Radio Survivor Podcast

Podcast #51 – Carrier Current is Cool


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The DC Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld the FCC’s open internet rules, also known as net neutrality. Co-Host of the podcast Eric Klein admits that he still finds it hard to believe that the big telecom companies can lose so Paul Riismandel explains it’s not such a surprise that Big Telecom didn’t get it’s way this round. Of course, this is not the end of the story.

Jennifer Waits looked deeper into “carrier current,” and in doing so uncovered a bit of the forgotten history of this seemingly obsolete means of transmitting radio . Starting in the late 1930’s, college students around the country used carrier current, then the cutting edge of technology, to broadcast radio to their communities through the water pipes and electrical wires of their campus buildings. There may even still be a carrier current station out there that we are unaware of.

If you know of a currently operating carrier current AM station please reach out so we can document and confirm its existence.

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Show Notes:
  • The Gas Pipe Networks is eighty – Radio Survivor
  • From Gaspipes to Websites: Radio at Brown 1936-2006
  • Carrier Current Theory
  • 1971 FCC Letter to Clarkson College of Technology Regarding Expansion of Carrier Current
  • 1971 Billboard Article about FCC’s Letter and Questionnaire  to Carrier Current Stations
  • A Unicorn on FM – Commercial College Radio
  • Tour of WBCR at Brooklyn College
  • LA’s K-Chung Radio Demonstrates the Power of Part 15 Broadcasting
  • Pacifica’s KPFK to Try Unlicensed Radio
  • Radio Party
  • The post Podcast #51 – Carrier Current is Cool appeared first on Radio Survivor.

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