Paper Radio #6

Paper Radio #6 edited by DJ Frederick is a zine about radio. There's stuff about radio history here, some nostalgia. I really enjoyed the thoughts about pirate radio.

I remember listening to the radio when I was a kid, listening to top 40 stations in my bedroom. I remember once at the end of the year, staying up to hear what the top songs of the year were. I remember sitting near my stereo's speakers, keeping the volume low so no one else could hear. And I remember recording songs off the radio to share with friends.

I learned Morse code as a teenager in hopes of getting my ham radio license, something that never panned out.

I know the charm of driving on a long car trip, listening to random radio stations on the way, hoping to find a college radio station playing something interesting and possibly obscure.

So I know a little about the romance of radio. But there are whole radio worlds I am ignorant of.

Paper Radio #6 is a well-done zine--though I don't know much of anything, I felt welcomed and not completely lost. I like the essay that starts the zine--it's about European Music Radio. To hear about EMR's struggles was informative--I liked learning about what they went through. I also enjoyed the interview with John Anderson of DIYmedia.net. And I liked one DJ's account of some special music he first heard in the mid-'70s. Though I have never heard that music, I could relate to the feeling of finding something valuable.

I enjoyed this zine as an outsider, but I'm sure there are radio-enthusiasts who would go wild over this zine, as people who are in the know, and I hope DJ Frederick is getting Paper Radio into the hands of those people.