May 24, 2011

FRN Knocked Offline by Joplin Tornado; FRN Founder John Cruzan & Family Safe!

On Sunday May 22, The Free Radio Network, one of the leading forums covering pirate radio in North America, was knocked offline by the tornado that ravaged Joplin Missouri.


The F.R.N. website is hosted on a web server owned by John Cruzan, FRN founder, who lives in Joplin. The tornado destroyed much of the telecommunications infrastructure in Joplin, reportedly cutting off telephone landlines, internet and cellphone coverage to most of the area.

For 24 hours, Cruzan's fate was unknown. Pirate hobbyists who tracked the path of the storm reported that it had passed very close to Cruzan's home. There was much concern for the safety of Cruzan and his loved ones.

Thankfully, we can now report that Cruzan and family are safe! As reported via 'Cosmik Debris' on the HF Underground, Cruzan responded to Kracker via Facebook with this message:

"We are fine, no damage at all, My parents home was leveled but they were not hurt, we are busy trying to dig out their stuff for now, thanks for thinking of Us!"  (May 23 at 10:22pm)

As Cruzan has stated "no damage at all", that presumably includes the web server on which the FRN website resides. This would seem to indicate that the Free Radio Network forum will be back at some point. However, because of the massive damage to the Joplin area, it is difficult to guess when communications may be restored to the area enough to allow the FRN server to come back online.

Now that Cruzan and family are known to be safe, I don't feel it amiss to offer comment on a somewhat-related matter... after the page-break.



During the period that Cruzan's fate was unknown, the feeling that ongoing feuds within the North American pirate radio community ought to be set aside for the moment became the prevailing sentiment among most. However, controversial pirate radio operator 'Commander Bunny' used the possibility of this potentially very personal tragedy to the pirate radio community, to heap insults and derision upon one of his favorite perceived enemies, the HFUnderground Forum, while conveniently talking out of both sides of his mouth (as usual):

Via Email from Commander Bunny, Monday 5/23 at 1:35 pm:
"The FRN is down because the server was located in Joplin, Missouri.
The slack-jawed, lip-droolers on HF Underpants are beating their little monkey chests over "pay back" and sadly this has nothing to do with payback. Even I would hope they'd stop gloating over this sad event. Time to set aside petty differences and focus on important matters!"
~Commander Bunny

"Time to set aside petty differences," that is, after you get in a few last insults, eh, 'Commander'?

(The word 'payback' was never mentioned on the HFU site.  Just another typical mis-statement by 'Commander'.  Amongst polite society, we call these "LIES!"  What was mentioned was one of CB's favorite words, 'Karma', the meaning of which he ironically does not seem to truly understand.)

The fact is that on Saturday 5/22, the HFUnderground forum was offline for a few hours due to a server error. When this was discovered, Commander spent the day gloating over the demise of his enemies, and bragging that HE was responsible for taking the HFU offline: "Commander Bunny froze the EVIL (HF Underpants site) for a short time on Saturday, to teach the evil monkeys a bit of humility."
http://shortwavepirate.info/WBNY/?p=1212

So when the FRN went down on Sunday, many of us considered it very ironic after Commander Bunny's boasts, perhaps even the effects of his favorite cosmic force, "karma" in action. Of course, initially we had no idea that the demise of the FRN was due to a human tragedy occurring in Jopin Missouri, and not just an internet glitch. When the scope of the tragedy became known, and the fate of John Cruzan and family hung in the balance, the mood changed. I myself regretted the rather satirical nature of some of my comments, and revised or removed them while expressing the hope that Cruzan and family would be found safe and unharmed.

But, even while concern about Cruzan was at its height, 'Commander Bunny's usual opportunism and sniping did not rest. He could not resist the opportunity to heap insults upon his perceived enemies via Email, even while hypocritically requesting that "we set petty differences aside" within the same message!

Just one more personal observation, or opinion, I will make here: While the 'Commander's continued sniping at me and others, via email or his website, may quite fairly be ajudged to be "petty", my "differences" with him are far from it... but all that will have to wait for another time.

We at The Crystal Ship pray for comfort for those who have suffered tragic losses in Joplin, and hope for a speedy recovery to the injured, and that rescue and recovery efforts be effective and successful.



3 comments:

  1. Well said Poet.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Poet, you're far more tactful than I would have been had I written more on CB's hare-faced dissembling over the weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good to hear the news about the Cruzan family.

    ReplyDelete

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