Jack Black has signed on as an govt producer for a brand new movie about pirate radio.
The 56-year-old actor’s documentary 40 Watts From Nowhere will chart the rise and fall of Nineteen Nineties Los Angeles station KBLT and the broader low-power FM motion of the period.
Directed by Sue Carpenter, the movie recounts the story of how a small, 40-watt FM station run from an house closet in Silver Lake turned an underground hub for punk and different music earlier than it was ultimately shut down by the Federal Communications Fee in 1998.
The mission combines unique footage shot throughout KBLT’s heyday with new interviews recorded in 2023.
Asserting his involvement in a characteristically energetic video posted on-line, Jack stated: “Again within the day, company rock radio stations solely performed what they needed you to listen to.
“However within the mid-‘90s a gaggle of punk rock legends and native youngsters from an L.A. neighborhood took issues into their very own palms, took over the airwaves and performed regardless of the hell they needed.
“It was towards the regulation, it was towards the grain, and it was run out of an house closet — however it was one of the best goddamn music you possibly can hear on the FM dial!… till the FCC shut it down.
“I’ll be bringing you this story in a brand new documentary, ‘40 Watts From Nowhere,’ broadcasting into your mind someday quickly!”
Sue Carpenter based KBLT in 1995 after a authorized ruling led to a surge of low-power – although technically unlawful – radio operators throughout america.
Working 24 hours a day from her house, the station drew the eye of musicians and followers throughout Los Angeles.
Native acts supported the mission, with the group Mazzy Star performing a profit live performance and the Purple Sizzling Chili Peppers enjoying dwell from Carpenter’s lounge.
The station’s DJs included punk veterans comparable to Keith Morris of the Circle Jerks, Mike Watt of Minutemen and Firehose and Don Bolles of the Germs.
Guitarist Tom Morello of Rage In opposition to the Machine additionally options within the movie’s current interviews.
Sue added: “40 Watts From Nowhere wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t found 12 hours of footage from 1998 that I by no means even knew existed till early 2023.
“One of many DJs began filming the station, considering he would make a documentary about it as a result of he had by no means heard of anybody operating a pirate radio station in L.A. earlier than. As a substitute of creating the film, he threw the mini DV tapes in a field.”
She continued: “I hadn’t spoken to that DJ in 25 years when he reached out to me in early 2023 to say he had simply discovered them in his storage and requested if I needed them.
“After all, I stated sure. Going by way of the footage, I noticed he had captured your entire arc of the story, from its full-tilt heyday in the summertime of 1998 when the station was working 24 hours a day with a distinct DJ each two hours to its shutdown by the Federal Communications Fee later that 12 months.
“I approached the movie the identical approach I approached the radio station. I had no concept what I used to be doing, however I felt very strongly that I wanted to make it occur. So I did.”
The documentary, produced in affiliation with Jack’s firm Electrical Dynamite, is anticipated to premiere in 2026, in line with Warner Bros. Discovery.