From: HANS TENNEY Another post from GEnie about some of the inside story of Radio Newyork Internationals beginnings, and why Alan Weiner may not deserve all the sympathy that is going around on the demise of MV Fury and all the radio gear that was on it. The writer of this post makes me beleive that Alan got himself and only himself into the dilema that now confronts him. Too bad, for IF it had worked, there may be a radio station on shortwave today that we could all be proud of the fact that it is beamed from the USA to the world, and wasn't just another religious moneytaker. ======================================================================== Radio & Electronics RT Category 4, Topic 6 Message 258 Mon Mar 21, 1994 FAB-4-FAN [John, Bklyn] at 08:24 EST *** LONG POST WARNING **** > Ship of Dreams > It was a ship full of dreams. Dreams of broadcasting on > international shortwave. Dreams of sending hopeful messages from > many people transmitted over the air. > A radio station, a printing press of the air, has been smashed. > Allan H. Weiner 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. ========================================================================