Pirate Radio News & Commentary
By John Poet
Well, I was just getting ready to make a nice, mostly upbeat (for a change) post, quoting some of the outpouring of support from our listeners which we received in reaction to the news of our FCC bust, when I read a rather frantic email from DXer Artie Bigley. This demands my immediate attention, so the rest will have to wait a bit...
It seems that "Commander Bunny" has produced an Email on his blog (or rather, the text of an alleged email... and I Do mean "produced" errr, "manufactured"), purporting to be an Emailed complaint from Artie Bigley to the FCC, asking them to bust The Crystal Ship. (Since "CB" will probably remove the original page shortly, like he always does, here's a screencap.)
The Email reads as follows:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
X-From_: xx
mailto:xxbigleyxx@hotmail.com Sat April 9, 10:15:43 2011
X-Originating-IP: [removed]
From: Artie Bigley
To: teslamotorhome@simbala.net
Subject: FCC Enforcement action Detroit Office
Date: Sat, 9 April 2011 10:15:33 -0400
Dear Mr. Bridgewater:
I want to report Pirate Radio activity in central Michigan, and special attention on a
Communist who calls himself "Poet". He is using 6815 kilohertz to broadcast his Communist message on his station "the Crystal Ship". He broadcasts the Russian National Anthem. He is a treasonous voice of dissent and needs to be silenced.
Your attention to this matter is appreciated. He also has a blog called "freeradiocafe",
where he will announce when he is going on the air. He also posted that he was in Central
Michigan on this blog. I also want to FOIA any information about this station from the FCC
database as soon as possible. I am doing what I can to rid the airwaves of these lowlifes.
73s,
Artie
> Subject: Illegal Pirate activity, FOIA Request
> Date: Fri, 6 May 2011 13:20:31 -0400
> From: James.Bridgewater@fcc.gov
> To: xxxxmailto:xxxxpersolja@hotmail.com
>
> Mr. Bigley,
>
> The FCC received your information about illegal pirate radio activity on April 9, 2011
and have taken appropriate measures. While we would like to respond to your FOIA request,
you did not provide the address to which you want the FCC's response to be sent. Please
respond with a mailing address for the response.
>
> Thank you.
>
>James.Bridgewater - Detroit FCC
>CC:Diane Law-Hsu
> Enforcement Bureau
> FCC
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
("Treasonous voice of dissent"? Well, thank you, "CB", we do what we can!)
My first, knee-jerk conclusion to news of the release of this supposed email was, that it was a fake manufactured by "Commander Bunny" to attempt to frame Bigley as the informant who complained to the FCC about The Crystal Ship-- in order to redirect the anger of pirate DXers over TCS' bust from himself to Bigley.
Well, upon closer inspection, my first, knee-jerk reaction turns out to be
----absolutely correct!!!