Page 30 - the NOISE October 2012

music@thenoise.us
A TALE OF TWO STATIONS
Here in scenic Flagstaff, I believe it is one’s civic duty to improve one’s surroundings however one can in order to make one’s com- munity more ... umm... What’s the opposite of depressing?
Anyway, a while ago I decided to stop bitching about how ut- terly awful Flagstaff’s airwaves are (well OK, I still do that) and get off my duff and contribute to their beautification. I’m currently involved with two radio stations, one imaginary (sort of ) and one real (sort of ).
Radio Free Flagstaff is the brainchild of Noise contributor and local broadcaster John Abrahamsen. RFF is designed as a com- munity-access station open to all, no experience necessary. John has a much more eloquent statement of purpose on our website radiofreeflag.org.
In a nutshell: send us money. Please. We need to get on the air. It will be worth it, promise and swear to God. We’ve been hosting fundraising shows with an array of local bands every First Friday at The Green Room from 5-8PM, all ages. We did it up recently at the Orpheum. The next time you see one advertised, why not come?
Ideally, Radio Free Flagstaff will broadcast 24/7 with a signal as strong as any other local station. And y’all are invited! Ever wanted to play music YOU like on the radio? Now you can! Tell your friends! Let’s get it together, boys and girls! The FCC will be listening so we have to keep it kind of clean, but subversive is A-OK. Encouraged, even. Contact us through the website — that’s radiofreeflag.org.
The fact that a city the size of Flagstaff (stop calling it a town) doesn’t already have community radio is ludicrous. Remember when there was a local television station with a nightly news- cast? No? That’s because it went off the air fifteen years ago and never came back on. We’ll speculate on why that happened an- other time.
In December 2010, Congress passed the Local Community Radio Act, which basically loosens the FCC’s stranglehold on the FM dial and encourages small towns to start their own grassroots stations with a local slant. We’re on the list for approval, just need to get that bread together. Frank Chipotel and I started doing shows in September 2010. We’re like two of those wacky AM DJs, except funny and with WAY better music. Frank cut out for Tucson in June of this year so if anyone knows of a dependable straight man, get in touch. We’ve got about thirty hour-long epi- sodes up on the website. I do silly voices and Frank gets grumpy and yells a lot. And we bring in good tunes. There’s tons of other quality programming posted as well.
The show is at a real studio in a shopping center. What you hear on the radio are broadcasts of a satellite feed, which means the music you hear if you tune in is coming from somewhere other than Flagstaff. No DJs or music actually originate from the station and only a few of the commercials are locally recorded. There’s a LOT of equipment in there not being used.
If you’ve ever seen a radio station on TV or in a movie, that’s
what the studio looks like. It’s cluttered but clean. It has a broad- cast booth with fairly expensive microphones and a bunch of mysterious electronics (I try not to touch too many knobs), a central office/meeting room with a door, and a general “bullpen” area with several desks.
There’s radio-centered effluvia everywhere: trade magazines, framed certificates and awards on the walls, stacks of promo- tional CDs and Public Service Announcements, a utility closet with all sorts of wires and stuff, a thank-you letter from Yoko Ono in a prominent place, a mini-fridge, a bunch of takeout menus, a coffee pot, a microwave, a hand-san dispenser, sports knick- knacks, filing cabinets, one wall containing Forest Service maps of Northern Arizona showing the station’s broadcast radius, and out in the parking lot a huge satellite dish about three dumpsters tall surrounded by a concrete barrier with a locked gate. There’s a sign near the back door for snowy days that says: “Please sweep the dish!”You need a key or a security code for either entrance.
Directly across the hall from the front door is the salon where miniskirted young ladies with fantastic hair are groomed by oth- er miniskirted young ladies with fantastic hair. The public rest- room is usually cleaner than mine at home and it’s always empty. I’ve had several satisfying bathroom experiences in there.
My other gig is on KWHY (106.9 FM), a pirate station with a low enough wattage to fly under the FCC’s radar. Heading south from downtown, the signal dies around Wal-Mart; heading east, around 4th Street. I believe Caty started it but then she moved and now I don’t think anyone is in charge.
KWHY is located somewhere most of us have lived, usually in our early 20s: The Party House. There’s five or six roommates and several dogs and cats cohabitating there. Every week or two they’ll have bands play in the living room while dozens of drunk punks roam the premises and break stuff and pee in the yard and fall down.
The day I started doing my show was the first time I had ever seen the place empty. I’m never sure if the people I meet live there or are just hanging out. The recycling bins are ridiculous; this single household may be the Pabst Blue Ribbon company’s best customer in Flagstaff.
Everybody just walks in, no one knocks. The kitchen is usually pretty horrific. I’ve never had the courage to sit down on their toilet. There’s a second bathroom in back by the broadcasting equipment, but it’s been out of service for months and stinks re- ally bad so the door is kept shut.
Sometimes there’s a group practicing that completely drowns out my show and I have to either put on headphones or give up and go home. I bring my own headphones because the ones there are broken in half. The whole joint usually smells like spilled beer and/or week-old trash. They could really use one of those hand-san dispensers.
The transmitter is about the size of a paperback book. It came from Radio Shack and only requires a two-prong plug for elec- tricity. From it, a cable runs between the washer and dryer in the next room, out a hole in a window screen, and up to the roof
30 • OCTOBER 2012 • the NOISE arts & news magazine • thenoise.us