glasscapsule – sovereign omnibus media label

Les Paul was an innovator on a whole other level. Not only did he build the first solid body electric guitar and invent multi-track recording but he was responsible for creating a building pirate radio station in Queens in the 30s. The station was wired through the building, and would broadcast pick up jazz sessions from the basement. He called it the Booger Brothers. He had a cat mascot named Static who would often meow into the mike.

Federal Agents eventually showed up because the signals were driving the pilots nuts with Jazz who were attempting to land in the NY airports. Les then build some kind wave trap to filter out the harmonics.

Unfortunately on a hot day in 1940 or 1941 Les almost electrocuted himself by touching the power unit. It took him over year to recover and that ended that. There are these surreal red records floating around which are believed to be recordings of the show.

He explains the story in this video.