WJDI
Unquestionably one of the most memorable and powerful Pirate Stations of the late 80's and early 90's, WJDI. The stories and rumors about this station still circulate at DX gatherings. The Operator was also a Vendor at Hamfests,
along the East Coast, where he sold Coax and Connectors for many years. He is said to have been planning a "50-kw transmitter on a flatbed train car" that was supposed to run from New York to California, but this never materialized. It is also rumored that he was using a Daytime AM broadcast station as his base transmitter, where he'd change the crystal at night, tune up the coils and blast out his signal, although this was certainly not the case as you can see from the photo of the WJDI studio and 15kW transmitter used for the Christmas, 1996, broadcast (pictured above) which was located in someones basement. It played a variety of music during its full existence. The announcer would say they are "broadcasting with 1,000 clear watts". Claims of everything from 1,000-watts to 15,000-watts were made about this stations strength. Despite being a pirate, the station operator was a member of the National Radio Club. It was known as "The Pirate King". WJDI remained on until final close-down on December 25, 1996
WJDI was known for its classy, first quality QSL packages, with photo's of the operation usually included. WJDI vanished from the scene in the mid-90's never to be heard from again!
Pirate station WJDI, alleged to be from Kingston, NY from 3:27 - 3:52 a.m. on January 5, 1989. This was one of the more successful pirate stations of that time period. It remained on until final close-down on Christmas 1996. On this broadcast, received in Philadelphia, the announcer says they are broadcasting with 1,000 clear watts. From the pictures (and sound quality), it seems that the station was broadcasting with an actual AM broadcast band transmitter and not a junky modified 160 meter amateur rig.