• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

FCC Fines Daniel Roberts of Pirate Cat $10,000

D

DavidKaye

It's official. The FCC today fined Daniel Roberts (Monkey) formerly of Pirate Cat Radio $10,000 for running an unlicensed espresso machine along with a radio transmitter. He claimed that he wasn't in control of the transmitter, but the FCC inspectors apparently saw him operating and heard him on-air, and that was enough for them.

Many months ago I had written a press release for Daniel about his troubles and about his involvement with KPDO. I had wanted to be helpful in his trying to straighten things out and get on a new path.

Then a few months ago he arrogantly emailed me and others saying that he was holding a contest to see who was worthy of getting an exclusive interview with him about his exploits.

I wrote back that he was yesterday's news since he'd disappeared from the scene months ago, and that I wasn't interested. Supposedly in the interim he helped put another non-comm FM on the air around Point Reyes or thereabouts, as well as a pirate station in Britain. But there hasn't been much info since.

It's sad that such a brilliant broadcast guy is taken down this way. Pirate Cat was the only pirate radio station I'd ever heard that produced better programming than most conventional radio stations.

I wanted to be as supportive as I could, hoping that his involvement with KPDO in Pescadero would help right the wrongs, etc. But then he abandoned that project and according to some, took the KPDO bank account as well.

End of a sad chapter.

URL to the FCC decision: http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2011/db1021/DA-11-1756A1.pdf
 
It's interesting how people drag it out, wiggle, counter and spend so much effort fighting the FCC as an unlicensed station.

No matter how good, how clean or how great you serve the community: it's still unlicensed. You will get popped. The more visible, the quicker the pop. Operating the station out of cafe and advertising it - what did he expect. A fine or jail was going to be the end result.

At some point, going legit or getting out completely are the only two courses. From what it sounds like, Roberts could've done some interesting things had he gone legit.

Between being fined and the mess he created at KPDO, it's not been a great year for him.

Picking a fight with the FCC is one you won't win no matter what the urban myths say.
 
It's one thing to do a little pirate radio (Ar!)... ...not condoning the act in any way with that statement...

It's totally dumbfounding that he had station information published in a community newsrag. Getting donations on-line? Brilliant - not!

No, not the brightest bulb on the tower.
 
kwthom said:
It's totally dumbfounding that he had station information published in a community newsrag. Getting donations on-line? Brilliant - not!

No, not the brightest bulb on the tower.
Click to expand...

And yet he managed to run pirate stations for 10 years. Well, he's adept at radio engineering. Over the years I never heard a single complaint about any interference caused by his operations. Spurious signals are a menace created naturally by FM transmitters. He managed to keep the spurs under control very well.

However, it's true that the tallest nail gets hammered down...
 
I am always a bit surprised at the arrogance of pirates in these situations. I do enjoy listening to pirates when they are good at their chosen vocation, but when they get to the point of advertising, and running things as if they are legit, to me that is just begging to be nailed by the Feds.

It seems to me that keeping your head low and running things quietly would be a much better option, but I guess that stuff goes to their head after a while and they feel invincible.
 
nocomradio said:
I am always a bit surprised at the arrogance of pirates in these situations. I do enjoy listening to pirates when they are good at their chosen vocation, but when they get to the point of advertising, and running things as if they are legit, to me that is just begging to be nailed by the Feds.

It seems to me that keeping your head low and running things quietly would be a much better option, but I guess that stuff goes to their head after a while and they feel invincible.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Being a DXer I've heard a lot of pirates over the years and only two of the hundreds stand out as anything worth listening to. One was Pirate Cat.

The other was "KDHS" (no relation to the licensed station of the same name). KDHS was operated in Duarte California and then later in Hollywood and finally in San Francisco by a friend of mine. Bro Duke ran it for I think about 15 years all told. It was an AM on 840 running a couple hundred watts, and could be clearly heard for hundreds of miles. He ran it only on Sunday nights and the occasional Saturday, and he did some remarkable things with it, such as community softball game play-by-play, local newscasts (including interviews with politicians and stars passing through town), PSAs, and even a live country DJ show from a bar.

I was working at KWUN at the time and did some production at the station for him. I almost blew the cover when I accidentally left a master reel in the studio and it was found by a busybody fellow DJ. He played the tape and was very puzzled why anyone was doing production for a high school station in Manteca or whever it was. I made up a really bogus-sounding excuse.

He had an intriguing system set up. The B+ power to the transmitter was rigged to a relay connected to the doorbell button of the garage where he operated. Anyone who rang the bell would immediately shut down the station. This is what happened when the FCC came to call (I recall the David Doon personally was involved in this one). The FCC didn't have a search warrant. They didn't have a fine enough bearing on the transmitter location, but they did pink-slip him just the same. He got wise and shut down immediate and hasn't run a pirate since.

He was most proud of the fact that his home-built crystal-controlled transmitter was on-frequency. "See, it says the violation was on 840, not on 841 or anywhere else. And they don't say anything about any interference."

Bro Duke needed to renew his Second Class license to fix the transmitters he worked on as his source of income. At first the FCC dragged its feet in renewing the license, but then Duke asked in writing what grounds the FCC had for denying him the license. Without comment, the license finally arrived.
 
darwood said:
PuhLeeeze.
Please stop boring us with stories about radio's past. We live for today.
Click to expand...

I'm not talking about radio's past. I'm not talking about how much "better" it was to be a pirate radio operator in "the old days", or any of that. The story I cite could as easily have happened this week.

I could talk about Radio Valencia, the current SF pirate. I know the two principals behind it, and most of the program producers. Heck, I talked with 4 of them Monday night. But there is nothing noteworthy to say about the people or Radio Valencia. Ten years, twenty years from now there will be nothing noteworthy to say about them.
 
PuhLeeeze Darwood. ANYTHING from the past or Pirate history is more interesting than what is going on in radio at large today. Keep the insights flowing DavidKaye.
 
RadioStarOne said:
Gee, and I thought I carried on and on at times!
Click to expand...

Maybe that's why I was a successful talkshow host and you weren't?

Actually, I used to burn to go back to being a talkshow host, but in the past few years I dunno, I guess I've just had my fill of all that. As Norma Desmond once said, "There once was a time in this business when I had the eyes of the whole world! But that wasn't good enough for them, oh no! They had to have the ears of the whole world too. So they opened their big mouths and out came talk. Talk! TALK! "
 
DavidKaye said:
The other was "KDHS" (no relation to the licensed station of the same name). KDHS was operated in Duarte California and then later in Hollywood and finally in San Francisco by a friend of mine.
Click to expand...

During what years did KDHS operate in SoCal?

I only remember two or three pirates here:
1. KDOR-830, late 1970s (run by a guy in a wheelchair)
2. KDX-540, about 1983-84 (Orange County)
3. KBLT-104.7, late 1990s. There were a couple of other pirates on that same frequency--one near USC, playing Latin music, and another near the LAX airport--mostly conspiracy/militia stuff.
 
charles hobbs said:
During what years did KDHS operate in SoCal?
Click to expand...

1970s. I'm not sure of the years because I wasn't there. I'm not sure the power, either, but if it was the same transmitter then it put out a couple hundred watts. I believe he always ran the station on 840, given that it was the clearest of clear channels here in the West.
 
His pirate radio station was out near Pt. Reyes? So he was running a pirate for a potential audience of......close to 150 people? ;D
 
DavidKaye said:
charles hobbs said:
During what years did KDHS operate in SoCal?
Click to expand...

1970s. I'm not sure of the years because I wasn't there. I'm not sure the power, either, but if it was the same transmitter then it put out a couple hundred watts. I believe he always ran the station on 840, given that it was the clearest of clear channels here in the West.
Click to expand...

I did some Googling, and apparently KDHS got its start in 1962 (although the callsign came later, late 1965):
http://www.sonic.net/dukenrat/history.htm
 
landtuna said:
His pirate radio station was out near Pt. Reyes? So he was running a pirate for a potential audience of......close to 150 people? ;D
Click to expand...

If it was on AM with 250 watts he would have had a potential audience significantly greater than that, at least to most car radios.

Dave B.
 
DaveBayArea said:
landtuna said:
His pirate radio station was out near Pt. Reyes? So he was running a pirate for a potential audience of......close to 150 people? ;D
Click to expand...

If it was on AM with 250 watts he would have had a potential audience significantly greater than that, at least to most car radios.

Dave B.
Click to expand...

Western Marin County is very rural and lightly populated. Mt. Tam and the Marin Headlands would tend to block signals to the SE (metro S.F.) and the coastal range would block a lot of the signal to the east (San Rafael and populated portions of Marin). He'd get great propagation to the west but unfortunately that is just salt water.

Don't pirates usually shoot for big coverage? I'm not aware of any commercial stations out in the far west county and don't remember reception being very good on those occasions when I drove out there. The only advertising would be a couple of bed & breakfasts and some restaurants.
 
landtuna said:
His pirate radio station was out near Pt. Reyes? So he was running a pirate for a potential audience of......close to 150 people? ;D
Click to expand...

Bro Duke's KDHS pirate was never at Pt Reyes as far as I know. I know he had it in Duarte, then in Hollywood, then in San Francisco. When David Doon of the FCC shut it down the Sunday before Christmas in 1977 I don't believe he ever ran it again. Instead he moved to the Russian River area and began doing a weekly oldies show on one of the non-comm stations up there.

In SF, the station attracted the attention of KPIX's David Fowler, who wanted to do a story on it, but Bro Duke really didn't want publicity, and especially not rub the FCC's nose in it. After all, bureaucrats have to do what they have to do. He maintained a low profile and never said anything on-air about being a pirate. He sold time on the station, ran public service announcements and news, as well as music.
 
It's sad that the operator of Pirate Cat radio decided to not use the opportunity of running a legal radio station to its full potential.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom