Future of pirate radio

[woody]

So I have been looking into pirate radio and the culture. My question to anyone involved in it is this, where do you see the future going. With the advent of online radio, and youtube and etc why not go there were you can reach the globe. Where its legal to broadcast? A lot of pirate radio stations already do this. 

[thelegacy]

I use Internet Radio and only use my transmitter as a means to promote the Internet stream. I operate at 500mW and go about 1/4 mile to a good boom box and 1/2 mile to a car Radio. My aim is to broadcast to a neighborhood of a few blocks. I'm not trying to reach the whole town this is where many get a NOUO and often fined to non existence. You can do nicely too on AM with a 10 foot antenna and a Procaster, iAM transmitter with a ATU outside. 100mW into a good antenna has been known on AM to carry 3 miles or so. And if you have a 10 foot antenna and 3 meter ground lead you stand less of a chance of getting any NOUO's on AM because your allowed 100mW there and this can reach a pretty good range if you have a good antenna. Its something to think if you live in a metro area where there is a risk of getting busted for going past part 15. Even outside metro areas I'd keep FM less than a Watt to be safe. FM is highly guarded compared to AM.

[DermotK]

You see Pirate Radio is "like a dirty thought in a nice clean mind". (Mark Hunter - Pump up the Volume). The internet is only an extra side tool to the transmitter. It's great to be able to share your music and opinions etc, on a shoutcast link or even on YouTube, but the thrill of turning on a radio in your home, car or work place and hearing your station is like nothing else on earth.

The reaction from my eldest son, when he first heard one of my broadcasts in the car travelling back from the shops with his mother, was electric. He had so many questions. My wife told him to contact the station number and request a song, but he got all shy on the phone. That experience could never be replicated by using the internet.

Woody you ask the questions "why not go there were you can reach the globe. Where its legal to broadcast?" What is legal, can it be fully defined when it comes to the citizens rights to free expression, and to freedom of speech? What rights do a Government have to control media? If a station goes on the net, they will be chased for music rights by whatever ragbag organisation for such rubbish exists in their country. Why should I pay an extra cent to an organisation like that? An organisation that makes a tosser like Bono richer. Of all the bands and singers I play on Radio Freedom, only two, out of the hundreds, are signed up to receive music rights, and as I buy their CD's and attend their concerts already, they can take a running jump for any more money from me. So I play the music I want and that is that. More airplay means more sales to them, so that's all they get.

The net can sadly be controlled by internet providers and Governments. The Governments can make the agenda towards what can be done, and not done on the net. A transmitter in the hands of a free thinking person can not be restricted, unless it is traced and removed from the transmitter site. A new transmitter will soon correct that problem. To listen in needs no special equipment, just a simple radio, in the car, the home or anywhere else. The radio dial can never be fully controlled. For all of these reasons I will maintain a transmitter and broadcast music not heard anywhere else. For that reason I will continue to be a Pirate. A tag I wear with immense pride.

Regards
Dermot

[Kage]

In so many ways I feel that pirate broadcasting is just another medium to get the peoples message or music out there.
Often there is an allure to listening into something taboo and forbidden like that of a pirate so for that reason there tends to be a specific audience you can capture that normally wouldn't be as interested listening online or via other means.
It is also about freedom of speech and how people are fed up with the censoring of it, and the more convoluted and chaotic mediums like the internet become there seems to be an ever growing niche of those who want to find other means to get their material out there, or even consume it.

There is also those who are simply hobbyists in either radio listening or broadcasting and want to keep the art alive. With an ever growing decline in radio listeners and content on stations going down the gutter it is understandable that many of us want to keep alive that which we grew up with and loved and in a way either being a pirate or a listener of pirates is keeping that alive while the commercial aspect of it is committing a slow but inevitable suicide.

I think that the future is now, and that even at radio broadcastings most toxic times there has been people who sidestepped the norm to entertain and give it a breath of new life. I do not see radio going anywhere, but instead evolve and possibly grow into what people truly demand and wish to have.
With any luck I am right and the future will be brighter than the crap that mostly fills the airwaves now, and I feel that pirate radio is but just one more thing to help improve its future.

[thelegacy]

Kage it is why I do what I do as well. I've even tried to get people together to start an FM Initiative to try and wake the FCC up as well as the people who enjoy FREE Radio with more music to offer than the Top 40 and jungle Rap slop that is played on Radio. Many Adults like myself could do far better if there was real music on the Radio and not just the Top 40-500. There is so much good Rock that is blocked by the RIAA and corporate greed and corruption in our government. I know what you mean on the Internet Radio side as the Performance Rights Organizations (PRO's) want more more more every year. They bite the hand that feeds them being unappreciative their music even got aired on my station to begin with. I really think that is really what is feared most because people WILL have a choice with Hobby Radio where as someone with the know how can put up a station and play something the public has missed for years. Its even more funny when the NAB gripes about a Radio station that has a coverage of 1/4 to 1 mile on a 1/2 watt Transmitter. If that little station is taking away your listeners you need to change your business model. I've tried numerous times to get that through the troll's heads that get on some of the other websites and mean mouth Hobby Radio. I do feel that if we work together we can make a change.

Long Live FREE Radio by the people FOR the people.