Little Radio busts onto Internet scene, free of regulations. By CATHERINE TSAI.
Dave Conway, whose wrist is tattooed with the station's logo, is riding high on the radio waves. He is seen here at the Larimer Lounge in Denver on July 18, 2005. (AP Photo/Bill Ross)
Dave Conway, seen here at the Larimer Lounder in Denver on July 18, 2005, is riding high on the radio waves. (AP Photo/Bill Ross)
When Little Radio hit the Los Angeles music scene last year, friends moved the radio station's antenna from one house to another to dodge detection from regulators while it broadcast unlicensed on 104.7 FM.
Warnings from the Federal Communications Commission have shut down the station's pirate terrestrial feeds three times. But the station lives on at http://www.littleradio.com , where DJs can swear and play what they please, free of any oversight from federal regulators.
"They can do whatever they want on the Internet," FCC spokeswoman Rebecca Fisher said.
That's perfect for 33-year-old Little Radio founder Dave Conway, whose wrist is tattooed with the station's logo.
"The music that's getting out is controlled by labels and media organizations. It gets to a certain point where people are losing complete control over their access to music," said the scruffy, blond Conway. "The Internet is changing that a lot."
Already Little Radio's antennae are spreading to Denver (it began Webcasting some live concerts from the Larimer Lounge in July) and beyond through hush-hush projects in the works.
It's part of a five-year plan dreamed up by Conway, a Gulf War veteran who scouts locations for commercials and video by day and jokes, "I'm not real good with authority."
No one tracks exactly how many Internet-only broadcasters there are, but the Radio and Internet Newsletter estimates it is upwards of 10,000. An Arbitron/Edison Media Research study of listeners in January said 15 percent of Americans _ roughly 37 million _ had listened to Internet radio in the last month, up from 5 percent just five years ago.
Little Radio got about 50 hits a day when it first started. It now gets about 50,000 a month.
Little Radio got illicit help along the way from those who housed its antenna and an executive who helped arrange free server space. There were also those who wanted in, like the two investors who promised Conway thousands of dollars and others who wanted his station for some kind of reality television show. The investors and TV producers got turned down.
"David's the kind of person who will not be told what to do," said his wife, Christina. "But he cares to the point where he can become angry. He won't be told what to do by the FCC or the industry."
It's the music-loving, volunteering software companies, designers, codewriters, record labels and bands whom Conway welcomes, and who have helped Little Radio make it on roughly $3,000 a month.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club played at the launch of Little Radio's Los Angeles warehouse this spring. Conway lured Brian Jonestown Massacre's Anton Newcombe, a subject of the documentary "Dig!", to spin regular shows. He offered another show to 14-year-old Zoe Rogers, daughter of Ian Rogers, the Web designer who worked with the Beastie Boys.
Zoe's playlists have included punk pioneers the Ramones and electronic outfit Basement Jaxx, while Newcombe is known for spinning Sesame Street snippets one minute and reggae the next.
"I figure it isn't for the big bucks," Newcombe said. "This is called community service. I'm a civic-minded person. I'm making the world a better place instead of bitching and moaning and going on Prozac."
Growing up, Conway was the kid who schooled people on new music when they got in his car. He moved to Boulder, Colo., intending to go to college but never quite making it, and spent a few months in the 1990s living in a van in a national forest in southwest Colorado. He later traded the van for a short yellow school bus to help a girl he met there take a band on tour.
"London Calling" by The Clash was the first album he ever bought. Today he pushes The National, Silversun Pickups and The Moon Upstairs.
"As a kid going through the depression most kids go through, music was always the crutch, the one thing that was always there," Conway said.
Conway spends hours scouring blogs, wading through the blessed and terrible in unsigned bands, and shells out a couple hundred dollars a month buying CDs to find new music.
His wife sometimes helps assemble playlists while their 6-month-old son and 2 1/2-year-old daughter are napping.
Conway sees Little Radio eventually pressing CDs, throwing more concerts, hosting Web sites and giving satellite radio some competition as more handheld devices link up with the Web.
More plans are on the way. Conway just doesn't want the public _ or big business _ to know about them yet.
"I believe in Internet radio," Conway said. "I believe in getting music out to people. There's ways of file trading that can be used that aren't malicious. There's a lot of remarkable things that can come out of the Internet, and that scares a lot of big companies."
Stay tuned.
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On the Net:
Little Radio: http://www.littleradio.com
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asap contributor Catherine Tsai is an AP business writer based in Denver.
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