According to the Ann Arbor News, our local pirate radio station, Depot Town Radio 89.5, was just shut down by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). As the 100-watt station, which began broadcasting in January, could only be heard for a few square miles, if that, my guess is that someone turned them in to the FCC. So, what I’d like to know is, who’s the snitch? Who was it that contacted the FCC and ratted them out for making use of an otherwise unused frequency?
I liked the station very much and I looked forward of hitting the point in my drive home from work when I could pick it up. As much as I loved the classic oldies, the occasional oddities, and the folksy homemade commercials for the Sidetrack, what I really enjoyed was the thought of how small and hyper-local it was. In the age of the internet, it was nice knowing that you could tune something in that only had a dozen listeners, all within a few hundred yards of you.
My guess, and I could be completely wrong about this, is that someone in the Depot Town merchant community, felt somehow left out. Whatever the reason, I think it sucks.
(Thanks to the Ypsi-Dixit for giving me the bad news.)
2 Comments
I’m trying to remember Christian Slater and how he avoided the FCC in that terrible little film Pump Up the Volume. Was he transmitting from a car, or something like that?
I just heard the news today when I was over at the Ypsi Food Co-op. I was going to run home and e-mail you since I know you love the local news.
It’s a bummer. I never even got a chance to hear them.