[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: [IRCA] Pirate radio stations are making a comeback



IRCA,

Reading this online article the thing that popped out at me was triggered by this paragraph.

---------------------

"The DJs sound like you and they talk about things that you're interested in," said Jay Blessed, an online DJ who has listened to various unlicensed stations since she moved from Trinidad to New York City more than a decade ago.

"You call them up and say, 'I want to hear this song,' and they play it for you," Blessed said. "It's interactive. It's engaging. It's communal."

------------------

This person is describing how radio was when I was a kid. The 1996 rewrite of the telecommunications act allowing 4 companies to own most of the radio stations, newspapers, and televisions in a given market, is I believe a direct consequence of this action.

For the most part local radio is not local, at least as I experienced it.

In the mid to late 1950’s there was only one Rock and Roll station in Tucson, KTKT and during the day it was my station. Back then there were a lot of “daytime only” stations and KTKT was one of them. The DJ talked to you, not at you. They and the stations that they worked for did everything they could to make the station more then just background music. They were given room to be creative and be funny. You really listened to the radio, not just had it on in the background, because you never knew what they might do or say. And the radio was a great way to meet girls.


Once KTKT finally got permission to stay on at night, such a huge number of kids would call the station nonstop, that the phone exchange would be jammed up all of the time. Kids quickly uncovered a technical quirk that was a side effect of this telephone traffic jam. When you dialed the station you almost always got a busy signal. But so did thousands of other kids. We discovered that if you spoke in between the slow beeps of the busy signal, other kids who were also hearing the busy signal could hear you. You just had to wait for the beep and then say “Hello” and almost always you would get an answer. This communication technique probably anticipated Internet “Chat Rooms” by over 30 years, but it took a little getting used to. The conversations sounded like: “beep, what, beep, school, beep, do you, beep, go to, beep.” Or, “beep, how, beep, old, beep, are, beep, you, beep.” If the two of you struck an emotional or hormonal cord then one of you would give the other their phone number and you would both hang up, and establish a real phone conversation. If you didn’t find anybody you were attracted to all you had to do was hang up and dial back. The chances are that the next time you would land on a different trunk line and get somebody different. Frequently you might be able to hear several people. Occasionally when this happened the conversations would get pretty steamy, or about as steamy and anything ever got in the late 1950’s early 60’s.


Before KTKT got permission to stay on all of the time they said goodbye at about 5:00pm and left the air. But right about that time especially in the winter KOMA, a powerhouse running 50,000 watts, came booming in from Okalahoma City. Kids all over the western U.S. grew up listening to KOMA at night. I can still remember countless hot summer evenings, the smell of an approaching desert thunderstorm in the air. The breeze ahead of the storm beginning to drop the temperature, distant lightening strikes crackling out of the radio speaker along with KOMA’s jingles, “Yours Truuly KaaaaOMA”. I recently exchanged email with one of the KOMA DJ’s from the late 1960’s. He told me that the calls on the request line used to amaze him, as they came from all over including troops in Vietnam.


Steve



On 5/3/16 4:12 PM, Dennis Gibson wrote:
http://www.startribune.com/pirate-radio-stations-are-making-a-comeback/377624341/

Sent from my iPad
_______________________________________________
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca

Be sure to register now for the Joint DX Convention
Kansas City, September 9 to 11.  Hotel space is filling up.
Registration info:
http://www.nrcdxas.org


Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers

For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org

To Post a message: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx





--
Stephen Hawkins NG0G
ng0g@xxxxxxxxx
73 49 111 01001001

_______________________________________________
IRCA mailing list
IRCA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca

Be sure to register now for the Joint DX Convention
Kansas City, September 9 to 11.  Hotel space is filling up.
Registration info:
http://www.nrcdxas.org


Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers

For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org

To Post a message: irca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx