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Puget Sound "Pirates"

W

WDAE-FM101

Haven't seen many posts about "pirates" in the area lately. I understand that Spunk101.9 in Capital Hill shut down voluntarily because they heard that the FCC was searching for them. Iused to listen to them on I-5 from the convention center to the ship canal each morning - quite good programming and production. They plan on resuming as a true Part 15 station. Has the FCC shut down most of the pirates around here?
 
I'm not aware of any others near here, but someone is using the much-discussed freq of 88.9 in the Edmonds "Bowl" (downtown) to play "worship" music - I'm guessing it's one of the more fundamentalist churches, since that's the style of music, but can't tell for sure where it's coming from. I lose it a few blocks uphill from downtown, which makes me think it's not an actual licensed signal from Centralia or the like sneaking up Puget Sound. Anyone know how to get the FCC interested in this one?

Reporting a terresterial radio problem to the local field office seems to be a mystery (as is the status of the field office in Redmond - still operating??). I'd like to listen to the Canadian station that otherwise comes in clearly on that freq. But it's gone as soon as I drive west of 7th Ave to the waterfront, replaces by the nonstop "praise" music.
 
I think you're hearing K205DF, a CSN translator licensed to Enumclaw. IIRC, that area has several translators, including either 89.1 or 106.5 for Radio You, and near there is another CSN translator on 107.3.
The FCC's bad management of the FM band would be a joke, except there's nothing funny about it.
 
I hear a pirate sometimes on 87.9 in the Canyon Park area. I never know what will be played, since it is eclectic. Sometimes it's '70s music, but other times it's house and techno. I can hear it for a couple miles-could copy it at my home in North Bothell/Thrasher's Corner years ago.

I've noticed that religious 88.9 in Edmonds, but I get CBUX-FM1 better at Marina Beach, on the beach itself, than the religious station. Sometimes I could copy KSWS.

-crainbebo
 
Bellingham seems to get a few that pop up now and then. They run until the novelty wears off, then somebody else comes along.

With government cutbacks in every department including the FCC, the FCC themselves doesn't seem to be chasing pirates as much. The ones doing the reporting are usually engineers.
 
The only pirate I've ever picked up was last November when we were driving to Portland I picked up what sounded like AC on 101.1 in the Lakewood area. Does anyone know if CNN has a satilite AC service? If they do, that's what it sounds like they were running. An ID said Super CNN at 12:00.
 
Thanks for the compliment WDAE-FM101! Sure enough, I heard from a very reliable source that the FCC agents were at an apartment complex with their meters looking for me on November 1st. I shut the transmitter off at 9am the next morning- so I could let all of the listeners that were stuck in I-5 traffic know what was going on. I got a lot of email from listeners that, just like you, listened while on I-5.

I have always stated that I eventually want to license the station, and that I have total respect for the FCC. Shutting the station down was of course the only smart thing to do as if I was cited, I would never be allowed to get a license at all (with the current regulations/rules in place). I do plan on resuming as a Part 15, just to sit at 101.9 and soon will start the process of getting the licensing going. Licensing is always a huge task, but I believe that I have a few things working in my favor. Lots of very loyal listeners, the non profits, and local community service organizations that got public service announcements on the air (anybody remember PSA’s ? – HA ;-) will be behind the effort as well.

BTW: Still streaming live at www.spunkfm.com for Windows PC and Linux. www.spunkfm.com/mobile.html for all mobile stuff and Apple OS.

And thanks again for the compliment. I have been on the air since I was 10- I’m 52 now, so I really appreciate your recognizing my talent and commitment to the station.

Now… anybody got a job for me?
 
Was it Super CFL? I used to hear that on 94.5 (before KMIH took hold of it), and is also on 104.5 Fall City, however they may be silent.

-crainbebo
 
crainbebo said:
Was it Super CFL? I used to hear that on 94.5 (before KMIH took hold of it), and is also on 104.5 Fall City, however they may be silent.

-crainbebo
Click to expand...

Super CFL was run by a totally different organization than Alan's. They've shifted down towards the coast towards the Aberdeen and Olympia areas, where they are better known today as "Radio KYA" (KYAO 89.5) and NW Indy Radio. They're LPFMs, not pirates.

The Fall City station is now run by another group and moved to 98.5. It's now called KZFX
 
KZFX hasn't been on the air for many months. I don't think anybody knew about them when they were. I don't understand why someone would try to put that signal in that location on that frequency- CIOC just BOOMS up the Snoqualmie Valley. When he was on, you could only hear him in a few blocks of the actual COL. And nowhere else.
 
Actually, from 2003 until the end of May 2005 I used 94.5 -24/7/365- with a Part 15 and I lived along I-5 at the time. The signal got out a decent distance, just for the short stretch of I-5 (in line of sight...etc). The closest station on 94.5 at the time was Roxy and you really couldn't hear it in downtown Seattle at all. From what I can remember, at the time Roxy didn't have the power that they have now. (Someone can clarify and verify all of that... please. Didn't they move the stick too??).

101.9 was used sporadically until August 18th 2008 when I went 24/7/365.

DJ Alan
 
DJ Alan said:
Actually, from 2003 until the end of May 2005 I used 94.5 -24/7/365- with a Part 15 and I lived along I-5 at the time. The signal got out a decent distance, just for the short stretch of I-5 (in line of sight...etc). The closest station on 94.5 at the time was Roxy and you really couldn't hear it in downtown Seattle at all. From what I can remember, at the time Roxy didn't have the power that they have now. (Someone can clarify and verify all of that... please. Didn't they move the stick too??).

101.9 was used sporadically until August 18th 2008 when I went 24/7/365.

DJ Alan
Click to expand...

In 2002, I just happened to be listening to KRXY in my apartment in Mount Vernon when "If It Makes You Happy" Sheryl Crow was suddenly interrupted by "Gin & Juice" Snoop Doggy Dogg from CFBT, which had just turned the horses loose for the first time.

For 710 watts, KRXY sure got out. But it's all the terrestrial blockage in the Seattle area that kept/keeps it from being heard there. On top of the 94.5 translator..
 
That leads me to a question about 94.5.
This was in 2007 after KCFL's broadcasts had ceased.
On the same night, probably in July or August, from two locations, I got the same clear signal that I couldn't identify. It was certainly local, not e-skip.
It was running Spanish programming, and I received it at Safeco Field, as well as in Columbia City on Alaska Street off of Rainier.
Was this a previous incarnation of KRXY, a Spanish pirate, or what? Anyone else know of this?
I never received it in the U District.
 
multiplex said:
That leads me to a question about 94.5.
This was in 2007 after KCFL's broadcasts had ceased.
On the same night, probably in July or August, from two locations, I got the same clear signal that I couldn't identify. It was certainly local, not e-skip.
It was running Spanish programming, and I received it at Safeco Field, as well as in Columbia City on Alaska Street off of Rainier.
Was this a previous incarnation of KRXY, a Spanish pirate, or what? Anyone else know of this?
I never received it in the U District.
Click to expand...

After KCFL ceased broadcasting on 94.5, the translator was briefly in the hands of Skagit Valley College, which used it to rebroadcast KSVR, their Mount Vernon station which is VERY heavy on Spanish programming.
 
In Edmonds, I hear CFBT and KRXY. Sometimes K233BU when I am toward Five Corners or Yost Park.

-crainbebo
 
Free Radio Olympia voluntarily shut down their 98.5 transmitter in June after an upcoming raid was predicted http://www.kohoso.us/category/media/radiolinks/ They were on the air on various freqs since 2001. 101.9 was one and another further down the dial before they settled on 98.5. There was a short lived 88.7 that broadcasted Alex Jones, in stereo before they shut down too. Also a 103.3 before KGHO translator that did a R&B but it too, is gone.
 
I live about 20 blocks south of 5 corners and have only gotten KRXY once, usually it's CFBT mixing with K233BU depending on where I am in the house, though K233BU is usually stronger, except on tropo days. Those days are also when CFUN completely destroys reception of KKBW up here. Even when the ducting went away one day last summer, I could hear bleedover from 105.3 stronger than KKBW.
 
103.5 used to have R&B, etc. in the Olympia area, but that shut down.

-crainbebo
 
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