karn@eagle.UUCP (Phil Karn) (10/11/83)
For those of you looking for something completely different, try this:
Last night, while tuning the range 1.6-1.8 mhz looking for cordless
telephones, I came across a guy calling himself "KPRC, Pirate Joe" on
1.616 mhz. This guy claimed to be running THREE simultaneous
transmitters from somewhere in New York on AM, shortwave (6.280 mhz) and
FM stereo (91.5). I was able to hear the first two but not the FM
signal.
This guy was quite talented. His signon was "Who's afraid of the Big
Bad Wolf?" He played music, naturally enough, but the most entertaining
part of his show was the telephone call-in. He gave a New York number
but suffix of the number was 99xx, which I suspect was a port of an
internal telephone company conference bridge (to avoid tracing, of
course.) His first caller was from a fellow pirate ("WDX") who said he
would resume operations around Thanksgiving. Another caller was a SWLer
who read off a long list of other pirate operations that she had heard.
They then got into "hey, did you hear that so-and-so got caught by the
FCC a while ago and got fined $2000? How much do you think you'd get
fined if you got caught?" "By the way, how much power are you running?"
"Now you know the ground rules, there's certain things we can't talk
about over the air..." etc, etc. Naturally, a pirate radio station
wouldn't be a pirate radio station without political harangues, so he
then went on awhile about Ronnie and Central America. Then he played a
pretty good parody of "Electric Avenue" called "Stupid Avenue", by
Pirate "N" and the Plate Tuners.
This went on for quite a while, with phone calls from places like
Chicago and London, Ontario, until at 2:30AM I decided I needed some
sleep. He gave a PO box in Exeter, NH to which listeners could write
for QSL cards, etc. I have about an hour or so of him on tape.
I think I'll have to drop him a line. It'd be a shame for this guy to
get thrown off the air, he was so much more entertaining than the usual
soul-saver drivel on the AM stations!
Happy listening,
Philparnass@ihuxf.UUCP (Robert S. Parnass, AJ9S @ Bell Labs, Naperville, IL) (10/11/83)
It looks like this pirate station has been operating on 1616
KHz for at least a year now. The "Free Radio Focus" column
of Popular Communications magazine for July 1983 makes
reference to this station:
" ... The first bit of information this month comes
from my cousin, Bob Kratzer in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Bob Reports hearing KPRC in New York sporadically on
Sundays on 1616 KHz between 0600 and 0800 GMT. Their
programming is a mix of editorials, phone calls from
listeners, and assorted music. One November 3 [1982],
they discussed the New York elections, but had a slight
problem with their phone line, which was telephone
number (212)799-9906. On December 31 [1983], the
highlight of the night was someone calling to complain
that KPRC was RFI'ing a neighbor's stereo ... thank
goodness the call was only a prank! Their address is:
P. O. Box 747, Exeter, NH 03833 ..."
This column is a regular monthly feature in Pop Comm.
Starting with the October 1983 issue, the column has been
renamed "Pirates Den", and been given a new editor.
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Robert S. Parnass, AT&T Bell Laboratories, ihnp4!ihuxf!parnass (312)979-5760