[l'anziano partigiano]

Amici-

In the weeks leading up to the July 2012 MoR Event, I found myself thinking about adding to the period barracks "soundtrack" using some big band music and period news and propaganda broadcasts. My attempt failed after a few hours due to a malfunctioning charger on my mp3 player. But the die was cast.

I recalled that there had been some sort of provision in FCC rules to allow for low power license-free broadcasting. A few searches turned up a product called "The Talking House." This is a 100 mW FCC Part 15-compliant AM transmitter designed to broadcast a looped digital recording describing a piece or item of property for sale.

The range is a few hundred feet to perhaps 1/4 mile (at best) depending on antenna placement. The unit is also capable of broadcasting input streamed to it from a computer, mp3 player, etc., so you don't have to use the short digital memory.

At any rate, I 'cornered' the one week ebay market on Talking House units and have several sets. Content is available online at both free sites and at sites like medialoutlet.com. From what I understand, prior to the Seventies, US Copyright law did not allow for the copyrighting of performances, only of the scripts and sheet music used in performances, so notwithstanding anyone's claims to the contrary, war-era radio programs seem to be in the public domain.

So anyway, I'm wondering if anyone here is interested in setting up an AM radio station at an upcoming event. I'll make you a good deal on one of these units and will throw in a CD of programs for free - I've checked out the Talking House units and they all work!

[Jeff Leser]

Wow what an interesting idea. To make it worthwhile, reenactors will need to be told ahead of the event that they can bring an AM radio and actually hear something. I don't have any type of portable AM radio in my house.

Something to think about.

Pista!

Jeff

[l'anziano partigiano]

Jeff Leser, on 04 September 2012 - 06:20 PM, said:

Wow what an interesting idea. To make it worthwhile, reenactors will need to be told ahead of the event that they can bring an AM radio and actually hear something. I don't have any type of portable AM radio in my house.

Something to think about.

Pista!

Jeff

Very true - for their part, the MoR staff are very supportive and interested. They've already offered to publicize the station's frequency on next year's materials and on a street banner they're planning to create. I'm already narrowing down the broadcasts to Jan-Jun 1944 (Italy Theater). If anyone here can point me to archives of 'Radio Rome' or other broadcasts, sarei eternamente grato!

-bb

[fredleander]

Cool concept!

Fred

[l'anziano partigiano]

By way of update, I found dozens of clips on RAI's website and turns out I have a piece of software to record them to MP3. So the Italian playlist is getting larger.