40 Watts from Nowhere: The KBLT Story

They were part of an unlicensed pirate radio station that was shutdown by William Kennard, Clinton’s FCC chief, so you’d think they would be more skeptical of government regulation. Instead, they only whine about corporations. Frankly, they were maybe ahead of their time, because the freeform format of KBLT in LA’s Silver Lake neighborhood sounds quite aesthetically compatible with Spotify and boutique satellite radio. The media landscape changed drastically, but KBLT listeners and alumni still recall the station’s short tenure with fondness in director-producer-subject Sue Carpenter’s documentary, 40 Watts from Nowhere, which opens tomorrow in New York.

Today, it is a lot easier to start a podcast than it was to launch a pirate radio station in the 1990s, because of all the gear it required. Nevertheless, Carpenter, a former office drone, jury-rigged her own neighborhood-focused pirate radio station, which she operated out of her personal apartment. Initially based in the Bay Area, she relocated to Silver Lake, where the rising hipster alternative music scene quickly embraced KBLT.

It wasn’t just proto-punk. KBLT also programmed jazz, blues, traditional country, 1960s French pop, and eccentric spoken word selections. Musically, KBLT was more inclusive than the current and recently demised network nightly talk shows. In terms of content, they weren’t that much different from New York’s [only slightly] more established WFMU.

Predictably, there is much complaining about corporate this and that. However, Carpenter’s experiences managing KBLT (while using her Paige Jarrett pseudonym) directly contradict the film’s obvious ideology. Time and again, the DJs and their guests constantly ate her food, drank her beer, and pilfered CDs from the station’s library.

Indeed, her frustrations illustrate the economic principle known as “the tragedy of the commons,” wherein public goods offered free of charge are abused and depleted, to the point that they no longer provide the intended utility. It would be great if those associated with 40 Watts had sufficient insight to recognize that irony, but they don’t.

Still, there is a lot of amusing pop culture history and late 1990s nostalgia. It is basically like watching your college radio station, operating without adult supervision or FCC licensing. A little of the former might have helped a lot. Despite its blind-spots, 40 Watts from Nowhere holds viewer attention when it opens tomorrow (7/17) in New York.