Pirate Radio

David Ulin reviews 40 Watts From Nowhere: A Journey Into Pirate Radio, by Sue Carpenter, operator of KBLT in Los Angeles in today's Tribune (registration required; sorry, as always). Ulin writes:

Radio, Carpenter tells us, "should be tied to its community . . . it should uplift its listeners by airing music they might not know they even want to hear." This is an essential point, for it suggests that rather than a form of theft, pirate radio is a way to "do" democracy, to offer a more diverse range of voices than the FCC allows. In that regard, it's a quintessentially American activity, progressive and populist--revolutionary even, in the most liberatory sense of the word.

I've always been interested in radio, having bravely overcome being force-fed WGN (and Wally Phillips in particular) as a child. And I've long been fascinated by pirate radio, and during my younger years of dramatically more ample idle time I even toyed with the idea of starting my own station. I always thought of pirate radio as a solitary, "lone voice in the wilderness" endeavor. But KBLT--with 100 deejays broadcasting 14 hours a day--is much more wide-ranging and ambitious than anything I ever envisioned.

I always wondered if, had I taken the plunge, there would have been anybody out there listening, or if anybody cared. Which, I suppose, is one thing that held me back from giving it a try. Then again, in that sense it's really no different than blogging. I'm putting these words and ideas out there, not knowing if anybody's reading, which I guess means I'm mostly doing it for myself. Just as running a pirate radio station would have had me broadcasting, sending my musical tastes and personal opinions out over the ethereal airwaves, not knowing if anybody was tuning in. And enjoying every minute of it.