From: jduncan@got.net (Jim Duncan)
Newsgroups: alt.radio.pirate

I have never seen any posted on this 'newsgroup'.
Does it ever happen?

My "pirate" station was busted by the FCC on 7/31/79. Two agents
showed up at my house in a big station wagon, responding to a
complaint from a commercial broadcaster.

It was KOAN FM 107.9 and AM 1600 in Scotts Valley, CA. The FM was 5
watts from a 1200 foot hill and had a large coverage area. The AM
used 35 watts. This simulcast had been on the air 18 hours per day
since Nov. 1975. It was KOAN (KO-AN) Mountain Fine Arts, translating
classical music KDFC from San Francisco most of the time, while I
could go on live from time-to-time. It was a blatant, long running
violation, and I figured my broadcast engineering career would be
damaged. Numerous broadcast engineers were aware of it and had even
been to my house. I can't believe I ever did this. Having been a
defense industry technician, I designed and built everything myself -
antennas, receivers, transmitters, etc., and it was all optimized for
maximum coverage.

The agents seemed to be amused by the whole scene, actually, and
visited with me all afternoon. I got an ugly looking citation, but
there was no fine at the time. KDFC apparently got a number of phone
calls and letters wondering where the music went (in the Santa Cruz
mountains).

The FCC people made it clear that a repeat visit for the same type of
violation would be a bloodbath. Naturally, if microbroacasting were
to be legalized in some form, KOAN would instantly reappear, however,
again with its fine arts format.
--
<< Jim Duncan: jduncan@got.net >>
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