I remember an 87.9 pirate up in Haverhill years ago. It was playing things like excerpts from the South Park movie (or TV show itself). Even if the pirate has "no IDs" they technically are not licensed by
the FCC anyway...despite some unlicensed stations trying to make it sound that way (Choice 102.9 had a website claiming they had the calls WCFM, which are the actual calls of Williams College's
station in the NW part of the state)
Yeah the idea of a pirate station can be fun but they can interfere with legit stations--when a TIS
was up about I-93 construction it was having a tough time due to a pirate around Lawrence--and it can interfere with aircraft radio, etc. They don't pay license or music licensing fees and even if they
"serve the community" they do so while breaking the law. The 13 yr old next door may be a nice kid
but if they take Dad's car for a spin, they are breaking the law as they don't have a license. The
doctor in the rundown section of town who will take in patients despite having no license and not
proper training--hey, but they're serving the community, who needs a medical license? Pirate radio can be fun. We do want our own stuff out there. Sometimes there can be spots on the dial
esp. up in the boonies where there are lots of open spots, and you're not really hurting anyone.
Heck I remember Radio Free Vermont up in Rutland, which ran swing and oldtime music and even
sold commercials. (I'm guessing they did not report this income to the IRS.)
If the FCC could set aside part of the spectrum--like the expanded AM band--for people to
do this (as long as they didn't interfere with TIS, Logan Parking Info, etc.) it would be nice.
Then again someone could put a pirate up there and then find someone else puts THEIR
pirate next to or on the same frequency and drowns them out.
This is why we have the FCC. But yeah it's interesting to hear a pirate then maybe find out they got fined or had their equipment seized, and they're told to pay $17k or something and some
violators don't feel like paying the fine. Or some stations get "overlooked" because hey they
do help the community. But how would Touch 106.1 feel if someone else decided to put up a more powerful station next to them or on the same frequency? (Complain to the FCC...ha! You guys are a fine one to talk, being lawbreakers yourselves
)
But hey, isn't it fun to be an ... "undocumented broadcaster"? ;D
---
>>87.9
I do seem to remember a legitimate station at 88.1 mHz. Somewhere in Cambridge...
btw speaking of Winchester there used to be WHSR 91.9 (IIRC) Winchester High School Radio.
A legit station though they shut it down eventually...you'd pick up WUMB then suddenly around
the school it would switch to the Winch High outlet...
http://www.bostonradio.org/fm-1958.html
This page of stations on air in '58 does include WHSR.
from radio-info, 2007
>>
Peter George:
A major problem with Winchester High, and other schools in the Commonwealth at the time was that the state was in a recession. 97.9 and 96.3 were bandied about as possible alternatives for WHSR to move to. But (IMHO) it was probably too much for a school district to pay for further legal costs, so it died on the vine.
Eli:
>>I could hear WHSR where I grew up in Newton. It was a lot more than just "high school students playing radio". It also provided community service programming to the surrounding towns as well as Winchester. It actually did briefly appear on the "new" frequency in the mid-80's shortly after it was bumped from it's original, but other powerful pre-existing second-adjacent stations complained and it was bumped off the air for good.
http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?action=printpage;topic=68103.0
