Sad news from the mile-high city: KCTS Radio, after a short but spirited game of cat-and-mouse with the FCC, has decided to retire the operation. From a communiqué first e-mailed (now available on the station’s web site), station spoke Carl Nimbus answers, in detail, the question, “So what happened to ‘we’re just going to keep coming back’?”
The FCC was all over us. More than they have the time and budget for. More than nearly any other pirate station in the country….[Denver FCC agent Jon] Sprague and friends were coming faster and more frequently than their counterparts do in markets like LA, SF, NYC, Dallas, Chicago and other large cities. Why would that be? The FCC responds to complaints from licensed broadcasters. They very rarely go out at random to shut down a pirate. Continue reading “Denver Free Radio Packs It In”
Tag: kcts
Scene Report: Colorado
Been tardy about this one: KCTSradio in Denver is now online and streaming; its on-air status, I think, is best described as “dormant.” According to some recent press, its founder, Carl Nimbus, is “all about determination…They bust you fast to discourage you, but we’re not going to get discouraged. We’re going to keep coming back on the air.”
In Boulder, Monk says “it’s time to grow the station again.” This time, they’re soliciting applications from everywhere: “if they’re tech savvy enough, they can be anywhere in the world. All they need is to be able to stream at 64kb have some music, a mic and an attitude.” This is similar to a “public access pirate radio” concept explored a few years back, except live.
FCC v. Denver Free Radio: Round 2
Hide-and-seek has its moments:
KCTS (Cactus Radio) in Denver made it through the weekend at least. Went up Thursday night and broadcast through [Tuesday evening].
Jon Sprague, our local FCC enforcement agent, again visited the newly installed STL site…delivered the usual speech and warning letter. The STL host told him that he thought it was ham radio rebroadcaster unit [a] friend of a friend asked him to let them set up at his house due to his location. Sprague asked to inspect the equipment, the host told him only with a warrant and the portly agent of the shadowy FCC enforcement branch wrote out the warning and left in a huff. Continue reading “FCC v. Denver Free Radio: Round 2”