COURAGE, TRUTH & BOOTY:

Followup with the guy who took over KBFR (or more accurately.. 'pirated' the dormant name and logo of the original station).. From WestWord. Pirating the old name and logo.. ballsy.. and so appropriate. THAT's the spirit!

Nicely done Michael Roberts! Roberts, a reporter at Westword, did a write up on KBFR that just shines. It's exactly the kind of article the Boulder Daily Camera could have written, but didn't.  They wrote a trash piece and called the FCC. Alternative media always seems to get it better than mainstream media. I have to wonder why Boulder's weekly (the appropriately named The Boulder Weekly ) hasn't done a story.  Maybe soon.

KBFR is online! Check it out.

I don't live in Boulder anymore (I'm a couple of states away) but it looks like someone pirated (heh) the old KBFR logo and name and is running a station in Boulder again. A friend sent me this link to the local newspaper story . I have to wonder about the reporter though. There was a time when the local newspaper would do things to help the local community. Supporting a pirate radio station that created some interesting diversity in town would be a nice thing for the local newspaper to do, don't you think? It looks to me like the reporter either doesn't think that and is working in the interest of main stream media only, or he's not very bright. His name is John Aguilar and he is, apparently, the 'police and courts' reporter. Why the guy on the cop beat is doing a story on Pirate Radio I have no clue. Normally, you'd write a piece on a station like this and you'd talk to people and the radio people involved and you'd put the story out there...

From the Brighter Fusion Blog: Boulder Free Radio lives on! Categories: Personal | Today I was thrilled to stumble across what appears to be a reincarnation of the local pirate radio station which went off the air in 2006. It was at 93.9 (I believe), and it was playing some very German sounding techno/new wave stuff until it wasn’t anymore…a pirate identification and then just static. According to the KBFR wiki page : The original founder of KBFR, Monk, who recently moved out of the state, decided to leave all the equipment accumulated by the KBFR/Boulder Free Radio collective during its operations (2000-2005) to a new generation of underground radio enthusiasts. They can be found on several frequencies including 103.9, 102.7, 95.3 and at least 6 others. They often broadcast from parties, raves and cultural events. As of 2008 a new group of Boulder pirates has emerged under the call letters KGLR (green light radio). They have taken the reins from Monk and presented...

Rock radio KCUV closes doors. The Denver Post Article Last Updated: 09/04/2008 01:09:48 AM MDT The owners of KCUV (102.3 FM), billed as "Colorado's Unique Voice," pulled the plug Sunday, marking the demise after five years of a local independent, progressive rock radio outlet in the competitive world of corporately owned, cookie-cutter radio programming. The company is now simulcasting KJAC "Jack" (105.5 FM) on the frequency. The station didn't have a huge fan base, but those who did listen were intensely loyal. Sad and pitiful. We are becoming a McRadio society and the masses, it seems, don't really care.

Well, it seems there was some consternation among the KGLR crew and they've disappeared. Nothing on the airwaves for a couple of weeks now. This is, I think, the biggest hurdle for radio pirates. How you're set up has alot to do with how effective you can be. Doing pirate radio is, by nature, an act of passion, defiance and to a degree love. You've got to love it to do it because there just isn't alot of upside. I wish the KGLR folks luck and hope they come back someday soon.

I'm tempted to say 'again' considering Colorado's NPR conglomerate. Apparently, the classical music listeners in Boulder don't much matter to Colorado Public Radio. From today's Boulder Daily Camera Newspaper: At 10 a.m. July 9, Carla Selby turned the dial on her radio to 88.1 FM and heard... nothing. For weeks, she’d heard announcers on her favorite radio station, KVOD classical music, warn listeners that the station was moving down the dial from its longtime home at 90.1 FM. But she never once heard that Boulder residents would likely lose their reception. What we need is a pirate radio station that plays classical music during the day , and free form whatever the hell they want at night and on weekends. If Colorado Public Radio won't do it, maybe underground community radio will. NPR and the local version (CPR) look out for one thing: Themselves. It's a business, nothing more. Nothing wrong with that, if you're a business. CPR is supposed ...

Here's a break down of FCC actions over the last 5 or so years (thanks DIYMedia.net) So, what does this mean? Close to 80% of all FCC actions are postal -a letter saying: cut it out- or visits (call them warnings). Only 1.5% had an arrest or conviction associated with then. And an arrest isn't a conviction. I'm better the actual 'conviction' rate is less than 1%. So, the reality is: being a radio pirate is relatively low risk if you don't let the 'warnings' actually scare you out of taking back your airwaves.

Yea.. evil. Really fucking evil. NPR should be considered as deadly to local media and localization of news and content as Clear Channel. If you give them money, stop. Now. Give it to your local KGNU like community station or Pirate Radio station, or bike coop, or, hell anything with some local focus. These guys are a bunch of old jackasses trying to protect and expand there 'franchise', just like any other business. These bastards teamed up with the NAB (yea.. THAT NAB...) to shut down Low Power FM (LPFM) in 2000 by buying off a couple of weak senators. They're at it again: From Ars Technica : National Public Radio continues to move aggressively against Federal Communications Commission proposals that would, if not allow nonprofits to build more Low Power FM stations (LPFM), at least let existing ones survive the intrusion of new full power neighbors. NPR is quite plain about the matter in its FCC filings: it stands opposed to the Low Power exceptions, even though th...

Just got this juicy tidbit from my buddy Sparky: Providing a blunt counterpoint to the optimism expressed by commercial radio leaders during the NAB Show this week, the latest U.S. radio revenue numbers are out. Revenue in March was off 8 percent compared to a year ago — and that’s including a healthy 18% growth in non-spot revenue. According to the Radio Advertising Bureau, local revenue (the biggest piece of radio’s revenue pie) fell 8%, while national was down a stomach-churning 17%. So if you set aside income from non-spot offerings, radio’s performance in March was –10%. RAB didn’t post a quarterly total but overall revenue was down 6% and 2% in January and February respectively, as reported earlier, and the industry was down 2% for all of 2007. What's it mean? Means you guys aren't listening to the radio anymore. Notice how everyone is playing either country or classic rock? Yea.. that's because it's for the over 40 demographic. That's the only group that l...

Well, something's up for sure. First KGLO... then I get this emailed to me: http://boulderfreeradio.googlepages.com/home Someone's taking up the old KBFR mantel now it seems. Right now, no one's talking (to me) but I welcome any email updates or announcements you'd like me to put on my blog. Just email me at: monk.kbfr@gmail.com

To the guy who emailed me from KGLO (with the initials AD)... I did indeed get your email, but when I respond, it bounces. That service you use is super restrictive, super secure and exclusive of (i.e. not friendly to) people not on it. Like me. You've got my email. One thought: get a gmail account. Gmail works really well--and securely, just put https://gmail.com in instead of http://gmail.com - Adding that s o the http encrypts everything between you and the servers. m

Well shit! Someone's taken over 95.3FM in Boulder! KGLO... 95.3 FM This is a real pirate. I'm listening to slam poetry spoken to the guy while he plays hard guitar (pretty well). Poetic Terrorism seems to be the subject. WOOT! They even apologized for commandeering the airwaves from the old KBFR crew, but felt 'forced' to do it, as brothers (no shit!) to fight the corporate media. It's a riot! STRONG signal. I'm pretty impressed actually. This guy (these guys?) take it seriously. Looking forward to some real pirate action from these guys. MOST cool.

The War on "Piracy": A Fight for Industry Survival or a Failed Approach? @ Cofrin Auditorium, ATLAS Building, University of Colorado April 9, 2008, 5:30pm Please join us for a panel discussion between attorneys from Holme Roberts & Owen and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. HRO is a Denver-based law firm that represents record companies in their attempts to stem online music copyright infringement, including actions targeting individual university students. The EFF is a nonprofit organization that frequently questions the RIAA's tactics and opposes it in court. In the nine years following the development of Napster, the music industry has changed dramatically. To match the new methods of downloading music illegally, there are new means of detecting such activity and new legal ramifications. The ethics of downloading music illegally and who should be responsible for such activity continue to be debated. This debate relates to the broade...