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audiokid 15 June 2016

Bobby Owsinski talking about pirate radio, drums sounds, drum tuning, click tracks, headphone mix, and a very informative interview with Roger Linn. What a brilliant man.(y)

The next new thing... Electronic Expressive Instruments http://www.rogerlin…

Here is the interview. http://bobbyoinnerc…

Comments

DonnyThompson Thu, 06/16/2016 - 02:56

audiokid, post: 439246, member: 1 wrote: Bobby Owsinski talking about pirate radio,

When I was a kid, almost every summer until I was about 16, I would visit my cousins in Maine (Thomaston, Maine to be precise) and their house was right on the water... you could throw a rock from their back yard and hit the St. George River, a tidal estuary that dumped into the Atlantic ocean right where their house was located.

Sometimes at night, if the conditions were favorable and the "bounce" was right, we could tune in Radio Caroline across the Atlantic from the UK.

The signal was often faint, static filled, and would drift in and out... but sometimes it was as strong and clear as if the transmitter was right outside - although you could never tune it in during the day, it was only at night that there was a chance of receiving the signal.
We heard some GREAT music from that station... stuff we hadn't yet heard on traditional pop AM stations... the first time I ever heard Pretty Ballerina by The Left Banke ( their other hit was Walk Away Renee) was from Radio Caroline.

They would also play "deep" album cuts - those songs on LP's by famous artists that weren't generally played on typical commercial radio stations; songs like The Beatles' Rocky Raccoon and Helter Skelter, The Stones' 2000 Light-Years From Home, Pink Floyd's One Of These Days, MC-5's Kick Out The Jams... but they also mixed in the popular hits of the day as well.

You could hear anything and everything - from Petula Clarke to Grand Funk to Frank Sinatra - which made it really diverse, and very cool.

And, the jocks were funny, too... irreverent, risque, goofy.

Both my cousins have passed away since, but I've often thought about the three of us, nearly a lifetime ago; and those long-ago hot and muggy summer nights, up in the attic bedroom at the top of that house; drifting off to sleep to the sounds of that distant station an ocean away... :sleep:

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