The radio spectrum is part of the commons. It belongs to everyone and the FCC is supposed to manage it for the good of all.

It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars and the hiring of specialized lawyers to handle the paperwork to get licensed to broadcast, thus ensuring that the commons are safely out of reach of the actual public and can only ever be used by the rich and powerful so that they can become more rich and powerful.

It's, like, a microcosm of our government corporate welfare crony capitalist system and shit, man.

Woah I just walked into an EFF gathering circa 1994.

THE SPIRIT OF '94 WILL NEVER DIE.

They can define the acceptable radio transmitters...but they can never define OUR FREEDOM.

Right, down with the FCC. They came in to bring some order to the chaos on the early AM band is it was taking off. It was the 1920s and stations were jamming each other, so radio stations and the public were looking for some order on the technical details, mostly regulation on the frequencies so that stations could co-exist peaceably.

What happened is that over time, from gentle regulation, the FCC's power increased from simple regulation to an iron fisted ruler of the airwaves. It did help broadcasting to flourish commercially, but left no room for the average citizens to have a real voice on the air.

Most people seem to tolerate or even like the broadcasting system in the US, but for those who think it could be done better, more voices, more diversity, more independence, we don't get much play on the airwaves.

There are ways that you can legally do radio on a small scale, like Part-15 AM, with neighborhood coverage, and there's licensed LPFM for community groups, with a licensing window that just passed.

Boomer

Boomer looks like one of my ex-girlfriends.

I've heard the Quentin comparison before, and there's someone else that I'm supposed to resemble too, oh yeah, Crispin Glover. I used to give my name and people thought that I wanted to be Boomer Esiason.. :)

I've always had bangs with longer fur on the sides like that, I guess it's like a 1960s hippy chick look, going by what people say.

Boomer

Not an insult, by the way. I only wish I could look like Tarantino wearing a bad Nick Cage wig.

Thanks Zircon, I can try to do a rock salute with my paw!

I'd still broadcast to the pound too, I still love pirate radio. I'd bark hi to the local Dogs I knew on the air, they were my target audience. I'd walk around and meet owners with their Dogs, remember their names and give shout-outs to them on the 'Dog Station' as it was known.

It looks like I'm going to have to make a radio page about this stuff, I've wanted to for a while now. I still have aircheck tapes where I bark to my Dog buddies. Not always, we were heavily about music, but there was a constant Canine vibe going there.

Boomer

That's my wolf shirt, I got it at a local discount store, and it was at a time when everyone seemed to carry wolf shirts. I had that in both a tee and a long sleeve version too, and the print was done with good quality compared to other shirts. I still might have one of those shirts yet, probably the long sleeve one.

My old Dog house is in the video, in the first scene in the back yard, I hadn't realized that. It's my Dog Pongo's old house, the same one I'm inside of with my cat in the picture at my site.

Boomer

Creeek... Age is just a concept, a number, in my opinion. The only thing I like to use it for is a timeline of experiences, compared to other timelines, but even, forget that!

Boom

You should take it as a compliment. You're so positive and pleasant that I assumed you started posting in your early 20s, and were no older than 30 now. You must be at least 5 years older than me, and I hate everything and everyone with an agonizing, white-hot passion.

Well, there's something wrong with me, I think I got Canine DNA somehow.. :)

I just realize that I'm different and have a job to do. I'm happy that I found out that I was a shaggy Dog!

Boom

He is the Elder Dog. The only one.

I've always thought Dog years the other way around, to where I'd be a 7 year old Dog, which would suit me a lot more than being Yoda's age, since I see myself as much more of a pup. I wouldn't want to know it all and not have a sense of wonder.

Boomer

That's pretty cool, and I like how they put it together with Boomer der Streuner, that's me and where my name comes from, and the show is much more popular in Germany, where in the US they don't connect with it as much.

It's cool to think I'm Here's Boomer, and I feel like I'm carrying the spirit of the show along, since I was sad when it went off the air and thought that TV was no good any more after that.. ;)

I've been connected to Here's Boomer for over 30 years now, since the show, being Boomer The Dog on my radio station, in Furry and now in the media.

One connection with the radio and Dog is that radio was a an outlet for my Dog ideas, when others in my life were trying to shut me down. I could do this little secret thing from the basement, to be a Dog and enjoy music at the same time, what could be better for a teen pooch?

That video was from 1990, but I was already on the air in 1983, and as far back as 1977 with a Radio Shack AM Broadcaster kit, a little plastic thing.

Radio might have been the first real responsibility that I had to something, building the studio, transmitter and antenna, and then being the lone DJ on the station. I didn't even know about radio pirates at first, it's just something that I wanted to do.

I had an AM radio with 5 tubes in it and would listen to it at night, and it felt like there was some kind of community on the air, and I wanted to join in.

Boomer

A three Dog howl is cool, and as cold as it is here right now, it's almost a three Dog night.

Pump is a more glamorous version of mine, yeah, but Hard Harry was on FM, so he was automatically much cooler, where I was doing AM and shortwave. I also never had girls in my studio.

He also had listeners, I had no idea how many listeners my station really had, but other radio people would tune in, I found that out. I always kept to the underground though, doing shows late at night.

The ghost of my station still exists as stream/podcast Doggy Radio, on boomerthedog.net/radio . Just about all of my stations have been built on a Canine theme, though my Sheepdog friend Ric was the one who came up with the Doggy Radio name.

I remember going to the theater and seeing Pump Up The Volume with 3 other pirate station people, and we had a great time, pointing out technical issues, like Harry's mobile station using a cell phone antenna to transmit on FM, which wouldn't really be technically correct. Mostly we thought that the movie was awesome.. :)

Boomer

Screw FM, it's a joke, like AC electricity. AM is superior in distance, coolness, and heritage. Your QSL card rocks, by the way.

Plus, in many areas, FM is packed full of stations, like it is here in Pittsburgh, where AM has open frequencies, especially with more AM stations going off line recently.

Everyone is pushing to be on FM for every reason possible, but I think that community radio on could thrive on AM. My idea is that if you put on a program that your community wants to hear, it doesn't matter if it's AM or FM.

I really do love the AM band, it's a great home for an underground Dog. I love being part of the oldest broadcasting band too. Using parts from the trash, I paid almost nothing to build my station. Most of the money went into the studio later.

Thanks about the QSL, I shared my Doggie art through those, sending copies of those out to listeners who wrote in to my station.

Boomer

Wow, I'll have to try to live up to that!

It seems like I posted ten years ago when they found my site and made an exhibit of it. I had very few visits on my site, then one day in the logs there were many visitors, coming from site Red, and I followed the trail there.

Everyone was so sweet to me!.. ;) I always thought if you believed in something to stand up for it, and the debate was good to learn from.

Thanks,

Boomer