There's a neat kids toy called the Wild Planet Radio DJ, which lets kids run a radio station (AM 1610) with transmissions up to 30 feet. It's got a built-in tape player, mic, and cute 'On Air' light, and it runs around 20 bucks. Of course there's also a hack that tells older, soldering gun-slinging, schematic-reading kids how to mod it to broadcast independent radio up to a mile. For anyone living in prime broadcasting space, say midtown Manhattan, this would be a great countermeasure to the dastardly, ultraconservative ClearChannel company, who is apparently now sponsoring pro-death rallies in their major markets. It looks like unsanctioned 'pirate' radio is shaping up to be the only viable outlet for uncorrupted radio communication. Anyway, I hope that at least a few kids are plunking down thier $20 for the WPRDJ with an eye toward positive, conscientious 'hacking' rather than emulating the idiotic neofascist, right-wing garbage thats filling the airwaves thanks to monopolies like Clear Channel Communications, Inc.

Clear Channel is by far the largest owner of radio stations in the nation. The company owned only 43 in 1995, but when Congress removed many of the ownership limits in 1996, Clear Channel was quickly on the highway to radio dominance. The company owns and operates 1,233 radio stations (including six in Chicago) and claims 100 million listeners. Clear Channel generated about 20 percent of the radio industry's $16 billion in 2001 revenues.