K-HIGH, WEED, KBUD and KBNS

Yes, these are Marijuana-themed radio stations. This week in Denver, CO 94.1 "Mile High Sports Radio" KCKK flipped to KBUD, also known as "Smokin' 94.1" In March, the station and its AM signal at 1550 AM were sold to Marco Broadcasting who changed up the formats. The state of Colorado infamously legalized marijuana for recreational purposes in 2012 to much political melodrama. The end result appears to have been a drop in crime, increased tax revenues and a somewhat silly radio format. But this was not the first Marijuana-themed radio station in Colorado.

Just back in April, 1580 KREL-AM a former ESPN and Fox Sports Radio affiliate changed calls to KHIG and flipped formats to K-HIGH, a marijuana-talk station. But the Colorado Springs area station was just stunting. In May they flipped again to a simulcast of soft AC-formatted 101.3 KFEZ as "Easy 101.3." More here. They were preceded in 2012 by "Pot 107.1" a stunt by Max Media property KDHT in Denver. The first song on their playlist was "Rocky Mountain High" by John Denver. The stunt lasted all of 24 hours when they debuted a Jack-branded Adult Hits format.

Just last year Siriux XM radio and High Times magazine co-launched a music channel called "Reefer Radio."  The channel had a limited run and wrapped up in July after running the prerequisite Tommy Chong and Snoop Dogg interviews. However, it wasn't SiriusXM nor any Coloradan broadcaster that invented this radio format. It's origin is a bit hazy as it so happens. In 1971 Vice President Agnew railed against "dope lyrics" on the radio. On March 5th the FCC issued a public notice effectively banning pro-drug lyrics from radio. The statement read "...we expect broadcast licensees to ascertain, before broadcast, the words or lyrics of recorded musical or spoken selections played on their stations." they backed it up with the threat of a $5,000 fine. This wasn't hyperbole. The FCC had already banned cigarette and liquor advertising. The commission later stated that they'd welcome a test case. There were numerous first amendment concerns, but the major networks, and NAB obeyed for the most part. More here and here. But some types of stations ignored the rules.

1985-1994 - KNBS - "Cannabis Shortwave" (Wellsville, NY)
1991-1997 - KMCR - "Magic Carpet Radio" (California)
1992-1993 - WEED Shortwave (Arizona)
1992-2004 - Radio Free Euphoria  [LINK]
1994-1995 - 6YVOS - "Voice of Smoke" (Wellsville, NY) [LINK]
2004-2013 - WEED-FM (Merseyside, England)

Author Andrew Yoder listed off those and a few others in his books Pirate Radio Stations and Pirate Radio. So drug music (if I can call it that) didn't go away, it moved to Free Form FM radio, shortwave and pirate radio. I can think of several pirate radio stations that were Marijuana-themed dating back decades, many on shortwave. It's axiomatic that they begin to appear shortly after end of Free Form FM radio. then they fade away as the social norms change and the rule fades away.

Ham Radio Vs. Marijuana Growers

According to AARL, the average age of a ham radio operator is over 50. They don't say how much over 50 and some nations have admitted their median ham age is almost 80. You would think that mature demographic would have some non-recreational interest in medical marijuana. But that has not been the way things have gone. Marijuana growers and ham radio operators have actually become mortal enemies. The AARL even posted an article on identifying these growers, and how to deal with the problem from both a legal and technical point of view here.

the conflict stems from a simple fact about grow lights. Like many forms of fluorescent light, they produce RF interference (RFI).  In the last decade, digital high-intensity discharge (HID) ballasts have largely replaced traditional coil magnetic ballasts. The HID ballasts typically operate on 110-270V circuits. The target target output frequency from the ballast is 50-120Hz. But your household electricity typically operates on 60Hz.  not the obvious problem. Fluorescent tubes are non-linear devices, and generate harmonic currents in the power supply. The arc within the lamp can generate RFI as well, which can be conducted through power wiring!  More here, here and here.

The RFI is usually in bands between 1.8 MHz and 30 MHz and it's strong enough you don't need special gear to detect it. You can find a bad grow light with a handheld AM radio. These aren't 40 watt bulbs either. Grow lights are usually High pressure sodium (HPS) or metal Halide (MH) and easily 1000w per lamp. Lab tests at the AARL have revealed that many grow light makes and models violate FCC part 15 and/or part 18. The units often operate on a timer making it even more obvious what the source of the RFI is. Even for marijuana growers in Colorado, this presents an unexpected legal problem with the FCC instead of the FBI. I found an article on policeone.com that details the ease at which police can now find indoor growers.

"One narcotics officer from the San Francisco Bay Area turns his car radio to 560 AM when he checks out potential indoor grows. He’s checked out seven indoor marijuana grows since learning about the RFI issue. All seven times, the car’s radio showed significant interference from the ballasts inside of the grow location. "

This unnamed police officer is finding marijuana growers, not with helicopters, thermal cameras, NSA stingray transcripts, automatic number plate recognition, video surveillance, or phone taps but with the stock AM radio in his cruiser. Notably, the AARL, still primarily focused on ending RFI, listed in that same article how a grower might reduce the RFI affordably with simple AC line filters and toroids.

KMUD Vs the NARCs

California has a certain reputation with a particular plant. It's well earned with it's dispensaries and far left politics. But it's not all hippies and reggae.There is also  an interesting continuing situation at 91.1 KMUD, a community radio station in Redway, Humboldt County, CA. More here and here.

KMUD has been on air since may 8th 1987, and the broadcasts in question started shortly thereafter.What they are doing essentially is to tip off marijuana farmers about impending raids. It sounds like it might even be illegal, but not really. The station has been very suave about it from the very beginning when President Regan ramped up drug raids in Northern California... they began broadcasting their not-so-subtle hints. They sound something like these:

 “Around 9:40 a.m. this morning, a large gray helicopter was seen taking off from the Garberville airport, apparently heading toward Reed Mountain. The occupants were fully dressed in combat gear, and the convoy of cars they arrived in were unmarked.”

These broadcasts cover a lot more real estate than Redway California. KMUD simulcasts on 88.3 KMUE in Eureka and 90.3 KLAI in Laytonville and a translator, K258BQ-FM on 99.5 in Shelter Cove. KMUD program director Marianne Knorzer describes these reports as "benign."  Marijuana is grown legally in California's under it's medical marijuana laws. This of course continues to be in contrast to a federal ban on the substance. But the conflict is enforces inconsistently depending on the state and federal will to enforce laws. But locally there is no will, and the feds and even the Sheriff clearly toil in fruitless labor.  More here.

I had assumed this was illegal but even a local Sheriff being thwarted by the broadcasts appears to have accepted that this actually still falls under protected free speech. I'll quote Mendocino Country Sheriff Tom Allman 

"If they know about raids and they want to tell the folks a raid is gonna happen, there's nothing I can do about it ...if someone is going to broadcast it over a radio station ...it just means we're going to have to be more clever."  

 But if you consider it, there are few exceptions to free speech: obscenity, child pornography, defamation, breach of the peace, incitement to crime, incitement  to violence" and sedition. The closest exception of course is the incitement of a crime aka "Imminent lawless action." It's only been on the books since 1969 as per Brandenburg v. Ohio. it does not require a clear and present danger, it only requires that the speaker (in this case broadcaster) intends to incite a violation of the law that is both imminent and likely. And KMUD still seems to clear that limbo bar. Inciting non-specific illegal action or even illegal action at a non-specific time don't count.

Reefer Madness On Air

In 1937 Harry J. Anslinger cranked up the efforts. Embodied with more federal funding, he took his anti-reefer campaign to the radio. Congress was having hearings on H.R. 8385, the Marihuana (Marijuana) tax Act. He wanted it to pass. It did.He was the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, then a branch of the for 32 years, almost as long as the cross-dressing Herbert Hoover. Strangely while fighting the demon weed he was fencing morphine for Senator McCarthy. Yes, that McCarthy.But he over did it. Things became so over-hyped that By 1938 he was begging media outlets to cover the topic less. In a letter to H.C. Williams A District Supervisor in Texas he wrote:

"Will you please in a tactful way, decline to present the radio talks on Marihuana anytime in the near future. For your information present policy is to discourage emphasis on Marihuanafor the reason that some... press reports have been so exaggerated that interest in the subject has become almost hysterical..."

This series of broadcasts by Anslinger, the Women's Christian Temperance Union and others were well-recorded with thanks to common practice of that eras newspapers to cover special radio programs. But regardless of the speaker, the broadcasts mostly were comprised of material from Hearst papers. This is a sampling of the many lectures, and speeches on the topic broadcast on the radio. I'm citing these from this site among others.

Feb. 21, 1935 - Ida B. Wise Smith on - CBS
Feb. 19, 1934 - Isabelle Ahern O'Neill - WJAR
Dec. 13, 1934 - Harvey Anslinger - WEAF
Jan. 24, 1935 - Grace Poole (network unknown)
Feb. 24, 1936 - Harvey Anslinger - NBC
Feb. 24, 1937 - Harvey Anslinger -WJSV
Oct. 22, 1937 - Harry Anslinger- WJZ & WABC
Oct. 25 1937 - Harry Anslinger NBC
Dec. 03, 1937 - Harvey Anslinger - Mutual Network