REBEL RADIO
Tuesday nights from 6-9pm from 1997 to 1999 if the clouds were just right, you could tune your radio to 90.9 FM and hear our 40 watt transmitter all accross the Dirt City.
I started this pirate station under my pseudonym "Sunshine" because I reported on environmental distruction and political corruption. Memoralble broadcasts included my research on bovine growth hormone, the Eagle Peak logging protest, an interview with the band Bad Religion, and the night I played the entire album "To Elvis in Hell" from the seminal San Francisco band, BOMB, only to start it over from the beginning and play the whole thing again. It's just that good.
along with "Pirate Willie" (who developed the technology for us to broadcast using 1/6 solar energy) and we could not have done it without the loyal support of "Captain America" (aka "Brett Maverick"). In an article in the Weekly Alibi, The Captain summarized our programming thusly:
"The 'Ska and Two Tone Hour.' 'The Stock Report' (i.e., what prices junk and scrap metal easily found in any dumpster were bringing that week). Eyewitness accounts of protesters chaining themselves to logging trucks. Reports from Food Not Bombs and Copwatch. 'Dirt City,' the local music show. On-air performances by Stoic Frame, the Impatients and Anchorman. Local sex workers reporting on massage parlor working conditions. Support from record shops Mind Over Matter and Drop Out. [We garnered] press coverage in the Weekly Alibi and even the punker-than-thou Maximum Rocknroll. Anyone was welcome."
Dirt City Archives: Remembering When Rebel Radio Sailed The Airwaves (or "If We Suck It’s Your Fault") by Captain America,
Weekly Alibi, Mar 31, 2011
In Loving Memory of Captain America
I met Brett Bakker, a modest and hilarious soul, when he was working at Native Seed Search, collecting, cataloging, and swapping endangered endemic corn, beans, squash, and peppers with the local Pueblos. As I was merely his seed groupie, I had no idea that he would one day present to me one of the most impressive vinyl record collections I've ever seen. On that day, I begged him to DJ for a pirate radio station I had started with my friends. Brett bashfully agreed, and on every Tuesday night for the next three years, he transformed into Captain America, playing everything form Motown to jazz to electronica to obscure 60's rock and punk. He knew so much about the artists and the trivia of the time that his show became wildly popular.
The Captain was present all of the three times we were busted by the FCC for broadcasting without a license and he was eventualy slapped with an $10k fine. We shut down the station after that, to protect him from prosecution, and many of us started zines to fill the void. Captain America started his acclaimed zine Wig Wam Bam and continued his documentation of the local Albuquerque music scene.
Brett was a well-loved contributer to the community and he is dearly missed by all of his friends and fans.
Robyn Wagoner (aka Sunshine)
