It was reported by Local 12 WKRC-TV news last week that a pirate radio station in Cincinatti had been playing nothing but gangsta rap group, the Geto Boys, for months until a concerned citizen made a call to the FCC.

The worldview and imagery of the Geto Boys’ transgressive lyrics could be described as Clive Barker filtered through Iceberg Slim. Certainly not kids-stuff, but we still can’t help but laugh like twelve-year-olds at their lyrics and at this middle-aged white guy freaking out about them.

The first question that comes to mind is “why would someone set up a pirate radio station to play the Geto Boys for months?” The answer to that question being, of course, “because ‘why not?’” and also “because they’re fucking awesome.” One of the most crucial and influential gangsta rap acts since the late ‘80s, Houston Texas’ Geto Boys have always played by their own rules, never selling out, always on that “other level of the game.” The Geto Boys’ own lyrics decry the commercial radio stations that would never play their music: “a lot of bullshit records make hits, because the radio is all about politics,” and “fuck your radio stations and fuck your parents against rap—we buried you fucking cockroaches”—perfect fodder for pirate radio.

The news report on the incident features an “operations specialist ” at a local (legit) radio station who essentially gives a grocery list of what equipment you would need to procure to start your very own pirate station.

But the star of the report is Pete Witte who made the call to the FCC about the illegal station’s problematic broadcasts. “It’s very challenging as a parent to listen to this channel and to think that my kids, on a whim, or by being influenced by friends, could tune this in.”
 

Concerned parent worried about content on his childrens’ radios.
 
Here’s the thing, middle-aged white guy: it’s 2015 and I promise your kids are not listening to FM radio.

This guy’s gonna shit when someone tells him about the INTERNET.

A staticky broadcast of “Read These Nikes” ain’t got dick on “two girls, one cup.” It’s Goaste O’clock—do you know where your children are?

Here’s the full story on the pirate radio broadcast:
 

 
And if you aren’t familiar with the Geto Boys’ quality science, there’s a new romantic guy dancing to “Size Ain’t Shit” after the jump…

 
In the folly of my youth I was once involved with a student anarchist group. Alas, this hapless caucus of surly fellow radicals were more inspired by the swagger of The Sex Pistols and The Clash than by any reading of Kropotkin or Bakunin.

On those odd occasions when we met to discuss plans for the overthrow of capitalism, ahem, we did fire up a few interesting ideas. One such was to start an illegal radio station to broadcast revolutionary hymns (and punk rock) across the west end of Glasgow. Unfortunately, we never had enough radicals willing to take responsibility for setting the thing up and it all came to naught. Our lax attitude was (sadly) best summed up by a leather-jacketed Joe Strummer wannabe who kept asking, “Where’s all the free stuff?”

If only we had been a bit more like Slovenia’s Radio Študent who knows where we could have gone?
 

 
Radio Študent came out of the political turmoil and student unrest of the late 1960s. Established in May 1969 by a handful of radical students at Ljubljana University, the station originally broadcast for just three hours a day, offering its listeners a potent mix of music and politics—an alternative voice to the country’s heavily censored and state controlled media. The station’s popularity grew during the 1970s as Radio Študent became the main source for dissent. With the influence of punk, the station attracted more journalists and campaigners and Radio Študent played in a major part in the movement for Slovenia’s independence in the Revolution of 1989.
 

 
Now Radio Študent has over 250 contributors and broadcasts 24 hours a day. Though money is tight, people become involved with the station “because they believe in what they are doing.”

If you have an interest in radical media or in finding out how others have successfully created their own revolutionary outlet, then Siniša Gačić‘s short documentary on Radio Študent is a must.
 

 
H/T Voices of East Anglia