COURAGE, TRUTH & BOOTY:

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 deal...

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

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

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

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@k...

Humm baby.. another week of insanity with KBFR. As I've talked about before, we use an array of technologies to keep KBFR on the air in the face of the FCC attempting to shut us down on a regular basis. Here's a quick recap: -We use a van equipped as a complete radio station to broadcast (FM). -We use wireless hotspots and sympathetic listeners Wifi access to stream, live, on the internet -We use "STL" (studio/transmitter links) sites in fixed locations that take the internet stream and broadcast it (FM) -We have garages and 'spaces' scattered around town (including a space that's similar to a radio/recording studio) that we can either park the van to broadcast from or have enough equipment to allow us to set up a live broadcast (streamed via internet) to either an STL or to the van parked somewhere around town (with the van acting as a sort of STL site). Carl Nimbus and ZT have spent hundreds of hours the last few weeks getting our network ...