Pirate Radio Report, February 1997
Hello and welcome to another edition of the PIRATE RADIO REPORT. We have lots of interesting logs, plus a station profile on one of the more active of today’s pirates, MYSTERY RADIO.
Winterfest A Pirate Fest
If any of you are considering whether or not to attend this year’s Winterfest in Kulpsville, PA I can assure you that there is always a healthy contingent of micropirate broadcasters and pirate fans in attendance. Last year, I counted three separate pirate stations, two on shortwave and one on FM on the air at the same time.
Besides the stations, there is the excellent year in review of pirate radio forum hosted by George Zeller and Andy Yoder and you can pick up copies of pirate publications, pirate T-shirts and other memorabilia as well. The Winterfest will be held from March 13-15 this year. See page 60 of the January Journal for more details.
ACE To Get New President
The ACE [Association Of Clandestine Enthusiasts] will soon be receiving a new president and home. The current president, Kirk Baxter of KS will be retiring and will be replaced by Pat Murphy of VA in the spring. We will have more details as they become available.
For those of you who don’t know, the ACE is to pirate radio as NASWA is to SWBC. I’d like to thank Kirk for a job well done and welcome Pat aboard as the new leader!
Station Profile – Mystery Radio
“MYSTERY RADIO started when a group of pirate radio fans got together in October 1995 and decided to produce a Halloween Special musical show. The name MYSTERY RADIO came from our fondness for old time radio shows which we nicknamed “mystery radio”. The Shadow title came from the best of the shows, nach! We had access to the equipment for production and transmission. We were also lucky enough to obtain the permission to use the famed and coveted Stoneham post office drop box. So we went for it!
The first tape consisted of electronic music and sound effects mixed together to produce a continuous creepy atmosphere. After the first airing, our first batch of QSL requests arrived!! We were hooked. Since then we have produced 15 shows and 15 QSL card designs. About one a month or so. Mostly synthesized music with few IDs, no commercials and little comedy [we’ll leave that to those who do it well!]. We have done a few tributes to various R&R artists and a few theme shows. Most of our music is an original recorded performance that you can’t buy at any store. We have received reception reports from California to Rhode Island, British Columbia to Toronto, Sweden, Germany and Scotland! We love the mail, especially the postcards. We also QSL reports found in various publications.
Our station consists of four main components: The Monitoring Station, The Music Room, The Digital Darkroom and of course the remote transmitter sites. The transmitter is highly portable so the transmission sites can and have been in many different states. There’s always hope that anyone anywhere might catch a new tune. The Shadow and the staff of MYSTERY RADIO hope to keep providing new avenues in listening pleasure to music lovers long into the future, so stay tuned.”
I’d like to thank The Shadow for providing us with such a nice profile. I’m still looking for more profiles, so if you’re a pirate op, please write something up and send it in!
Pirate Poll Time
It’s time again to vote for your three favorite pirate stations of 1996. Send them to me by mail or email. The deadline for entries this year is June 1st. So, let us know what you think. The results will be published in the July edition of the PIRATE RADIO REPORT.
Huntsville Drop Changes Address
J.D. Stephens , owner/operator of the Huntsville, Alabama maildrop sends us the new address, effective immediately:
P.O. Box 11522, Huntsville, AL 35814.
A forwarding order is in effect for the old Box 605, so mail addressed to the old number should still make its way to the proper location. [J.D. Stephens]
Kiwi Radio Has Own Email Newsletter
Graham Barclay, operator of the popular and widely heard New Zealand shortwave pirate is now publishing “The KIWI Radio Weekly”.
This interesting newsletter will keep you informed on what KIWI is up to, including planned broadcasts and relays of other stations. To receive the latest issue of The KIWI Radio Weekly, send him an email request to: kiwisagb@xtra.co.nz You also might want to check out the KIWI web page located at URL: http://www-pp.hogia.net/jonny/fr/kiwi.html [direct]
Logs, Logs And More Logs…
CITH/CAT IN THE HAT RADIO was heard on December 22nd featuring a Christmas Play on 6953 LSB at 18:22 UTC. (McCarthy-GA)
FBI/FEMALES BROADCASTING INTERFERENCE is a new pirate run by, you guessed it, females! They were heard at 04:13 UTC on 6955 kHz on December 29th. (McCarthy-GA)
PIRATE RADIO BOSTON, “The Station Run By DXers For DXers” was heard at 05:01 on December 22nd on 6955 kHz USB. They were reading letters from listeners, including Niel Wolfish of Toronto. (McCarthy-GA)
STEREO SOUND RADIO, another relatively new pirate was noted on December 28th. They were heard in Georgia at 2100 UTC on 6955 USB announcing this was a test transmission. No address was given. (McCarthy-GA)
THE TALKING PIRATE was heard on Christmas Day at 17:47 UTC on 6955 kHz USB. Programming consisted of Jeff Foxworthy comedy bits. (McCarthy-GA) Andrew Yoder of PA also heard them later, around 2100 UTC. (Yoder-PA)
UATWR/UP AGAINST THE WALL RADIO was noted on 6955 kHz USB at 15:10 UTC on December 22nd. Rock and Christmas music were played. The address for this one is Box 28413, Providence, RI 02908. (McCarthy-GA)
WGLR/GREEN LANTERN RADIO was another pirate heard on Christmas Day. They were heard on 6955 kHz USB with a good selection of Christmas music. Their maildrop is Box 1, Belfast, NY 14711. (McCarthy-GA)
WJDI, made what they say was its last and most powerful broadcast on 1620 kiloHertz on December 25th from Kingston, NY. Brian Alexander in PA heard them around 0245 and Jerry Berg noted them around 0530 UTC. They reportedly used a homebrew transmitter running 15 kw, making them North America’s most powerful pirate of all time. According to a phone call made to Robert Ross in Ontario, WDJI has sold this transmitter and plans to make no future transmissions. QSL cards issued for this transmission are very attractive. (Berg-MA, Alexander-PA)
WLIS/WE LOVE INTERVAL SIGNALS was heard on 6955 kHz USB on December 29th from 2110 to 2140 UTC. (McCarthy-GA)
WSKY/WHISKEY RADIO, a pirate station that started in the early ’90s but has been fairly inactive over the past few years was noted on December 24th at 2125 UTC with Indian sitar type music and Dead Kennedys punk rock, a strange combination, even for a pirate! This was apparently an old tape because they were announcing 7550 kHz while actually transmitting on 6954 kHz. (Bickus-VA and Yoder-PA)
Pirate activity has been a bit sparse the past few weeks as the ops take a vacation from the hectic activity over the Christmas-New Year period. Until next month, happy pirate DX!
Chris