with, uh, a new set of rules that would allow for, for community radio stations.
[11:18.240 --> 11:26.860]  Because the, the truth of the matter is there, there really is, uh, no law of physics that says that the media have to be owned by corporations.
[11:27.320 --> 11:30.000]  That's really just, that's a social arrangement.
[11:30.320 --> 11:32.960]  It's, it's a choice that's been made by, by our government.
[11:32.960 --> 11:49.220]  And, uh, what we, we realized that, uh, we, we felt that we had the political savvy to, um, along with a movement of, of thousands of other pirates across the country, to maneuver them into the position where they would have to change the rules.
[11:49.600 --> 12:08.920]  And, uh, in fact, that's, uh, more or less what happened, uh, after, uh, a number of years of deliberation, uh, the FCC did, uh, pass a new set of rules that would allow for neighborhood radio stations like, like, uh, like, pretty much like what Radio Mutiny was.
[12:09.640 --> 12:17.240]  Um, and, uh, it was, it was a limited victory for us.
[12:17.400 --> 12:36.420]  Um, but it was nonetheless something that we, when, when we saw the final rules, uh, we decided that we really felt like it was, it was worth pursuing, uh, to create, uh, you know, these sort of, uh, these sort of licensed 10 to 100 watt, uh, uh, neighborhood radio stations.
[12:36.920 --> 12:49.920]  And we realized that there were going to be, um, uh, there were going to be many, many hundreds and perhaps thousands of opportunities across the country for, for neighborhoods like our, like our own to, to start radio stations.
[12:49.920 --> 12:56.620]  Um, do you want to jump in or just keep going?
[12:57.000 --> 12:57.120]  Okay.
[12:58.140 --> 13:06.100]  So, um, what I can tell you a little bit about is, is the nature of the compromise that ended up, ended up coming about.
[13:06.480 --> 13:25.740]  Uh, what we asked for was, we said that, uh, uh, we, we proposed a set of, uh, of regulations that, uh, would allow for, uh, not all that many stations, but at least, uh, a reasonable number for, for every, uh, for every city in the United States.
[13:25.960 --> 13:45.940]  What the FCC came back with under extreme pressure from the incumbent broadcasters was a proposal, uh, was in fact a set of rules that would allow probably between one and five, uh, new stations in most metropolitan areas after the top five.
[13:47.020 --> 14:07.340]  Um, so, uh, the, just the nature of, of the way the FM dial has been allocated up until now, uh, means that basically New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, uh, the way that the FCC structured its rules did not leave any room for any new stations at all under these rules,
[14:07.360 --> 14:19.820]  which was, uh, a very severe disappointment to us, especially because we knew that, uh, from a technical standpoint, it was perfectly, uh, reasonable to, to put more stations on the dial in those places.
[14:20.260 --> 14:28.620]  Um, however, just about every place else has, uh, at least, uh, at least, uh, at least, you know, between one and five stations.
[14:28.820 --> 14:45.860]  And so, uh, at least us at Prometheus Radio Project decided that it was worth, uh, it was worth going ahead around the country and, and, and trying to license as many stations as we could and try to expand the rules, uh, further as time went on and as the,
[14:45.980 --> 14:55.580]  uh, the, the record became just crystal clear on, on the level of interference that, that putting more stations on the dial would, would have.
[14:56.160 --> 15:01.080]  Uh, our main opposition in all this is the National Association of Broadcasters.
[15:01.780 --> 15:09.240]  The, the broadcasters have, uh, they basically, they, they did, I forget how much it was.
[15:09.240 --> 15:14.240]  I think at least a half a million dollars worth of studies to prove that this was impossible.
[15:15.240 --> 15:28.700]  Uh, that was a very difficult thing because the, the truth of the matter is that the insult, the interference, uh, that could be created by these, these small stations is so small that it's almost, it's almost meaningless.
[15:29.120 --> 15:37.220]  It, it would add, add fractions of, of fractions of a percent to the, the overall interference environment of FM.
[15:37.560 --> 15:50.700]  Uh, however, they, you know, they had a lot of money and so they put as much as they could into, into studies that would prove that, that, uh, that low power FM would, would, would, would interfere drastically with the existing radio environment.
[15:51.340 --> 16:14.160]  What the, what they actually had to do in order to, to claim that was, uh, they tested about 28 radios and, uh, they basically, the, the performance standards that they set for those tests found that over, uh, I think it was 16 or 17 of those radios had unacceptable audio quality without any interference from,
[16:14.300 --> 16:16.320]  from a low power FM station at all.
[16:16.320 --> 16:23.380]  And so, they, they, they had set the, the audio standards so high that, that, that, that, that the tests were basically meaningless.
[16:24.640 --> 16:42.760]  So, uh, so in any case, the, you know, because they lost on the technical merits of their arguments, they decided that they would go, uh, instead of to the FCC's engineers who are, who are sort of the people that, that know more about this, the NAB decided that they would go,
[16:42.920 --> 16:44.820]  uh, to people that knew less about that.
[16:45.180 --> 16:46.580]  And, namely, that's congressmen.
[16:47.160 --> 17:05.400]  And, uh, so, uh, now we have a spectacle of the, of a number of congressmen, like, taking these, you know, half a million dollars worth of studies and, like, slamming them down on the table and saying, you know, the FCC has, uh, you know, has, has done a bad job of,
[17:05.400 --> 17:06.750]  of regulating the FM spectrum.
[17:07.770 --> 17:13.660]  As it stands, the House of Representatives, the, as it stands, the FCC has passed low power FM.
[17:13.680 --> 17:15.490]  And low power FM is going into effect.
[17:15.640 --> 17:19.250]  They've already accepted, uh, the first round of applications.
[17:19.490 --> 17:25.340]  They'll probably be issuing licenses over the course of the next two or three months.
[17:26.120 --> 17:31.250]  Uh, as it stands, uh, it's completely, uh, there's really nothing stopping it.
[17:31.920 --> 17:42.660]  The only thing that really can stop it at this point is that the House of Representatives passed a bill preventing the FCC from, from going forward with low power FM in a meaningful way.
[17:42.660 --> 17:51.710]  They call for, uh, billions of dollars of more testing and, uh, and actually no money allocated to actually do the testing.
[17:51.970 --> 17:57.070]  So, they, uh, they basically have tried their best to, to stop it dead in the water.
[17:57.920 --> 18:00.700]  Um, the House of Representatives passed the bill.
[18:01.100 --> 18:03.790]  The Senate is, uh, currently considering it.
[18:04.310 --> 18:07.710]  Uh, it's sort of, it's sort of, uh, floundering in the Senate.
[18:08.270 --> 18:20.010]  Um, and the current president has stated that he's, uh, supportive of low power FM and would, would not be very inclined to sign a bill that would, would pass it.
[18:20.120 --> 18:32.510]  So, uh, our worst actual danger is that it would be snuck in as an appropriations rider on some kind of a bill that, uh, that the president would be afraid not to, not to sign.
[18:33.360 --> 18:39.810]  So, uh, at least as far as we're concerned, uh, low power FM is basically going ahead.
[18:40.160 --> 18:47.140]  And, uh, the, the applications, uh, are divided into, uh, five sets of ten states.
[18:47.140 --> 18:49.460]  The first set already went.
[18:49.770 --> 18:59.750]  And that included states like, uh, California, Alaska, Utah, Louisiana, Maryland, Maine, Washington, D.C.
[19:00.400 --> 19:06.290]  So, uh, there was a five day window, which is when you're able to apply for these licenses.
[19:06.680 --> 19:09.210]  Um, and some of those will probably be coming soon.
[19:09.420 --> 19:15.460]  In the next window, there's, uh, Minneapolis, uh, where else?
[19:15.640 --> 19:16.210]  Kansas.
[19:17.910 --> 19:18.680]  New Hampshire.
[19:19.470 --> 19:20.570]  A whole bunch of states.
[19:21.710 --> 19:26.100]  New York is in the third window, which the applications are due in November.
[19:26.670 --> 19:30.550]  And basically, in order to apply, uh, it's a seven page form.
[19:31.050 --> 19:35.970]  Uh, you don't have to be, uh, you don't have to be all that smart to fill it out.
[19:36.730 --> 19:45.550]  Um, it's, uh, it's got a lot of things, uh, uh, you know, they'll basically ask you, you know, that you can't apply as an individual.
[19:45.970 --> 19:48.470]  Uh, you have to be part of some kind of an organization.
[19:48.570 --> 19:53.400]  It doesn't necessarily have to be a non-profit, but it has to be an organization of some sort.
[19:53.640 --> 20:01.200]  Uh, that is, uh, you know, has a governing structure, has like a board of directors or something like that.
[20:01.200 --> 20:10.990]  It's often best to, you know, go to your local, uh, rotary club or library or, you know, Greenpeace chapter or something like that.
[20:11.160 --> 20:14.860]  And ask them to apply for, you know, apply for a license.
[20:15.940 --> 20:26.200]  Um, then, uh, you know, it'll ask you a bunch of questions, uh, about, uh, the exact location that you want to broadcast from.
[20:26.200 --> 20:30.100]  So it can determine, uh, whether a station can be cited from there.
[20:30.730 --> 20:37.680]  Uh, there will be, uh, questions about, uh, whether you own any other media interests.
[20:37.900 --> 20:42.960]  If you, if you actually own a daily newspaper, you're not allowed to have a low power FM station.
[20:43.700 --> 20:48.730]  Uh, and, uh, it asks you, well, you know, uh, your grandmother's maiden name.
[20:48.940 --> 20:55.420]  Uh, you know, a whole bunch of, uh, sort of, uh, sort of simple technical questions.
[20:55.420 --> 20:58.140]  There's no need for an engineering study.
[20:58.400 --> 21:01.660]  Uh, because the FCC basically does the engineering study for you.
[21:02.070 --> 21:08.160]  And there's also no need for, uh, there's no need for a 501c3.
[21:08.900 --> 21:10.860]  And there's no application fee.
[21:11.050 --> 21:12.530]  It's, it's a free application.
[21:13.330 --> 21:16.530]  So it's really, uh, it's a pretty straightforward process.
[21:17.520 --> 21:22.550]  Prometheus Radio Project has, has, uh, published a guide which, hey.
[21:24.830 --> 21:25.860]  Which we have here.
[21:26.010 --> 21:26.570]  Which is free.
[21:26.880 --> 21:33.470]  Which, uh, uh, gives you basically a rundown of how to fill out the forms and how to, how to, how to, how to get it all together.
[21:33.970 --> 21:42.960]  And then once, uh, once, uh, once you fill out the forms, you just sort of wait for a few months and, and, and see what they do.
[21:43.600 --> 21:47.290]  Uh, the, the biggest trick is, is availability of frequencies.
[21:47.290 --> 21:57.050]  And, uh, what you really have to do is you have to sort of be willing to, uh, think pretty flexibly about where you're gonna put it.
[21:57.380 --> 22:08.290]  Because, uh, even a difference of a few hundred yards can make the difference between whether you can site a radio station there or not in, in an urban area.
[22:09.070 --> 22:11.810]  And, uh, radio licenses aren't like driver's licenses.
[22:12.070 --> 22:14.070]  You can't drive around with them or anything like that.
[22:14.070 --> 22:16.540]  Uh, you know, broadcast station has to be at a fixed point.
[22:17.870 --> 22:25.120]  So, you need to have a, uh, a real, uh, a, a location that's suitable.
[22:25.360 --> 22:35.550]  And basically all you have to do is you find the latitude and longitude of the place where you want to broadcast from, which you can get off the internet and just, uh, you know, drop it in.
[22:35.720 --> 22:43.120]  And if that place doesn't work, you know, ask your friend, you know, try, try different buildings around town until you find one that has clear frequency.
[22:43.120 --> 22:57.330]  And, uh, then, uh, then once your application is accepted, there's, uh, there's a phase at which they work out competing applications.
[22:57.660 --> 23:05.700]  Because the vast majority of applications, the vast majority of frequencies, there's more than one organization that wants to use it.
[23:05.700 --> 23:13.620]  So, uh, what you basically have to do is sort of cut some kind of a deal between all the different people that want to use it.
[23:14.000 --> 23:17.680]  Um, and if you can't cut a deal, the FCC will cut a deal for you.
[23:17.790 --> 23:27.460]  It'll, you know, sort of split up the time one way or another to, to make sure that as many, uh, different folks that want to do this are accommodated as possible.
[23:28.680 --> 23:42.980]  So, uh, it's actually, it's a slightly repugnant situation if you end up, uh, having the, you know, anarchist radio station, uh, sharing the frequency with, uh, right to life station or something like that.
[23:42.980 --> 23:56.070]  Um, but, uh, I actually think that, that, that, that such exercises are sorta, um, uh, uh, frustrating, but, but, but good for everyone's, uh, senses, sensibilities of, of free speech.
[23:56.240 --> 24:00.440]  So, um, and then, uh, and then you build the thing.
[24:01.070 --> 24:08.360]  Uh, when we were pirates, I mean, we built, uh, our initial station for about seven or eight hundred dollars.
[24:08.780 --> 24:11.810]  And that's, that's how much it costs for the actual equipment.
[24:12.370 --> 24:27.460]  Um, but when you're dealing with, with license to, uh, with license stations, it costs, uh, quite a bit more, but it's not necessarily out of reach of, like, uh, you know, a well-organized group that, that's willing to put on a couple big sales.
[24:27.830 --> 24:35.550]  Um, I, I'm pretty sure that, uh, we could figure out a way to put one on the air for about 5,000 bucks or so.
[24:36.040 --> 24:38.040]  Um, under, under the new licensing.
[24:38.040 --> 24:43.220]  And, of course, it's somewhat higher power for, for, uh, for a hundred watt station.
[24:43.520 --> 24:46.140]  Our, our station was, was broadcasting at 40 watts.
[24:46.310 --> 24:53.980]  So, uh, so, that's, that's sort of the basics of, of what Low Power FM is.
[24:54.740 --> 25:04.180]  Um, one thing I'd really, really encourage people to think about is, uh, you know, people have sort of all different ways of approaching doing a radio station.
[25:04.760 --> 25:13.460]  And, uh, in my own experience, the, you know, the best part of, of a community radio station is, is really the diversity of it.
[25:13.570 --> 25:22.360]  And, in, in fact, it was one of the things that, that led us to decide that we weren't, we, we weren't satisfied just to be pirates anymore.
[25:22.360 --> 25:35.220]  Because, um, you know, it was not that hard for us to find, you know, 50 or 60 people that were willing to be somewhat foolhardy and risk a $10,000 fine or arrest or, or whatever.
[25:36.400 --> 25:42.290]  But, what, uh, what was difficult was we kept on doing outreach to more and more of our neighbors.
[25:42.720 --> 25:46.000]  And a lot of our neighbors got really excited about joining our station.
[25:46.000 --> 25:49.040]  But for one reason or another, they just couldn't take the risk.
[25:49.400 --> 25:55.120]  Um, either, you know, whatever they had, um, prior records and they didn't want to tangle with the law.
[25:55.360 --> 25:57.380]  They were, uh, immigrants.
[25:58.000 --> 26:00.780]  They, you know, had families or, or this or that.
[26:00.780 --> 26:17.480]  And one of the things that we really felt was that, as bureaucratic and, uh, as limited as the new licensing would be, uh, we felt that radio, community radio shouldn't just be for the foolhardy and the reckless.
[26:17.480 --> 26:19.700]  It should really be for, for pretty much everyone.
[26:20.050 --> 26:30.360]  And that was, uh, that was what motivated us to, to, to channel a lot of our energy into, uh, you know, into, into making the Low Power FM, uh, come about.
[26:31.310 --> 26:35.460]  So, uh, anything else or you want to start taking questions?
[26:36.260 --> 26:37.420]  You can talk about what's here.
[26:37.880 --> 26:38.310]  Sure.
[26:39.610 --> 26:45.860]  Um, for those people who are still foolhardy and reckless, here are some, uh, um, transmitting setups.
[26:46.520 --> 26:50.440]  Uh, these are both just, uh, low power, low power pirate stations.
[26:50.810 --> 26:53.540]  Um, this one is, what, running half a watt?
[26:53.700 --> 26:54.070]  One watt.
[26:54.260 --> 26:55.680]  Oh, okay, this is one watt.
[26:55.680 --> 27:01.160]  And, uh, depending on conditions, yes, a stereo, um, Ramsey transmitter.
[27:01.680 --> 27:02.360]  What is it?
[27:02.400 --> 27:03.000]  FM 100.
[27:04.050 --> 27:10.550]  And, uh, it can get out, depend, uh, it all depends on antenna height for how far a station gets out.
[27:11.020 --> 27:17.120]  And a station like this, uh, with a decent antenna might get out, get out a, a couple miles fairly well.
[27:17.120 --> 27:25.700]  And, uh, this, for whenever the LPFM goes through, those stations won't be able to use transmitters like these.
[27:26.160 --> 27:31.830]  Uh, they'll have to be type accepted transmitters, which means that they have to be acceptable, acceptable by the FCC.
[27:32.310 --> 27:37.780]  And, uh, um, and they go through and check them out and there's, uh, a fee for doing that.
[27:37.960 --> 27:39.900]  So, that jacks up the price of the transmitters.
[27:40.070 --> 27:46.540]  Uh, right now, I think the lowest type accepted FM transmitters are somewhere around a thousand, two thousand dollars.
[27:47.360 --> 27:58.700]  And, uh, they're expected to drop a little bit whenever some of the, uh, the hobby, like pirate radio, uh, companies start getting into, um, building FM type accepted transmitters.
[27:58.700 --> 28:01.920]  Like Ramsey and Broadcast Warehouse and Veronica.
[28:02.160 --> 28:04.160]  A couple of those companies are working on it right now.
[28:04.960 --> 28:06.810]  Um, so this one isn't type accepted.
[28:06.960 --> 28:10.740]  So you couldn't, neither of these you could use in one of the LPFM stations.
[28:10.960 --> 28:12.790]  But they will get out, uh, a couple miles.
[28:13.260 --> 28:15.070]  Um, let's see.
[28:15.200 --> 28:21.680]  Also, the compressor, it has a limiter in it too.
[28:22.200 --> 28:23.160]  Limited, yeah.
[28:23.850 --> 28:27.020]  Limited limiting in the, uh, in the compressor.
[28:27.590 --> 28:34.480]  And, uh, those are pretty important for, uh, making everything sound louder and adding more punch to it.
[28:34.660 --> 28:38.830]  If you hear just a transmitter alone, it won't sound nearly as loud.
[28:39.160 --> 28:43.550]  You tune it in and it would just sound real thin and weak compared to other stations.
[28:43.740 --> 28:49.790]  With the, uh, the, uh, compressor limiter on it, it'll jack up the levels, give it a lot more punch.
[28:51.090 --> 28:53.020]  Oh, yeah, it's, it's on the air.
[28:53.310 --> 28:57.810]  It's actually getting out in here, probably about, uh, 50 feet or so.
[29:02.880 --> 29:07.320]  Oh, it's broadcasting the soundtrack from the movie that was on last night.
[29:07.960 --> 29:12.560]  So, uh, anybody with an FM radio within 50 feet of here can hear it.
[29:19.210 --> 29:21.970]  Next to the, uh, compressor is the...
[29:21.970 --> 29:30.170]  Well, also with that, it has limited limiting, which means that, uh, a limiter, what it does is keeps, uh, um, the peaks from distorting.
[29:30.170 --> 29:32.270]  So, those are really helpful, too.
[29:32.850 --> 29:34.450]  Um, next to it is a CD player.
[29:34.890 --> 29:36.290]  And, you know what those are.
[29:37.750 --> 29:38.550]  And CD.
[29:39.030 --> 29:39.790]  Uh, let's see.
[29:39.890 --> 29:41.950]  There's a, an inverter, but...
[29:42.390 --> 29:47.510]  Inverters really aren't too handy with this kind of equipment, because they put on a buzz, usually, on the audio.
[29:53.290 --> 29:53.950]  Oh, okay.
[29:54.010 --> 29:55.710]  He said it, it actually does work pretty well.
[29:56.330 --> 30:04.250]  Uh, in a, uh, vehicle, this, uh, this suitcase-type radio station, uh, can be plugged into the cigarette lighter.
[30:04.430 --> 30:07.270]  And with a mobile antenna, we've gotten a fair amount of range with it.
[30:07.750 --> 30:10.390]  Um, that's it.
[30:10.510 --> 30:13.010]  We're gonna be giving away one of these today.
[30:13.750 --> 30:17.450]  And, uh, this, this kit from Ramsey Electronics sells for about $300.
[30:18.390 --> 30:21.990]  And, uh, they sell other lower-priced kits in the hundred-some dollar range.
[30:22.150 --> 30:24.050]  And all the way down to, like, twenty-some dollars.
[30:24.410 --> 30:28.050]  And, uh, the owner of Ramsey Electronics, John Ramsey, I talked to him on the phone yesterday.
[30:28.210 --> 30:33.050]  He's gonna donate, uh, one of these, two of their FM-25 kits, which is also synthesized.
[30:34.090 --> 30:36.470]  Pretty, pretty good quality, inexpensive kit.
[30:36.670 --> 30:41.290]  And an FM-10, which is a, not so great, but it's inexpensive, good way to get started.
[30:41.610 --> 30:48.090]  So, when this is over, um, stay here and we'll do a drawing for these four transmitter kits, if, if you're interested in having one.
[30:52.500 --> 30:54.100]  So, Bernie S comes through again.
[30:55.500 --> 30:57.880]  I can tell you, I can tell you a little bit about this one.
[30:58.180 --> 31:00.860]  This, uh, this suitcase was built for Seattle.
[31:01.360 --> 31:09.740]  Um, it was, uh, right now it's a, it's a mess of wires, because I, I ripped it all apart and, and we're, was, uh, sort of putting it back together.
[31:09.740 --> 31:21.940]  But, uh, it was built, uh, with a, uh, with an antenna that came out of, uh, well, it came out of right here.
[31:22.380 --> 31:35.660]  And the way it worked was, it was a, uh, it was a piece of coaxial, it was a piece of coaxial cable that came up your sleeve and across your arm and into the handle of an umbrella.
[31:36.300 --> 31:46.360]  And it went up the umbrella, uh, and there was an extending, uh, telescoping whip that came out of the end, the umbrella and it formed a little, uh, ground plane antenna.
[31:46.860 --> 31:48.580]  Um, more or less.
[31:48.740 --> 31:58.840]  I cannot really speak for the SWR of the, of this particular, uh, ground plane antenna, but it was, uh, it was, oh, yeah.
[31:59.640 --> 32:04.840]  But, but it was, uh, it was, it was, uh, uh, definitely, uh, mildly effective.
[32:05.160 --> 32:09.860]  Uh, a group of, a group of folks walked around with boom boxes in Seattle during the demonstrations.
[32:10.000 --> 32:23.100]  And, uh, this thing was built with a little mixer, uh, in the side so that you could just sort of, uh, you know, control the levels as you walked.
[32:23.100 --> 32:29.160]  And, and, you know, put the microphone in any old person's face and just say, well, what do you see going on there, you know?
[32:29.660 --> 32:38.240]  Um, so, uh, and, uh, this transmitter's also, uh, been used for a bunch of, in different incarnations.
[32:38.240 --> 32:43.260]  It was used for, um, well, for instance, it was used for a critical mass ride once.
[32:43.580 --> 32:45.120]  Folks know what critical mass is?
[32:46.280 --> 32:59.020]  Critical mass is, uh, it's a bike ride where, uh, every, uh, last Friday of the month, hundreds of bicyclists get together and, and just, uh, sort of take over a particular little patch of the streets.
[32:59.260 --> 33:03.080]  And, uh, ride around all together, uh, for, uh, the safety and numbers.
[33:03.660 --> 33:09.780]  And, uh, it's sort of like a big party on, party on bikes, uh, at the end of the work week.
[33:09.780 --> 33:14.100]  And, uh, so we decided to bring, uh, trans, this transmitter once.
[33:14.440 --> 33:21.880]  And, uh, we had a, uh, we had all of our friends, uh, uh, strap boom boxes to the back of their bicycles.
[33:22.200 --> 33:25.220]  And we had one of our DJs sitting in the back of a, of a bicycle cart.
[33:25.420 --> 33:31.860]  And we just, you know, sort of, uh, ride around the streets and play lots of good music to, to bicycle by.
[33:32.040 --> 33:34.960]  Lots of polkas, I think we had, uh, that particular day.
[33:35.520 --> 33:44.740]  Um, the, the transmitter was also used, uh, in a union, a union drive in, uh, in northern, uh, Pennsylvania.
[33:45.220 --> 33:47.960]  Uh, it was sort of set up in a van.
[33:48.220 --> 33:54.640]  And there was, uh, there was a job site that, uh, the industrial workers of the world was trying to organize.
[33:55.060 --> 33:58.180]  And they weren't allowed, uh, entrance to the property.
[33:58.500 --> 34:06.800]  So they, uh, elected to, uh, uh, use this transmitter to broadcast in, uh, you know, their propaganda.
[34:06.800 --> 34:10.180]  And their, you know, sort of union music and all that sort of thing.
[34:10.500 --> 34:16.060]  It was, uh, used, uh, oh, that was about, uh, a year and a half ago.
[34:16.740 --> 34:30.960]  So, uh, you know, just, uh, giving you these examples to, you know, so you can sort of think about, uh, the fact that radio, uh, does not really have to be, you know, just a concessions, concessions stand for corporate America.
[34:31.460 --> 34:33.960]  It can't, it doesn't have to just be a plaything of the powerful.
[34:34.380 --> 34:51.760]  It can be, it's a relatively simple technology that, uh, you know, even someone such as myself, who knew nothing about it, uh, three or four years ago, can within, uh, you know, six months or so, uh, manage to, uh, uh, you know, operate, uh, relatively successfully.
[34:53.420 --> 34:56.480]  Um, and, uh, you know, so, uh, use your imaginations.
[34:56.820 --> 35:00.220]  Uh, that's what, uh, you know, that's what, that's what radio should be.
[35:02.400 --> 35:05.620]  Um, wanna, anything else or you wanna start taking questions?
[35:05.900 --> 35:09.320]  Well, I wanted to see if we're to the, are we to the end yet?
[35:09.620 --> 35:09.980]  Yes.
[35:10.400 --> 35:10.760]  Okay.
[35:12.520 --> 35:17.460]  They, they, they took them half an hour to get the AV set up here for, uh, we're just gonna do a quick drawing.
[35:17.780 --> 35:21.740]  Well, do you wanna do the drawing here or do we wanna move over to, uh, give a look?
[35:21.740 --> 35:22.180]  Give them more time.
[35:22.300 --> 35:23.360]  We could have the drawing over there.
[35:23.560 --> 35:30.640]  Okay, we'll have the drawing over in the other room, so if you're interested in the FM stuff, we'll have the drawing for the radios over there.
[35:31.340 --> 35:31.740]  Okay.
[35:32.240 --> 35:32.400]  Thanks.
[35:32.880 --> 35:42.400]  And I'd just like, uh, y'all to know that Prometheus Radio Project, uh, will go and, uh, help out anywhere that wants to start a low-power FM radio station.
[35:42.800 --> 35:50.860]  So, uh, contact us or, or, or pick up the flyers that are up here and, uh, you know, we'll come to your town and help you set up a radio station.
[35:52.280 --> 35:52.740]  Thanks a lot.