news story / By Heidi Walters

DIY Rush Limbaugh

More New Media than old, is Old Glory Radio the future?

(Feb. 19, 2009)  You’re sitting at your computer staring at something called Old Glory Radio. Near the top of the page is a podcast of a “promotion” for a reality TV show in Arcata, with the announcement that “Residents of Arcata are not eligible.”

You hit the play button: Sinister music attends an eyes-cast-down view of a litter-strewn beach. A sandal. A beer bottle. More trash. Words appear: “Only one will survive to the end.” You see a hand buried in the sand. Then more words: “Outwit. Outplay. Outlast. Survivor Arcata.”

GALLERY >

What is this?

Searching the archives, you find newscasts and interviews hosted by Old Glory Radio’s founder and producer, Tom Fredriksen, in his home studio with a backdrop of desk flags, an eagle emblem and a small photo of Sarah Palin; a puppet show starring Uncle Abdul and the Sheik; a blog; and on-scene news reports: Fredriksen, marching alone in Eureka in front of the courthouse to rally support for the McCain/Palin ticket, with the song “One is the loneliest number” as soundtrack. Fredriksen, afterward, on a bare mattress, coughing weakly in a staged hunger strike he declares he’ll continue until the Republicans come out of hiding to march with him to the sea. Fredriksen, straightforward journalist all of a sudden, conducting sympathetic interviews at a Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence picnic in support of same-sex marriage. Fredriksen, marching alone again, dressed like Yasser Arafat, holding a “Save ANWAR” sign and shouting, “Don’t drill in America!” Fredriksen mocking Barack Obama. Fredriksen mocking George Bush.

What is Old Glory Radio? And, content aside, is it even “radio” — or a harbinger of the future?

It’s both. Fredriksen also broadcasts traditionally — he threw the switch last November for Old Glory Radio News/Talk AM 1650, a licensed FCC Part 15 low-power AM station transmitted by a short antenna on the roof of Fredriksen’s modest little house to about 15,000 people around Myrtletown and east Eureka, and maybe 10,000 more just beyond — Fredriksen has had reports that his voice sometimes drifts across the bay to Arcata to jerk some knees.

“I have no illusions, it’s not reaching the whole county,” Fredriksen says of his AM station.

The station plays international and national news, and Fredriksen’s own local content. He plans to add more. Even so, the AM thing is just a sidekick to his main concern, the Old Glory Radio “Internet television” that he’s been doing for about two years and whose audience has only grown.

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