I always get a good chuckle out of how VIOLENT ham operators get when you bring up the subject of pirate radio...heh. It's sort of like when married people talk about how happy they are around someone that just went through an ugly divorce. You can see the red face and steam next to you through your peripheral vision.
There's a big difference between old-school "hobby" pirates (Hell, there used to be scads of publications about the subject!) and a lot of what goes on today. Most pirates of days gone by have found legal outlets for what they do, either on the internet or via block programming. For those that did it just for the entertainment aspect, having to deal with the FCC (and thier overly-eager "sources") just isn't worth the aggrivation anymore, not when there are so many viable outlets now.
Like it or not, as a wise man once said, as long as there is radio there WILL be pirates. They go hand in hand, for better or worse.
As horrific as this may be for some to accept, many underground stations have been (and may still be) operated by individuals with (gasp!)
real radio careers. It's like the "other woman": one's a job - the other is for the
passion. At least that's how it was, back in the day. You would be amazed how many people in actual, er, licensed broadcasting have enjoyed listening to (and sometimes participating in) pirate radio over the years. There
was a time when you'd be hard-pressed to find a "real" (i.e. not just someone having a stick up the kiester) anti-pirate guy at a legitimate radio station.
There used to be a real craft to underground radio...go to a library and see if they have old copies of Popular Communications or Hobby Broadcasting and you'll see. It was always interesting to see if one person (or a small group of people) could generate listeners by putting together a format that people would actually like, without having to deal with a multi-billion dollar corporation nipping at your heels left and right. Imagine that?
Of course, some "get it" and some will
never get it (well, there IS one theory is that the term "ham" came from the term "ham-fisted"...
). Learning morse code and exchanging ten-counts with guys from Slovakia works for some people, but not for everybody.
I don't support thses things, but I admit I enjoyed listening to pirates way back when. I'm also honest enough to admit that opinions are like anuses. Everybody has one, and everyone thinks THEIRS is the one that DOESN'T stink.
