Jack Black signed with Los Angeles pirate radio station KBLT in the 1990s as executive producer of 40 Watts From Nowhere, a documentary about the low-power FM movement of the time.
Black announced the move in the Jack Black video above.
“In the olden days, corporate rock radio stations only broadcast what they wanted to listen to,” he says in unison. “But in the mid-’90s, a group of punk rock legends and local kids near Los Angeles solved problems with their own hands, took over the airwaves, and performed whatever they wanted. It was against the law, against common sense, ran out of the apartment closet. But it was the best shitty music you could hear on the FM dial! … until the FCC closed it down.”
“We’ll be bringing this story to you in a new documentary, 40 Watts From Nowhere, and broadcast it in your mind soon!” he concluded.
The document is based on vintage footage taken in 1998 and shows KBLT working in the aforementioned Silver Lake apartment closet with DJs such as Keith Morris of Circle Jerks, Mike Watt of Minutemen and Firehorse and Don Boles of Jarms.
Sue Carpenter, who overseen the document, launched a 40-watt FM station in 1995, taking advantage of a legal ruling that allowed hundreds of low-power radio operators to multiply illegally across the nation. KBLT was active outside her home 24/7, with Mazzy Starr headlined charity concerts and live Red Hot Chile Peppers in Carpenter’s living room, gaining support from the local music scene. The station was at its peak in popularity in 1998, but of course it was closed shortly afterwards by the FCC. The vintage footage, shot by the DJ for the unfinished documentary, concludes with a 2023 interview with Carpenter, including Boles, Watt, Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello and others.
“If we hadn’t discovered the 12-hour footage of 1998 that we didn’t even know until early 2023, ’40 Watts from Nowhere’ wouldn’t exist,” Carpenter said. “One of the DJs had never heard of anyone running a pirate radio station in LA, so they decided to make a documentary and started filming the station. Instead of making a film, he threw a mini domestic tape into a box.
“I hadn’t spoken to that DJ in 25 years, but he told me he contacted me at the beginning of 2023 and asked me if I wanted it because I just found it in the garage,” she continued. “Of course, I said yes. Looking at the footage, I could see that he captured the full story from the heyday of the summer of 1998 when the station was open 24 hours a day with different DJs, to the closing by the Federal Communications Commission later that year.
“I approached films the same way I approached radio stations,” she concluded. “I had no idea what I was doing, but I strongly felt that I needed to make it happen, so I did it.”
