Pirate radio station[views:2322][posts:10]__________________________________ [Jul 10,2009 9:14pm - dertoxia ""] ...well sort of. I was flipping through the radio a couple days ago and somehow had it on AM. I came to a station playing Metallica, some very old Metallica. The stuff you don't normally hear on radio. I was sort of stunned. I kept listening as they played Black Sabbath, Queen, Quiet Riot, Sex Pistols...some good ol classic rock. Now keep in mind that i'm in Albany. And Albany doesn't have any good classic rock stations anymore. They've long since been changed over to alternative or shitty modern pop-rock (thx clear channel!). So after listening for a damn long time i realized that there was no DJ. No commercials. No station ID. Just good music all day long. I eventually figured out i was listening to WCKL 560kHz AM out of Catskill, NY about 20m south of me. Doing some research i dug up what little info there is about this station online. http://blog.free103point9.org/2009/06/cats...lls-silent-radio-station-doing.html It's a pretty long and confusing story, but apparently the station was bought by the Black United Fund. Some African-American nonprofit support group. The group was under investigation by then AG and former governer Eliot Spitzer (oh yeah remember that guy? Mr Resigned-cause-i-used-tax-money-to-buy-a-prostitute). Well i guess they were using the station as talk radio to promote African-American...something or other. I guess in the wake of the Spitzer investigation, the guy who was in charge of paying rent on the stations studio left the organization. Eventually the landlord threw all the stations stuff out and the frequency went dark. The FCC has been trying to pull the stations license but someone read some fine print i guess and as long as they broadcast a few weeks a year the FCC cant kick em off the air. Thing is, i guess no one really knows who 'owns' the license anymore...if anyone. My guess is someone once affiliated with the BUF or maybe just and old WCKL DJ figured out the frequency wasnt being used and threw together a transmitter and once a year they broadcast to get around the FCC stuff. I'm guessing they're just playing out of their own personal stash. I'm hoping this keeps going. Everything i've read says they usually are only on-air for a few days. Well that article is from the beginning of June when they played a Quiet Riot CD and Twisted Sister "Were not gonna take it" on loop all day long. So it's been going almost a full month now. Currently i'm listening to Primus, they just played Pink Floyd. Zappa before that. I'm loving this. |
| __________________________________ [Jul 10,2009 9:34pm - dertoxia ""] Just heard Sex Pistols "God Save the Queen" and "Anarchy in the UK" back to back. |
| _________________________________ [Jul 10,2009 9:44pm - reimroc ""] pretty interesting. going to check this out. |
| ___________________________________ [Jul 10,2009 10:36pm - dertoxia ""] Hahah now they're all over the place, played Phish earlier. Listening to Eminem now. Lets see what comes up next.........hahah no way, Jackyl. I love this station. |
| ___________________________________ [Jul 10,2009 10:39pm - dertoxia ""] KING DIAMOND!!! |
| ___________________________________ [Jul 15,2009 11:11pm - dertoxia ""] Earlier today they played Black Sabbath Paranoid all the way through and i think they just played the Aerosmith best of all the through...or most of it at least. Currently i'm listening to B52's Rock Lobster and Lock Shack before that. this station is incredible, hope it doesnt get shut down |
| ___________________________________ [Jul 15,2009 11:15pm - dertoxia ""] holy shit and theyre playing the full version of Rock Lobster, not the cut down 4 minute version. Hahahah this thing is like 16 minutes long, lets see if they fade out. |
| ___________________________________ [Jul 15,2009 11:30pm - dertoxia ""] B52's are still going, they just love playing full cd's of bands |
| __________________________________________ [Jul 16,2009 11:27am - ctb0rderpatrol ""] i wish there wasnt a station on 560 in the pioneer valley blocking it out |
| __________________________________________ [Jul 16,2009 11:30am - ctb0rderpatrol ""] http://radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/info?call=WCKL&service=AM |
| ________________________________________ [Jul 16,2009 11:33am - boblovesmusic ""] dammit, that sounds awesome! |