Preceded six months earlier by the hugely successful 4-hour "Self-Pollution Radio" broadcast, the mobile version of Monkeywrench Radio was scaled down to basics. The broadcast was done out of a standard commercial van - the Hovercraft touring van to be exact. All the broadcasting equipment was nothing you couldn't buy at Radio Shack. At each show, the van would find a place among the tour buses and broadcast at maximum power - usually only about 30 watts! The distance the broadcast would reach was effected greatly by the topology of the land. The flat plains of Casper, Wyoming, would allow the broadcast to go about 12 miles, while the mountainous Sacramento valley only allowed for a broadcast of a few miles. Radio fever must have really caught on because the van also broadcast from the van while driving between show stops! Regardless, Monkeywrench Radio was always concerned with reaching as many people as physically possible - even if it was just for a handful of people.

Image courtesy of Ten Club

The van was manned by James Lane and David Meinert, both employees of Kelly Curtis at the time. James worked the entire tour with some non-Pearl Jam shows thrown in for good measure, while David was there for a little over half the tour. After arriving in a city, Monkeywrench Radio would start broadcasting many hours before the opening bands and fill time by playing music from the catalog-on-hand and talking with anyone who ventured near the band. With limited storage space for vinyl, CDs and cassettes, James and David encouraged people to bring by music of local bands, allowing these bands to actually be heard on radio - something nearly impossible to do on commercial radio. In addition, James and David were not professional DJs and came across in a very honest and sincere manner way, unlike modern DJs with over-enunciating banter. If a song sucked, you could expect James or Dave to tell you straight up. The word "fuck"? Apparently no problem. A return to basics where the DJ communicated with the people.