Lucky 7 (pirate TV station)
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Branding | Lucky 7 |
History | |
First air date | April 14, 1978 |
Last air date | April 16, 1978 (2 days) |
Lucky 7 was a pirate television station, believed to be one of the first ever to operate in the United States, that aired for three nights in the spring of 1978 in Syracuse, New York.
Operation
Lucky 7 (operated by the "Renegade Broadcasting Company") aired for a total of 25 hours during the evenings of April 14–16, 1978 on VHF channel 7, an otherwise-unoccupied frequency in the Syracuse area.[1][2]
Programs aired by Lucky 7 included episodes of such TV series as
According to reports by the Associated Press and The New York Times, a man with a gas mask and a noose around his neck was seen onscreen occasionally,[1][3] editorializing and claiming that half the TVs in the Syracuse area were able to see the broadcasts. Station identification featured a pair of dice rolled to seven, backed by female singers (reportedly from Syracuse University's Crouse Music School).[2][3] Lucky 7 made national news, with non-pirate Syracuse TV stations featuring bits of the pirate broadcasts on their own news shows.[citation needed]
Aftermath
As of 2024, the identity of the pirates remains unknown.
At the time of broadcast, a
A contemporary article in The Daily Orange, the Syracuse University student newspaper, reported that Lucky 7 accomplished the broadcasts by "attaching an RF modulator to a videotape recorder and intensifying the [...] signal with an old guitar amplifier." The report also noted that the transmissions "reportedly came from the Thornden Park area," and that "anywhere from two to 25 people were involved in the project." The article quoted one of the programmers as saying they were going "way underground," adding "It started as an experiment. It backfired enormously [...] We got nervous when we saw it was making a big splash."[4]
References
- ^ Newspapers.com.
- ^ Newspapers.com.
- ^ Ocala Star-Banner. April 20, 1978. p. 5A. Archivedfrom the original on August 15, 2022. Retrieved February 14, 2017.
- ^ a b Naughton, Jim (1978-04-20). "Pirate TV Station Makes Waves" (PDF). The Daily Orange. The Daily Orange Corporation. pp. 803–819. Archived from the original on 2016-01-20. Retrieved 2024-03-20.
- Townsquare Media, Inc. Archivedfrom the original on August 15, 2022. Retrieved September 23, 2020.