If you lived in or around LA's Silver Lake in the late '90s, you may have tuned in to KBLT, the pirate radio station based in the one-bedroom apartment of Sue Carpenter. By the time it was shut down by the FCC, KBLT ran 22 hours a day, had a weekly DJ spot by Mike Watt (Minutemen) and had hosted in-studio performances by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Spritualized's Jason Pierce.

Sue's book on her pirate radio days, 40 Watts From Nowhere: A Journey Into Pirate Radio is a lighthearted but great story about her tranformation from a hobbyist to a leader of a legitimate underground cultural movement.

One passage, about when the transmitter broke, tells of Sue's dedication to her station:

"On $26,000 a year, I'm barely making ends meet, and that's before shelling out for all the station's expenses. Between the mailbox service, voice mail, headphones, turntable cartridges, CD holders, occasional equipment replacement, and miscellaneous stuff like electrical tape, extension cords, and record cleaner, I'm being nickled and dimed all the way to the poorhouse. I already buy all my clothes used. I bleach my own hair. I get my hair cut every other month at Supercuts. I rarely eat out. There aren't any more corners to cut."

Anybody who has persisted in a hobby or a craft out of sheer love of it will appreciate this book. The same goes for those who appreciate the voice that comes from outside the mainstream. Those against excessive corporate power and restrictive government regulations will find Sue's story to be encouraging and uplifting. The themes in the book are universal. It's a David vs. Goliath tale...only in this book, Goliath won. But for a few years, LA got an incredible and unique radio station.

Check out this LA Weekly article on "Paige Jarret" (Carpenter's fake KBLT name) and her radio station. Endless LA has pictures of a KBLT benefit concert held at the El Rey Theater in April of 1998.

The Onion gave 40 Watts From Nowhere a good review back in February.

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