Champaign-Urbana Free Radio

We have a fan!

The Kaptain and company always keep an ear to the ground in radio circles, and a purusal of Glenn Hauser's June 2 DX Listening Digest shows a reception report from a listener based in Paxton, and apparently working in Urbana.

[for those not in the know, DXing is a geeky hobby where you try and find and listen to distant radio signals, not that anyone in the arrrgh ship would be geeky enough to do that, not that there's anything wrong with that]

It might not be entirely accurate to classify our listener as a "fan," though his description is pretty much spot on. So many pull quotes could go on the back of the book jacket, or on the CD cover if the arrrgh ever makes it big.

Here's the report in its entirety:

** U S A. XX.X FM Pirate, Champaign, IL 5/30 Hi Folks, I had something
interesting in at work in Urbana last night, Radio Free Arrrgh. Audio
was fairly good, power level stated during the broadcast to be 150
Watts. Reception started out excellent, but they were increasingly
slammed after sunset by Shine 99, WSHW Franfort, Indiana. Programming
was typical pirate fare, you know, songs with obscene lyrics, drug
songs, ancient party records (sung by a French-Canadian). Non-standard
fare was a lot of badly done electronic music (when I first had them
in, I thought I was getting computer RFI), quite a few audio collages
of various political figures they obviously didn't care for
(including, Rudolph Giuliani, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tony Blair. and,
of course, President Bush), also quite a few of what are called
musical mash-ups, and many heavy metal songs with a non-musical vocal
accompaniment by a category of women we called "screamers" back at
Illinois State (if you catch my drift).

The show was hosted by Captain A and DJ Pally Pal, with a featured
guest, Poodles McGee, allegedly of the Chicago-area FCC enforcement
bureau. Talk segments focused on Free Radio activities around the
country, the NAB convention (and various indiscretions taking place
there), and pointed comments about various FCC officials and
personages, including a scathing critique of the sexual attractiveness
(or lack thereof) of some official named Abernathy. As the evening
went on, the hosts and guest were slurring more and more, unable to
pronounce the station name correctly. I had them in from just before 8
P.M., until I lost their signal at about 12:15 A.M., just north of
Urbana (Shine 99 overtook them there). (C****** S*******, Paxton,
Illinois May 30, WTFDA via DXLD)

**contact the arrrgh**