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more on the Pirate Radio Station

December 11, 2009 by morningaftershow

Got lots of great comments and feedback about last nights post about the Pirate radio Station in Ottawa.

This one is from Buzz who is now Morning Drive in Calgary on AMP:

Shut him down. Is he paying SOCAN fees? Did he buy a license? It’s just like selling booze at a lemonade stand. It sounds like a fun idea, but it’s illegal. Shut. Him. Down.

David Eleanor is fighting Global Climate Change and is Music Director of The Zone:

You make a lot of strong points here, Jeremy. I especially like the one about that guy (likely) scoring less than Shane O’Brien. Here’s the problem: The CRTC can’t choose who gets in trouble, and who doesn’t when the rules are broken. Government Commissions must hold people accountable, publicly in my opinion, or else the message they send is a dangerous one. So one kid broke the rules? So what! So one station didn’t fulfill all it’s spoken word commitments? So what! So one radio company didn’t pay it’s SOCAN bills? So what? It’s a slippery slope, and when I pay the salaries of those empowered to enforce the rules, I want to know they’re doing their job. I hold them accountable, for holding the industry accountable.

That said, they shouldn’t find the kid $5,000. Tell him to take the signal down, publicly praise the kid for his passion for local radio, and give him a job at the CBC rolling cords, or working in a studio somewhere. The Government looks good for going easy on him, and for giving the impression to the general public that they’re doing their job.

By the Way: CHMR “The Hammer” would have ruled my world in 1997.

The Hammer would pretty much slay! That we can agree on.

This comment is from Sara P, PD of The Zone:

Yeah!! Go kid and go freedom! Jer we should send him a copy of that KBLT book so he can learn to hide his transmitter well. 🙂

Dave Holden is a dude and he says:

They should take a percentage of his PROFIT and turn it over to SOCAN. Even though I’m sure every artist that was spun on his station would gladly forfeit their rights in this instance. I grew up listening to CFNY back in the day. I’ve heard Alternative radio deteriorate to the “I-can-read-Billboard-and-play the-songs-with-the-numbers-beside-… See Morethem-XFM-style” in the ’90’s (With the odd exception like early KNDD Seattle) . Later, competing with iPods and Pandora, radio would lose big numbers and then claw for any listeners at all. Now, in order to get listeners back to radio (or in my case, back from 947.fm, Indie 103.1, my iPod, or the Adam Carolla Podcast) the CRTC is finally allowing new licenses (I really like the PEAK). We in our 40’s (and up) have been trying to tell the younger demos what we think that they think is cool for a while now. Punish him severely? Really? Are we American now? Radio needs to stop with that “throw away the key” mentality and listen for once. What is REALLY being said about the state of radio from the perspective of the next generation of potential listeners? And Buzz, Given our archaic liquor laws and moratorium on live venues in this town, I’d love some booze from a lemonade stand. 🙂

***

and since this is my blog, here is more of my half informed opinion:

yeah his biggest problem was 2000 watts! zoinks and he interrupted the CBC signal… so that will piss off a lot of people. Smaller frequency, and squat on something not used… no problem to me. Or broadcast on the new unregulated frontier; the internet… how many of those stations are paying SOCAN?

If it becomes an artists rights thing, … I am sure he could pay the blanket NON-Comm rate which is? maybe $500 a year? $1,000?

and for people into Pirate Radio, Sara was right to recommend 40 Watts From Nowhere! http://www.amazon.ca/40-Watts-Nowhere-Journey-Pirate/dp/0743229886

A great read for people into radio, freedom, indie media, and the California music scene of the early 90s.

*** AND what the heck is SOCAN you non radio folks might be asking? http://www.socan.ca/jsp/en/pub/about_socan/index.jsp

Go with yourself.

Posted in radio | Tagged 40 Watts From Nowhere, Sue Carpenter | Leave a Comment

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