Radio Survivor

This past week I visited San Francisco. In addition to finally meeting my co-bloggers Matthew and Jennifer in person, I also made my pilgrimage to one of the best music stores in the country, Aquarius Records in the Mission.

The oldest music store in the city, Aquarius is not big, and it’s far from comprehensive in its selection. If you want the latest Black Eyed Peas or Bon Jovi albums you’re probably better off going to Ameoba. Instead, Aquarius specializes in arcane, experimental music, including obscure heavy metal. For most people the store would be inscrutable; to me, it’s heaven.

But it’s not just the inventory that makes Aquarius great. It’s that every CD and record in the place appears to be careful chosen, even curated. For a store its size quite a bit of space is given over to employee favorites and new releases. And every single one of those new or favorite albums has a paragraph-long write-up on the front describing the artist and album in loving detail.
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KPOO

Just when people think that radio is dead, there are signs of it continuing to reinvent itself in interesting ways. The morning news today (on both KTVU’s “Mornings on Two” television broadcast and in the pages of the San Francisco Chronicle) brought word of an innovative art installation taking place over the Thanksgiving holiday at Coit Tower in San Francisco.

To honor the 40th anniversary of a year and a half protest/occupation by American Indians at Alcatraz (taking place from November 1969 to June 1971), films will be projected onto the side of Coit Tower. An accompanying soundtrack will be broadcast on San Francisco community radio station KPOO. The collaboration makes sense, as the essence of KPOO’s mission is to serve communities typically under-represented by mainstream media. Additionally, KPOO airs a show twice a month called “Webworks: Voices of the Native Nation.”

Admittedly, listening to film soundtrack simulcasts on one’s radio isn’t an entirely new concept, as low-power radio transmissions were a staple of the drive-in movie scene. In this instance, though, one can listen in through a car radio or even by tuning into a webcast through one’s mp3 player or iPhone. It certainly sounds like an amazing way to experience public art and perhaps it will get a few folks to tune in to community radio.

Pirate Cat Leaving Terrestrial Radio

It was probably only a matter of time before the FCC would catch up with San Francisco’s Pirate Cat Radio.

The unlicensed broadcaster was increasingly putting itself in the public eye by operating a cafe adjacent to its studio, granting interviews with mainstream press, and even appearing on the national television show No Reservations this August.

Since at least April, the FCC has been monitoring Pirate Cat’s operations and eventually levied the station and owner Daniel K. Roberts (aka Monkey) a $10,000 fine on August 31st when it became clear that the station was continuing to broadcast without a license

Pirate Cat issued a press release on Halloween stating that the station would cease their terrestrial broadcast in light of the FCC’s action against the station. According to the statement from Pirate Cat:

“…the FCC asserted that Monkey, the founder of Pirate Cat Radio, ‘willfully and repeatedly violated Section 301 of the Communications Act of 1934′ and proposed to fine him $10,000 for the infraction… the FCC’s order effectively ends Pirate Cat Radio’s thirteen-year run as one of the Bay Area’s most consistent voices of protest against corporate-run media monopolies and monocultural programming.”

According to the “Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture” document prepared by the FCC, not only was Pirate Cat Radio found to be broadcasting over FM without a license, but the frequency being used, 87.9, is also “not allocated to the FM broadcast band.” (more…)

I think it’s extremely important to honor radio’s history, so I’m always impressed when there are folks out there who are actively working to support that cause.

The Bay Area Radio Museum has been a labor of love for its Executive Director David Ferrell Jackson for the past 5 years. This online museum is an amazing place to learn about the history of radio in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can check out profiles of DJs from days gone by, peruse station histories, and look at vintage photos. Previously there were also links to old airchecks, but due to the high cost of bandwidth, Jackson has decided to scale back until he obtains outside help.

As Ben Fong-Torres reported in his “Radio Waves” column in the San Francisco Chronicle today, Jackson will continue to maintain the website, but has taken down media-rich material (like audio archives):

“Beyond volunteers – ideally skilled radio and broadcasting students at local schools – Jackson wishes the museum could attract a chief executive officer ‘to run it and get volunteers and financial help.’ And, he said, to develop a plan ‘to assure that these recordings, photographs and documents will be collected, stored and displayed in a manner befitting a world-class media museum.’”

In addition to the online museum, Jackson also spearheaded the “Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame,” whose most recent inductees were honored at a ceremony on September 29th.

It’s sad to think that this might be a sign of radio’s decreasing relevance to not only listeners, but also to museums, funders, and cultural institutions. I’m hopeful that someone will step up (another museum? a broadcasting-oriented university’s library?) to help out so that this history is properly preserved. With such a rich history, the San Francisco Bay Area deserves a Radio Museum.

But I guess the question remains: if it opens (even online), will people come?

For those of us who do care about radio, it’s important to support efforts like this; so I’d encourage you to take a look around the museum and see how you can help.

My dream is that the museum will survive and that it will expand into non-commercial territory, doing more extensive profiles of some of the amazing college, community, low-power, pirate and public radio stations that are also on our jam-packed radio dial in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Both Matthew and I have recounted the recent ownership and format change of San Francisco station Energy 92.7. The formerly gay-friendly dance music station has proven to be a fan favorite, with many people expressing their displeasure over its change to top 40.

Even a member of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, Bevan Dufty, has taken up the cause, sponsoring a resolution to encourage new station owner Ed Stolz “to continue with the Community/LGBT/Dance radio format that has made Energy 92.7 one of the most unique and popular radio stations in San Francisco and the Bay Area.”

According to a portion of the text of the resolution:

“…Energy 92.7 brought LGBT and straight listeners together using humor to break down barriers and to create understanding and good will, and…has been a strong partner to the City and County of San Francisco through their unwavering support of community based organizations raising both funds and awareness for non-profits that focus on HIV/AIDS, food banks, and breast cancer among countless others…

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors urges Mr. Ed Stolz to reconsider his choice to abandon the successful format of Energy 92.7 and rehire the talented staff that provided a radio format that was adored and appreciated by so many fans throughout San Francisco and the Bay Area.”

This resolution is up for a vote at tomorrow’s Board of Supervisors meeting in San Francisco at 2pm. And, as always, meetings are open to the public. If the resolution does pass, it is a strong statement about how radio can and does have an impact on a community. Unfortunately, Ed Stolz is probably thinking much more about economics, so it’s unclear if he’ll be swayed by encouragements from the powers that be in San Francisco.

San Francisco Loses its Gay (Commercial) Radio Voice

I rarely listen to commercial radio, spending the majority of my time devoted to college and community radio stations. So, I was caught completely unaware when I read yesterday that San Francisco was losing its gay-friendly dance music station Energy 92.7. I didn’t even know that it existed.

The 5-year-old station, KNGY, “often touted itself as the last independently owned radio station in San Francisco,” according to an article in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle. The station played a dance music format and as of last Thursday night, they switched to mainstream top 40.

A television news segment on KTVU last night featured interviews with station DJs and fans. One listener recounted their feelings upon losing the station, saying, “It’s like a friend of mine died.”

I was amazed to see a report about radio on TV and was even more surprised to hear such strong feelings about a radio station. It’s a reminder that radio still does mean a lot to people, especially when a station has such a strong connection to a local community.

As the comments on the Chronicle article attest to, many people are upset about the station’s change in format and many seem particularly upset by the loss of their favorite morning show. One commenter wrote:

“A big disappointment for sure. Looks like I won’t be listening to the radio at all anymore, unless they resurrect Energy in some other fashion.

That station certainly had something for everyone interested in dance music, as well as a great morning show. It may have been gay-oriented in many ways but I think it was much more than that and I think it’s a loss not just to the LGBT community but to the whole city.”

As Examiner blogger Eric Ross explains, the gay-themed morning show on Energy 92.7 was unique for commercial radio:

“Fernando & Greg first aired on Energy 92.7 back in 2005 and was the first commercially broadcast gay morning radio show in the United States. The station went off the air on September 11th, much to the shock of everyone in the Bay Area. The gay friendly radio station was an icon for the LGBT community, and many people woke up to Fernando and Greg in the morning. Fernando and Greg even made it to Out magazine’s list of the top 100 most influential people in gay culture.”

One can track the morning show hosts quest for a new gig on their Facebook page and there is also a group devoted to saving the station (unlikely, since it’s already been sold off and has rebranded itself as 92.7 REV The Revolution).

It’s impressive to me that the Save Energy 92.7 group on Facebook has more than 6,000 members as of today. Who knows, perhaps they’ll work together to come up with some innovative ways to bring elements of the station back to the airwaves or to the Internet.

If foie gras and tripe can stand in for quaaludes and mescaline, then Anthony Bourdain is the Hunter S. Thompson of food television. As a so-called “anti-celebrity” chef Bourdain is the host of the Travel Channel’s No Reservations, traveling to both familiar and exotic places in order to explore their culture via food, often with a focus on everyday dining, street food and traditional cuisine.

On this week’s episode Bourdain explored San Francisco, but started off the episode with a surprise, especially for a radio geek like myself. In an homage to the film Bullitt Bourdain races through the streets of the city in a black Mustang, then turns on the radio only to hear none other than San Francisco’s most well-known unlicensed radio station, Pirate Cat Radio.

As you can see in the clip below, Bourdain appears on air with Pirate Cat founder Monkey, then retires to the station’s namesake cafe to try a, well… porcine latte.

If Pirate Cat wasn’t already the most well known currently operating pirate station in the US, I’ll venture to guess that it is now. Monkey has been at the pirate radio game a long time and has never shied away from publicity or talking to the press. While that certainly increases the risk of running an unlicensed station, so far the FCC doesn’t seem to have seen fit to escalate enforcement with police action like it has with past Bay Area stations like San Francisco Liberation Radio.

I wish Monkey, Pirate Cat Radio and their cafe the best of luck in bringing community-style radio to a corner of the Mission. I just wish they’d stop justifying their right to broadcast using the tired “emergency authorization” clause of Title 47. I think a better case lies with declaring civil disobedience and pointing to the provision of better public service broadcasting than most other stations in a crowded radio market closed off to low-power FM or any other new community-focused broadcasters.

FCCFreeRadio Studio in San Francisco

The San Francisco Bay Area has been home to a wide range of radio pioneers and renegades, from the very early days of broadcasting with Doc Herrold’s experiments 100 years ago to freeform radio in the early days of FM in the 1960s to pirate radio advocates like Stephen Dunifer of Free Radio Berkeley.

And now today, during a period of time when many have written off terrestrial radio entirely, there are still those who find reason to be inspired to build new over-the-air stations.

Over on my Spinning Indie blog I just wrote up a profile of a new micropower FM station in San Francisco called FCCFreeRadio. Operating under the same assumption as fellow station Pirate Cat Radio, FCCFreeRadio believes that the U.S. government has granted emergency authority for broadcasters to operate without a license during time of war, including the current “war against terrorism.”

Regardless of whether or not you believe their legal rationale, I think it’s impressive and inspiring to see that they are trying to create a community station playing local programming. They haven’t given up on radio and are hoping to bring back a little of the good old days of personality-driven radio. I admire their passion.