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.