Amanda Dawn Christie, Lorelei D’Andriole, Lia Kohl, Brandon LaBelle, and Alex Jones?
Pirates, and artists, on the airwaves in June.
This Week in Radio Art and Unlicensed Transmissions:
The Alex Jones pirate radio station gets shut down.
WAMC’s lack of diversity.
Lorelei D’Andriole’s radio pranks.
Brandon LaBelle’s book.
Lia Kohl in Europe.
AMANDA DAWN CHRISTIE
Canadian-based transmission artist Amanda Dawn Christie’s “Requiem for Radio” will be remounting in Moncton at the Aberdeen Cultural Centre this week, ahead of a performance at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa in July.
“Requiem for Radio: Full Quiet Flutter” is a 60-minute live performance for human bodies, electrons, and radio waves. Architecture, technology, history, and the human body come together in this near-supernatural conjuring of the spirits of the demolished Radio Canada International (RCI) shortwave towers. Structured with thirteen movements for the thirteen radio towers, the performance follows the format of a traditional requiem, but for the RCI shortwave site that was once located near the border of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia from where it transmitted shortwave radio around the world from 1944 to 2012.
PIRATE RADIO
Back down under in the United States, the Federal Communications Commission continues to transmit mixed signals about how draconian its actions against pirate radio operators are going to be. New FCC Chair Brendan Carr, who wrote the Project 2025 technology apolicy, said, “The FCC will not tolerate unlicensed radio broadcasting. It’s that simple. Licensed radio stations have invested time and money into their operations and are relied on by the listening public for news, entertainment, and even life-saving warnings. Pirate operations break the law and get in the way of these important services.”
But it is not that simple. Republican Commissioner Nate Simington expressed concerns about the proposed giant fines against alleged pirate radio operators as FCC overreach, citing the recent Supreme Court rulings of Loper Bright and SEC v. Jarkesy. Simington argues that it is unclear whether the FCC has the authority to set and enforce financial forfeitures without explicit direction from Congress. Huh.
And who is among the first pirate taken down by the new regime in Washington?
Weird, huh?
REBEL RADIO
The Barbican in London is hosting a show on pirate radio in June. About their “Rebel Radio” show they write, “Discover the radical influence of pirate radio across June through our programme of live radio broadcasts, a Rinse FM party, Sunday Selecta listening sessions, talks, workshops, film screenings, a six-part podcast series and more.”
WAMC
WAMC's 'The Roundtable' continues to exclude Palestinians
Racial diversity declines, all-White panels increase: 2025 data on 'Roundtable'. Let's change this.
James Earl Owens reports facts and statistics about radio station WAMC’s guests.
LIA KOHL
Chicago-based transmission artist Lia Kohl, who plays cello and often radios, is touring Europe this coming week with Whitney Johnson, visiting Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, and Amsterdam.
RADIO PRANKS
A video of Lorelei D’Andriole’s discussion “Radio as Passage Way: Transsexual approaches to radio, pranks, and the violence of visibility,” from April 14 at the Studio for Creative Inquiry in Pittsburgh, is now up on the center’s website.
JEFF GBUREK
From Poland, transmission artist Jeff Gburek writes, ”VLF radio session capturing the latest ionospheric changes after the recent CME pile-ups recorded at Rusalka outpost June 2 with a dry Synth improvisation June 3. People who follow my SoundCloud can see and hear where it's all coming from so please have a look at my uploads. Very happy to answer questions. This is stripped down and raw audio and I will probably do a voice-over later as the album presentation develops. Photograph by Toso Doboc from Zagreb sometime in the 60's I guess?”
BRANDON LABELLE
“Poetics of Listening,” the book from Brandon LaBelle is out June 21 from the London-based artist and author. I can’t find anything about the book that explicitly addresses radio, but a bit of the description hints there may be transmissions in these pages:
“Listen out for futures to come as well as addressing unfinished histories, and to challenge us to think more broadly about what it means to hear and be heard within today's complex environments.”
LaBelle has previously produced many works for radio, including some for Documenta / Savvy Funk, Berlin (2017), Radio Reina Sofia (2016), Kunstradio in Vienna (1999, 2001, 2007, 2009, 2021-22) and Deutschland Radio (2009). He also has a “Radio Territories” book, and “Radio Memory” and “Radio Flirt” projects (see below), so the probability is high that “Poetics of Listening” tunes in some broadcast frequencies.
RADIO MAN OF INDIA
h/t David Goren.
RADIO POP SONG
Limbaugh
He was talking through a bimbo
But don't
Touch that dial
Or that hateful smile
Kate said
"The flowers of intolerance and hatred
Are blooming kind of early
This year
Someone's been watering them."
OPEN CALL
DETAILS.
RADIO DRAMA
Also here.
RADIO DRAMA
Tom Roe, the writer of this column, makes this weekly radio show.
Donald Drumpf Theatre #240: Sickness Is This Week's Obvious Metaphor for the USA, or 'We All Are Going to Die'
A virus controls the new/old president this week on the “Donald Drumpf Theatre” radio show.
This week: “Sickness Is This Week's Obvious Metaphor for the USA, or 'We're All Going to Die'.” Opening theme includes clips from Rod Serling; Bill Cosby; Donald Drumpf; Eric Cartman; Jon Stewart; Richard Nixon; Kent Brockman; and Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Thanks for the songs from Golden Earring ("Twilight Zone"), The Donner Party (“Sickness”), Nino Rota (“The Godfather”), The Young Fresh Fellows (“Taco Wagon”); Elvis Costello (“The Imposter”); and John Williams (“Attack of the Clones” end credits). Clips and excerpts from Jimmy Kimmel; RFK, Jr.; Hannibal Lecter; Frankenstein; Vito Corleone; Seth Meyers; Bret Baier; Steve Bannon; Piers Morgan; Karoline Leavitt; Laura Ingraham; Josh Hawley; Yoda; Victor Blackwell; Joni Ernst; and John Oliver. Episode 240.
RADIO DRAMA
Wave Farm’s community radio station WGXC is at 90.7 on the FM dial, but not for long if it keeps breaking the rules of the Federal Communications Commission. Radio DJs are not allowed to play songs where they might have a financial benefit. On June 2, the “Signal to Noise” show from Al Crisafulli played songs from Poem Rocket and Savak. Both bands are playing shows this month in Catskill put on by Al Crisafulli and his Dromedary Records label. He also played several other songs related to his own record label. So WGXC is currently using the public airwaves so private citizens can promote their own capitalist projects, even though the rules say that is not allowed.
Crisafulli also played tracks by Scrawl and The Spinanes, who are playing at his festival later this summer (well, the lead singer of the Spinanes is performing).
What is even worse is that the radio show is playing songs of bands performing at a Wave Farm board members venue. So the appearance here is that the concert promoter and concert venue owner will benefit financially from the illegal airplay. Crisafulli posted on social media beforehand, telling the WGXC staff he was going to break the rules, and then posted on social media about how he had broken the rules. When I worked at Wave Farm (see below) I trained Crisafulli, and made it clear to him he would have to contact staff to schedule an interview on a different show if he wanted to promote his own works. Clearly, that lesson did not stick.
Note: The writer of this article has an axe to grind with Wave Farm.
Tom Roe, the writer of this column, adds this weekly update about the non-profit organization that he founded that still won’t let him retrieve his personal belongings.
I founded both the non-profit transmission arts organization Wave Farm (that derived from free103point9, the pirate radio station I founded with Violet Hopkins and Greg Anderson), and the community radio station WGXC. After I founded the organization, I made my wife executive director. Last year, she divorced me, and fired me from the job I founded.
Well, she had the Wave Farm board fire me, weeks after they gave me a raise.
The only reason I mention this, or care at all, is both my ex-wife and Wave Farm still have many of my belongings. Records, transmitters, flyers, videotape archives, tapes, weird instruments, historical pirate radio materials, and many personal items one collects over 25 years. There is a chest full of my old newspaper clippings, for instance. A baseball that as a child I had signed by Brooks Robinson, Eddie Murray, Jim Palmer, and other members of the 1970s Baltimore Orioles. There are several sets of walkie-talkies, including one shaped as bananas. There are a couple CB radios. There are birthday presents, and other gifts I should have back. But for some reason, the Wave Farm board has not contacted me since December, when a board member wrote that they would get back to me in a few days. They never did. My ex-wife floated a few dates that I could come over and pick up my things, per the legal agreement she signed, but they were not dates I was available. She is also not currently allowing me the dog visitation I am legally allowed to have. Now she and the board refuse to contact me in any way, and they still have many of my belongings. It is very weird.
First, if you are a quarter-century old nonprofit about to fire your founder, it would seem like you would come up with a plan beforehand. They did not. They promised me severance pay, and then failed to come through on their promise. They promised to return my emails, the account they took from me as I was downloading it the week after they fired me. They still have not returned my emails. They still have not let me come to Wave Farm, and figure out what stuff is mine, have me take it away, and be done with it. Instead, they are dragging this out for a year now with no end in sight. They gave me a raise, and then immediately fired me.
I hope eventually Wave Farm lets me get my belongings back. The idea is to open a pirate radio museum with the historic artifacts, once they allow me to retrieve them.
Send submissions, press releases, digital albums, etc. to this column at tomroeradio@proton.me. Please don’t hesitate to promote your radio art.
Radio news this week:
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