Keeping An Eye On Big Brother

In a time of universal deceit,
telling the truth is a revolutionary act. — George Orwell

Tony Packes

www.animalfarmshow.com

AFTER DOING MONTHS OF RESEARCH on 9/11, I had eventually come to the inevitable conclusion that (at some level) certain elements of the United States Government were definitely involved in carrying out the attacks.

The NEW AMERICAN
DREAM Interview

I believe that we have essentially
replaced the red curtain with a blue one,
but the show taking place back stage is still the same.

TONY PACKES, 27, lives in Hawthorne, New York.

He is one of the hosts of the Animal Farm Radio Show.

The program has been on the air since October 2007.

Tony describes the format and mission of the show as “a new, fresh and fast pace news and information radio talk show.”




NAD: Tony, hello. How are you?

Your "radio name" is Tony Pax, do I have that right?

Is there any deep background to that, or is it just a cool radio name?

How about the name of the show.

What do you mean by that?

Who came up with it?


TONY PACKES:

I am fine thank you.

Yes, my radio name is Tony Pax.

“Pax” is just an easy way to pronounce my real last name, which is spelled “Packes."

I decided to change it for radio to make it easy, and I suppose – cool.

The name “The Animal Farm” was named after the George Orwell novel written in 1945.

I came up with the idea.

I had a genuine thirst
for learning
and tried to put the seemingly
infinite pieces of new information
together to form a bigger picture.

NAD: What "network" do you broadcast with?

Is WFU network the real name?

How does all that work? What kind of equipment do you need?

Are the three of you in one building? At your separate homes? Who are your fellow hosts?

Who are you guys? Where are you from? Where did you meet? Do you have any idea how many listeners you have?

Have you always had the need to be on the radio?

What is your day job? How about the other guys? It's a daily show.

That sounds like a lot of work. Is it a grind?

[Geez, that's waaay too many questions, right?

Do we have that right?

Too many?

Huh?]


TONY PACKES:

Yes, the Animal Farm Radio Show currently broadcasts on WFUR — The Freedom Underground Radio Network (www.wfuradio.com).

To my knowledge, the name was created by talk show host Jack Blood and station manager Danny Romero.

The Network is based out of a studio in Austin Texas.

As far as our equipment goes, Ben, Pieth and I all have individual microphones, mixing boards and computers which all feed into a multi-channel mixing board on my desk. I then send all of the signals from the mixing board into a CDQ 1000 ISDN audio codec, which then feeds the signal into an Adtran ISU 128 Modem.

ISDN stands for Integrated Services Digital Network and offers a dependable, high quality audio signal.

We currently run our show out of our new studio in downtown Stamford, CT – so yes, we all sit in the same room during the show.

My fellow hosts are Ben Miller and my older brother Pieth.

Ben is a host like me in that he commentates during the show.

Pieth is in charge of all of the live sound effects and audio clips, which add entertainment and humor to the show. Pieth and Ben both reside in Connecticut and I live in New York.

Pieth met Ben in the summer of 2007 through a company he was doing freelance web production for.

He saw a Ron Paul sticker on a car in the company parking lot and later found out that the car belonged to Ben.

Having both been fans of Ron Paul, they talked a bit about politics and Pieth soon learned that Ben had once run his own radio show called “The Schwag Show” — which ran on the Revere Radio Network, an internet station based out of Florida.

One night we all gathered at The Southport Brewing Company for food and well … beer.

After some discussion, we realized that we felt the same way about many political issues facing our country and decided to start a radio show together.

The Animal Farm Radio Show was born shortly after that.

We started broadcasting on The Revere Radio Network every Friday night from 9-11pm.

We had only a handful of listeners in those days, maybe twenty or thirty at any given time.

Regardless, we really enjoyed doing the show and quickly started building our brand of talk radio from the ground up.

After about three months of broadcasting, we decided to “up the ante” and joined the (now defunct) We The People Radio Network, where we broadcasted on Tuesday and Thursday nights from 7-9pm. WTPRN was an internet/AM/FM radio station that had anywhere from 200-600 listeners.

After six months or so, we were interested in again advancing the show to a higher level. After several attempts at finding a new home, we were eventually invited to The Genesis Communications Radio Network, but turned down the offer at the last minute after finding out that Jack Blood, the host which we were supposed to follow on GCN, was fired from the Network.

Jack Blood, a good friend of ours, had contacted us one night via phone and convinced us to join him on the brand new Freedom Underground Radio Network.

Being on the radio was never something that I had seriously considered.

However, after watching the Alex Jones documentary “9/11 Martial Law: Rise Of The Police State” in early 2005, my eyes had been opened to the many unanswered questions surrounding the events which took place on that tragic day.

After doing months of research on 9/11, I had eventually come to the inevitable conclusion that (at some level) certain elements of the United States Government were definitely involved in carrying out the attacks.

The research I was doing on 9/11 had led me to look into many other historical and current events taking place in America and abroad. I suppose you could say I took a long journey down the proverbial “Rabbit Hole”, and what I had learned changed my entire perspective of world events forever.

Along the way, I starting listening to talk radio like it had become my new religion.

The Alex Jones Show, Deadline Live, The Power Hour, The Commonsense Coalition, Coast To Coast AM, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingram, Randy Rhodes etc.

You name the show, I was listening. I had a genuine thirst for learning and tried to put the seemingly infinite pieces of new information together to form a bigger picture.

So, after learning that Ben had experience in radio, it seemed like starting a radio show might be a great opportunity for me to learn, spread information, and make some kind of difference.

My full-time job is currently the radio show but I am also a musician and a freelance audio, video and web producer. Ben and Pieth are fulltime freelance web producers. Ben is a web designer and Pieth is a web developer.

My full-time job is currently the radio show but I am also a musician and a freelance audio, video and web producer. Ben and Pieth are fulltime freelance web producers. Ben is a web designer and Pieth is a web developer.

Our show now broadcasts five days a week from 6-8pm EST.

Considering our other responsibilities, it is a challenge for all of us to produce an entertaining show every day, but I think that we have managed to do pretty well so far.




NAD: You were "gone" for a while.

Where did you go? Why?


TONY PACKES:

After our fourth month of broadcasting on WTPRN, we were getting fed up with many different technical issues which were occurring there.

Issues such as our show introduction being played incorrectly, audio hiccups, and shoddy overall show production from the network eventually led us to seek an alternative home.

Once we were offered a spot on GCN, we gave the network two weeks notice, and then prepared for a two-month hiatus.

We were very excited about having two months off.

Not only did we need the time to buy equipment essential for our return, but we also wanted to use the time to improve the production of our show and create a brand new website.




NAD: Either you or one of the other guys said you "hate the government" in a recent show that I found in your archives.

Hate it why?

Do you hate it now as much as you did on November 3rd?


TONY PACKES:

(Laughing) I do recall saying that during a recent show, but believe that I was talking about my hatred for the illegal actions of our government with regards to privacy.

I take my privacy very seriously and do not like to make compromises, especially when it comes to big brother.

Overall, I do not hate the government.

I do, however, feel that there are many powerful people in our government whom are completely corrupt and are taking advantage of the powers granted to them in illegal and diabolical ways for the purpose of serving the interests of other nations and private organizations.

Likewise, I am also disgusted with “the people” of this country and how complacent and ignorant we have become as a population. Our problems cannot be blamed only on government because we Americans have failed our responsibility of keeping them in check and holding their feet to the fire.

Our problems cannot be blamed only on government because we Americans have failed our responsibility of keeping them in check and holding their feet to the fire.

As far as November 3rd goes, you could say that I am not buying Obama’s so-called “Change” whatsoever, and am very concerned with the direction the new administration plans to take this country.

There are no current evidence which suggests that the Obama Administration will end the wars we are fighting, decrease the size and power of government, cease to serve the interests of other nations and private organizations, or follow The Constitution and Bill Of Rights anymore than the Bush Administration.

I believe that we have essentially replaced the red curtain with a blue one, but the show taking place back stage is still the same.





NAD: Why are you doing this?

What do you hope to accomplish?


TONY PACKES:

The overall goal of the Animal Farm Radio show is to first offer a real alternative to the mainstream media.

Every day, we present the news and information that the mainstream media doesn’t dare talk about. Secondly, we strive to present that information in a way which is easy to listen to and digest.

I have found that many people in this country are turned away from politically driven shows because they are either boring, mindless, controlled by a political party, or convey information in a very condescending way.

And because most people in this world do not enjoy being talked down to, I believe that they simply choose to not engage in politics, or political media.

Therefore, The Animal Farm is trying to change the status quo by offering an independent and entertaining talk show where the topics are not censored by a media mogul, and where the hosts aren’t owned by any political party or mentality.

Every day, we present the news and information that the
mainstream media doesn’t dare talk about.

NAD: Who are your radio and/or comedic role models, heroes?


TONY PACKES:

My most influential radio role models are George Noory of Coast To Coast AM, Jack Blood of Deadline Live, Alex Jones of The Alex Jones Show, Katherine Albrect and Howard Stern.

I cannot speak for Ben or Pieth, but I do know that they listen to many of the same hosts.

As for my comedic role models, my favorite comic by far is George Carlin.

Carlin fans will notice that I did not say “the late George Carlin”, because he would have not been fond of that type of language.

Not only was he a master comedian, but he also incorporated many political issues throughout the years into his bits, and somehow found a way to make them all humorous in the end.

I am also a huge fan of Richard Pryor, Andrew Dice Clay, Henry Rollins, Steve Martin and Ron White.




NAD: What else? What else should we have asked?


TONY PACKES:

(Laughing) I think we have covered a lot of ground here but I will conclude with this:

As a radio talk show host and as a human being, there are so many things that I have yet to learn.

Every day, I try my best to remain as humble an individual as possible, and learn as much as I can. Although dogmatic at times, I like to consider myself a very open-minded person.

Regarding our beloved country; I am simply a guy who looks at the events taking place in these United States Of America, and is displeased with what he sees.

And because this country has given so much to me throughout my life, I am simply trying to do my best to give something back ... and change it for the better.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak my mind Mike.

Tony
www.animalfarmshow.com

_________________________

The New American Dream Feature Interviews

If you search the archives below, you will find, in a sort of order [last to first], interviews with:

Richard Flamer, Working With the Poor in Chiapas
David Ray Griffin, 9/11 Truth activist author
Barry Crimmins, U.S. comedian, author, social activist
Bret Hayworth, political reporter for the Sioux City [IA] Journal
Lisa Casey, publisher of website All Hat No Cattle
Joe & Elaine Mayer, activist couple in Rochester, Minnesota
Fr. Darrell Rupiper, U.S. priest revolutionary
Whitney Trettien, MIT student, Green Party activist
Meria Heller, radio show host
Phil Hey, professor, poet
John Crawford, book publisher
Steve Moon, Iowa Bigfoot researcher
Carol Brouillet, California social activist, 9/11 Truth
Russell Brutsche, Santa Cruz artist
Kevin Barrett, professor, radio show host, 9/11 Truth activist
A'Jamal Rashad Byndon, social activist in Omaha
Chris Rooney, Vancouver, Canada Catholic Worker, website publisher
Marc Estrin, political novelist, from the left
Peter Dale Scott, poet, professor, author, activist
Anthony Rayson, anarchist zine publisher, works with prisoners
Alice Cherbonnier, editor of The Baltimore Chronicle, an independent newspaper