Pirates on the Open Airwaves
“It’s like radio used to be during World War II, when the airwaves were used to get messages out to families and friends … to get important information out to the community.”
Renessa Lopez may sound more like Franklin Roosevelt than Blackbeard, but technically she is a pirate. As DJ icecreamlopez for Pirate Cat Radio in San Francisco, Lopez is part of a growing movement of people fed up with radio dominated by corporate giants like Clear Channel and fighting to take back the airwaves any way they can.
But grassroots voices are increasingly being denied legal access to radio space. In 2000, the FCC responded to activists’ pressure for more democratic media by licensing non-commercial stations that transmit only a few miles. Recently, though, complaints lodged by established broadcasters from corporations to NPR have slowed the number of licenses to a trickle. And even for those who can get them, licenses and approved transmitters can cost thousands of dollars.
For those without the money or the desire to be officially sanctioned by the FCC, cheap and accessible technologies are making pirate radio an increasingly popular option. Websites, books, and seminars teach people to build their own low-power transmitters. You can do it for under 50 bucks, according to Lee Montgomery of Oakland’s Neighborhood Public Radio, who runs free start-up seminars. Another option is to buy a transmitter kit online-the kind used by realtors, drive-in theaters, and the like-for $100-$300.
It may not be legal, but it gets alternative voices on the air. Some, considering corporations to be the real thieves of public airwaves, call it microbroadcasting, Micro Radio, or simply unlicensed. Others, like Lopez, prefer to be pirates.
While those behind Pirate Cat Radio do consider their actions revolutionary, they also point out that they’re just doing what they can to fill a basic civic need. On their show, Lopez and her co-host John Hell spin independent music and interview people from the community. The station is also supporting a local Get Out The Vote campaign, running announcements and programming about the upcoming election.
And in their eyes, it’s not really illegal. The producers at Pirate Cat cite title 47 section 73.3542 of the Code of Federal Regulations, updated as part of the Bush administration’s “War on Terror.” The Code grants authority to operate an unauthorized radio transmitter “in extraordinary circumstances requiring emergency operation to serve the public interest.” That, say proponents, is what pirate radio is all about.
Brooke Jarvis wrote this article as part of Liberate Your Space, the Winter 2008 issue of YES! Magazine. Brooke is a YES! editorial intern.
© 2007 YES! Magazine
Clear Channel is the pirate, first stealing then monopolizing public airways with dopey tagteam chuckleheads for the morning drive time, followed by endless hours of corporate solicitations that are occasionally interrupted with muzak for the droids.
yes,the neocons learned everything they now know,from the zippies.a return of our civilians to zippie-style revolution is most definitly needed,now !!
As Marine One lifted off one last time from the White House carrying Tricky Dick Nixon into his self-imposed San Clemente exile, he cursed the American media for bringing down his presidency. The vermin he left behind–Atwater, Ailes and their repugnant offspring like KKKarl Rove–realized to truly game the government system, they would need to control the media. We have witnessed a highly successful campaign to decapitate the independent Fourth Estate and replace it with the lapdog American corporate-controlled media, owing allegience only to corporate masters, not the American citizen. Some may call them pirates. I call them patriots. Only with citizen-controlled alternatives to the corporate media malstrom can we hope to reclaim our country. And thank whatever dieties you believe in that the free and neutral Internet had been available to report and document the enormous crimes against humanity committed by cheney*/bush* and their corporate masters. Had the Internet not been in existence, we would all still believe Iraq had WMDs and bush* was just a compassionate conservative, not the immoral war criminal and electoral thief we know him to be.
we own the public airwaves and we should use them.
too bad pirate cat ditched a whole slew of its station building dj’s when it decided to homogenize so it could go satellite. not punk enuf, ya know.
still missing SFLR, but props to Neighborhood Public Radio and Berkeley Liberation Radio.
The Clear Channel “morning show guys” are all Neocon propagandists.
Actually.. Pirates were more about Democracy and fairness than the British Navy was….
So.. I would say that it is wrong to claim that Clear Channel is more pirate like.
Pirates don’t want to be under the hand of Mighty forces like the British Navy .. or Slavery or whatever…
THat is why they always called it PIRATE radio.. it was an independent COUP away from Corporate owned radio/media.
Peace
Personally, I think the way to go is to:
1. Fight for net neutrality with every ounce of energy we have.
2. Fight for enabling legislation that allows communities to have municipally sponsered WIFI without any corporate monopolistic interference.
3. Develop workshops showing potential broadcasters how to set up an internet facility.
The net is much cheaper than on-air radio and/or TV since there is no mega electric bill to pay to keep a transmitter “on the air”. A spare room in a home can provide the space for such a facility and…
The reach is around the world instead of around the corner. The big boyz know this and that is why clear channel, verizon, comcast, and the others are seeking the same kind of monopolies that phone and cable companies now enjoy through the 50 state legislatures.
Podcasting is a potentially revolutionary trend… ANYONE can do it.
AND..and ONLY IF we maintain net nuetrality.. it could be a force to be reckoned with.
so.. focus on Net Nuetrality..
I-Tunes.. is a great way to obtain FREE podcasts. I am a big supporter in them.
Millions are turning away from mainstream media in complete disgust, and in time, the capitalists will follow, as the flow of money is their blood, and they will still be saying they’re just “trying to give people what they want”—a complete lie since of course they have never, ever even tried to ask. Imagine running any other business that way—it would deserve to fail. I look forward to finding more and more “air pirates” to listen to of all points of view—not the ones chosen for me by chuckleheads and corporate crooks who think I’m going to buy their shit because they’ve strangled off all the others. WE THE PEOPLE OUGHT TO DEMAND MILLIONS IN PAYMENTS FOR THE RIGHT TO “USE THE AIRWAVES” FROM ALL BROADCAST NETWORKS, AS NADER HAS SAID FOR YEARS—but the fat cats simply give it away to each other mainly to the benefit of nobody but themselves. Look at non-cable TV and for that matter most of cable: you’re paying most of the time to watch commercials. Their idea of “public service” is a 2-hour infomercial about my healthy colon. Parasites must go! (or in other words, Capitalism destroys community)….
radi December 31st, 2007 6:40 pm
“we own the public airwaves and we should use them.”
We “use to” own them until our government sold us out to corporations.
one of the good things about pirate broadcasting is that it reminds us that when you buy a frequency you are actually buying the public’s cooperation to keep the frequency open for the ‘owner’.
adi said:
“we own the public airwaves and we should use them.”
We own them in principle, but not in reality. We don’t make decisions about them, own stock in them, or collect dividends from their use. We could if someone like Nader would incorporate We the People into a for profit with equal shares of non-transferable stock to every citizen.
As AM has gone by the wayside, and Shortwave is seldom used except by Religious groups, why now try to get AM frequencies and start broadcasting real news. It doenst have to be FM
Poet is a genius.
What we need, my underground progressives, is a pirate internet!
which goes house to house on wi-fi. It can’t be censored or slowed down in favor of corporate traffic. Big trunks can now be sent via Ham operators bridging vast distances all over the world; you don’t need corporate cisco routers since many platforms (esp. apples) are powerful enough right now to do the switching themselves.
This cuts big brother off at the knees! It also leaves corporate fascists out in the cold.
It is doable and absolutetly godddam brilliant (I get half credit)
It would have to be born in the form of freeware like Napster, Kaza, Limewire did. You download the program and pow! You are a three-hundred yard transmitter! Instant peer-to-peer sharing all content and opinions (except your private stuff of course) INCLUDING local radio shows. Your wi-fi is going to make it to several local neighbors who will link to their neighbors with a homepage discussing local and controversial interest items that corp radio won’t touch.
Since it’s pirate, it would be structured so that everything is free, as a way to get back at corporate misuse of profits which hijacked our government. No Fortune 500 advertizing allowed. Only local, small businesses can hang out a shingle.
Let’s fight and take our country back!
Disclaimer: the above is all just fiction for entertainment value only!
The Internet has not made radio unnecessary, but it IS much easier to be heard on the net than on the air. I do not agree with illegal broadcasting, when you can get your message out just as effectively on the net legally.
Rush and other right wingers have had access to the airwaves ever since Reagan made sure that his corporate friends could buy anything they wanted. Reagan used to be a spokes person for GE and learned early on the power of the media.