40 Watts from Nowhere : A Journey into Pirate Radio

by Sue Carpenter

• ISBN13: 9780743229883
• ISBN10: 0743229886
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-02-03
• Publisher: Scribner

Summary

When law office receptionist Sue Carpenter first asked how she might start her own radio station, everyone laughed. Getting on the air (legitimately) in San Francisco was a multimillion-dollar ambition. But in 1995, with the help of a few subversive te

Author Biography

Sue Carpenter is currently a feature writer for the Los Angeles Times.

Excerpts

INTRODUCTION It's a Friday, about 11 A.M., when the station turns to static. My pulse doubles in an instant. I can't believe they did it again. I don't even know who "they" are, but it's the second time they've turned off the transmitter in two days.Yesterday, they figured out which antenna and transmitter were ours from the half-dozen others scattered on top of the same high-rise, but they were gone before we could get there and identify them. Today, I'm not going to let them get away. I run out the door and kick start my beat-up Honda. Ordinarily I'd let the little junker warm up, but there's no time. I keep the choke on and speed down the street, revving the throttle hard.I'm about to shift into second when a red light stops me. I train my eye on the signal and peel out the instant it goes green, taking the corner so fast my left knee almost scrapes the ground. My front tire is inches from rear-ending a Mercedes. I can't believe this traffic. It isn't rush hour. It isn't even lunchtime. Where did all these cars come from? And why are they moving so slowly? I scream at them through my face shield. They need to get out of my way.Don't they understand what's happening here? KBLT, the radio station I built from scratch, the station I've sacrificed my apartment for -- and my sanity -- might be permanently kaput. I lay on the horn. I can't stand these L.A. drivers and their lane-hogging SUVs. I can't squeeze through. I pass three cars in the turning lane, praying the cops won't bust me for reckless driving.Three glorious years -- well, sometimes glorious years -- of squatting on the FM dial. It can't be over. What have we done wrong? Who turned us in? Why now?This Friday morning is no different from any other at my radio station: Eddie knocks on the door, I let him in, and he spins dub, krautrock, or whatever other music he wants for whoever's tuned in. Two hours later Hassan stops by with his crate of classic jazz, and so it goes, nonstop, around the clock, twenty-four hours each day. So what if I don't have a license to operate? I just couldn't scrape together the $100 million I needed to buy my way onto the FM band in L.A. It can't be so wrong to co-opt a little underutilized air space so music lovers can show off their record collections. It makes no sense that that's illegal.I focus on the tower at Sunset and Vine two miles away. A jumble of antennas and satellite dishes clutter its roof. Shit. There's something moving up there. There are people moving. I feel sick. I need to calm down. If I don't pull it together I'm going to slip under the fender of a Mack truck and sever a leg.Okay. One mile. Just one more mile and I'm there. Jesus, the sun is bright. In my rush, I didn't manage to grab my sunglasses. I'm squinting and can barely make them out in the distance, but two tiny ant people are wriggling somewhere in the vicinity of the KBLT antenna. This just might be the end. Copyright 2004 by Sue Carpenter