Category: Pirate Radio

Moving Onto the Airwaves

Stephen Dunifer sent along this slick document: a four-page primer on why the airwaves are ripe for repossession and how to make it happen in your town. You get a concise overview of what the risks are and some basic tactical information. There’s a plug for Free Radio Berkeley’s more detailed graphic guide near the end. A good conversation-starter among activist-gatherings.

FCC Watch: Enforcement Tempo Quickens

The New York office has been spending a lot of time in New Jersey, perhaps in response to the state’s attempt to assert enforcement jurisdiction over the airwaves. (Meanwhile, in Florida, the FCC’s busy busting construction crane operators cursing on two-way radio frequencies licensed to a hospital.)
Out west, Berkeley Liberation Radio got another visit and the Portland Radio Authority is off the air after same. Free Radio Santa Cruz‘s Skidmark Bob did a long interview with BLR volunteer Gerald Smith, where the connection between the current station its evolution from roots in Free Radio Berkeley is vividly described. Field agents have also paid respects to stations in Nevada and New Mexico. Continue reading “FCC Watch: Enforcement Tempo Quickens”

Florida War on Pirates: Going Nowhere?

Last November, state officials got a conviction involving a used-car dealer that rented out space on a tower to two pirate stations. Accused initially of felonious unlicensed broadcasting, but he ultimately copped to a lesser charge.
But what about the cases of Marquis McDonald and Rasheem O’Riley, two men arrested last July who were held up then as being “test cases” for the new law? They were directly involved in the operation of stations and one even admitted to owning some of the radio gear police seized. Continue reading “Florida War on Pirates: Going Nowhere?”

Stern Pirates Go Coast-to-Coast

Last month FM microbroadcasters in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Minnesota began rebroadcasting the subscription-only Howard Stern show from Sirius satellite radio. Sirius got so pissed that they fired off complaints to the FCC about the NY/NJ stations and threatened to sue any online-streamers into oblivion.
They couldn’t have been happy with the report this month that Pirate Cat Radio, a station well-known for wearing its defiance on its sleeve, began carrying Stern over San Francisco. Pirate Cat’s founder, Monkey Man, told a local tee-vee station that the show would go on unless Howard himself intervenes. As for the FCC: “They can come and talk, and if they’d like to I’ll fix a pot of coffee and have my wife make ’em some cookies.” Continue reading “Stern Pirates Go Coast-to-Coast”

Dave Rabbit Reappears

The Vietnam-era GI pirate station Radio First Termer has long been a legend. DJ “Dave Rabbit” and friends played rock music and talked openly about sex, drugs, and the f*cked up nature of the U.S. military’s presence in-country. Scant audio evidence of the station has survived, and the last few decades have seen lots of speculation over whether the station and its personalities actually existed.
That speculation can now be laid to rest. A shortwave pirate sent me this PDF of a document reportedly written by Dave Rabbit himself. In it he gives details about how the station was put together (from military-grade broadcast gear courtesy of the U.S. Air Force’s “Midnight Supply”); where it broadcast from (the back room of a whorehouse in Saigon); and how long it remained on the air (a short three weeks). Continue reading “Dave Rabbit Reappears”

CBC @ NYC GMC

Next weekend is the New York City Grassroots Media Conference. There’s a massive lineup of panels and workshops now, one of which will involve a tactical discussion on microradio. This has piqued the interest of a producer from Dimanche (Sunday) Magazine, which is aired on the CBC’s Première chaîne.
She’s putting together a feature on microradio and is interested in speaking with anyone who might be attending the NYC GMC and has microradio experience. Chantal Francoeur is also no snitch: she’s willing to conduct interviews in any manner which will best preserve the subject’s anonymity, if this is desirable. E-mail her directly if you might be willing to share thoughts on what microradio means to you.

Guerrilla Marketing?

The fine folks at Clamor pointed out a BBC story about a Danish firm selling t-shirts for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). According to the retailer, a portion of each sale goes to help the organizations obtain “new equipment for radio stations and graphics workshops.”
The BBC notes that the FARC and PFLP are both considered “terrorist organizations” by the United States and European Union, which raises prickly questions about whether those that buy and sell such merchandise are in effect providing financial aid to terrorists. Given that the proceeds are explicitly designated to support media creation, though, adds a wrinkle to the consideration. However, as is increasingly the case, words and images can have as much or more power than any bomb or gun. Continue reading “Guerrilla Marketing?”

Enforcement Action Database Cracks 1,000 Actions

Just caught up on the FCC’s last two months of activity. It’s been a busy winter: 274 enforcement actions for 2006 and counting.
This includes fines, or threats of fines, of $10,000 against the transmitter-hosts of both microstations in San Diego, though escalating the enforcement process up to that level of severity remains mostly outside the FCC’s standard protocol (in related news, the agency’s Inspector General is planning an audit of its regulatory fee-collection process, something not done since 1999). Continue reading “Enforcement Action Database Cracks 1,000 Actions”

Sirius Wants Stern Pirates Silenced

Ah, the exquisite irony of indecency fine-money levied against the “old” Howard Stern radio program paying the wages of FCC field agents as they investigate acts of unlicensed broadcasting involving relays of Stern’s “new” show. Sirius has indeed petitioned the FCC to investigate the pirate rebroadcasters. The complaint reportedly only references the stations in New York and New Jersey, however, not those in the Midwest.
Patrick Reilly, Sirius flack, says: “Given the quality of Howard’s show, listening to it on a pirate radio is no way to listen to it.” I’d say the format fits the forum just fine, and I’m kind of surprised Stern’s not at least leaving the underdog alone here. I guess $500 million will do that to you.