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From: bigsteve@dorsai.dorsai.org (Steve Coletti)
Newsgroups: alt.radio.pirate,rec.radio.shortwave,rec.radio.broadcaster
Subject: Comments to Allan Weiner's Statement
Message-ID: <2n4aje$mq5@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 27 Mar 1994 16:00:46 GMT
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The following item was in response to the "Ship of Dreams" statement form
Allan Weiner that I posted last week. This item was posted by original RNI
member John Calabro on Genie, (fab-4-fan@genie.geis.com). My corrections
and comments are listed after his response.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
At sea on the evening of July 21, 1987, on the bridge of the M.V. Sarah while
underway somewhere between Boston, Mass and the Cape Cod Canal, I was
enjoying a hard earned bowl of Dinty Moore beef stew while sitting across
from Al Weiner. With us were three other _original_ members of Radio Newyork
[sic] International: Randall Ripley (a.k.a. Randi Steele), Peter Cipriano,
and Ivan Rothstien.
This was the first chance we had to _sit_ in over 36 hours of pre-sail
preparations - let alone masticate - and with an optimistic bent we discussed
Al Weiners "plans" for the series of events that we were sure would take place
once the ship was securely anchored off the coast of Long Beach, L.I. and the
transmitters were fired up.
An idea that was first presented to me by Weiner back in 1976 - the
outfitting of a radio ship, anchored in int'l waters off Long Island and out
of the legal reach of the FCC - was no longer an abstract mental image; it
was really coming true. It wasn't Radio North America Int'l from the Mebo II
as originally planned, but it was real - the water crashing over the bow and
the numerous injuries and callouses on my hands told me so.
At that moment Al Weiner was my hero. Yes, he had screwed himself royally by
signing on his AM station after hours just to feed [Pirate] Joe Ferraro's
habit. He jeopardized a most privileged possession - a broadcast license -
and lost it, on the whims of Ferraro, and he had no one to blame but himself.
But there on the high seas he _was_ turning a dream into reality, and I knew
it was going to make a very big splash (pardon the pun).
I put the question to Weiner about his intended strategy in dealing with the
inevitable visits to the Sarah by the Coast Guard, INS, DEA, and of course
Judah of the FCC. "We'll just sit there in the water for a week before we
touch any transmitter", Allan said, "to give the local fishermen and boaters
a chance to get used to the ship being there."
He figured that at the very least the Coast Guard would stop by first, and he
said he would let them board and check it all out, the papers being in order.
He also wanted the DEA and INS to verify that the ship was clean, so he would
allow them unimpeded access to the entire ship. There were absolutely no
drugs or firearms on board (although I felt we were vulnerable to REAL
pirates without having guns for protection).
This is what he said were his plans for the FCC: he would not recognize the
authority of the FCC, an administrative agency, in international waters.
That's it. They would not be given permission to board, "period". Our press
connections would be getting our story out to the public, building support as
we began nightly tests. We would get the press to explain to the people how
we were outside the territory of the USA, and therefore the FCC had no right
to squelch us.
We knew full well that this couldn't last longer than a week at best before
the FCC got permission to board from the Honduran govt., but Al said he would
STAND FIRM and demand that an official from the Honduran Embassy be present at
the event.
Once a restraining order was issued, we would take the fight to the courts,
and the public, understanding our intentions, would be on our side.
Sounded like a plan to me. Weiner had sunk about $200,000 of his own cash as
well as two lonely years of his life into building this radio ship. He had
also lost his wife, Sarah (she divorced him during the time he single-
handedly built RNI).
He wouldn't screw up this time! He couldn't! It meant too much.
After anchoring, my first night back on terra-firma the phone rings, it's
Pete asking me if I'm getting the station. "What station?" I ask. "Our
station! He's on the air!"
What happened to sitting there for a week? That was the first part of
Weiners plan to go straight out the porthole. The next part was when the FCC
arrived with the first wave of Coast Guard inspections - Weiner LET THEM
IMMEDIATELY BOARD THE SHIP!!! He led them right to the radio station!
Wha' hoppen?
Later, when the FCC had served a restraining order and the press was securely
in our back pocket - what did he do? Did he follow the "plan"? Did he use the
once-in-a-lifetime global press coverage to explain our side of the story?
How we had tried in vain for years to set up a station on 103.1 on Long
Island. How the only place a tower could be built was 1/2 mile inside the
boundary line. How the FCC refused to make a minor exception, despite
excellent testimony from our attorneys and engineers (at major expense). How
the location of the ships tower was 3 1/2 miles south of the boundary line,
making it IDEAL for 103.1, under the FCC's own guidelines.
No. Al Weiner simply defied the restraining order and forced the FCC to play
its hand and come down hard on RNI and tear up the ship (albeit illegally).
Then came the whining. "We just wanted to play `freeform rock and roll'. A
voice of `freeform rock and roll' has been snuffed out". Huh? What the hell
was freeform rock and roll? Worldwide press and the best Weiner and Ripley
could do was talk about FORMAT??
I wasn't there to play freeform rock and roll (whatever that is), I was there
because I believe in the American system of Free Enterprise. I always wanted
a radio station. I never wanted to be a HAM, I threw away my cb at fourteen.
I wanted to be a commercial broadcaster. I didn't have millions, or hundreds
of thousands to buy a station, and I believe that it is WRONG for frequencies
to be bought and sold like real estate. I firmly believe that the airwaves
belong to the people, and have been a pirate since 1975 out of protest - not
of the war, or Nixon, or any left-wing radical pap.
At a RNI `strategy' session in the days after the bust, I was met with blank
stares from Weiner, Ripley, and Ferraro when I told them that we were
effectively telling the public that this whole project was motivated by rock
and roll, freeform no less (whatever that is). Ferraro had crawled out of
the woodwork and declared himself #2 man at RNI once he saw the immense press
we were enjoying, even though he had quit on Allen and abandoned him over a
year earlier.
If our highest inspiration really was to play rock and roll records - why
don't we just do that to our hearts content on our phonographs in our
basements? What the hell does the public care about freeform rock and roll
(whatever that is)?
I suggested that our strategy should be to focus on the fact that we, as
Americans, have a right to engage in commerce, and that this enterprise,
being _legal_, should not be hindered. We mean no harm to the USA, and we
will generate much tax revenue for the govt.! Think of it - payroll taxes,
Social Security, etc.! This was the Reagan Era, and we might even get a
couple of US Senators on our side!! With the international headlines we were
generating, it wasn't too far fetched. After all, we _were_ doing this for
the profit motive - there is no denying that!!
But, when I saw the CBS Evening News coverage of RNI, and there was Randall
Ripley, clad in a "NO NUKES" tee shirt, talking about "freeform rock and
roll" (whatever that is), I knew that we were in real trouble.
Looking back, I see that Ripley's real motivation was his cowardice at
getting a "real" radio job - he was the king of his bedroom station, but when
offered a slot at New Jersey 101.5 he TURNED IT DOWN!! So much for the radio
wiz kid.
As for Allan H. Weiner, when the FCC showed up at the ships bow, he folded
like a cheap camera. His strategy seems to be to seek _SYMPATHY_. That's
it. "We just want to go on the air for peace and love and freeform rock and
roll (whatever that is), and the govt. won't let us. Don't you feel sorry
for us?"
I feel about as sorry for RNI being busted again as I feel pity for the poor
Melendez brothers being orphaned.
/John Calabro
a.k.a.: Hank Hayes WHOT Brooklyn, Radio FREE New York
Hugh Hughes WGUT
Hal Hall WFAT
John Doe WCPR, et.al.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
John's story is about 95% correct. The exception I have to the story has
to do with Randall. As far as I know, the job at NJ/101.5 did not go beyond
the discussion stage. John would not have known this because he was
already gone from RNI and what he learned was by 3rd hand, however I was
there and learned it all first hand. The station was too far away for
someone who cannot drive because he is legally blind. He also could not
move out of NYC because of his family situation. New Jersey Central
Railroad schedules to that area from NYC are sporadic outside of rush hours
at best. The commute would have been longer than the air shift and the
station was not paying that well, it still dosen't.
As far as his repeating the Weiner story of, "we did it for rock and
roll", Randall, at the time was following the Weiner line. To put it
mildly, he was in it to make money. If he had really been given the power
he was suppose to have, RNI on WWCR would have been one slick operation.
Randall Ripley quit RNI in June of 1991 because he says, "I was was sick of
putting my pearls before swine." He also says that he has no desire to go
back in to radio.
As for his comments about Allan Weiner, he's right on the money. Weiner
did wimp out, because he is a wimp. He has given in to Joseph Paul on more
than one occasion, not just the AM relay of KPRC. The main problem that
broke up RNI on WWCR was that he gave JP his vote on a major operational
decision, a decision that Randall and JP were on opposite sides of in the
first place. The main reason I've been P.O.'ed at him was his letting JP
run the operation and his mismanagement that ran it into the mud. I sat
right across his dining room table the day we were cut to 3 hours and he
told me, "I'm not gonna let JP have an entire 3 hours, I love him like a
brother...but I'm not gonna give him the full 3 hours." Two weeks later,
JP had all 3 hours. So much for Weiner's integrity.
--
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