? Animal controller sits beside gorillas of the mist
Local artist and pirate radio broadcaster Sam Broad has been approached to create a unique mural for the Hutt City
Sam Broad started his day early with a request for porridge from his kids Max and Gloria, three and seven, he said ?it?s a little heavy for the morning? but obliges all the same. Mr Broad makes his ?bread and butter? picture framing in his garage studio, where his passion for printmaking and painting finds space ?as a side effect?. ?We are in a typical Moera railway cottage, we have this huge garage, double deep and wide, you could park two Volkswagens towing boats on the back in here.? Last month The Hutt City Council approached him to discuss a public mural for Moera, and a site near Ava Bridge is currently under investigation. ?They say the Hutt needs some different styles of public art ... Moera would be great because it has that typical hilarious phenomena of three fish and chip shops, three dairies, a cafe, a shoe repair place ? you know what the socio-demographic is aye,? he laughs. For the moment a local mural is on the backburner, but going full tilt is the non-commercial radio station he launched upon moving to the area in 2006. His 107.5 Matrix FM frequency beams out an eclectic mix; from Bertrand Russell to psychedelic bard Terence McKenna and US comedians George Carlin and Bill Hicks. ?We started pumping it out while moving into the home and upgrading the house, an old computer hooked up to a radio antenna is all you need to legally broadcast at one watt. ?Lately there is stuff on psychotropic plants and shamanism, anthropologists explaining that 50,000 years-ago when the human brain size doubled we were coming down from the trees and eating psychotropic mushrooms and plants. ?It?s another take on the rituals of our evolution from monkeys,? said Mr Broad. His station has a four kilometre range and on its fringes competes with another pirate radio station in Normandale, which plays ?non-stop elevator music? and has a ?full right to do it?. The station was inspired by Matrix FM in Wellington?s CBD, which was in turn inspired by Chomsky FM that pumps out ?Noam Chomsky rants 24/7 in Auckland?. ?There are a lot of American accents [broadcast] because that is where much of the free podcasts are coming from. ?We are playing those things you don?t hear in the mainstream media, things on freedom of speech, on alternative systems of government, on different ways of thinking and questioning. ?Lately I?ve had people giving sceptical analysis of our world; it?s atheist, scientific and questions the ideologies that people follow,? said Mr Broad. As the station?s popularity increases locals have brought in recordings to be played on the airwaves. Live music makes up a small quota of the stations output, which Mr Broad and others gather in collaboration with local artists. Supplement your day around Moera at 107.5 FM or visit www.sambroad.co.nz
