Customer Reviews

40 Watts from Nowhere: A Journey into Pirate Radio

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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40 Watts From Nowhere is a human interest story where the protagonist loses the game, but still gets a lovely consolation prize- the experience of having created a thriving community. A loyal following consisting of the media, musicians, and like-minded individuals, simply by providing music to a small core of ravenous music lovers. The only problem? It was against the law. The FCC caught up with 'Paige Jarrett' and put a stop to her unauthorized distribution of free music. No, this is not the story of yet another copyright infringing youth downloading music for free from the internet. This is the unusual success story of low-power, Pirate Radio in one of America's largest cities- Los Angeles.

In an attempt at curbing the boredom of a 9 to 5 job as a receptionist, Sue Carpenter decided to purchase a small transmitter and set up shop in her apartment, eventually enlisting a small army of 25 or so volunteer disc jockeys playing everything from folk to punk. Pirate radio, notorious for broadcasting radical fringe political views is an unusual forum for music Carpenter discovered as she enlisted the help of many of the radio underground's key players for technical advice.

For nearly 3 years, KBLT (yes, named for the sandwich), operated freely, almost so publicly that they would enlist artists such as Mazzy Star for a benefit concert, host Red Hot Chili Peppers for an in-studio impromptu performance, and even gain the services of punk rock legend Mike Watt to do his own KBLT radio program. Eventually, this cavalier attitude and a more powerful antenna location would spell KBLT's demise, being shut down permanently by the FCC.

This story will delight anyone, such as myself who have worked in radio outside of the commercial realm. People who understand the power of music on its own terms, without playlists and big money commercial programming or rules. KBLT had the spirit of good College Radio, only without the college to go along with it. Anybody who lives on the left end of the dial will understand. Should anyone but the people themselves own the airwaves? In a country that brags of free speech, it's an interesting question...

I HATE cryptic reviews so i thought i would add my own 2 cents. I loved this book! The author comes across as so honest and forthright that you feel like you are in her inner circle while the story unfolds. The story is funny, tragic, and all too real if you live in L.A. Who would have thought that running a pirate radio station would be sooo much work? I love the idea that one person (with the help of some friends) could make all of this happen. It's a very empowering story. Quite honestly, i couldn't put it down.

I read a blurb on this book in Rolling Stone last week and bought the book the next day. I read the entire thing in one 9-hour sitting.

It tells an interesting story about a cat-and-mouse game with the FCC, but more importantly, one person's drive to create a true alternative radio station where the DJs have total control over what they play. Ironically, before creating her pirate radio stations, the author wasn't actually a huge alternative music fan and mentions attracting all sorts of semi-famous musicians to the station,without being all that steeped in their music. Clearly, this woman was unpretentious. She mentions the sacirfices she made to keep the station going.

There's a blatant honesty to this story that just kept me reading. If you're a fan of alternative (oooh! there's those incredibly overused word again) music and sub-culture, then this is for you. If Celine Dion is more your cup of tea, then you may not appreciate why she bothered in the first place to risk jail in order to liberate the airways, even if it was for the benefit of a small radius of listeners around her house.

Excellent book! What an expose into the world of pirate radio in the nineties. Susan's strength of storytelling really shines; though I knew the FCC bust was coming, he style kept me anticipating and wondering how it would go down. Though Corporate Radio smiles at the end of the day, thousands of people (maybe millions) are working to pull radio out from the huddle of gatekeepers and reinvigorate the medium that has defined America. Great work Susan!

I liked this book because it felt like a slice of life about living in L.A./Silverlake in the 1990's and being in the music & college radio scene. Personally knowing some of the characters, going to one of the benefit shows, listening to the station & the bands mentioned, being involved in L.A. college radio in the 90's reminds me of a time that has quickly passed. Too bad it went under, but nothing good lasts forever.

A fun read. Definitely not a "how to" cookbook, but great insights into personal media broadcasting before the crest of the great tidal wave.

Who hasn't wanted their own radio station? I know that, as a kid, I bought aq cheap CB at a yard sale and would occasionally broadcast with that, imagining that everyone in the neighborhood was listening in on my secret radio underground, and enjoying it.

But take that same desire and naivety and bring out a twenty-something college grad early ninties slacker (for lack of a better term) and see what happens. KBLT, although not the first pirate station in San Francisco or Los Angeles, was undoubtably the most popular. Despite the acclaim and accolades, the FCC eventually caught up with our heroine. Perhaps she brought it on herself; if Carpenter hadn't tried to expand her signal strength... who knows how much longer she would've had?

This book raises questions about constitutional law, ownership of low watt radio signals, etc. For me though, it was an oppritunity to transport myself into one of my earliest fantasies. A good part of me wishes I could do the same thing... but it would probably be a lot easier to find me in a city as small as Pittsburgh.

Its a good book if you're interested in radio, pirate radio, youth culture in the 1990s, etc. The book's well paced too; it doesn't slow down and stays interesting. I recommend it.

I just got finished reading Sue Carpenter's 40 Watts from Nowhere, and well...the story itself is compelling but I can shake the feeling that Carpenter was miscast in her own life.

To be running a pirate radio station, I think she should have had more personality and chutzpah when dealing with loser junkie boyfriends, selfish inconsiderate dj's, jerk neighbors, crazy listeners, crackpot techies and drug-addled alt-rawk stars.

It seemed like the whole WPBJ/WBLT era of her life just `happened' around her, like she was Alice who fell down the proverbial rabbit hole and wandered around the wonderland she created with no control over what she experienced from one moment to the next.

I was at first intrigued back in 1996 when she wrote of her pirate radio station (under an alias of course) in the premiere issue of Jane magazine, which was in my opinion the ONLY good issue of that magazine ever...(but I digress). When I happened to find out that she had written a book about the experience, I was eager to read hoping that the book would be as good as the article...

However, reading the whole story I kinda felt sorry for her, seems that everyone was having a blast with her station and underground celebrity except her. Of course when the FCC came knocking she got left with the flaming bag of poo, while everyone else it seems ran for the Hollywood hills.

It is a really easy and quick read...almost diary like, she simply tells you what happened, when, why, how...there's no beefing up the novel with contextual language or deep personal insight, or hindsight as it were. I feel like I really don't get a sense of who Carpenter was then or is now...It feels like she is in a confessional booth whispering her sins through a slot to an indifferent priest on the other side.

The valuable part of the book is the epilogue, where Carpenter expounds on the issues surrounding the fate of pirate radio and the government schemes that have led us to the Clear Channel mega-tyranny we have now.

The sad truth that I reflect upon reading this is that back in the 90's, we should have looked up from our lattes and realized how good we could have had it if we gave a crap enough to fight for equal access to the airwaves.

Of course in light of this era's currently less restrictive mediums of podcasting and internet streaming radio, in retrospect, Carpenter's saga seems even that much more futile. If she had waited a few more years, she wouldn't have had to sacrifice so much.

Basically, if you are looking for a quick read about the 90's music scene halcyon days circa pre-dot-boom with the Gen X vibe during a nice long Sunday afternoon, this is a good one to pick up.

The narritive is wonderfully honest and sufficiently detailed but also a bit dry. For all her counter-culture bravado (on the outside she is a leather-clad, motorcycle-riding radio pirate with a junkie boyfriend) she frankly says that inside she thinks of herself as the nerd from high-school that never quite made it to the cool level. The problem I had with the book was that she never really delves deeply into how she feels about things. Her reasons for starting the station are vague, and when you get right down to it, what she really did was play mama to the project and put her ass on the line as the one responsible if the FCC came knocking. She only learned as much as she needed to in order to operate the equipment, she only DJ'ed a few hours a week, and most of the time WBLT was on the air she was living at her boyfriend's while letting a series of kleptomanical strangers have full run of her apartment where the studio was located.
Her "hilarious" scenes are not really set up well enough to generate a great deal of humor, and she could do a much better job with her dialog, but on the whole the story carries well. What would have put this book over the top for me would have been a series of interviews with DJ's, famous guests, and loyal listeners. That would have given the reader an outstanding perspective on the project.
If you are at all interested in underground radio, or had experience listening to KPBJ or KBLT in the 1990's, or just want to get an extremely honest insight into what it's like to be a leader of a group of vacuous leftist misfits, don't miss this book.

This true story (so the author states) is fun to read, and details her trials and tribulations with following her path.

The issues of things like questionable equipment, no knowledge of electronics, the difficulty is setting up the operation, and the cat and mouse game with the powers that be are very telling. The details of friends she recruited, and then others who joined in as she went along, show the need for real reform of the airwaves.

Well written, at time funny, and even capable of provoking a bit of anger (people stealing music from her library, taking advantage of her facilities, and so on) the book is an entertaining look at what it really takes to set up and run such an operation.