We're Kanine Dog
Woof!
After a few unannounced tests in
the 1620 area of the AM broadcast band over the summer months in 1988,
I planned the formal kick off of broadcasting for Halloween of that
year. The Fall season has its own special character to me, coming
indoors as it gets cooler, a time to get cozy with the radio again,
and besides, I wanted to wait until signals would reach further,
which happens as cooler temperatures calm the atmosphere, reducing
noise..
Pirate radio stations seem to have a fondness for Halloween, and I
think it's because the dark and forbidden atmosphere fits well with
the mysterious and underground nature of most free radio broadcasting.
Even before I knew of organized free radio, the holiday had a special
connection for me as a listener, twisting knobs on my 5 tube AM radio
to hear War of the Worlds and scary music. When I started
doing radio, I carried those early influences over, producing my own
Halloween shows of music and stories, with sound effects like repeated
laughter, creaking doors, and locks being opened. Pitch changes on
voices were carried out by recording on a tape machine normally, then
changing the speed during playback; I found I could make myself sound
like a squeaky little Chihuahua or a rumbling St. Bernard just by
turning a knob! One of the most nefarious pitch shifts though, was
done to the soundtrack from the movie Car Wash. I took the
dialog parts, where the guys were talking Jive, and slowed it to half
speed. I swear to Dog it sounded like a herd of cattle! I used to joke
that "Special voice reprocessing has now proved what you knew
all along - men, are indeed animals.."
Past years at the
Doghouse.
October '98 saw excerpts from some older shows
brought up from the archives, dare I call it 'classic'? Most of the
early live shows were not saved, it was 'broadcasting for the moment'
I'm afraid, but we do have a few hours' worth to play with.. On air
broadcasts from mid October 1998 on have been encouraging; the 1996
Halloween show was re-aired, and our operatives in the field noted
selective fading at a mile away from the transmitter site. This means
that the critical angle was close to the frequency WKND was
broadcasting on, and further, it held there for several hours. Simply
put, critical angle is a time of strong refraction of signals by the
ionosphere, and might mean that listeners will hear the station well..
In mid April of 99, a program was broadcast to a
group of Furries in Ohio. This may have been the first time
the station aired a program intended for a specific group outside the
radio hobby (aside from the Dogs we always try to reach:). Furries
have an interest and dedication to animals in some way - a natural fit
for a station based on Canines. The occasion was a birthday party
for one of the members, and that afternoon the group took radios
outside to a local field to better hear the broadcast. Low power was
used to "warm up" the frequency at first, then the
transmitter output was increased for the main program. Since it was
mid afternoon local time, signals were limited to a range of several
hundred miles for good reception; in fact, a few reports from
outside that range had almost no signal at all, while the Furries had
good signals..
Woof to all who contributed to the station by listening, and to our
newest staff, Ricochet, the wild and crazy Sheepdog!
Radio Animal, Staff mascot, guard Dog,
announcer..
 |
Links
