Why am I not on the radio now? Right right now is because the Urban stations in Boston are all operating illegally as what are called pirate stations, and I'm not working for an entity that is illegal. People here don't understand that when I say that, because they can't imagine a radio station broadcasting illegally, which is what a pirate station does.
A station broadcasting legally has a broadcasting license given to them by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). There are a limited number of licenses given out by the FCC per metropolitan region, and the stations are spaced along the radio dial so their signals don't interfere with each other. If you notice, in the United States stations' frequency, or dial number, are spaced apart by 0.4 (i.e., 94.5, 94.9, 95.3, 95.7, 96.1, etc.). If you hear a station in between those stations (i.e., 94.7 in between 94.5 and 94.9) it will be faint and hard to pick up because it is a station whose signal is carrying from another market.
Now, a pirate station doesn't care about getting a license. They listen to the radio and figure out a dial position in between two licensed stations that has the least amount of interference, whether from an out-of-market radio station bleeding in, or a very strong adjoining station overpowering their signal. They find a building they can put a radio transmitter on, run the wires to their mixing board, tune it to the clearest frequency they can find, and voila! They have a radio station.
The problem with pirate stations are three-fold. 1) First and foremost, they are illegal. Major broadcasting companies pay millions of dollars to the right and privilege to broadcast in a certain city. A pirate station pays a fraction of that to put a station on the air, which leads to 2) interference with other signals and 3) taking potential listeners away from licensed stations. Major broadcasters could care less about pirates… until it messes with their money. If they can prove that a pirate station is affecting their ability to transmit their signal, they will make sure that pirate station will be shut down quickly. And if people who would be listening to the licensed station either start listening to the pirate station or can't hear the licensed station because of the interference, once again, that pirate station will be shut down.
What does all this have to do with me? First of all, I can't put that I worked for a pirate station on my resume. How does that look? Not that I'm Mr. High And Mighty, but if I put on my resume a station that is not listed by Arbitron, is not a BDS station, and doesn't show up on ANY list of licensed radio stations, it makes me look bootleg. Secondly, it's ILLEGAL. If I happened to be working for a pirate station and the FCC came to shut them down, I would open the doors and help them carry stuff out. Don't be fooled by people saying they have a low power broadcasting license. Low power broadcasting licenses are legal licenses given by the FCC for an organization to broadcast to a very limited area, usually covering no more than a 2-3 mile radius. In contrast, some of the more powerful stations' broadcast signal cover over a 60-65 mile radius. Even a bad legal signal, like my old station Hot 97.7, covered 25-35 miles.
But people don't understand any of this. They think, I turn on my radio, I hear the radio station, must be legit, so why can't you work for them? At that point, after explaining the whole pirate thing, the whole illegal thing, and they still don't get it? I just say I'm not worried about radio anymore and leave it at that.
But truth be told… I would love to get back on the radio in Boston. I KNOW I can make an Urban, Urban AC, Rhythmic or Rhythmic AC work in Boston. But since 3 of the 4 are failed formats, nobody is going to give them another chance (and Jam'n 94.5 is a powerhouse Rhythmic, so no one wants to mess with the big dog). Let ME mess with the big dogs (Jam'n and Kiss). That radio war would be something to see.
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