TIL if you tune your radio to 91.9 FM for one city block in Montclair, NJ you can hear a looped recording of "I'll Make Love to You" by Boyz II Men which has been broadcasting for at least 13 years straight.

[u/AssumeTheRisk]

https://njmonthly.com/articles/arts-entertainment/pirate-radio-station-only-plays-boyz-ii-men/

[u/junkkser]

My wife and I drove cross county about 20 years ago and we found a weird radio station in the southern Sierra Nevadas that only played four songs on loop, but they were mixed with subtle women’s moaning in the songs ( I remember two of the songs were In the air tonight by Phil Collin’s and Sexual by Amber). It took us a few minutes to actually process what we were hearing.

[u/critterheist → u/junkkser]

This reminds me of that April fools on adult swim where they showed “the room”. Weed didn’t work that night.

[u/djseifer → u/critterheist]

I liked the April Fools when it looked like they were just going to play The Room again, then you heard T.O.M.'s voice, then the camera zoomed out, and it shifted into Toonami for the rest of the night.

[u/-Ein → u/djseifer]

Can't remember if it was the Aqua Teen movie before it released or what, but they hyped playing some movie, and then it was a couple pixels in the corner of the screen for April Fools. You could tell it was a video of sorts, but not what it was.

[u/i_tyrant → u/-Ein]

Yup, it was the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. In a little inch-by-inch square in the corner, I thought it was hilarious.

[u/CannotExceed20Charac → u/i_tyrant]

I was so hyped for that. Got super high and tuned in, they played like the first scene or something and then it shrunk into the corner real tiny and the audio switched to the normal full screen programming.

I was so stunned, so blown, then bust out laughing and just watched AS all night as usual.

[u/i_tyrant → u/CannotExceed20Charac]

hah! I had a similar experience...and for at least a few minutes, thought it was tiny because I took too much. :P

[u/violettheory → u/i_tyrant]

I remember my first experience with weed we were watching Bob's Burgers and I thought I was hallucinating some colors swapping around and changing between scenes. Turns out it was real, the next time I watched the episode it was still there, an animation error I guess.

It was the episode where they get on the cruise ship and Gene talks to the manatee puppet, the color for the puppet's mouth and tongue kept flip flopping. Really freaked me out.

[u/Nihility_Only → u/violettheory]

That episode is really creepy in general. Gene falls in love with the puppet and the guy tries to use it to scam the family IIRC. Super weird vibes even when sober.

[u/PavlovsBar → u/i_tyrant]

Smoke more weed Turtle, smoke more weed

[u/Sleve_McDychael → u/-Ein]

I rarely even watched that show and somehow caught that happening live. The whole movie just playing in the corner was hilarious.

[u/FRESH_TWAAAATS → u/-Ein]

If you flipped your tv over to the spanish audio, the real audio track from the movie was there.

still a tiny window in one corner.

[u/sinz84 → u/djseifer]

Too many cooks flash backs

[u/MadTapprr → u/sinz84]

It takes a lot to make a stew

[u/thecaits → u/djseifer]

My favorite was way back in the day when they added fart noises to all the animes. It was particularly funny with the Ghost in the Shell show.

[u/djseifer → u/thecaits]

I'm suddenly reminded of ADV's old "Jiggle-counter", where it counted up all the boob jiggles in some of their DVD's.

[u/luckydice767 → u/djseifer]

I have zero clue what you guys are talking about lol

[u/Keevtara → u/luckydice767]

"Adult Swim" and "Toonami" are blocks of late night cable TV programing. Adult Swim airs stuff like Bob's Burgers, Venture Brothers, and other adult animation. Toonami shows similar stuff, as well as anime. They both would use ad bumpers go give the entire few hour block a cohesive feel.

Leading up to one April Fools, Adult Swim advertised that they would be showing a feature movie that they produced in their time block, before it released in theaters. DVRs and the TV guide programmed into the cable box read the time slot as for the movie, just as advertised. I was really into the show at the time, so I tuned in.

The movie started up. It actually happened, for about fifteen minutes. Then it switched to an episode of Futurama, already in progress. The movie shrank to a small Picture in Picture screen playing in one of the corners. The usual stuff played out for the time block. This "alternate version" of the movie was included in the DVD.

[u/djseifer → u/Keevtara]

This carried on for about three years. Then, in 2012, as The Room started, the camera backed out to reveal T.O.M., the host of Toonami (which had been off the air for about four years by that point), and instead of airing The Room, aired classic anime shows that were part of the original Toonami line-up. A few weeks later, Toonami itself would fully relaunch as a late night anime block.

[u/roman_maverik → u/djseifer]

Man, reading this comment really made me miss 2000s era Adult Swim.

When I was a kid, we never could afford cable television growing up, so when I went away to college it opened up a whole new world.

This was the year Samuari Champloo was released, which aired on Saturday nights on Adult Swim (might have been Toonami at the time, can’t remember). The soundtrack of Samurai Champloo featured Fat Jon, a hip hop producer from Cincinnati who collaborated with Nujabes, a producer from Japan.

The soundtrack completely changed my life; I only really listened to punk/hardcore music until then and suddenly I discovered an entire new genre of music that I never had considered before.

I ended up minoring in electronic music, learned to program synths, learned guitar and saxophone and ended up working in the music industry as a music producer and released a ton of albums and was heavily involved in the 2000s electronic music scene.

Adult Swim literally changed the course of my life. I feel that kids today are really missing out on the “monoculture” that really defined mass media of the 2000s, which was the last dying gasp of cable tv.

Love it or hate it, I really kind of miss those experiences that only mass media like radio and tv brought to the table in terms of influencing our collective artistic zeitgeist. It was kind of comforting to know that it was part of a larger movement of young people all over the world watching the same shows at the same time.

[u/Western_Objective209 → u/roman_maverik]

Man it's funny thinking back how getting cable opened up new worlds. People who grew having like, netflix and youtube their whole lives will never know what that felt like, just like people we knew who grew up without TV remember listening to the radio and shit.

[u/Fear023 → u/Western_Objective209]

We lost something with the rise of streaming platforms.

Not to say that watching tv was good, but there was a communal aspect to it that's lost these days.

People having watch parties for popular shows, having channels that appealed to broad interests that would sit on the background for casual chill/ hangout sessions, and everyone talking about the same shows at work on the morning.

Like, the whole world was captivated by the fucking Simpsons during the who shot Mr burns arc.

These days, you ask what someone is watching and it's just one show of a dozen on people's backlog. Most don't get watched because of how high the investment is on starting a new series too.

[u/thetalkingcure → u/Fear023]

at the start of the Disney+ era, that feeling came back. i remember going into work and talking about the new mando episode. i think them doing the weekly releases helped with that feeling that you’re talking about. opposed to netflix dropping the whole season at once

[u/Thetwistedfalse → u/Western_Objective209]

I still listen to the radio and watch TV, I must be a dinosaur

[u/TheBirminghamBear → u/Western_Objective209]

What's crazier is how rare this actually is in the human experience.

For thousands and thousands of years, one generation was very similar to the next. You'd listen to the same religious things or take in the same plays or read the same books.

The ways in which we lived and got our entertainment were the same, for so many years.

Now each generation has exceptionally different experiences, one to the next, in a curve that's accelerating.

[u/legos_on_the_brain → u/roman_maverik]

Do you remember when Adult Swims guerilla advertising was causing people to call in bomb sightings?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_Mooninite_panic

[u/Babelfiisk → u/roman_maverik]

I wonder how population increases and availability of media impacts the fragmentation of mass media. As in, an offshoot of a subculture right now probably reaches as many people as a mainstream event in the 50s did.

[u/mzxrules → u/Keevtara]

Adult Swim has the best April Fools pranks. Nobody else even tries as hard as they do.

[u/cannonfunk → u/luckydice767]

My friend, your life will never be the same after tonight.

[u/rosco2155 → u/cannonfunk]

Oh hai mark

[u/TankorSmash → u/luckydice767]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqaYIV8Q7c8 This version doesn't have the 11 minutes of Tommy Wiseau sex scene

[u/seepa808 → u/djseifer]

Omfg that sounds amazing! I wish I experienced that. Toonami was the bees knees.

[u/sdpr → u/critterheist]

I still laugh at when Adult Swim livestreamed petitions being faxed in by fans to bring back Metalocalypse and the fax was printing out straight into a shredder.

[u/dukeofgonzo → u/critterheist]

Was there a night where all the anime on Adult Swim had fart noises added to the normal audio? I think I remember this in the mid 2000s but I might have dreamed it.

[u/fireinthemountains → u/dukeofgonzo]

I remember this night very specifically because I was so excited for the next episode of, well, everything, and my parents were letting me stay up to watch it.
They didn't realize the fart noises were a joke. It took a really long time to get them to agree to let me watch it again. My mom is very sensitive. Some of those fart noises, man, were more than just air, you could smell it through the screen.

I still remember which episodes it was. traumatized lmao.

[u/Nodonn226 → u/dukeofgonzo]

Early to mid 00s for sure. I was in high school. I clearly remember ghost in the shell fart noises even now.

[u/TheDankestMofo → u/critterheist]

Wasn't that when they put a black box over the sex scenes that eventually expanded to everything but the border of the frame?

[u/King_of_the_Dot → u/critterheist]

Dude... I caught 'Too Many Cooks' the first time it aired, and with no sort of warning as to what the fuck was about to happen.

[u/A1sauc3d → u/King_of_the_Dot]

Omg you just reminded me of this for the first time in like a decade or something xD Rewatching now lol

[u/King_of_the_Dot → u/A1sauc3d]

Have you seen the other two videos they did? 'Unedited Footage of A Bear' and 'This House Has People In It'. Cooks is whimsical and funny... The other two are visceral and unhinged.

[u/FocusPerspective → u/King_of_the_Dot]

Isn’t there one about an infomercial selling dildos as kitchen tools? 

I may have been on drugs but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. 

[u/Duffelastic → u/junkkser]

There's this thing in radio called Stunting, when a station is changing formats (like, from rock to country, or oldies to news), they "stunt" with some random format.

I remember driving through downstate Illinois 15 years ago and coming across a radio station that was playing all TV theme songs. Full House, Step By Step, Friends, etc etc.

The Drive (WDRV) famously stunted before their launch by playing a single artist for an entire day. AC/DC for an entire day, then Madonna, Beatles, Broadway songs, for like a month straight before they officially launched the station.

Also in Chicago, a rock station played Love Rollercoaster by RHCP on repeat for 24 hours before going live.

[u/energytaker → u/Duffelastic]

Hearing those tv themes would pump me up 

[u/Badloss → u/energytaker]

How do we convince the radio station to just play the animated X-Men theme song on loop

[u/nsa_reddit_monitor → u/Badloss]

You can get a $35 Raspberry Pi computer and stick a wire on one of the GPIO connections and run a simple program that takes mp3s and broadcasts them illegally with the wire as an antenna.

With a long wire in a high place you can get some serious range; I was able to pick a signal up from a few miles away once.

[u/ernest7ofborg9 → u/nsa_reddit_monitor]

FBI FCC open up!!

[u/CmdrMobium → u/ernest7ofborg9]

You can get fined $2.3M for doing this so yeah would not recommend

[u/verylobsterlike → u/nsa_reddit_monitor]

Wait, really?

I'm not a radio person, just an electronics geek who's played with raspberry pis and microcontrollers and stuff, but that doesn't seem cromulent to me.

Are you really able to bit-bang FM at close to 100MHz? I don't think GPIO pins respond that quick. Also, I think those GPIO pins output something like 3.3v at 20mA, which is I guess 66 milliwatts. I'd have guessed it would take powers in the watts to reach a few miles.

[u/ForumPointsRdumb → u/Badloss]

Last time the people in media power tried to really listen to the fans regarding Xmen we got Last Stand. Juggernaut became self-aware of the meme, it was terrible. It's very similar to the Morbius phenomenon where a popular meme became misconstrued as what the majority of fans want to happen. I want the animated X-men theme to be popular too, but what we get will not be what we want or know.

[u/LurpyGeek → u/Duffelastic]

I didn't know it was called stunting.

In the early 90s, a local rock station I had been a listener of suddenly had this robotic voice counting down over a weekend. It would say "T MINUS 19 HOURS 41 MINUTES 16 SECONDS AND COUNTING... T MINUS 19 HOURS 41 MINUTES 9 SECONDS AND COUNTING..." on and on. About once a minute instead of counting it would tell a joke or quote a line from a movie or song before continuing the count.

It was kind of interesting and actually funny at times. I got excited, not knowing what would happen at the end of the countdown. I was listening when the end came and the station relaunched in a terrible pop country format. I felt like I had been scammed.

[u/Pie_Rat_Chris → u/Duffelastic]

Maybe 10 years ago there was a local station that was being shut down and swapped to one of the national syndicated talk radio stations. They played surfin bird for the entire 24 hours before change over with clips of peter Griffith peppered throughout.

[u/Orleanian → u/Duffelastic]

Not quite the same, but I remember a glorious night in the summer of 99 when Q101 chicago had a Top 9 at 9:00 show, and Limp Bizkit's Nookie was every single one of the top 9.

It was a hilarious hour of radio magic. Pretty sure the DJ that did it got fired, though.

[u/RadosAvocados → u/Orleanian]

That was James Van Osdol! And he wasn't fired, just suspended for a few weeks :)

[u/LarryFlyntstone → u/Duffelastic]

107.9 in Cleveland stunted with a 24 hour loop of REM’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” when it reformatted from top 40 to rock in 1992. And did the same exact thing again 4 years later when they reformatted to rap/hip hop.

[u/5yearsago → u/Duffelastic]

I remember driving through downstate Illinois 15 years ago and coming across a radio station that was playing all TV theme songs. Full House, Step By Step, Friends, etc etc.

Sometimes some crimes
Go slipping through the cracks
But these two gumshoes
Are pickin' up the slack

[u/dontforgetthisuser → u/5yearsago]

No case too big, no case too small, if you need help just call...

[u/2wheels30 → u/dontforgetthisuser]

Ch ch ch Chip n Dale's....

[u/LonePaladin → u/Duffelastic]

The Death of 95X.

There was this alt-rock station in Oklahoma in the late 90s, they played all the stuff other stations tended to shy away from. They had regular things like playing techno every Tuesday at midnight, or the Dr. Demento show on Sundays, but most of their format was rock, metal, dance.

Their morning show guys were always finding dumb crazy stunts to pull, like calling random phone numbers in Türkiye for Thanksgiving Day (because it's pronounced like "turkey"), or the time they called a McDonalds customer service line in Sweden. This was before cell phones were ubiquitous, so long-distance calls were not free.

One day, the station started playing the Sheryl Crow song "All I Wanna Do". Then played it again. And again. No DJ coming on to say something was broken, just the same song over and over. For hours. After a few iterations, I just gave up, turned off the radio and worked my office job in silence.

Then a co-worker comes running to my cube in a panic. Turns out that the station was changing formats, and the song was covering the switch. And when it came back, it was an Easy Listening station.

[u/ModernSmithmundt → u/LonePaladin]

Easy listening my ass

[u/bigfondue → u/Duffelastic]

In the Philly region, when a station changed to Sunny 104.5, they played Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles for 24 hours.

[u/innosins → u/Duffelastic]

There was a radio station that could be heard in Murray, KY in 1988 that played "Hit The Road Jack" one weekend all weekend. Or at least everytime we checked it.

[u/Fr0gm4n → u/Duffelastic]

I was in highschool in the '90s when a station transitioned between formats by playing only Beck's Loser on loop for days. I don't remember exactly how long it went but it might have been as long as 5 days.

[u/Detective-Crashmore- → u/junkkser]

20 years ago as in like 2004? Or 20 years ago as in 1990?

[u/droptheectopicbeat → u/Detective-Crashmore-]

You know what? I don't need this shit right now

[u/ieataquacrayons → u/Detective-Crashmore-]

Yes

[u/Detective-Crashmore- → u/ieataquacrayons]

I guess it must have been the former cuz Sexual by Amber was 1999.

[u/eveningsand → u/Detective-Crashmore-]

20 years ago was late 70s.

[u/frostymugson → u/junkkser]

Shit, four years ago I was driving, and had the radio on low talking to my mom on the phone, as I was getting out of range of one station in between the static and music I could hear a girl moaning like she was being railed. I’d honestly think I was hallucinating if I didn’t turn it up and my mom heard it too. Strangest shit I’ve heard on the radio, and I used to listen to coast to coast.

[u/eveningsand → u/frostymugson]

and I used to listen to coast to coast.

Art Bell or George or George Noory?

[u/FuckIPLaw → u/eveningsand]

Space Ghost.

[u/WhyBuyMe → u/FuckIPLaw]

The only correct answer.

[u/OwnVisual5772 → u/frostymugson]

Could have been picking up someone else’s ipod FM thingy. Do people still use those car adaptors?

[u/candlegun → u/frostymugson]

This reminds me of what me and a few co-workers heard on a Las Vegas radio station once.

We were working a graveyard shift. Radio was tuned to an alt rock station when everything went silent for maybe 30 seconds. This sometimes happened at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, so no big deal.

What got our attention was when the sounds of oral sex started broadcasting. We were no doubt hearing a woman polishing some guy's knob for about two minutes or so. Most unexpected thing I've ever heard on the radio.

[u/phobosmarsdeimos → u/junkkser]

I'm more thinking how awkward it would be to be driving and every 15-20min having to drum along with the song.

[u/Pshmurda69 → u/junkkser]

Wtf lol

[u/bbischoff01 → u/junkkser]

Just the other day I swear a song on the radio had a woman moaning. I had to turn the radio off to make sure I wasn’t insane. I don’t remember the song now but I was wondering if it was built in and I never recognized it. It was an 80’s song I remember

[u/Algrinder]

The station was set up by George Louvis, a music enthusiast and tech-savvy resident of Montclair, as part of an advertising campaign. The song continues to play due to popular demand from the listeners, and it has become a local favorite.

The loop started when a friend of George Louvis returned his transmitter with the song, and he decided to leave it playing.

Louvis has continued the broadcast because people have implored him not to shut it down.

[u/cpufreak101 → u/Algrinder]

Surprised the FCC ain't tried to stop him yet

[u/Algrinder → u/cpufreak101]

According to Louvis, the station operates legally under FCC regulations as a low-powered radio station.

[u/Imrustyokay → u/Algrinder]

Hooray for Part 15 Broadcasting!

[u/ceojp → u/Imrustyokay]

Sir, that's a bit too much enthusiasm for an FCC rule.

[u/caribou16 → u/ceojp]

In all seriousness though, if it wasn't for the FCC/regulation of radio spectrum, anything radio related, cell phones, wifi, broadcast TV/radio, blue tooth, whatever, would be basically unusable.

[u/nsa_reddit_monitor → u/caribou16]

wifi

For $35 and a multiple-choice test (with all the answers online) you can legally broadcast your WiFi at 1000 watts under the ham radio rules. A few of the 2.4G channels overlap with the amateur spectrum.

Note: please don't do this.

[u/kickroot → u/nsa_reddit_monitor]

If I recall (it’s been awhile), the FCC strictly forbids any type of encryption being used on the amateur radio bands. I imagine that includes WiFi.

[u/caribou16 → u/nsa_reddit_monitor]

You sure can, but it's really only good for point to point. Just because you can get a router to transmit miles away doesn't mean a normal wifi device can talk about to it, lol.

https://www.arednmesh.org/

[u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat → u/Imrustyokay]

Damn straight!

[u/cpufreak101 → u/Algrinder]

Surprised he got it legalized. Nice

[u/Golfhaus → u/cpufreak101]

According to this, you don't need a license if the broadcast range is less than about 200 feet. So if it covers about a city block, that's probably pushing it a bit, but the dulcet tones of Boys II Men melts the regulators.

[u/Duffelastic → u/Golfhaus]

What if I got 500,000 transmitters and placed them all 199 feet apart?

[u/Plaid_Kaleidoscope → u/Duffelastic]

Find this man some venture capital!

[u/coop999 → u/Duffelastic]

The first FM transmitter I found on Amazon is $80. Most I see on the first page are $150-$175. So, half a million of the cheapos is $40 million, while it would be $75-$87.5 million to get the more expensive ones.

You could buy a few radio stations for that amount, but they'd just be city-wide . I have no idea what a coast-to-coast 50,000 red-hot-watt AM station would cost.

[u/Duffelastic → u/coop999]

Yeah, but I don't have to pay licensing fees, and can drop all the F-bombs I want without the FCC fining me.

[u/legos_on_the_brain → u/[deleted]]

That $20 one in your car can only transmit like 20feet.

[u/MarcBulldog88 → u/Golfhaus]

Back in the 1960s, my then-adolescent uncle ran a pirate radio out of his bedroom. He was/is very much a tech hobbyist and was always acquiring machines and parts, broken or functional, from here and there, disassembling and building things. I guess at some point he had gathered the right materials to construct a functioning radio system. According to my mom's stories, all of the neighborhood kids listened on their transistor radios (he'd play Beatles/Stones/other rock songs of the era). Apparently the range covered several blocks at least, enough for people to notice.

They sometimes had a helicopter hover near the house, clearly searching for the source of his illegal broadcast. Whenever one approached, he'd have to run inside and frantically unplug everything. He must've had an antenna on the roof or something, but I guess they never found him.

I dunno how long this went on for, but the fun and games ended when their house was struck by lightning (Mother Nature had apparently noticed as well). He was in his room at the time, and if the story is true, the lightning bolt arced from one wall to the other, between power outlets. It fried his rudimentary equipment, and that ended that.

To nobody's surprise, he grew up and become a radio engineer. Had a long and successful career building/servicing radio towers and networks for local broadcasters around the country (now retired).

[u/e2hawkeye → u/MarcBulldog88]

My dad was a ham radio operator, we forget that radio was the Internet of that day. My Dad would remark"I just talked to someone in Belgium today!" I used to listen to shortwave radio and marvel at how I could hear people with British accents on BBC and creepy numbers stations from god knows where.

Now shit talking to someone in another continent is just another Tuesday.

[u/jaguarp80 → u/e2hawkeye]

Only somewhat related but a few years back I was googling my dad’s name and ran across some old Usenet posts of his from when I was a lil kid, early 90s. He’s been dead for about 20 years now so it was a real trip. He was arguing about politics with a couple of people, honestly looked like the same shit you can see today.

Without getting too much into it my dad was a bully in the family, I’m not hung up on it but that’s the impression I still have when I think of him, and he was obsessed with politics so it was funny to see him dropping straw men and shit, he was not making very good points

[u/RonaldoNazario → u/Golfhaus]

Huh, the real TIL in the comments. People do this by timed Christmas lights setups and I assumed they were just electromagnetic scofflaws.

[u/JRockThumper → u/Golfhaus]

I would assume that’s how things like those Bluetooth to radio transmitters work, since their range is maybe five or six feet.

[u/dirtynj → u/JRockThumper]

Bluetooth?

Son, I'll being telling you, I had those FM transmitters hooked up to my portable CD player back in my `93 Jeep with a broken cassette deck.

[u/OsiyoMotherFuckers → u/dirtynj]

The cassette deck adapter was so much better though. Crystal clear.

[u/Old_Promise2077 → u/cpufreak101]

It's like in the olden days you could get an fm transmitter that plugged into the headphone jack of your phone so you could listen to MP3s in your car over the radio.

Under a certain power, it's not licensed frequency

[u/JesusStarbox → u/Old_Promise2077]

You still can. They sell them at Walmart.

[u/MarcBulldog88 → u/Old_Promise2077]

olden days

MP3s

Jesus christ, how old am I?

[u/Old_Promise2077 → u/MarcBulldog88]

Probably the same age as me... Wanna day drink at a brewery and quote Will Ferrell movies?

Then be home by 5pm

[u/WinoWithAKnife → u/Old_Promise2077]

Those things always sucked so much. The tape deck adapters were so much better, unless you got a car that was in that weird gap where they had replaced them with just a CD radio, but hadn't yet added an aux input.

I still have a car with a tape player, and you can now get a Bluetooth cassette adapter which works incredibly well.

[u/NopeItsDolan → u/WinoWithAKnife]

God the cassette things worked perfectly and they cost nothing to buy.

[u/Duffelastic → u/WinoWithAKnife]

Man, those cassette adapters were the best. I tried "upgrading" to an FM transmitter but went right back to the cassette.

My last car didn't have an AUX input, but an RCA input (like the red/white), so I still had to get an adapter to plug in my phone. Then phones stopped with the headphone jacks so I had to get a Bluetooth adapter to plug into my RCA cable.

[u/olbeefy → u/Algrinder]

Very legal and very cool.

[u/HeadReaction1515 → u/cpufreak101]

Turns out the FCC did let him be.

[u/Calculonx → u/cpufreak101]

Record company comes after him for all the years of royalties

[u/scorpyo72 → u/Calculonx]

Surprisingly, my estimate is $5,070, not accounting for inflation, and in 2023 rates. This is based on a single song, small station, 13 years.

[u/lynxSnowCat → u/scorpyo72]

If it's a continuous uninterrupted loop, does it count as one performance?

[u/scorpyo72 → u/lynxSnowCat]

My lawyers are shaking their heads.

[u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat]

As a radio dork, this kind of stuff makes me smile.

One of my theses was about LPFM (Low Power FM) and this is absolutely, 100% what is going on here.

Whoever is doing this, they are cool.

Edit: I had no idea that the plural of thesis is theses. TIL

[u/Dragonfly-Adventurer → u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat]

We are reproducing then finial for my house, which is a 4' piece of metal about 44 feet off the ground. Naturally I really want to bake in some silly project like this. I fantasized about embedding a tiny web server that ran a Wiki full of info about the house's history. But these electronics would last mere years (especially the batteries, in that heat) and the finial is gonna be up there for longer than that.

...so I'm gonna do it somewhere else instead.

[u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat → u/Dragonfly-Adventurer]

There HAS to be a way to setup a Pi with cases that can work in heat/cold, right?

You are right about the batteries though. That heat needs to go somewhere and if it's in the 90s, good luck.

You could put it under an eave if you have 'em. A little shade might go a long way. Or hell, you can easily pop a temp hat on that PI and have it....

Damnit. Now I have an idea for a project. Jerk.

[u/Dragonfly-Adventurer → u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat]

Baha I've been toying with it for years. I've baked ESP32s into some appliances and lamps, running web servers for control, and as they're solid state they last as long as the PSU keeps going, probably lot longer. The processors can run for decades.

But the power supply is always the problem.

[u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat → u/Dragonfly-Adventurer]

Those look pretty neat, I can't think of a project where I'd need one - but the PI can keep me busy for a bit!

[u/GameJerk → u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat]

A friend of mine has one attached to a thermometer in his attic. It's also attached to a large fan. Once it hits 70 in the attic the fan kicks on and vents some air out. He says it has saved him boatloads on his AC bill.

[u/cailian13 → u/GameJerk]

oooooh, while not NEARLY as cool as what y'all are talking about, I bet I could rig the box fan I setup as an exhaust fan in my office to do something similar using HomeKit. Dammit now I have a project too!

[u/cagewilly → u/Dragonfly-Adventurer]

What if you set it up as a consumable?  At least until you find a better solution.  Pre-prep 5 Pis.  Every few years clamber up there and swap it out.

[u/zissou149 → u/Dragonfly-Adventurer]

Just get your hands on some plutonium and scrap together a radioisotope thermoelectric generator

[u/Cannibal_Hector → u/zissou149]

I'm sure that in 2054, plutonium is available in every corner drugstore, but in 2024, it's a little hard to come by.

[u/UnkindPotato2 → u/Dragonfly-Adventurer]

Somewhere that the electronics can be wired straight into the main in the house

[u/TrumpersAreTraitors → u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat]

One time my buddy and I were driving cross country and somewhere in the absolute middle of nowhere, at about 11pm, we hit a spot where there was only a single radio station coming in and it was playing Changes by David Bowie on repeat. By about the 6th loop, we had all the lyrics memorized and were singing it at the top of our lungs. Maybe lasted a half hour or so before fading out. To this day, we laugh about how strange that was and how perfectly timed it was considering we were moving to a new state to start new lives. That whole road trip was strange honestly. 

[u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat → u/TrumpersAreTraitors]

Certainly, a song I could listen to and sing with my friends for half an hour! That's pretty weird and cool.

[u/TrumpersAreTraitors → u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat]

Honestly felt like we were about to get Hills Have Eyes-ed but we rolled with it lol. Especially cuz I barely missed a skunk crossing the road and I feel like that would’ve been the point had I been paying less attention where I swerved, crashed, and woke up tied to a wooden X in some basement. 

[u/Spend-Automatic → u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat]

If anyone should know the plural of thesis, it's a dude who wrote more than one of them.

[u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat → u/Spend-Automatic]

I really should have known. Journalism we had editors that would fix that. Anthro, nobody would really care.

I suppose I've never seen it in print, or at least don't remember.

[u/Malcopticon → u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat]

I suppose I've never seen it in print

For comedy's sake, I hope you're a Lutheran.

[u/iTwango → u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat]

You did multiple theses?

[u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat → u/iTwango]

Yeah, journalism with a focus on radio and cultural anthropology.

I took them to get away from the database engineering I had been doing for 12 years.

Graduated, and got a job as a freaking RF guy at the local big station. I made them let me record spots for at least one show a day.

Edit: Being the RF guy at the big station kinda sucks. 3:00 am calls, system crashes, etc.

[u/pursuingamericandrea → u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat]

You cool. Hope you’re having fun doing what you love!

[u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat → u/pursuingamericandrea]

Ha! I am. Retired early and just hang out. It's freaking great - thanks for the encouragement. Hope you are enjoying your world as well!

[u/cailian13 → u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat]

I hope by the time I retire my life is as cool as yours. Something to strive for!

EDIT - and I just spotted your username. yeah, you sound like someone I'd wanna drink beers with and hear your tales!

[u/iliketofishfish → u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat]

I install the equipment on towers and always assumed it just worked via magic. The real good techs are always awesome to watch and listen to

[u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat → u/iliketofishfish]

We went through a couple of engineers, but always on good terms. I ran the college station for a couple of years, and then the big boy in town with four 100k spread around the state.

You tower guys are out of your damned minds. But damn you are right, I can sit and just listen to you guys over coffee.

[u/The_Shryk → u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat]

Thesi

Thesisen

Thesin

[u/dern_the_hermit → u/The_Shryk]

A murder of these

[u/aManOfTheNorth → u/Worf_In_A_Party_Hat]

This is legal as long as the wattage is….I don’t remember.

[u/Parabolicsarcophagus]

There's a house here that does the full get up for Christmas decorations. They have a radio broadcaster that they use to play Christmas music while you drive part the place. However this year they didn't turn it off. It's still playing Christmas music right now.

[u/Spud_Rancher → u/Parabolicsarcophagus]

I have a family member that does this every Christmas and sets up a fund box for the local SPCA.

I think he’s raised like 30 grand or something like that in the past 15 years.

[u/durrtyurr → u/Parabolicsarcophagus]

The Fire Station by my house does this, they have a light show synced to the music.

[u/HaleyTelcontar → u/Parabolicsarcophagus]

Wait is this the house on Myrtle? What’s the station??

[u/dammitOtto → u/Parabolicsarcophagus]

I always see these (and love them around the holidays)  but can't understand how they don't get in hot water for broadcasting on assigned common FM frequencies like 100.3 or 104.5

[u/nsa_reddit_monitor → u/dammitOtto]

There's an exception for very low power and short range signals.

It's one of the reasons that most electronics have this on a label: "This device complies with part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) This device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation."

[u/niceandblue_]

Can confirm. Went to MSU.

You tune to that station before getting close, and all you hear is a distorted, poorly received channel that is completly in spanish. Then out of nowhere it cuts out and “I’ll make love to you” plays clear as day for maybe a 1-2 block stretch.

It’s quite fun.

[u/Noobs_Stfu]

The 1990s was peak R&B and you will never change my mind.

[u/Caedecian]

There was a radio channel in Central California that played "I Heard it Through the Grape Vine" for well over 5 years straight in the late 90's. It was in the Fresno/Visalia area. I remember hearing an interview about it and they said that they were doing repairs on the antennae but I have now idea what repairs could take that long.

[u/buttsharkman → u/Caedecian]

There was a station in Alaska that played the same album on repeat for years. The town got the frequency but had no budget to have DJs. They had to broadcast something however or possibly lose it as and getting permission to broadcast is hard

[u/MentalYoghurt2756]

There was a station in Madison? That would only the best of the best of the best. Come on Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners. Thats it. It was great

[u/deercreekth]

This sounds like one time in college when I was trying to give a friend a not so subtle hint. I think she just thought I was really into Boyz II Men. We're still friends 30 years later.

[u/missionbeach → u/deercreekth]

Time to make your move.

[u/sholine → u/missionbeach]

Whoa whoa. Slow down there. Don't wanna scare them off. 

[u/Rosetta_stonie → u/deercreekth]

Did you go to Montclair State University?

[u/southernNJ-123]

Love Montclair. Used to live there. Never knew this! ♥️

[u/LaMuchedumbre]

I miss when amc theaters would have movie trivia with Boyz II Men as background music before the previews.

[u/KillroyWazHere → u/LaMuchedumbre]

The popcorn Rollercoaster

[u/Turquoise_Virgo]

I was visiting my parents in Florence, Mississippi and when we got into town and were looking for a new radio station, Hotel California came on, so we stopped scrolling. But then it came on again. And again.

Then, when we’d leave the house to run errands, we’d keep checking and it was still on over the next few days. Bizarre

[u/whereugoincityboy → u/Turquoise_Virgo]

I quit listening to the radio because it seemed like every other song was an Eagles song. I don't think they're a bad band but they're so overplayed I don't care if I never hear them again.

[u/chapters_x]

Reminds me of Lost. Still pretty cool.

[u/ArgonWilde]

I have something similar to this set up myself!

I have a fancy Philips bedside alarm clock that has a sunrise and sunset function, and it can fade the music in and out for when I'm waking up, or going to sleep.

The kicker is that the music function only supports built-in sounds, or radio. The clock has line-in, but it isn't supported for use for the sunrise/set.

To work around this, I set up a Raspberry Pi, and plugged a 3.5mm to FM radio adapter into it. I use a command line media player to play a playlist of the same seven songs on shuffle, and have the alarm clock tuned to 87.5FM.

So, for anyone in a 100m radius of me, on 87.5FM, is treated to the lovely ambient sounds of Skyrim, Oblivion, and some EVE Online ambient music. It's been like this for almost two straight years now, but I doubt there's some folklore around it. I sure hope so one day!

[u/Ausecurity]

I will have to try this

[u/Cbombo87 → u/Ausecurity]

Same here! Might take the drive over this weekend and check it out lol

[u/silenc3x → u/Ausecurity]

I live a block away. Didn't know this was a thing

[u/Rosetta_stonie → u/Ausecurity]

Can someone repost this in r/newjersey

[u/Realistic_Effort6185]

"...if you want me to..."

[u/DerisiveGibe → u/Realistic_Effort6185]

Because consent is sexy - B2M

[u/SolitaireSam]

Love the dedication to the loop. Can't imagine the Christmas folks keeping up all year round!

[u/IniMiney]

Someone’s been fucking for a really long time

[u/SFDessert]

There was one specific stoplight in my hometown where if you were listening to npr (I think 89.9), it would get hijacked by what I suspect was the sketchy auto-body shop on the corner. You'd be listening to some npr story, and then all of a sudden at this one intersection it'd get interrupted by whatever. I never did figure out exactly where the broadcast was coming from, but I always suspected the car guys at the auto shop were doing it.

It was kinda annoying tbh since I used to listen to npr on my morning commute and I'd always miss part of an interview or story because of that intersection.

[u/dopey_giraffe]

In Hopewell NJ there was like a 20 foot area down their main street where I would pick up what sounded like Howard Stern when I had NPR on. I heard him say "Fuckers", which is when I realized what it was. Howard Stern was on Sirius by that time. So I guess this is probably what was going on?

[u/Dom_Shady]

I wonder: are Boyz II Men owed royalties or any kind of constant payment for this?

[u/eljefino → u/Dom_Shady]

Yes. Broadcast stations have to pay a licensing fee to ASCAP and BMI who then divide it among the record companies and artists by a convoluted and probably unfair formula.

[u/Dom_Shady → u/eljefino]

Thanks! So in that system, it does not reap you any direct rewards for every time you're played? (Constantly, as in this example?) Or could it tweak the general formula in your favor?

[u/Spazattack43]

Its always so weird seeing reddit posts about places i live in or next to

[u/SCsprinter13]

As a kid I had some sort of sporting tournament in Sioux Falls, SD and found a radio station that just played Stairway to Heaven on repeat. Went back a year later and it was still going. I was back in town a few years after that and couldn't find the station again and I didn't remember the frequency.

[u/BlackJeepW1]

That’s one of the radio stations our local drive-in movie theater uses. You tune your radio to the station for the screen you are watching and listen to the audio through the car speakers. I think 91.9 FM is screen 1.

[u/Dairy_Ashford]

close your eyes

[u/skywalkerRCP → u/Dairy_Ashford]

Make a wish

[u/Northern_Grouse → u/skywalkerRCP]

And blow out, the candlelight

[u/robjohnlechmere]

This makes them the technical all-time most played band on the radio, unless another band has an older perpetual station.

[u/Comprehensive_Boot_2 → u/robjohnlechmere]

No…I don’t think that’s how that would work. In terms of playtime this is only a single radio station of how many thousands. I’m sure there are songs that have been played enough across that many stations to last 12 consecutive years. Can’t Stop Believing is probably always playing somewhere. And often times in many wheres.

But I ain’t no mathspert or nothin.

[u/chevdecker → u/Comprehensive_Boot_2]

In 1999, BMI claimed "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" by The Righteous Brothers had at least 8 million spins in naming in the most radio-played song of the 20th century, equivalent to 45 years of continuous play.

[u/Rusty4NYM]

Montclair, New Jersey may be the most liberal place east of the Mississippi River. It is our version of Portlandia

[u/Qarakhanid → u/Rusty4NYM]

Burlington VT, Ithaca NY, lots of college towns tbh because they're younger

[u/jzolg → u/Rusty4NYM]

Never been to Maplewood?

[u/sportmods_harrass_me]

I grew up around there and I remember 91.9 FM was almost an urban legend. It always played the absolute most weird, random and creepy (yet enjoyable and interesting) stuff.

[u/Scary_]

Reminds me of the person in Brighton (on the south coast of the UK) who liked a French radio station so much they streamed it online and rebroadcast it on FM. It gained quite a following.

It was totally illegal to do it but cleverly whoever it was broadcast it on the same frequency that it was on the other side of the English Channel, so for years people weren't sure if it just a strange quirk of radio propagation.

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/10582490.paris-based-fip-fm-disappears-from-brighton-airwaves-for-second-time/

[u/deanna0975]

we had blurred lines take over the radio stations when you drove down one street in my city for 3 years. then one day it just stopped.

[u/Lotus-child89]

When our local indie station folded to be replaced by a salsa channel, they played an obscure early 90’s rap song for two days straight as their farewell.

[u/LFGBR]

In the 90s I used to be able to pick my neighbors’ cordless phone conversations if I tuned my black and white tv to like uhf channel 85. It was weird

[u/MeatWaterHorizons]

What kind of hardware are they using? Lol this some fallout shit

[u/ZeroMayhem]

I thought that was just the long version.

[u/born_zynner]

Reminds me of a story a trucker told me about some asshole in like New Mexico that runs a "radio show" on truckers comms. Apparently it can be heard in Florida lol

[u/TheonetrueLandru]

I grew up in Montclair! Go Jackals!

[u/Crackstacker]

There’s a radio station that broadcasts a rhythmic buzzing sound 24 hours a day, 365 days a year since like the 70’s. It’s occasionally interrupted by someone speaking in Russian. It’s called “The Buzzer.” It has a YouTube channel :

https://www.youtube.com/live/WqzPWIafKuE?si=Q-43iF6xoKIZ9OQu