I recently got an e-mail from Rayon Payne (aka NSX), who made U.S. pirate radio history in 2003 by becoming the first person to serve time behind bars on a federal criminal conviction for unlicensed broadcasting. He just got out of jail in July. We ended up talking for nearly two hours:
Hi-bitrate version (64kbps MP3, 51.2 MB)
Low-bitrate version (16kbps MP3, 12.8 MB)
Some salient bits:
Payne started 95 Live out of frustration with the inability to get his music on the airwaves of Orlando, Florida. That frustration ultimately led him to throw up a 10,000-watt middle finger to corporate radio. Payne knew the massive amount of power he was running caused interference problems, but he says he was learning the ropes of RF engineering as he went along. This did not stop him, however, from securing commercial-grade (read: type-accepted) equipment from several reputable distributors.
Payne adopted the notion of using a web stream as a studio-to-transmitter link long before the idea gained tactical currency. In fact, 95 Live’s genesis was on the web, not the air. Payne says he helped start several other pirate stations around the country to carry 95 Live’s stream and amplify its reach (quite literally).
Payne’s had several run-ins with local law enforcement, all of which he attributes in part to his operation of a pirate station. It’s a long and convoluted saga, over the course of which his most notorious (felony) convictions have been overturned.
The FCC, it seems, didn’t even decide to throw the book at him until after he’d already been sentenced to state prison on other charges. This fits the agency’s m.o. of going after easy targets and prosecuting for deterrent (as opposed to actual) effect.
Payne accuses the federal government of mistreatment while in its custody prior to his conviction, as they moved him from institution to institution all around the country (including a stint in solitary in Atlanta).
Most ironically, he’s now seeking a gig in commercial radio, either with one of the major broadcast conglomerates (Clear Channel got specific mention) or on satellite; presskit and demo CD are forthcoming. He’d also like to resurrect the 95 Live online presence in authentic form but the domain‘s apparently been hijacked.
Skip to content