RADIO DAYS: Pint-sized station hits listeners near Rainbow Curve

Pint-sized station hits listeners along Rainbow Curve

Radio underdog Lance Alexander Pry has been featured up and down the radio dial most of his life. Going by the on-air name Lance Alexander, he worked for rock, alternative music and news stations before starting his own pint-sized station dedicated to electronica.

The new radio station was born out of necessity. Two years ago, Pry hung up his headphones to raise his now 4-year-old daughter, Marylee.

"My wife took five years off from work to raise our son, so when Marylee was born, it was my turn to take care of her. I'm Mr. Mom now. I'm not all that impressed with the day care offerings around here, and I always hear people who wish they could have spent more time with their kids. This was the right thing for me to do," he said.

Pry began an Internet design and consulting business so he could work at home. But giving up radio all together was just too much, so he and his friends, California residents Randy Baiz and Eli Duffy, built a class 15 radio station inside a back bedroom at the Pry home.

Class 15 stations are low 100-watt AM radio stations that anyone can run with or without FCC approval as long as the stations don't cause interference with existing commercial offerings.

"At first we just started it so I could keep fresh. If you don't work the board every day, you lose the skill. You can slip," Pry said.

Pry and his friends initially used the station to talk about football.

"The other guys are Raiders fans and I'm a Charger fan. The teams don't like each other, but we do," he said.

The friends would gather on Sundays for a football game pre-show and then again for an after game "I told you so" session.

The station at 1650 AM only broadcasts for a two-mile radius around the translator -- or the Rainbow Curve -- so the sports buddies were just indulging themselves. Pry was convinced no one was listening, but he didn't care.

"Then I thought, what if I keep the station going 24/7 and see what happens," he said.

The friends picked what they saw as an underserved format, electronica.

"It's the kind of music they play in the clubs," Pry explained.

They selected music, programmed it into a station computer and put the station on the air.

For the most part the show is run by computer. Pry gets in the chair and broadcasts live occasionally. Even Marylee helps out singing her "ABC" song to entertain listeners.

"I tell jokes, too," she said.

But other than an occasional outburst or two, most of the work is done by prerecording.

Though there's no one in the DJ seat, the music sounds live. They run free commercials for anyone who pays a $50 setup fee to record the material and feed it into the computer. Plus, Pry and his friends record song and artist identification along with occasional nuggets of information to intersperse between the music.

"It's not so different from what they do at many commercial stations," Pry said. "Out of necessity and to meet expenses, a large percentage of the time, there's no one in that chair."

Pry takes requests by e-mail instead of by phone. Most requests are met within a day or so.

While electronica isn't Pry's first choice for personal listening, he feels he's meeting a need.

"There's a lot of good radio in Las Vegas. There's so much talent and they have the promotions to go with it. I didn't want to compete head to head with anyone. I don't have the bandwidth or the budget to do that, so I'm doing something no one else is doing," he said.

As for listeners, Pry knows they're out there. And he has the e-mails to prove it.

"Our listener base at any one time rivals the line in the drive-through at McDonald's," he said.

Listeners can pick up 1650 AM for a two-mile radius around Jones Boulevard and U.S. Highway 95. It's rough along the edges, reaching roughly from the Highway 95 Lake Mead Boulevard exit to the Valley View Boulevard exit.

"When I saw the department of transportation tearing up the 95, I knew I'd have a parking lot of captive listeners for years to come," he said.

Pry doesn't try to duplicate the whole valley news and traffic reports on the big stations, but frequently he'll throw in a tiny report on just his little two-mile territory.

"I get the traffic looking out my upstairs bathroom window. I can see the 95 from there and I can get an idea of how fast it's moving," he said.

As for accidents, if Pry passes one on his way home, he'll get on the horn and announce it.

In addition to the regular radio listeners, Pry reaches a worldwide audience through his live-stream Internet radio broadcasts on phatrockradio.com.

For many listeners, the Internet access is vital.

"We used to have a guy who would come from the other side of town to park in the Smith's parking lot on Jones just to listen to the station. That was before we were on the Internet," the station owner said.

Pry plans to let even more locals listen live with the possible addition of two or three more radio translators across the valley. He has friends and relatives signed up to help out by putting in translators at their homes.

Finding locations is tricky, because no homeowners organization would agree to the necessary rooftop antenna towering overhead.

Pry said each new station will still pump out only 100 watts of power, but the bubbles of sound will stretch the coverage area further.

The station owner feels the electronica format has taken off, but he and his buddies still insist on doing their football Sundays, whether the fans approve or not.

"We get e-mails telling us we should just shut up and play music, but we don't care," he said. "Format, we don't need no stinking format. And we don't worry about ratings. If people want to listen, they can. If they don't, that's up to them."


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