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|
 Each
station profile has its own nuances, and together they present an interesting
cross-section of the politics that take part in the microradio
movement. KRVL was the
most public pirate on Tucson's
dial and declared itself quasi-legal on First Amendment grounds. KRVL's
crew (which include the millionaire Marshall Home and Aage Nost, along
with Shane Eden) generally dispute federal authority in any form. This
was
painfully demonstrated in two scenes.
In the first, the trio disrupts an LPFM
teach-in session hosted by a representative of the Prometheus Radio
Project - a very misguided protest against federal license authority.
The second is when Marshall Home gets rhetorically spanked in a
state court for
failing
to purchase
license
plates for
his car.
"To me, the folks at KRVL are at
once heroic and tragic," said Lahey. "They're heroic because
they stand up for what they believe in," even more so because
they do it in the face of adversity. "But they're tragic in that
they are tactless [and] sometimes misguided, and often seemed more
concerned
with thumbing their noses at the government than building a community
following. The footage bore this out, so that's the film you ultimately
see. Had they been able to galvanize the Tucson community into getting
behind their station, you would have seen a different film."
 These
incidents are genuine wince-moments; Lahey says they're essential to
the truth of the story. "Some
have argued that by showing the warts and all of KRVL, I undercut the
argument for why we need LPFM. My response is that if we truly democratize
the airwaves, we will get a cross-section of different people and stations
not unlike those found in Making Waves, some [of whom] would
appeal to many, some of which would not. And while the folks at KRVL
may not
be the poster boys for LPFM, I think that by exploring their station,
the audience sees and understands the challenges of putting together
a
[sustainable] radio station."
Without giving too much more away, there's
an irony that of the stations profiled in Making Waves, Radio
Limbo is the only surviving station. "I think that
the open battle that stations like KRVL wage against the FCC is riskier
than Limbo's clandestine operation, but I'm not so sure in the current
climate if it's the most effective," comments Lahey. "As
[Limbo founder] David Forbes says in the film, you can stick up for
your rights, but when you get busted, it is better that you weren't
sticking up at that particular time."
 Reverend
Strawcutter's story swerves from profile to narrative and back again,
but his stature
and partial success in challenging
the FCC allow him the pulpit to present a pretty impassioned overview
of microradio in the U.S. This, too, is not bereft of candidness:
Strawcutter's perspective
on the movement's health is pessimistic at best. Lahey respectfully
disagrees. "A number of positive things have happened in the last
few months that have revived legal LPFM and have me somewhat optimistic
about its future...[but]...the NAB, Michael Powell, and the [Bush]
administration have been less than kind to LPFM, [they] provide big
hurdles to overcome,
so I'm remaining cautiously optimistic."
Acclaimed
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