The Mochi Tapes

The broadcast aired on September 16th on 88.5 Glacier City Radio, helmed by the host Mochi, represents a profound exercise in radiophonic liminality that demands a rigorous cultural interrogation. Commencing at 6:12 AM and stretching through the transition to 9:34 AM, the session occupies the fragile intersection between night and day, framed by the host […]

The recording begins with the unmistakable, low-level magnetic hiss of a late-1990s cassette, a sonic artifact found years later in a cardboard box within the quietude of a Girdwood cabin. As the needle of the archival history drops, we are transported to 8:14 AM on a Tuesday morning in the autumn of 1997. From the […]

The early morning air of September 8, 1997, arrived in the Girdwood valley as a thick, multi-hued gray, a wet Alaskan Tuesday defined by a persistent rain that seemed to dissolve the edges of the jagged landscape. As the community began the slow process of crawling out of bed at 6:20 AM, the atmosphere was […]

At 7:44 AM on Tuesday, September 2, 1997, the airwaves of 88.5 Glacier City Radio—a pirate station broadcasting from a turret on a house in the ski town of Girdwood, Alaska—began to vibrate with a specific, caustic energy. The host, Mochi, opened the broadcast as the sun started its climb over the mountain peaks, grounding […]

The historical record of the figure known as Mochi begins with a discovery made deep in the Girdwood Valley of Alaska. Inside a weathered cardboard box tucked away in an old cabin, a series of cassette tapes preserved a sequence of broadcasts that pre-date his later, more polished work on pirate radio. This specific transmission, […]

Frequency of the Indian River: Why a 1996 Alaskan Pirate Radio Tape is the Antidote to 2024 1. Introduction: The Ghost in the Girdwood Valley The discovery was unremarkable at first—a weathered cardboard box tucked into the corner of a cabin deep in Alaska’s Girdwood Valley. Inside, a collection of cassette tapes recorded by a […]