KBLT Silver Lake 40 Watts From Nowhere - Official Documentary Clip

40 Watts From Nowhere: The KBLT Documentary
The true story of a Los Angeles pirate radio station that became the beloved center of the Silver Lake music community in the mid 90s.

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40 Watts From Nowhere is the real-life story of Los Angeles pirate radio station KBLT, which became the beloved center of the Silver Lake music community in the mid ‘90s. It is based around vintage footage shot in 1998 showing the station operating 24/7 out of an apartment closet with DJs running the gamut from punk rock trailblazers Mike Watt (MINUTEMEN, fIREHOSE), Keith Morris (OFF!, Circle Jerks, Black Flag) and Don Bolles (Germs, 45 Grave, Fancy Space People) to garden-variety music fans, Hollywood industry folk and a Nordstrom shoe salesman, playing literally anything from any and all genres, completely free from the boundaries of commercial radio programming practices.

“KBLT, by letting the DJs let their freak flag fly, that was very much part of the same movement that Minutemen was part of.” — Mike Watt (KBLT DJ, MINUTEMEN, fIREHOSE).

Sue Carpenter started the 40-watt FM station in 1995, exploiting a legal case that allowed hundreds of low-power illegal radio operators to proliferate throughout the country and gave birth to the legal LPFM movement. Carpenter was 28 years old, a music fan and an aspiring journalist when she first set up KBLT and invited strangers into her home to spin whatever the hell they wanted.

“The FCC was originally created to keep the airwaves at least somewhat in the hands of regular people and keep the corporations from just running amok with it. And then somewhere it switched. And now the FCC is there to bar the public from any kind of participation to maintain the corporate hegemony.” — Don Bolles (KBLT DJ, Germs, 45 Grave, Fancy Space People).

It soon took on a life of its own, drawing Mazzy Star to headline a benefit concert and the Red Hot Chili Peppers to play live in her living room. KBLT was featured in a national CBS news story in 1997 and was named LA’s best radio station and best closet radio station by the LA Weekly and New Times in 1998.

Robert Sullivan’s 1998 footage is rounded out with interviews Carpenter conducted in 2023. Interview subjects include former KBLT DJs Mike Watt, Keith Morris, Don Bolles, Laurel Stearns, Jay Babcock, Carolyn Kellogg, Brandon Jay, Chris Wagganer, Dana Pilson, Wing Ko, Tori Horowitz, Mark Kates, Mark Mauer, Miwa Okimura, Chris Carey and others; KBLT artist Camille Rose Garcia; Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello; pirate radio pioneer Stephen Dunifer; the attorney who developed the legal argument that allowed pirate radio to proliferate in the ‘90s; other ‘90s pirate operators; and music historian Joel Selvin.

“Media consolidation in that time was loathsome, and it provided a tremendous amount of power in a few hands in a very, very small funnel.” — Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine).

Sue Carpenter is an LA-based journalist currently working at Spectrum News. She has reported for the New York Times, Marketplace radio, NPR, KPCC, Road & Track, Jane magazine, Marie Claire magazine and The Source. The same day the FCC busted KBLT, she was offered a job at the Los Angeles Times, where she worked for 14 years as a feature writer and motorcycle and car critic.

#KBLT #SilverLake #PirateRadio