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Pirate Stations

A

Anonymouse

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What kind of music do most pirate stations around the US play?
 
What kind of music do most pirate stations around the US play?

In the New York City area, most of the pirate stations are targeted at immigrants from the Caribbean, Mexico, South and Central America.

So, you hear a lot of Jamaican music, Dominican music, and various flavors of music aimed at specific groups from small countries like Guatemala, and various sections of Mexico.

Other than Creole stations for Haitians, and English stations for Jamaicans, most of what you hear is Spanish.
 
The Pirates of America generally have all kinds of Formats.
The most common I see is Rock, followed by the ethnic formats, or the niche formats.
There's probably an oldie or two also.
 
Ironically, there's a CHR pirate which leans more towards an Uptempo direction in Upstate. Not sure if it's still there since the last time I was up there was this past halloween weekend.
 
KevanGC said:
What kind of music do most pirate stations around the US play?

In NYC, especially Brooklyn and the Bronx they are primarily geared towards the ethnic community. Probably 90% are geared towards Haitians, Jamaicans, etc. basically caribbean niched formats playing rhythmic carribean sounds, r & b, hip hop and reggae.
 
Has anyone ever heard a pirate station in a suburban area? I'm not talking about a pirate based in the city that is strong enough to reach the suburbs, but a pirate that actually broadcasts from out in the 'burbs.
 
If you consider Paterson and Passaic, NJ as "suburbs" of NYC, then yes, there are plenty. On the I-80 corridor through Paterson you can get pirates on 89.7, 90.1, 90.9, 91.9, 94.3, 95.1, and 102.3 just to name a few. I've also noticed a 107.3 lately around the NJ-3/NJ-495 intersection, if you consider Secaucus to be a "suburb".
 
Chicago doesn't seem to have any pirates today that I can find. :'(
Going back 20 years, I was 100 watts on 7.415 Mhz with the same format I now run 100mw on 1620 AM.
Difficult music. Oldies/20's-30's swing/jazz/new alternatives that sounds like mid 60's psychedelic/doo-wop/eclectic/texas swing/TV themes/old commercial spots/gospel/punk/thrash/bluegrass, psychobilly/garage rock/ska/comedy audio clips/etc.
It is interesting to note when I listen to old airchecks of the pirate days, how much my vision is true over the last 25 years.
A playing of a cassette mix tape I made in 1985 might easily drop into my playlist with no notice except for no songs newer than
the date of recording. I play a good deal of new music now, but the casual listener might think they are old recordings.
King Khan (with or without BBQ) is a great example of new rock that doesn't care about years and time.
It's NOW, but could be from any year 1960-forward and as grungy as Link Wray in his gnashiest moment.
The vocals are a cross between Bo Diddley and Andre Williams singing "Agile, Mobile and Hostile".

Y'know, just regular music. Except what you can hear everywhere else.
Back then I was nationwide, and paid a fine for all the fun I had.
Today I go 3-4 blocks and am very happy that thousands of people live in that tiny circle.
 
collegeDJ86 said:
If you consider Paterson and Passaic, NJ as "suburbs" of NYC, then yes, there are plenty. On the I-80 corridor through Paterson you can get pirates on 89.7, 90.1, 90.9, 91.9, 94.3, 95.1, and 102.3 just to name a few. I've also noticed a 107.3 lately around the NJ-3/NJ-495 intersection, if you consider Secaucus to be a "suburb".

Yeah, I know about the ones in Paterson and Passaic, but those are still cities and not really suburban areas. The one in Secacus is interesting as I would consider that suburban. I would be really curious if there are any pirates in outlying suburban areas (places like say, Rockaway, or Mahwah)
 
Remember Hank Hayes & Jim Nazium. There were on a pirate station at the time back in the 80's where they play oldies music mixed with hits. It was WHOT, and it was running overnight until the early morning when WNYE signed-off back in the 80's and piped in an oldies station. I've never listened to pirate radio WHOT back in the 80's when Hank & Jim was still around. It was on 91.5 FM.
 
ansky212 said:
collegeDJ86 said:
If you consider Paterson and Passaic, NJ as "suburbs" of NYC, then yes, there are plenty. On the I-80 corridor through Paterson you can get pirates on 89.7, 90.1, 90.9, 91.9, 94.3, 95.1, and 102.3 just to name a few. I've also noticed a 107.3 lately around the NJ-3/NJ-495 intersection, if you consider Secaucus to be a "suburb".

Yeah, I know about the ones in Paterson and Passaic, but those are still cities and not really suburban areas. The one in Secacus is interesting as I would consider that suburban. I would be really curious if there are any pirates in outlying suburban areas (places like say, Rockaway, or Mahwah)

Not to be technical but while Paterson and Passaic are cities, they're still suburbs of NYC and part of the NYC. metro.
 
Jeffrey said:
ansky212 said:
collegeDJ86 said:
If you consider Paterson and Passaic, NJ as "suburbs" of NYC, then yes, there are plenty. On the I-80 corridor through Paterson you can get pirates on 89.7, 90.1, 90.9, 91.9, 94.3, 95.1, and 102.3 just to name a few. I've also noticed a 107.3 lately around the NJ-3/NJ-495 intersection, if you consider Secaucus to be a "suburb".

Not to be technical but while Paterson and Passaic are cities, they're still suburbs of NYC and part of the NYC. metro.

No kidding. All of north Jersey is a suburb of NYC. Let me rephrase the question...
are there any pirates that broadcast from non-urban areas? We all know there
are pirates in Newark, East Orange, Elizabeth, Passaic, etc. My question is, has anyone ever heard
a pirate that broadcasts from a TOWN, like Mahwah, Parsippany, Rockaway, etc.
 
I would be really curious if there are any pirates in outlying suburban areas (places like say, Rockaway, or Mahwah)

Back in 2007, the Philadelphia office of the FCC went after an AM pirate on 1700 in Phillipsburg, NJ, which is in North Jersey just across the Delaware River from Easton, PA. I wouldn't be sure you could call either city a typical suburb, they are really both run down factory towns on the river, with mostly poor and immigrant populations.

The Field Notice is linked to below.

There is no mention of what kind of format the guy was broadcasting.

http://www.fcc.gov/eb/FieldNotices/2003/DOC-278979A1.html

I don't remember hearing any pirates that weren't directed at an immigrant population, and I have never heard a pirate that wasn't coming from an urban area like Paterson, Passaic, Newark and Brooklyn.
 
ansky212 said:
No kidding. All of north Jersey is a suburb of NYC. Let me rephrase the question...
are there any pirates that broadcast from non-urban areas? We all know there are pirates in Newark, East Orange, Elizabeth, Passaic, etc. My question is, has anyone ever heard a pirate that broadcasts from a TOWN, like Mahwah, Parsippany, Rockaway, etc.
Nope, because the FCC isn't afraid to go to THOSE places and shut down pirates! So if one starts up in a town like those, they get shut down right away! ::)

I'm half-joking, but seriously, a radio enthusiast in a smaller suburban town is more likely to start up a perfectly legal new Internet stream. However, poor immigrants (e.g. Dominicans, Colombians, Guatemalans, Jamaicans, and especially Haitians) are more likely to listen to FM and may have limited access to the Internet. And those communities have small businesses that pay for ad spots on pirates, probably without having any idea that they ARE pirates. I hear TONS of ads on some of the pirates out of Paterson, Newark, etc.
 
Pretty much the same programming in the Miami /Ft Lauderdale market. Mostly Haitian stations with commercials with Ads from immigration lawers and credit repair services, some Latino sataions and several with violent hip-hop F bomb and drug oriented rap music. Some of thees type stations are operated by gangs down here and..... there's more pirates than licensed stations in Miami!! One pirate forced a licensed FM to shut down till the local Sheriff Dept "cleared the channel."And Florida has a state law that makes it a felony to Op a pirate broadcast station.
 
While I have not heard any broadcasting from the Mahwah area, they sure can be heard in the Mahwah area (94.3, 94.5 & 94.9 to name a few)....Most likely they are coming from either Paterson or Spring Valley.
 
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