KNOZ, "NonStop Local HipHop"
Free Radio station KNOZ 96.5 Mhz in Sacramento is on the air.
Featuring "NonStop Local HipHop" 24 hours a day. On 11/22/04 during a trip
to the State Capitol we had a chance to check out one of the newest Free Radio
fm stations running. As I came up from Lodi, nothing was heard except a
noisy copy of KOIT in SF, until I got to Mack road and Hwy 99, then KNOZ
captured the channel with a good MONO signal that improved as we moved north.
No hidden phantom here, they have a store front in downtown Sacramento complete
with a large "ON AIR" sign. Located next to a mini mart on a very busy street, a small tower
mounted at the rear of the building. At about 40 feet a Comet 5/8 wave
transmitting antenna was mounted with it's rg-8 type coax cable unstrapped to the tower,
hanging by the antenna base connector only, just flapping away in the wind and waiting to fail :o
Free Speech in Action!
"Mr. Dunnifer built us a Low Power transmitter that complied with the LPFM-318
broadcast regulations (90 watts max) and his associate installed all of our
equipment for us"
"Jammer Dave heard that there was a new pirate radio station in Sacramento and launched his own private investigation"
"We reject the term pirate. This is not a pirate radio station. As you can see, we aren’t trying to hide anything"
"They just started banging on the door, flashing their badges. We told them they couldn’t come in"
"They recommended that we shut the station down, or face a maximum of $10,000 fine, 1 year in jail and confiscation of our broadcast equipment"
"There are some things that I just won’t do. I would never use state or federal authorities to keep a man from feeding his family. In the world of hip-hop and rap, a federal informant or snitch is the lowest form of life."
- Will Major, KNOZ LPFM
San Francisco agents monitored the station's continued illegal operation
in Sacramento on February 16, 2006, and confirmed their findings by
visiting the station's website: http://www.the916.com
Section 15.239 of the Rules provides that non-licensed broadcasting in the
88-108 MHz band is permitted only if the field strength of the
transmission does not exceed 250 mV/m at three meters.
Measurements indicated that the signal was 1,894
times greater than the maximum permissible.
916 Radio readily admits that it does not hold a
Commission license and that it is responsible for the transmissions on
96.5 MHz. Therefore, nothing in this current forfeiture proceeding bars us
from taking future enforcement action against 916 Radio if the unlicensed
operation continues.
- 2nd FCC FORFEITURE NOTICE
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Free Speech and HipHop - alive and well in Sacramento
At location 12/20/04, love that "On Air" sign!!
On 12/20/04 I got a chance to take another look at KNOZ. While they were knee deep in
"local" hiphop, the station was over modulated and there was a constant hum in
the audio. Later in the day, the hum was gone but they still were hitting the modulation
pretty hard with the promos and DJ chatter causing the most trouble :o
On 1/2/05 the modulation had been turned down somewhat and the signal was mostly clean. The music that day
was served up hot and pumping. The only thing missing now is my stereo indicator. They need some compression and limiting too.
On 1/12/05 during a live noon time call in show, a caller questioned the announcer about the legal status of the station. A short but heated discussion followed, then quickly back to the hiphop. Pretty wild!
Update 1/20/05 - Reality Check: FCC raid, station management vows to fight. Corporate Hiphop station rats them out! KNOZ and Free Speech still on the air!
Sacramento News & Review story HERE
Check out KNOZ LPFM website HERE
FLASH: They are off the air today, Monday 1-24-05. No signal, no hiphop, nada - zilch at 3pm. Calls to the station go unanswered. Is this the big FCC bust ????
Update 2-1-05 ON THE AIR ! Yes, they are back on the air after a week of being off line. With a very clean signal, I must add, super audio with no splatter or uglyness.
KNOZ has made adjustments or changes in equipment, that benefit the station's signal quality greatly. Free Speech is once again alive in Sacramento. More news to follow...
Update 4-24-05 Still going strong ! Audio quality has been great. I'm told by others that the "local hits" are sometimes in very heavy rotation and station seems to be automated most of the time with the live DJ action found at noon times and evenings. Also, Jammerdave gets blasted in the latest 916 Radio tune! Free Speech, still alive in Sacramento.
FCC FORFEITURE NOTICE 6-29-05 - Is this the begining of the end ?? The station was still on the air as of July 15th. The showdown is comin soon, stay tuned here for more information.
FCC FORFEITURE NOTICE #1 HERE
Update 5-18-06 Its KNOZ's 2nd Year Anniversary, 24/7 non-stop local hiphop. Audio has been great with lots of PSAs (commercials) for downtown merchants. Now, here is the bad news - the bust is coming! FORFEITURE NOTICE now almost a year old. FCC Agents and US Marshalls will certainly be visiting soon. Today, Free Speech and nonstop local hiphop are still alive in Sacramento.
6-29-06 FCC FORFEITURE NOTICE - FCC fines 96.5 KNOZ $20,000 for illegal operation. Time is running out. But...
STILL ON THE AIR JULY 19th !!
FCC FORFEITURE NOTICE #2 HERE
9-30-06 KNOZ LP is off the air.
"Friday started with dead air for hours, carrier dropped late afternoon" - Cap't Bly
"drove by station 10-1-06 the antenna, tower and signs were gone" - C Man
Rumor on the street: the station "cut and run" and shutdown not FCC enforcement action ?? Did they retreat to only return later ? We hope so, more to follow...
- DJ Pirate Joe
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