Well, it's been an interesting few days.
On Friday, it became apparent that KBFR had sort of spun out of control (if control is the right word).
So I shut it down. Fired everyone, cleared the schedule, locked up the van. Just a playlist off of a computer running until I decide, is KBFR something worth continuing.
What the hell happened?
Glad you asked: We had DJ's saying fuck (and cunt, motherfucker, shit, cocksucker, nigger, faggot, etc. etc. you get the idea) at a rate of 200 times an hour, PER DJ (with 4 DJ's). It was getting so bad I was getting daily emails from long time listeners asking what happened to the station they loved? It had gotten to the point where people simply couldn't listen to it unless they were alone. No WAY would they try at work or at home with kids around.
We asked folks to moderate, and got a strange response: Hey man, this is FREE SPEECH, you can't tell us not to say fuck!
Well, we didn't. We asked for moderation. Use profanity in context. Like: That fucking idiot george bush killed 5 more kids in Iraq today. Vs: Did you see that fucking faggot fucking standing on the fucking mall looking like a fucking asshole cunt and fucking licking the pole? Fuck man, fucking pitiful. Someone should fucking give that fuck some fucking money.
I am, sadly, not overstating this.
This became a big issue, mostly around free speech, which we wholeheartidly support. Somehow, gratuitous use of profanity morphed into free speech along the way and we became the potty mouthed bad boys of radio. Howard Stern would cringe listening to some of the crap we were putting on air.
Then, to top it off, several of the DJ's started dissing the station, on air, and it's leadership (the folks that do all the work to keep it running). When asked to moderate THAT, they did even more of it.
Sadly, it was done with good intent, and truly horrible execution. Sapphire, our most active and hard working pirate, quit on Thursday because of this disrespect of the station. Her view was if these guys didn't respect the station and wanted to complain about it on air, it was time to move on. No hard feelings.
The problem is, she was putting in 20 hours a week holding it all together. Of the 6 people we consider our Captain's Council, 3 had quit (including Sapphire) in the last month.
Something's very wrong in KBFR land.
So, time to hit reset. End it in it's current form. No station. No shows. Nothing. Not even sure, today, if it'll come back up. I'm going to take this week to think about it and decide if this is really worth doing.
When you ask reasonably for someone to moderate something that's pissing off your listeners (causing them to complain) and you tell your listeners calling in to fuck off and change the dial if they don't like it, you've got to wonder if these folks really need to have a voice on air.
And when you tell them it can bring the FCC down on you even quicker and they ignore it, and when you tell them the FCC has YOUR name (me) and what they do is tattoo'd, personally, on your butt for the FCC to go after, and they ignore it, you gotta wonder: Is this shit worth it?
Right now, no. We'll see how it feels in a few days.
Monk@kbfr.org
Monday, August 09, 2004
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Language, language, language.
Interestly, this has become an issue at the station. We get regular feedback from people that there's 'too much cussin'. Many of our DJ's just love the word F**k. (yea.. might as well start now eh?). It turns people off. And it's a powerful word.
We don't want to ban it, but we want to find some way to moderate it's use. If it's an every other word thing, people are just turning us off (including me). But how do you balance that with 'censorship'. Telling your DJ's they can't say things (even a word that when overused offends) can be construed as censorship.
Hell, it is.
But where do you draw that line? Is the station for the DJ's or for the listeners?
Time to revist this and, potentially, put some sort of policy/guideline in place. You can't ban it, but appropriate use is needed.
But HOW the hell do you determine 'appropriate use'. This is the problem the FCC deals with regularly.
Sigh.
monk@kbfr.org
Interestly, this has become an issue at the station. We get regular feedback from people that there's 'too much cussin'. Many of our DJ's just love the word F**k. (yea.. might as well start now eh?). It turns people off. And it's a powerful word.
We don't want to ban it, but we want to find some way to moderate it's use. If it's an every other word thing, people are just turning us off (including me). But how do you balance that with 'censorship'. Telling your DJ's they can't say things (even a word that when overused offends) can be construed as censorship.
Hell, it is.
But where do you draw that line? Is the station for the DJ's or for the listeners?
Time to revist this and, potentially, put some sort of policy/guideline in place. You can't ban it, but appropriate use is needed.
But HOW the hell do you determine 'appropriate use'. This is the problem the FCC deals with regularly.
Sigh.
monk@kbfr.org
Monday, July 19, 2004
Cool beans in Boulder Town last night.
We were able to do a live broadcast directly from the Mountain Sun using not much more than a laptop, a mixer and a highspeed internet connection.
Hook the mixer into the venue's sound board, mixer into the laptop, laptop into the internet and Viola! Live feed to our van via the internet (which then broadcast the show live on 95.3fm).
Now all we have to do is convince all the venues in town to get high speed internet access and we'll be doing live shows all over the place all the time.
Pick Pickum instigated, Mcflurry collaberated and ZT made it all real. It's great having wonderful dedicated people working on projects like KBFR. We couldn't do it without their dedication and, man, it's FUN to boot.
Monk@kbfr.org
We were able to do a live broadcast directly from the Mountain Sun using not much more than a laptop, a mixer and a highspeed internet connection.
Hook the mixer into the venue's sound board, mixer into the laptop, laptop into the internet and Viola! Live feed to our van via the internet (which then broadcast the show live on 95.3fm).
Now all we have to do is convince all the venues in town to get high speed internet access and we'll be doing live shows all over the place all the time.
Pick Pickum instigated, Mcflurry collaberated and ZT made it all real. It's great having wonderful dedicated people working on projects like KBFR. We couldn't do it without their dedication and, man, it's FUN to boot.
Monk@kbfr.org
Monday, July 12, 2004
Interesting show this Friday.
We participated in a live panel discussion on pirate radio that the HOPE (Hackers On Planet Earth) had in New York City. The room there was filled with 100 or so people and we broadcast it live here on KBFR in Boulder.
The response on both sides was overwhelmingly positive. The phone hookup worked great and we were able to take questions, comment on assumptions and participate like we were sitting on the panel in NY, and at the same time, broadcast it to our listeners. Good stuff. Gonna play that recording again sometime soon.
After that, Bulge, Granola Girl, ZT and I had a sceance (sp?) of sorts, contacting dead folk through a Q. board. Some bad ass murderer, a car salesman and a southern belle. Interesting stuff and, amazingly, seemed to work on air.
Monk@kbfr.org
We participated in a live panel discussion on pirate radio that the HOPE (Hackers On Planet Earth) had in New York City. The room there was filled with 100 or so people and we broadcast it live here on KBFR in Boulder.
The response on both sides was overwhelmingly positive. The phone hookup worked great and we were able to take questions, comment on assumptions and participate like we were sitting on the panel in NY, and at the same time, broadcast it to our listeners. Good stuff. Gonna play that recording again sometime soon.
After that, Bulge, Granola Girl, ZT and I had a sceance (sp?) of sorts, contacting dead folk through a Q. board. Some bad ass murderer, a car salesman and a southern belle. Interesting stuff and, amazingly, seemed to work on air.
Monk@kbfr.org
Interesting show this Friday.
We participated in a live panel discussion on pirate radio that the HOPE (Hackers On Planet Earth) had in New York City. The room there was filled with 100 or so people and we broadcast it live here on KBFR in Boulder.
The response on both sides was overwhelmingly positive. The phone hookup worked great and we were able to take questions, comment on assumptions and participate like we were sitting on the panel in NY, and at the same time, broadcast it to our listeners. Good stuff. Gonna play that recording again sometime soon.
After that, Bulge, Granola Girl, ZT and I had a sceance (sp?) of sorts, contacting dead folk through a Q. board. Some bad ass murderer, a car salesman and a southern belle. Interesting stuff and, amazingly, seemed to work on air.
Monk@kbfr.org
We participated in a live panel discussion on pirate radio that the HOPE (Hackers On Planet Earth) had in New York City. The room there was filled with 100 or so people and we broadcast it live here on KBFR in Boulder.
The response on both sides was overwhelmingly positive. The phone hookup worked great and we were able to take questions, comment on assumptions and participate like we were sitting on the panel in NY, and at the same time, broadcast it to our listeners. Good stuff. Gonna play that recording again sometime soon.
After that, Bulge, Granola Girl, ZT and I had a sceance (sp?) of sorts, contacting dead folk through a Q. board. Some bad ass murderer, a car salesman and a southern belle. Interesting stuff and, amazingly, seemed to work on air.
Monk@kbfr.org
Just had another of our regular monthly meetings. As usual, went well.
We're around 40 DJ's now, and we've come together well. The station is running nicely. The signal is clear. The computers work and everyone's up on their dues so we can actually pay our bills.
There's a joy to pirate radio that's hard to explain to someone that hasn't actually done it or been part of it. There's a kind of freedom knowing that you can play or say whatever you want, and that, somewhere, someone, is listening. Even if it's only for a brief time, you have a voice.
It's amazing how few of us ever actually have an opportunity to be heard outside of our own immediate little worlds. Our family, friends and coworkers. Being able to anonymously enter another persons world and, maybe, touch them in a way that somehow makes them think, smile or relate differently to the world around THEM has a power and a draw to it that's indescribable.
Monk@kbfr.org
We're around 40 DJ's now, and we've come together well. The station is running nicely. The signal is clear. The computers work and everyone's up on their dues so we can actually pay our bills.
There's a joy to pirate radio that's hard to explain to someone that hasn't actually done it or been part of it. There's a kind of freedom knowing that you can play or say whatever you want, and that, somewhere, someone, is listening. Even if it's only for a brief time, you have a voice.
It's amazing how few of us ever actually have an opportunity to be heard outside of our own immediate little worlds. Our family, friends and coworkers. Being able to anonymously enter another persons world and, maybe, touch them in a way that somehow makes them think, smile or relate differently to the world around THEM has a power and a draw to it that's indescribable.
Monk@kbfr.org
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