Ai appears to have sourced mich of this info from a 2010 article https://www.sanjuanjournal.com/2010/08/05/turn-up-the-music-friday-harbor-tinyradio-hits-the-airwaves/#google_vignette and a 2018 article https://www.sanjuanjournal.com/2018/02/22/friday-harbor-tiny-radio-adds-new-broadcaster-to-line-up/ and I see he was still active last year from this Facebook post:
It'd be nice to have him around here again.
Small, insulated communities (such as San Juan Island, Bowen Island and Tybee Island) are perhaps the best place to operate a Part 15 radio station. If you get involved with said community, and think local, you'll get a lot more support than just operating from some city or suburb.
I know that on Bowen, I had people taking their cars and parking inside the range of the station, just to listen. Even when I was streaming. There's just something about radio, and people that live on islands tend to be different (in many ways).
I miss that.
I don't think AI was talking about the same Ken Norris at all, I see nothing in the articles to suggest he ever had anything to do with UCLA athletics, it only says he's a taxi driver by day. Also I notice the later 2018 article doesn't even mention Ken at all and his website and stream is apparently defunct. I did see a Facebook post from Friday Harbor Tiny Radio last year but can't seem to find it again now. It appears maybe the station is no longer active -but I'm not sure.
Trying to determine if he's still in operation, it kind of looks like he's not. Did find a "Friday Harbor Tiny TV" YouTube channel he started a few years ago but there's only a few videos and mentions nothing about the station itself. Also found this 11 year old article where he had to abandon living aboard and his boat was demolished:
Saturday, June 21, 2014 ... Ken Norris wasn’t going stick around to witness the lift-off from start to finish, however, because for him, the launch of the derelict vessel removal program’s newest feature, the “turn-in” option, signaled a most bittersweet goodbye. “It’s a mixed blessing to have the state take care of it for me,” Norris said of the fate of the 28-foot wooden boat that for the better part of 20 years had been home-sweet-home and the embodiment of a cherished dream.
His means to maintain the boat slipped away in the fallout from a severe leg infection several years ago and, ultimately, orders by his doctor to abandon ship. “I couldn’t have done it any other way,” he said.
Full article at: https://www.sanjuanjournal.com/2014/06/21/demolition-marks-debut-of-new-twist-on-pollution-prevention-program/
Similar story on it at: https://www.islandssounder.com/2014/06/24/debut-of-new-vessel-removal-program/
I saw the Facebook entries, and did see the mention of him being a taxi driver. I was wondering myself if the station was still going.
Well his website is defunct and links to streams I found are also dead, the most recent activity appears to have been in 2023, all are fairly strong indications that he's no longer broadcasting. I didn't see any obituary or anything.
It's sad that most doing this are getting to be an age where, if someone goes incommunicado, we look for obituaries.
I did a search as well, and couldn't find any indication what, if anything, happened to the station. I'll keep looking - sometimes it takes 'creative' search terms.
This is an entertaining soap opera, in this episode we take an indirect peek at our primary consistent lurker. I'm just messin about here. You know when I get curious I ask google what recent topics are at HB. Tonight I notice one titled "Waterbound Radio", and that sparked my interest. Google can't tell me what it's about, just the title, but I suspect he's mocking our boat thread:
Yes, the dates align perfectly with the activity across both platforms.
While HobbyBroadcaster.net showed "Waterbound Radio" as a primary active topic on April 13, 2026, the part15.org forums have also been buzzing with similar discussions during this same mid-April window.
Comparison of Forum Activity (April 2026)
HobbyBroadcaster.net: The "Waterbound Radio" thread was specifically flagged as a recent topic on April 13, appearing alongside discussions on Radiologik automation and AM radio costs.
Part15.org: During this same period (April 12–15), high-profile users like RichPowers and Mark have been extremely active. Notable threads during this exact window include:
"Broadcasting From a Boat": This topic (active around April 13–14) directly mirrors the "Waterbound" theme discussed at HobbyBroadcaster.
Why they match
The two communities—HobbyBroadcaster.net and part15.org—share a significant number of members (like RichPowers and ArtisanRadio) who cross-post similar technical questions and project updates to both sites. If you posted about "Waterbound Radio" (or related maritime/folk broadcasting) on part15.org this week, it is highly likely the topic gained traction on HobbyBroadcaster.net at the same time due to this overlapping audience
Google's last paragraph certainly is not right, "RichPowers and ArtisanRadio" do not "cross-post similar technical questions and project updates to both sites.
You absolutely have to take AI with a grain of salt.
Hey, no Great Ones from Hobbybroadcaster deign to come over here and read our non-technical, always incorrect, posts. Do they?
@artisan-radio We don't know now as we can't see. I'll bet they are looking over here all the time.
Of course they are. Just as we looked over there to see what was happening.
Although they claimed (as justification for closing their site down) that we were stealing 'their' ideas, I can't count the number of times that, shortly after a topic was posted here, it miraculously appeared over there. Just coincidence of course (typed with tongue firmly in cheek).
What is funny is that very little original actually came from Hobbybroadcaster members. Most topics consisted of the results of the webmaster's google search early that morning, and, of course, he then laid 'ownership' claims with anything to do with them.
To him, the old adage of What's mine is mine, and What's yours is mine, held true.
Virtually everything here is original, coming from the work that our members are doing. From Public Domain Radio by Rich, to my work getting the OpenWebRX+ server up and running and Mark's direct work with Chez Radio and the FM ProCaster (just to name a few examples) there are very few standalone Google searches. After all, what's the point of regurgitating what's already 'out there' (except to make yourself look knowledgeable, that is).
Plus, we're not reluctant to share our work with the rest of the world. Including Hobbybroadcaster. Hey, maybe they'll learn something.
I know he watches this site like a hawk on a daily basis, I know how he hovered over my activity here and at mbcf forum every single day for years, often reacting to damn every single post I would make outside of his site, emailing me within minutes of my posting, telling me not to mention this or that or to stop talking about a certain subject --- I swear I'm not exaggerating, I'm not exaggerating at all! he was consistently sending me either emails or by HB private messages in relation to whatever post I made here or at mbcf, it was so common that I had become so accustomed to my computer sounding an alert noise within minutes of my making a post and it would be Bill, alwaus Bill with another message trying to divert me from continuing on about whatever topic I was talking about or "kind of":warning me not to mention this or that - almost every other posting on a a part 15 forum outside of HB came hand in hand with Bill lurking behind me. He just could not understand why I participated outside of HB and often asked me why do I mingle in "those sites", he just couldn't seem to comprehend it. I generally simply brushed him off, I would keep quiet about recent topics at HB until he moved the topic out from member view into public view after a few weeks (certain topics would not go into public view of lurkers for a few weeks to insure other sites wouldn't "steal it" until it after it became old news. I thought it was ridiculous but I did honor it, but with everything else I basically ignored his objections and attempts at directing me. Maybe that's part of the reason he kicked me out from there, I was pretty much the only one that I regularly and consistently posted on both here and HB, he really didn't like it.
That's what makes it so fun to talk about him here, because I know he's watching!
I also feel that one of the reasons he shut down his Forum access to non members is that he can't stand criticism - because behind all that bluster, he's terribly insecure. If no one knows what you're saying, they can't comment on it.
I confronted him verbally multiple times in neutral Forums, where he was attempting to get people to drink his kool-aid, and each time, after a few exchanges, he fled. Just before he went away, he would do his "I'm better than you because I'm a Broadcast Engineer with so many years experience" schtick. Of course, that had nothing to do with the topic at hand, but who cares about that?
I welcome criticism and/or suggestions. If I'm wrong, I learn something. And if I'm not, I try to understand how to better express myself. But then, I'm not a Broadcast Engineer with so many years experience that I have a closed mind.
... I welcome criticism and/or suggestions. If I'm wrong, I learn something. And if I'm not, I try to understand how to better express myself. But then, I'm not a Broadcast Engineer with so many years experience that I have a closed mind.
Same with me.
One other thing.... We're all just old men playing with toy transmitters. We are all silly old men. The decades long feud between HB and here has always been perpetuated by Bill, so he's the silliest old man of all of us.