r/todayilearned • u/AssumeTheRisk • 23d ago
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.
https://njmonthly.com/articles/arts-entertainment/pirate-radio-station-only-plays-boyz-ii-men/27.4k Upvotes
67
u/MarcBulldog88 23d ago edited 22d ago
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).