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Pirate Radio

Pirate Radio

Date: Dec 17 2007

Themes: Hobbies, Music, Tech

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

Have you ever wanted to have your own radio station? Though it’s highly illegal, it’s actually not that hard to do. With the right equipment, you can just broadcast over whatever your least favorite station on the dial is. That’s called pirating the signal.

Pirate radio is popular in the United States among people who listen to music that’s more unusual than what you normally hear on the airwaves. Tune in to Jason and Beren’s chat about pirate radio.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

Log in to Listen

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Jason

Jason

Beren

Beren

Jason:  Have you ever tuned in to 95.9?

Beren:  Uh-uh. What’s that?

Jason:  It’s pirate radio.

Beren:  Really?

Jason:  Yeah, it’s so cool. I mean, like, cause radio, for the most part, is pretty lame. Wouldn’t you agree?

Beren:  Mostly, yeah. I listen to NPR but never anything music-wise.

Jason:  Yeah, because all the radio stations are owned by two companies and they have really boring programming. But pirate radio is…I don’t know how they’re doing it, I guess sometimes they drive around in a van and they broadcast from it so you can’t find them…

Beren:  Whoa.

Jason:  ...Or they just broadcast from someplace you would never expect, like a house or something.

Beren:  No totally. Actually, I haven’t listened to it here, but it was really big in the town I moved here from and I knew most of the DJs, and you were never supposed to tell anybody that they worked for pirate radio because they would get shut down. And I would tune in to that…like all my friends’ shows on pirate radio. And one of my really good friends, he got kicked out of boarding school because he built his own transistor and had his own radio station.

Jason:  Really?

Beren:  Yeah.

Jason:  And he just overpowered whatever radio station…

Beren:  Yeah and he was playing like Sex Pistols and stuff and was like 15. Yeah pirate radio is huge in, like, the UK also.

Jason:  Really?

Beren:  Yeah, really huge. They have like…that’s kind of…Not really dancehall, but they have these weird mix tapes that they do where the DJ will rap over the music he’s playing.

Jason:  On pirate radio?

Beren:  Yeah totally. It’s like mixing and rapping.

Jason:  Gives me hope for radio, pirate radio.

 

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Discussion

Jason asks Beren if she’s listened to the local pirate radio station before. He’s really excited to find something different on the radio since two companies, Clear Channel and Cumulus Media, own the majority of radio stations in the country and only play a very limited selection of music on them.

Jason explains that since pirate radio stations are illegal, they have to broadcast from a van or from a house. Beren says that she had some friends who worked in pirate radio but she was sworn to secrecy about it, since the station could get shut down if the police found out who ran it.

Beren also had a friend in boarding school who made a transistor and played punk rock over the air. He got kicked out of school for it.

In England, pirate radio DJs sometimes rap live on the air over the music they’re playing. Have you ever heard anything that cool on the radio? Sounds like you need to start a pirate radio station!

 

Comments

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vicmay_lo-flo@live.com.mx

Mexico

Cooli like this tiP. i am electronic… and this is easy.

05:12 AM Jun 02 2012 |

ruanjable

ruanjable

China

Pirate radio is banned here in China strictly. Maybe the gov't is afraid of something.

05:24 AM Nov 04 2010 |

mickee85

mickee85

Philippines

I think it is fun.

@susihayati, really? that was so cool then.

02:28 PM Dec 21 2009 |

susihayati

susihayati

Indonesia

Whoaaa this conversation recalled me to my younger brother, he had made his own pirate radio and the neighbourhood was very happy as we lived in the remote region….:))..rarely caught the  NPR signal….

10:16 AM Apr 15 2009 |

saimly

saimly

China

Good!very good!

 

12:28 AM Dec 24 2007 |

hidden_faced_girls

Viet Nam

hi

02:13 PM Dec 23 2007 |

arjunchanabathi

India

ma i know who 2 create the private fm…..Wink

03:44 AM Dec 23 2007 |

longuolong

China

a little faster,but i think it helpful to study english.though i don’t follow it

02:33 AM Dec 23 2007 |

Helena.coco

China

it is intersting and funny. how to say. i never believe in such a modern and develped country,only two companis run all the radios. make me stunned.and one more thing i not belive is they play boring things. i think many a famous singers albums r not boring.

10:04 AM Dec 22 2007 |

艾琪雯

艾琪雯

China

my english is very bad ,so i don’t know
what you spak ? Do you can speak slowly ?

08:01 PM Dec 21 2007 |

corylee

corylee

Honduras

I need learn to much. But very thanks, Good job.

10:22 PM Dec 20 2007 |

karakanat

Turkey

When I was in the college we made pirate radios for an official project. They were great. You can play or tell whatever you want.

06:33 PM Dec 20 2007 |

upayud

Cambodia

I think Pirate Radio is illegal so the government will take action to crack down this station. It should consider to be a good station.

10:07 AM Dec 20 2007 |

282042783

China

oh my  god  its not  clear

07:02 AM Dec 20 2007 |

Jason.Zhang

China

Pirate Radio is sounds interesting.Can we hear it live on the air in China?

12:45 PM Dec 19 2007 |

m_haque

m_haque

Bangladesh

I think pirate radio like illegal relatoinship as live together. In America its very simple but in a Asian country.. it will not so easy!

It seems to me that US is very serious on third world countries illegal issue but they are very soft on owned illegality.

11:01 AM Dec 19 2007 |

anhculan

Viet Nam

it’s so hard to listen to the conversation

06:13 PM Dec 18 2007 |

axl9696

Peru

YA DIJE TOH ESTO ES UNA MIERDA

 

 

03:13 PM Dec 18 2007 |

axl9696

Peru

ala mierda con todo…jajaa

 

03:08 PM Dec 18 2007 |

axl9696

Peru

ala mierda con todo…jajaa

 

03:08 PM Dec 18 2007 |

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