iRadio 'Pirates' Take to the Highways
Oct. 11, 2004— -- While Tim Lynch is wading through traffic on the way to his New Canaan, Conn., corporate consulting job, he may be the only person on the Merritt Parkway wearing a grin.
That's because he's a kind of radio pirate. And with the iPod, Apple's innovative digital music player, all it takes to hijack the airwaves is a car and a bumper sticker.
Lynch, 31, is one of a handful of iPod owners using the device to transmit FM radio stations from their car. He uses a bumper sticker on the back of his fender that reads "iPod @ 89.1 FM" to let passers-by know how to tune in.
"Every now and then I get someone who flashes their lights or I get a wave as I turn away," said Lynch. "It's just fun."
As portable as the iPod was, for Lynch and other iPod owners, it wasn't portable enough.
"For the longest time there was this gap of 'How do you get your iPod into your car?" recalled Lynch.
The answer, he said, is "easily."
"The whole thing about an iPod is it's convenient," he said. "It's natural, it's like an arm, it's an extension of you."
So how do you get the tunes in the iPod to play on your car stereo? An FM transmitter allows users to tune in to an unoccupied FM radio station and beam their tunes directly from the iPod to their car's stereo.
But using his iPod to listen to his favorite tunes on his morning commute was just the beginning for Lynch.
"I go on this road trip with a friend of mine," he said. "I'm driving along, listening to my iPod and for a goof I was thinking, 'I wonder, if it's so strong, I wonder if it's leaking outside my car.' "
In order to test the theory, Lynch did what any good scientist would do.
"I put on some profanity. Comedy, R-rated comedy, Chris Rock's early stuff. Then I called [his friend] up on his cell phone and he was two cars behind me. I said, 'You're not going to believe this, but somebody up here is broadcasting swear words! Tune to 89.1FM.' He turns to the station and he's like, 'I can't believe I'm hearing this!' It was a big joke for a few minutes."