''On the Air Live with Captain Midnight'' is a 1979 American

comedy-drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

directed by

Beverly Sebastian Beverly Sebastian is an American film director, writer, and cinematographer whose independent films in the 1970s and 1980s were predominantly Exploitation film, exploitation pictures similar to the work of Roger Corman and other directors in the ...

and Ferd Sebastian with Tracy Sebastian as Marvin Ziegler,TV Guide
/ref> also known as Captain Midnight (not to be confused with the

Captain Midnight ''Captain Midnight'' (later rebranded on television as ''Jet Jackson, Flying Commando'') is a United States, U.S. adventure franchise first broadcast as a radio serial from 1938 to 1949. The character's popularity throughout the 1940s and into ...

serial character from the 1930s and 1940s), who runs his own

pirate radio Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are received—especially w ...

station and becomes an underground cult hit. The film was released in 1979 although it was filmed in 1977. The film is about a teenager who has a mobile broadcast transmitter in his van that allows him to take over the airwaves as a renegade

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...

. Veteran Los Angeles DJ

Jim Ladd Jim Ladd (born January 17, 1948), an American disc jockey, radio producer and writer, is one of the few notable remaining freeform rock DJs in United States commercial radio. Ladd first gained national prominence as host of the hour long, natio ...

co-stars in the film as a disc jockey.

In popular culture

Drawing upon the pirate radio themes in the film, the protagonist's name was later used in the 1986

pirate satellite broadcast on HBO protesting scrambling equipment and high fees.

References

External links

* Vansploitation films 1979 films Films about pirate radio 1979 comedy-drama films 1970s English-language films American comedy-drama films Films directed by Beverly Sebastian Films directed by Ferd Sebastian 1970s American films {{comedy-drama-film-stub