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EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE BILLERICA PIRATE ON 89.3

E

Early Byrd

To those who have posted regarding the Billerica pirate who broadcasts weekends only in Portuguese:

He is based in a single-family home on Handel Road, near the corner of Beaver Place (#26 Handel?). The giveaway is the white PV-pipe style FM antenna which is mounted next to the chimney. He also has (or maybe had) a very large dish in his backyard...and a ROOSTER who, I understand, wakes up everyone in the neighborhood--don't ask me how I know that.
I know that the owner of the property definitely has a Portuguese surname.

He has been on the air weekends only FOR YEARS...I remember first hearing him circa 1996. His power must be modest, by pirate standards, because he barely makes it to most of the town of Billerica. Actually his audio is pretty good for a pirate too.

Since he broadcasts in Portuguese, and I don't know a word of that language, I can't tell you is being broadcast, outside of music and talk. For the record, Billerica has, like all eastern Massachusetts towns, some people of Portuguese descent, but I can't imagine very many are first generation who would be most likely to listen to an all-Portuguese station.
 
Wonder if Congress passes LPFM bill (see radio-info headlines; passed House) if some of the pirate folks might gravitate toward officially licensed stations. Heck, if legit stations did go on air even in big markets there would be fewer open spots for them on the dial, as it is...
 
The Billerica pirate has been on all week since Christmas day or so...maybe before. He's done this in the past...staying on for a week between Christmas and New Years, instead of just the weekend. My guess is that he has the week off from whatever he does for a living, so he decides to put in more time with his radio station.
 
From what I hear they only respond to complaints filed by commercial broadcasters. Most of the time I don't think they even respond to those. There hasn't been a pirate around here that has been taken off the air in years. Personally what I think they should do is open up space for hobby broadcasting with all the extra space that opened up when TV went digital.
 
chrisradioanimal said:
Audio wise this is probably the best sounding pirate I have ever heard. (Better processing then most Boston commercial stations even.)
Click to expand...

103.1 near East Providence, which broadcasts only on the weekends, seems to have the BEST processing I've ever heard on a pirate station. I heard it two weekends ago actually and was impressed. I picked it up "dead full quieting" from Rehobeth, MA until near Cranston, RI before I heard some flutter.
 
The Billerica pirate on 89.3 has been staying on all week since before Christmas. I wonder if this is a permanent change to his previously weekend-only schedule.
 
Early Byrd said:
The Billerica pirate on 89.3 has been staying on all week since before Christmas. I wonder if this is a permanent change to his previously weekend-only schedule.
Click to expand...

Maybe he treated himself to some new automation software for Christmas.
 
Maybe he got laid off or something because you don't need fancy software to run a 24/7 station. I just run iTunes on shuffle with a couple liners thrown in for my part 15 station.
 
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