Mystery CW Signal on the 40 Meter, Shortwave Ham Band

My Radio Shack 200629, which I recently re-batteried, and did some SW DXing with. The Radio Shack 200629, which is Radio Shack's badged version of the Sangean ATS505, is a good radio for MW DXing, FM, and SW listening and DXing. It has great sound through headphones, and the SSB is easy to use on it, too.

This morning while I was tuning the 40 Meter ham band, and below (where I heard some Indonesian ham pirates chanting for a short period on 6965 kHz), I came across a strong CW (Morse Code) signal.

SLOPPY HAMS SEND SLOPPY MORSE CODE

Like a lot of CW you hear, it was fast, and sloppy. It seems that a lot of hams love to send faster than their ability to send clean, often with use of paddles and the like -- running characters together, and ensuring that their dits and dahs are similar.... That sort of thing.

This signal was like that, except the characters were so convoluted it was hard to tell one from the other. For a while I thought it was Japanese code, but it was too sloppy to tell, and it was around 18 wpm or so. Long, continuous CW gibberish.... Minutes worth.

The signal was S4 out of 5, and had a polar flutter or warble to it at times, indicating that it may have been skirting the auroral radio zone, which may or may not have indicated a signal from Asia somewhere, despite how strong it was.

I first heard it on 7041 at 1431 UTC. Then I heard the same exact CW on 7048, at 1437 UTC. It was definitely NOT a QSO. There was no change, like you hear when hams are talking to each other in CW. It was a continuous blather of CW gibberish, all sent around 18 wpm in slop code.

When I checked later, it was at 7062 kHz, same strength, same characteristics.

Then it switched OFF, right at 1500 UTC. It was as if someone pulled the plug.

It started up again at 1502 UTC 1 kHz up, at 7063 kHz. Then, at 1510 UTC, it instantly flipped to 7062, as if someone bumped the tuner knob on the transmitter.

Then it stopped abruptly at 1530 UTC. Then it was back on again, on 7063 kHz.

I checked a few minutes later, and it was now on 7062 again, still S4, still with the 18 wpm, continuous CW gibberish, with the same slight flutter to the signal.

I then switched off the radio, as I had some other things to do. When I checked the 40M frequencies later around 1737 UTC, the 40M band was MIA.

I had heard this gibberish CW on four radios -- Radio Shack 200629, Tecsun PL330, and DX-394, and even my DX-398. So it wasn't overloading on my radio. Same indoor, 25-30 ft wire.

I have no idea what it was. Some ham had his keyer set to gibberish and had his rig on by accident? Cat bumped against the tuner knob, changing the frequency? Somebody's kid playing a joke on dad's ham rig? Some Japanese ham had a bit too much sake? The signal may have favored Asia but at S4 out of 5 it was a bit strong for Asia at that time in the morning. So, who knows what it was?

You never know what you're going to hear on the 40M band.

A GRAB BAG OF SW SIGNALS

The 40 Meter ham band has a tradition of having odd signals. During many early mornings one can hear Indonesian ham pirates in the lowest sections of the bands. On 7200 kHz on some evenings, you can hear a lot of yelling, swearing music being played, etc. There is the 'A' Beacon that appeared for several nights on 7259 kHz, which would be sent continuously until being shut off abruptly around 2 a.m. or so Pacific time, as if someone pulled a switch.

I've heard repeating sentences in Morse Code (CW) sent on 7260 or thereabouts, addressing a ham operator, and insulting him at the same time. This CW message would sometimes be shut off, as if someone flipped a switch.

For a few months, on and off, a mysterious carrier appeared on 6988 kHz, which another SWL monitored for a while and saw a few equally mysterious data bursts occurring.

The 40 Meter Ham band is sort of unique in that it's usually active at night, and can be worldwide in reach. It's a fun band to monitor, because you get CW, SSB, and even broadcast stations, along with mysterious signals and ham pirates -- all in the same swatch of frequencies between 7000 and 7300 kHz. If you go down towards 6900 kHz you can sometimes hear pirate radio stations at night.

It's an interesting chunk of radio spectrum to listen to.

There is an international organization of ham radio operators who monitor the bands and check for illegal intruders. I'm not sure if they've heard the CW gibberish I talked about earlier in this article, or other anomalies like the 'A' Beacon, but they do register a LOT of different anomalies and mystery signals, as well as known intruders. Here is a link to a PDF report by the IARU.

Not all the IARU 'regions' have reporting. But a perusal through this document will show that there is a LOT of strangeness that goes on in the SW Ham bands.

https://www.iaru-r1.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IARU-IWS-Newsletter-2025-07.pdf

IN OTHER LIFE...

The weather here has been moderate, and variable. This morning there was a very, very light rain. The overnights have been in the 40's F, which is between 4-5C. Daytimes are between 68-75F (15-20C or so).

I've been playing my bagpipes a lot, trying to get the ability back again. It's taken more work than I thought it would. The year of not playing, and the 8 years of playing a very easy reed before that, weakened my lip muscles, and my diaphragm and left arm as well.

It's coming back, but it's been a frustrating, slow process. When the lips start to give out, the fingers mess up. If the diaphragm isn't pushing the air enough, the fingers mess up. When you have to push more air into an instrument than you're used to, you get oxygen depletion, and the fingers mess up...

You get the idea.

I'm also getting the place ready for my favorite holiday, Halloween. I've already got a few electric Jack O' Lanterns out above my garage door. I hope to have all of my electric Jack O' Lanterns working, outside and glowing ahead of the holiday this year.

That's about it for now.

Peace.

C.C., Sept. 29th, 2025.

ADDENDUM, October 16th, 2025:

I heard this mystery CW / Morse Code signal once again, yesterday morning, the morning of the 15th here in Washington state. I was tuning my brand new XHDATA D808 to the 40 Meter ham band and heard this super-fast, Morse Code gibberish on 7044 kHz at 1527 UTC, which is 8:27 a.m. Pacific time.

At 1530 UTC, it flipped off mid-sentence, and when I tuned around, I found it right away just two kHz down, on 7042 kHz. Like last time, on Sept. 29th, it was as if someone just flipped a switch from 7044 to 7042 kHz. Both times -- Sept. 29th and Oct. 15th -- it had flipped 2 kHz away right at 1530 UTC.

In the background was a lot of continuous, propagating OTHR (Over The Horizon Radar, which sounds like digital pulses).

Then, at 1550 UTC, the gibberish CW signal FLIPPED BACK UP TO 7044 kHz. This is the same time in UTC that the CW signal flipped back up in frequency last time.

Last night, an SWL who frequents one of the Shortwave subreddits logged a similar signal in the 19 Meter SW band. There was speculation that it was Russian Military, or Russian Navy CW, which often is sent ultra fast and sometimes appears anywhere on the SW spectrum.

But that was just speculation.

I know that there is a Cyrillic version of the Morse Code, but this CW I heard was so fast and continuous that I couldn't decipher any characters, much less read any of it.

Obviously, it's a definite Shortwave mystery.

C.C.

THEY ALL WERE WRONG

As most of us know, American conservative activist and Radio personality Charlie Kirk was assassinated on Wednesday, September 10th, 2025.

It was a horrible shooting, especially due to the fact that Charlie was shot in the neck in public, and his two little kids will have to live with that fact for the rest of their lives. I wrote a short article about the killing just over a week ago. The alleged shooter, a young man named Tyler Robinson, was arrested on September 11th, around 11 p.m. Utah time, over 24 hours after the shooting occurred.

As we all saw the various video footage that was either posted by members of the crowd, or the footage posted by Law enforcement, it appeared that the shooter was fairly adept at jumping off a 15 foot ledge, and escaping from Law enforcement for over 24 hours.

RAMPANT SPECULATION, AND MORE RAMPANT SPECULATION

During the evening after the shooting, and through the next day, as law enforcement was still trying to find the shooter, there was a LOT of speculation on the internet -- not only concerning who or what might be behind the shooting, but also there was a LOT of speculation about the identification of the shooter himself. This speculation only increased after the pictures of the suspect (who we now know as Tyler Robinson) were posted online by Utah and Federal Law enforcement.

I noticed a lot of this speculation on such internet outlets as X/Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and even some on the liberal social media site BlueSky. There were liberals that thought that some conservative conspiracy was behind the shooting. There were conservatives that were convinced that it was some liberal cabal.

There was speculation that the shooter was a sniper in the military. There was speculation about a 'mystery' airplane (including the tail number being given out over social media) that supposedly turned off a transponder after it left the airport soon after the shooter disappeared.  Some ex-military men were insisting that the shooter wasn't really skilled, and definitely had no military training. Other people, who claimed to have extensive experience with firearms, said otherwise.

But that wasn't the worst of it. There were at least two or three different people who were ID'ed as the suspect -- not by law enforcement, but by internet sleuths. One victim of this speculation and finger pointing was a guy who had gotten into a heated debate with Charlie Kirk a year ago. There were numerous people who put his photo up, next to the pic of the suspect that was released by the FBI, and they claimed that the debater guy was the suspect.

Then there was a local Utah musician who apparently posted a negative song about Charlie Kirk (with a title I won't repeat here), who had a slight facial resemblance -- in some social media pics -- to the somewhat blurry, AI enhanced vid stills of the shooting suspect.

In fact, some were claiming that the Utah musician would be arrested. The musician was apparently involved in the LGBTQ+ scene. Their pic was now plastered over social media, in association with the Kirk shooting. The Utah musician took down their song, but people still were insisting that they would be arrested as the prime shooting suspect.

THEY ALL WERE WRONG.

All of the speculations were dead wrong. There has been no convincing evidence put forth that indicates a conspiracy -- either by right wing or left wing underground organizations. The 'mystery' airplane turned out to have absolutely nothing to do with the shooting, and it turns out that some small aircraft -- if they have transponders -- sometimes turn them off routinely when they are away from airports. 

The poor guy who was heatedly debating Charlie Kirk last year -- who some were saying just had to be the shooter -- was completely innocent. The Utah musician who was pointed out as someone who would 'soon be arrested' was completely innocent. Another person, possibly associated with that Utah musician, who posted a cryptic post that got taken down off social media -- he was also innocent.

INTERNET = GOOD; INTERNET ALSO CAN = BAD

The internet is a pretty big place, where there are a lot of smart people, and some insightful and analytical people as well. It also is a place where it's very easy to be swayed by information that may appear to be one thing, but is the exact opposite.

I hope that one thing most of us take away from this horrible event is that we should always be suspicious when others online insist they KNOW that ________ did _________.

There's an old saying that is about as accurate as it gets: CORRELATION DOES NOT ALWAYS EQUAL CAUSATION.

In fact, if often NEVER does.

Always be skeptical of 'facts' you see on the internet and social media, folks, especially when tempers are running high.

Whether one is right, center, or left on the political spectrum, a hefty dose of skepticism is one of the healthiest tendencies you can have.

My next posted article will be back to Radio, which is my happy place. :-)

Peace.

C.C. September 26th, 2025.

New Regulations on Broadcast Prescription Ads, and How It Could Affect Radio; & the only Bagpipe Tune Banned by the British Army

Possibly coming to a Radio near you -- one minute or more of warnings over potential drug side affects during Pharma commercials? If it happens, what does that mean for Radio?

The Trump Administration in the US has recently instructed the HHS and FDA to more tightly regulate advertisements for prescription drugs on TV and Radio.

Many in the Radio industry are concerned about how any new regulations would affect Radio, being that stations and radio networks depend a lot on pharma ads for revenues.

Many times at night, while listening to the radio, I hear a plethora of commercials for various prescription drugs, including advice to people to look for certain symptoms they might have that could indicate they need to be prescribed certain drugs to combat those symptoms.

There are similar ads on TV, the internet, and also in print media as well.

I don't hear a TON of the drug ads on Radio -- most of the spots I hear at night are PSA's for adopting foster kids, being a better dad, or to combat hunger. I used to hear a LOT of 'Kars For Kids' ads, but they started disappearing about 4 or 5 years ago. The adoption, fostering, combatting hunger, and the 'be a better dad' ads are run by the Ad Council, a non-profit organization with some ties to the Federal government, which runs PSA's and public interest spots.

Here's a link to the Ad Council website, which has MP3's of some of the Radio ads one can often hear on many stations, especially at night.:

https://www.adcouncil.org/all-campaigns

The Ad Council came up with many interesting campaigns that many Americans may remember: Smokey Bear, 'A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste', McGruff the Crime Dog, and 'Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk', and many others. You can read about that here.:

https://www.adcouncil.org/our-story/our-history

Although I haven't heard loads of Pharma ads on radio, I've heard enough of them to know that Radio makes a lot of money off of them.

According to RadioInk, Radio makes a lot of revenue off Big Pharma spots. RadioInk reports that the amount of revenue that Radio has earned from Big Pharma ads increased by 59% between 2018 and 2022, with several Big Pharma companies being in the Top Ten advertisers to Radio in general.

Here's the 'Top Ten' for the first week of September, 2025.:

https://radioink.com/2025/09/08/national-radio-advertisers-settle-quickly-after-labor-day/

Radio industry people are concerned that if HHS and the FDA enact tougher regulations on drug advertisement wording, including longer and more complete warnings of potential side effects, it could make such advertisements impossible to run on radio, and consequently it could cut into Radio revenues.

And Radio revenues have been problematic, especially since the Great Recession and the Pandemic. 

Here's a link to the RadioInk article on this issue.:

https://radioink.com/2025/09/11/trump-orders-hhs-fda-to-enforce-stricter-rules-on-pharma-ads/

CUTTING COMMERCIALS TO FIT, USING DIGITAL SOUND EDITING

I can see how any new regulations insisting on having Pharma ads list every possible side effect could really cut into the ad revenue for radio. As it is now, sometimes the side effect listings in such commercials are sped up, the same way other disclaimers are sped up in Radio ads. 

Trying to fit a lot of information into just 30 second or 60 second ads for radio is nothing new. When I worked in Radio, we made CD's that were nothing but various Radio ads. The company I worked for would have stations run them in lieu of payment for the hits CDs, automation playlists and consulting that my employers provided them with. The company I worked for would get the ad money for the stations playing the commercials.

Sometimes in putting the commercials on the CD I would have to speed up the commercial, to make it fit the 30 second or 60 second run time. Sometimes I would have to slow it down. This was because the studio where the commercial was made did not always make the commercial fit the radio standard, 30 or 60 second limit. These commercials were often made in big studios in LA or New York, so the idea that any big market production company would cut spots that were 25 seconds, 33 seconds or 68 seconds was a real head scratcher.

So it often made a lot of work for the sound engineers like myself. We had to figure out how to either cut down the sound file to fit 30 or 60 seconds, or stretch it out to fit. This was done electronically, on the computer sound editing program. Sometimes you could cut spaces between words, to shorten the commercial to fit, or add pauses in between words to make it a bit longer if needed. 

If you couldn't do it that way, you would 'squish' or 'stretch' the sound file -- or a section of it -- without the sound literally speeding up or slowing down. The term for this process was 'time scrunch', where you had the editing program compress or stretch the sound file digitally. If you 'time scrunched' a sound file too much either way, it would sound jittery.

I've heard this jitter effect, even today, on newscasts, and sometimes on commercials... the jittery sound of a commercial or newscast being time scrunched to fit the 30 second, one minute or two minute time slot. So I guess some bizarre tendencies in the Radio business haven't change since 2006.

LONGER COMMERCIALS, OR NO COMMERCIALS

If the government regulates Pharma ads to include every drug side effect, I'm not sure that time scrunching would be allowed (if it makes the information hard to actually hear), and I'm not sure it would work, if it is used to attempt to keep the commercials within a 30 or 60 minute time period, because of the extra info needed in a much longer disclaimer. It would, of course, depend on the amount of extra side effect information that would have to be included on the commercial.

So, if these new, proposed regulations go into effect, Radio will either lose money, or it will be a lot more work for the sound engineers. One possible solution would be to sell 45 second or 90 second Pharma spots, to allow space for all the listed potential side effects. That, of course, would mean that the Pharma companies would have to pay more for the longer commercials, or the radio companies will have to charge less for the longer commercials -- something that wouldn't be palatable for Radio.

Regardless, if this proposed regulatory apparatus goes through, it will have a definite effect on how Radio runs the ads.

Presumably, this proposed regulation would also apply to the internet, where I see frequent ads for Pharma meds. So, changes could be on the way no matter where you see or hear Pharma advertisements. And probably similar ads on TV would also be affected.

REACTION MAY ALREADY BE HAPPENING IN THE AD INDUSTRY

Just recently, a few days before posting this article, I heard a commercial for a medication during or after a football game, and it seemed that half of it was disclaimers, cautions, etc. It was worded well, but the length of the disclaimer made me wonder if perhaps some of the Pharma ad makers are already responding to the proposed rules that may be coming down the pike.

Me in better days, 2004, playing my 1981 Lawries at my Aunt's house. The chanter (the pipe that plays the tune) is a 1982 Hardie, which was my band chanter. I was playing through a cane chanter reed at this time, probably one I got at the Hector Russell store in Seattle earlier that year. I bought a bunch of those reeds, one of which I'm using now.

IN OTHER LIFE....

In other life, I've been getting back into playing my bagpipes, and trying to finish my writing 'work-in-progress', a fiction novella that has been percolating for over a year.

As far as my bagpipes, it's been a challenge. I hadn't played them in over a year. Usually I play them for about a week before a major holiday, as I would entertain family with them at my Aunt's house on Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Because of some medical issues, my Aunt didn't have Thanksgiving or Christmas this year, so I went over a year without even touching the pipes.

About 3 to 4 weeks ago I decided that it would be a good idea to start playing them again. The first thing that happened was that I discovered that 3 of the 4 synthetic chanter reeds I had were now worn out. It turns out that plastic bladed, double reeds have a lifetime. That meant that until I got a couple new synthetic reed replacements, it was back to natural cane.

This is me in 1984, playing at my best friend's sister's wedding, on a steamboat on Lake Union in Seattle. I'm wearing my band kilt, and playing through my band's chanter, a 1982 Hardie, which has a loud, but plaintive tone to it. My dad had just died a couple weeks earlier, and I remember hearing the Cars' hit song 'Drive' on the radio. A week or two later, I played at a wedding up on Capitol Hill, and met a girl with whom I lost my innocence... it ended in a quick heartbreak, but shit happens. A lot happened during that year.  The pipes still work well. The drones in this pic are tuned sharper than they tune now -- probably because of the reed I was playing (a loud, trumpety Warnock).

Thanks Cuppa for the pic. Photo courtesy Chris Styron.

Now, cane reeds can be cantankerous, which is why I switched to synthetic chanter reeds to begin with. The synthetic ones were more consistent, and they also were easier to blow. But, because the synthetic reeds were now worn out, I dug into a stash of 'new', old stock reeds I'd bought at Hector Russell (a store that no longer is in Seattle) in 2003 or 2004. I found one that was stamped 'Easy'. I inserted it into the chanter, and merely heated it with my mouth, without wetting it. Then I put the chanter into my pipes and blew them up. It tuned well, and amazingly, it wasn't too cantankerous or too hard to blow.

And, to my surprise, it is 'blowing in' well. New reeds usually take a week or so of 'blowing in', to where they ease up a bit, and become more consistent in response, and more dependable.

I also found that I could fix one of the worn out synthetic chanter reeds (using some tape and a small 'bridle' to shorten the active part of the blades), so I have a backup reed, too.

At the same time, I discovered that if you go a full year without playing, your lips give out quickly -- and you need your lips to hold onto the blowpipe and keep the air going where it's supposed to. My lungs / diaphragm also needed to get back into shape. My left arm is OK with keeping the bag steady with the air, but it probably needs to shape up, too. 

All those things that were second nature when I was playing weekly need to come back.

It almost feels like I'm re-starting from scratch.

THE TUNE THAT WAS BANNED BY THE BRITISH ARMY

It is use it or lose it time, I guess. So, I've been regaining my ability to play the Skye Boat Song, The 42nd Highlanders March (Boston Caledonian 1935 Setting), and I've learned a slow air that my mother liked, but I hadn't learned before she died -- 'Lochaber No More', the only pipe tune that was banned by the British Army.

Why would the British Army ban a pipe tune? Because it is a sad tune (albeit a beautiful one), and the Scottish Regiments in India and elsewhere had bad morale when that tune was played by the pipers. So, for a few years, the British Army banned pipers from playing it. The tune apparently has lyrics that describe the feeling of Scots having to leave their homeland, sometimes with the thought that they may never return.

The combination of the words to the folk tune from which Lochaber No More was derived, along with the sad nature of the music, apparently didn't help the Scots soldiers when they were stationed tens of thousands of miles away from home. My mother liked Lochaber No More when she heard it off a CD that I had, of Donald MacLeod playing it. Sadly, I never was able to learn the tune well enough to play it for her before she died.

Here is a music vid clip of Donald MacLeod playing one of the two best 'settings' of Lochaber No More (a 'setting' is pipe-speak for 'version'). Donald MacLeod taught my pipe major, Angus Ironside, who -- in turn -- taught me most of what I know about the bagpipes.:

I mentioned The 42nd Highlanders' March earlier. It's one of the first bagpipe tunes I ever heard, and did it catch my 3 or 4 year-old ear when Grandma put on my Dad's old Boston Caledonian Pipe Band 78's! I was hooked. Here's a vid clip of the actual 42nd Highlanders regiment playing it during a homecoming parade a couple years ago in Perth, Scotland. About halfway through the vid you can see that the 42nd are parading in front of some older veterans.:

Well, that's about it for this installment. The weather has been staying fairly warm, with the daytime temperatures in the 70's (20's C), and the night time temperatures are not too cold for biking around the neighborhood. I don't look forward to Winter, but it's still a couple months off.

Peace,

C.C. Sunday, September 21st, 2025.

CHARLIE KIRK, Radio Personality & Political Activist, 1993-2025

In a day when political figures are maligned by their opponents, people need to remember that they have families, too.

Charlie Kirk, a radio talk personality and political activist, was shot and killed at a speaking event in Utah on Wednesday, September 10th. Kirk was speaking at the Utah Valley University campus, and a sniper shot him right when he was addressing a question from a student about mass shootings.

Kirk was known for his political activism, and was well known and followed in US conservative circles. Being quite outspoken and opinionated, he was often a polarizing figure. He concentrated his efforts on getting out the conservative message to young people and college students, and was very effective at it, making him popular among conservatives, and very unpopular among liberal Americans.

But one thing that doesn't get mentioned much in the US news press is that Charlie Kirk was also a radio personality.

I first heard of Charlie Kirk when I was tuning around my AM radio at night, and I first heard his radio show on a local conservative station, probably some time in 2020, right after his radio show started. If I remember correctly, the station was KLFE 1590. a station owned by Salem Media Group. For the past 15-20 years, both KLFE, and its sister station KOL 1300, had a slew of talk shows come and go, with the shows moving to KOL after KLFE went Catholic about 2-3 years ago.

Charlie Kirk's show had been more or less a mainstay on KLFE during the night-time hours, often between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. When KLFE went Catholic, his show moved to KOL.

Kirk struck me as a quick-minded conservative, and he seemed to be very effective at debate. He seemed to take to radio naturally.

THE 2010's & Early 2020's -- THE NEXT WAVE OF TALK HOSTS

Kirk and a handful of other Millennial conservative influencers and speakers -- like Ben Shapiro, Michael Knowles, and Matt Walsh being the better known ones -- were not only on conservative radio stations nationwide, they also migrated with ease to the internet, adapting to the new medium with aplomb, and several of them started successful conservative podcasts.

 KLFE 1590 was a key 'second tier' conservative talk station in the 2010's and early 2020's, up until it flipped to Catholic Relevant Radio in August, 2022. Charlie Kirk was on KLFE, along with other up-and-coming conservative radio talkers over the latter half of the 2010's, until such programming was moved to KOL 1300 when KLFE went Catholic.

Here in Seattle, shows by these youthful GenX and Millennial radio conservatives were on several stations, with the stations changing as ownerships changed, while shows got added and dropped, and formats flipped over the years. KLFE 1590 had a few of these shows, including shows by younger talk influencers Steve Deace and Andy Dean. So did KTTH 770. When KLFE 1590 went Catholic, several of KLFE's conservative shows went to KOL 1300. Charlie Kirk's show was one of them.

Kirk, like the others -- Andy Dean, Steve Deace, Michael Knowles, Ben Shapiro, etc. -- struck me as a sort of 'next wave' of conservative talk hosts and personalities, ready to take over after the Boomer and older GenX hosts either retired or left the radio airwaves.

The younger conservative hosts' talk shows varied in success. Some, like Andy Dean and Steve Deace, seemed to disappear from the Seattle airwaves by the mid 2010's. But tuning around the AM band at night during the 2010's, you could hear a lot of these 'next wave' of talk hosts, Kirk included.

Progressive talkers had less success than conservative talkers, and -- unlike the conservative radio talk shows -- the progressives had no 'next wave' of liberal, radio talk hosts. The progressive talkers had no equivalents to Charlie Kirk and Ben Shapiro. Instead, the younger liberal talkers showed up on the internet only. 

On the other side of the political spectrum, progressive radio shows seemed to die out soon after Air America went defunct in the early 2010's, and any 'next wave' of progressive talkers eschewed radio, in favor of internet podcasts.

I remember listening nightly to KPTK 1090 in the early 2010's. KPTK (now a conservative talk station, KPTR) had a lively set of liberal talk hosts -- from Randi Rhodes to Ed Schultz and Mike Malloy. After the last few progressive talk stations folded or flipped to other formats, liberal and progressive commentators like David Pakman, TYT and Democracy Now! were found on the internet only. For some reason, progressive talk never had the same success that the conservative talk shows had.

The conservative talkers -- older and 'next wave' alike -- had more success and staying power on the radio airwaves, with Charlie Kirk being one of them.

'SCOTLAND THE BRAVE'

I last heard Kirk's show while tuning around at night a couple weeks ago, when Kirk's show -- which usually opened and closed with the bagpipe tune "Scotland The Brave" -- was playing. It was a radio broadcast of what sounded like a speaking event.

Now, of course, Mr. Kirk is gone, and the political scene in the US right now is in turmoil because of his assassination. The shooter / sniper, who apparently used a high powered, bolt-action rifle, is still at large as of my writing this, and there are numerous questions about this assassin, and the assassination, that need to be addressed and answered.

Any time that a major political figure is shot and/or killed -- regardless of their politics -- it is a dangerous time for America. Any perusal of social media after Kirk's death indicates this -- tempers are running high.

Democracy can only thrive if there is freedom of speech, and the tolerance of free speech that should go with it. Americans of all political persuasions need to remember this. At times like this, we need to remember the things we have in common, and concentrate on those things, over the things that may divide us.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Mr. Kirk's wife and two little kids. My family is all dead, so I at least have some semblance of great loss. When my father died in 1984, my mother started to get a mental illness. It was like someone had dumped a ton of boulders on my shoulders. Eventually my mother's illness was abated by a new medical drug, and for 30 years she led an active, fulfilling life -- but my dad's death was still devastating. I still miss him.

That said, I can not fathom what it must feel to be in Charlie's wife's and kid's shoes.  I hope that in some way they are able to overcome their pain, especially those two little kids.

Peace, folks.

C.C., September 11th, 2025.

HOWARD STERN: the Shock Jock That Won't Go Away -- and what his new Sirius contract debacle says about Radio

The logo of SiriusXM, the Satellite Radio service which has been Howard Stern's radio home since 2006.

Howard Stern is one of the last holdouts from the 'Shock Jock' era that graced FM radio in the US during the late 1990's and 2000's. I never listened to Howard, but had workmates who listened to him every morning, even while working. Stern is hailed by many in the Radio business as one of the greats in Radio.

Recently, Stern's show, on the SiriusXM Satellite Radio network, has made the news. The Sun newspaper (out of the US), printed an article early in August, where an unnamed source said that Stern's show -- which has run on Sirius since 2006 -- would be dropped because of decreasing audience numbers, and because his show is reportedly losing money.

Here is a link to The Sun article that started the Stern 'cancelled show' controversy.:

https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/14910416/howard-stern-show-canceled-contract-up/

Just this past week, however, some news outlets are reporting that Stern's show will indeed continue. And being that Stern is returning to his SiriusXM show after a vacation, it's certain he will quell the cancellation rumors while on the air.

QUESTIONABLE RELEVANCE IN A PODCAST WORLD

That said, the fact that there even is such talk about a possible cancellation of Stern's show is telling. Such talk would have been unthinkable 15 years ago. The cancellation of some night time TV talk shows, like Stephen Colbert -- which has had faltering viewership and, like Stern's radio show, Colbert's show is high cost -- has made a lot of Radio and TV observers discuss the issues such 'legacy media' are having in today's podcast and streaming driven world. Legacy shows are losing listeners and viewers. Many are saying that the shows are starting to cost too much. The salaries in the contracts are not in line with the audience numbers.

Here is one of the articles discussing the Stern cancellation rumors, from the Yahoo! news aggregator (yeah, the link itself is long winded, but it's genuine -- goes straight to the article).:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/howard-stern-trolls-tabloids-over-191125931.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALH8Nb19Wo2-PT5YzFjHUu79EgxDQx-6jCS_P-xNwrDNe_0rkzT5Vq27sSgTMBRR7gwmn22zd4bDuJDKLJqUTGPy4azMPgMbTzOfnHSndLHa7F5LGNQg-x6e71qdlO64pXSC4CFs-FrPmepQcX8fUU_VYAwZVvdmHX1rDy6gkaUj

Thanks to articles like these, throughout the first half of August, a lot of Radio industry fans and observers were speculating about Stern, wondering whether his show would truly be cancelled by Sirius, or whether his show was relevant anymore. There was also a lot of discussion about it on Stern fan social media. While the conclusion seemed to be that the cancellation rumors could have been a negotiating tactic put out by SiriusXM, many Stern fans seemed to think that Howard's day has come and gone.

I read lots of fan complaints about the declining quality of his radio show, and many former fans were disgruntled by Stern's political stances, especially during the Trump and Covid eras. One guy in a YouTube comment said "Howard said he wanted all his listeners who voted for Trump to go away. He got his wish."

It looks now like his show will continue, though, and he will probably be renewed. And if that's actually the case, I'm glad to hear Howard Stern's show is staying on the air. Even though Sirius is not Over-The-Air radio, it is Radio just the same, and if he can stay on the air, I say power to him.

UPDATE, September 4th.: 

The Hollywood Reporter stated today that SiriusXM and Stern are in negotiations, and SiriusXM believes Stern is important in their lineup. So it still appears Stern's show will probably remain on SiriusXM.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/howard-stern-siriusxm-contract-renewal-talks-ceo-1236361099/#:~:text=So%20What%20Could%20Be%20Killing,service%2C%20or%20that%20particular%20genre.

THE BIGGEST ISSUE IS THE NUMBERS, WHATEVER THEY ARE...

But that doesn't change the numbers. During many online discussions, and a few articles I read, and a couple podcasts I watched, Stern's listenership numbers were discussed, and what numbers were put out there weren't exactly encouraging.

Numbers like $100 million a year being paid out for a show that reportedly (and SiriusXM generally keeps such numbers to themselves) only has an average of 100,000 listeners a day. During Stern's heyday, when he was still on terrestrial Radio (in 60 cities across the US) he had 26 Million listeners.

When Stern first joined up with Sirius in 2006, it is reported that Sirius's numbers went up from 600K users to 6 million. That's how popular Howard Stern was at the time.

Here is a good article on Stern's ascendancy and the current predicament the show seems to be facing.:

https://www.gq.com/story/howard-stern-sirius-cancelled

Of course, the current 100K Stern show listener figure may be inaccurate. It comes from leaked information.

IF the number is actually in the ball park, however, all one has to do is just get a calculator and do the math. $100 Million a year for 100K listeners is $1,000 a listener, which is much higher than the full SiriusXM annual subscription price.

If terrestrial radio stations had to pay out $1K per listener, some of them would probably go broke. There are YouTube podcasters and probably some social media influencers that get better numbers. 

To see the numbers in a proper perspective, the top local Radio stations in my market, Seattle, average about 200K-300K listeners. In Radio parlance, it's called 'Cume'. Some stations with decent ratings have less total listeners than 200K-300K, because of the hours and time spent listening. When it comes to ratings and Radio, there are all sorts of numbers that get crunched differently.

That said, the number of listeners to Howard Stern's show -- IF the numbers that have been leaked are accurate at all -- may be less than your mid-ranging FM station in a major city like Seattle.

And, if the numbers are accurate, it's definitely a very large drop from 26 Million, over the air Radio listeners in 2005 to 100K Satellite listeners in 2025. And even if the 100K number is inaccurate, it's certain that in today's internet streaming universe, where podcasts increasingly rule, where Radio and TV are both losing audience to everything from streaming music to video games -- Stern's audience has numerous alternatives for entertainment. And they have definitely many more alternatives than they had in 2005.

The competition in the audio entertainment universe is almost infinite.

Even so, the latest news and rumors indicate that that with Stern being one of Sirius's big stars, apparently the satellite company sees a return for their continued investment. So -- at least as of September 2nd, the day of this article being published -- all is still well. Howard's still on the Satellite, SiriusXM is happy having him in their lineup, and all is back to normal again.

WHAT THIS ALL SAYS ABOUT THE RADIO BUSINESS TODAY

So, what does this controversy mean for Radio in general? 

Obviously, it's an indicator that Radio itself is changing, and it's a long, long way removed from the vital and fun industry that it was during Stern's heyday -- the 1990's and 2000's.

A banner from The Buzz FM's heyday in the early 2000's

courtesy https://radiostickeroftheday.blogspot.com/2012/01/kqbz.html

Stern, and a handful of other 'shock jock' style, 'hot talk' hosts (the two Radio 'formats' or 'subgenres' sort of interloped), really gave Radio a boost during the 1990's and into the new Millennium. I listened to a few of these guys: Tom Leykis was entertaining, and had a large audience, considering that at the time he was on a small number of stations when compared to Howard Stern.

Phil Hendrie -- like Leykis, also based out of Los Angeles -- was more of a comedian than a 'shock talker', but his show was played on many of the same radio stations that Stern was on. Both of these shows (Leykis and Hendrie) played in Seattle on 'The Buzz', KQBZ-FM, 100.7. There was a local 'hot talk' guy on The Buzz, B.J. Shea, who I also sometimes listened to, during the mornings.

The Buzz, styled somewhat after Los Angeles's KLSX-FM, was one of several, similar hot talk or shock talk stations across the US, aiming at male audiences. The Buzz, launched in May 1999 (at the height of the Nu-Metal and Rap Rock era), featured Leykis and some other 'shock talkers', until the 'talk for guys' format was 'blown up' in November 2005. Some of these 'shock talk' stations had Stern in the mornings. Others had local Stern-wannabes or one of the other popular, syndicated morning 'shock talk' shows. 

Here's the Wiki on KQBZ 100.7, now a country station ('The Wolf').

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KKWF

The logo for Los Angeles's KLSX, a station that had a bunch of (mostly LA based) 'shock talk' shows, similar in style to Howard Stern's.

Los Angeles's KLSX, Tom Leykis's flagship station in the 2000's, didn't last too much longer than KQBZ. It was flipped to Top-40 in early 2009. Below is the link to an article on its demise. One could say that KLSX's lifetime mirrored the 'hot talk / shock talk' format in general. It was big, but didn't last long after the end of the first decade of the new Millennium.:

https://www.ocweekly.com/music-a-sad-day-for-radio-the-demise-of-971-klsx-6570276/

A lot of these 'shock talk' shows -- both local and national -- owed at least some of their notoriety to Howard Stern, who was the king of them all. They all had their schtick -- but Howard Stern set the initial template.

During the 90's and 00's, Stern was on the Seattle rocker KISW during the mornings. I either was asleep, or if I was on day shift, I was too busy working to tune into his show. The few times I was exposed to Stern's show was his 'E!' Cable TV show, which I saw at my mom and stepfather's house, as they had satellite TV, and 'E!' was one of the channels. I watched a few episodes of Stern's TV show (which was just his radio show with TV cameras), and I just couldn't get into the humor of it.

SPANKING A PORN STAR, LIVE ON MIKE

One show that stuck out particularly was when Stern interviewed a female porn star, and he had her lie over his knee as he spanked her through her tight leather trousers while she announced where her next live performance would be (I think she was touring the US as a dancer -- but I don't really remember).

I'm sure that having a porn star spanked hard, live on mike, made for interesting radio. Apparently Stern had a lot of shows that were edgy like that. During that era, there were other 'shock jocks' or 'shock talkers', who made names for themselves regionally and even nationally, and they often got their shows played in tens of rock or 'shock talk' FM stations across the US. Bubba The Love Sponge -- based out of Florida -- was one of them. Opie and Anthony, a shock talk duo based out of New York City, were hosts of another show that was big.

I remember reading about these shows' popularity in the Radio magazines and Radio press, being that the company I worked for had many of these periodicals on the main desk in the hallway for the music directors, consultants, and sound operations guys like me to read and look over.

THE 1990'S and 2000's -- A BOOM TIME FOR RADIO

Looking back, it was a boom time for Radio. Nu-Metal, Rap, and Rap rock were rocking the airwaves, Country music was still booming, pop music was hot and super-popular, and the talk/shock jock trend was keeping the talk side of Radio lively. 

Conservative and other talk radio was still vibrant. Regardless of one's political views about him or his conservative compatriots, Rush Limbaugh's show -- especially in the 1990's -- was lively talk radio. And he had numerous imitators (Ken Hamblin, Michael Reagan, Ollie North, etc.), all of whom were cashing in on the conservative talk craze. And on the other side of the political spectrum, Air America tried to cash in on the talk craze as well. Some of their liberal, 'hot political talk' style shows were pretty good.

In the 1990's and early 2000's it was hard to tune a radio dial on either AM or FM radio in the US and find boring programming.

And, in the still-heady days before the big Crash in 2008-2009, Radio was making decent money. More than twice as much as Radio makes today -- when accounting for inflation.

Today? 'Making decent money' is not so much the case. And is Radio programming interesting or exciting anymore? It's a good question.

And Howard Stern's slow decline as a relevant and popular Satellite Radio show is just another indicator of that. 

Ultimately, it's the numbers that count -- and any way you slice and dice it, the numbers are down. 

And that seems to be common industry wide. Even highly rated Radio stations aren't making the money -- nor do they have the same numbers of listeners -- that they had in 2006, when Stern went from FM terrestrial radio to Sirius.

I'm not sure how the overall numbers of Sirius/XM are holding up. I've read conflicting reports that they are either holding steady, or dropping slowly. Being that SiriusXM has a streaming service, I suppose that makes up for any loss in Satellite listening numbers.

In the early 2000's, Satellite Radio was the big new deal. Terrestrial Radio was afraid of both Sirius and XM, when both of those services were introduced. I remember it being discussed in the Radio press during that time.

It turned out that neither Sirius nor XM were going to kill terrestrial radio -- instead, that was left to internet streaming and a combination of other factors I go into in this article 'Who Killed Radio?' which you can see here.:

https://interrocknation.blogspot.com/2024/02/who-killed-radio-processes-people-and.html

The article is lengthy, and a bit drawn out, but it describes, in detail, each of the factors that led to Radio's decline -- basically, a combination of advances in technology, demographic changes, bad laws, dicey economics (Crash of 2008-2009 anyone?), and bad decisions by many in the Radio and Recording industries.

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, RIGHT?

I wish Howard Stern well. He's an icon, and anyone who worked in Radio during the 90's and 00's is aware that he really revved up morning talk radio and hot talk in general. 

I have the soundtrack CD to his early 2000's movie Private Parts. I got it because Type O Negative had a B-side that they made for that CD, their version of Pictures Of Matchstick Men (featuring Ozzy Osbourne on vocals). 

I still have the CD, just don't have a working CD player anymore to play it on. :-(

I miss those days.

Peace.

C.C., -- Tuesday a.m., September 2nd, 2025.

ADDENDUM, Sept. 22nd, 2025:

I had to edit the information on the 'Late Show' with Stephen Colbert. For some reason I got the name wrong originally -- where I stated it was Jimmy Kimmel whose show was slated for cancellation instead. At the time I wrote this article, Kimmel's show was not in danger of cancellation. That error has been corrected. Being that I don't watch TV, I had merely gotten the two late night show hosts' names confused by accident. Of course, after Charlie Kirk's assassination, Kimmel's show came into controversy, he was suspended from his show -- and some are stating that Kimmel's ratings have dipped over the past year just as Colbert's have. But when I originally wrote this article, Colbert's show was the one I intended to mention here, not Kimmel's.