Daniel Roberts (at window) at Pirate Cat Radio in June 2010 (Photo: J. Waits)

A month ago the FCC issued a $10,000 Forfeiture Order to Pirate Cat Radio founder Daniel “Monkey Man” Roberts, for “willfully and repeatedly violating section 301 of the Communications Act of 1934…by operating an unlicensed radio broadcast station” in San Francisco.

Today, Roberts’ attorney Michael Couzens filed a Petition for Reconsideration with the FCC, claiming that there is no proof that Roberts was involved with illegal broadcasts. According to Couzens’ letter:

“Daniel K. Roberts is subject of a $10,000 Forfeiture Order issued on October 21, 2011. At the time of the alleged violation, he operated Pirate Cat Radio, a cafe, studio, and internet stream located at 2781 21st Street in San Francisco. In 2009 FCC Agents detected unlicensed transmissions, not at that location, but at 841 Corbett Avenue, San Francisco. The Order contains no factual evidence that Roberts participated in the establishing, facilitating or operating equipment for the tramisssions [sic] at Corbett in any way. His involvement is merely assumed, based on statements or activities of Roberts and Pirate Cat Radio and the generous use by the government of broad inferences. The Order makes it a violation that the stream was broadcast, without any evidence as to who broadcast it.”

The Petition goes on to argue that there is no proof that Roberts was responsible for the terrestrial broadcasts emanating from 841 Corbett Avenue and that there is no evidence “linking the actual location of the unlawful transmission with” Roberts. Roberts claims to have been simply operating an Internet radio station. Although the Petition does not deny that someone was broadcasting the station illegally over the terrestrial airwaves, it states that the FCC has presented no evidence that that someone was Roberts:

“In the present case it is clear that someone was violating Section 301 when transmitting at 841 Corbett Avenue. It should be equally clear that Roberts was not violating Section 301, merely because at the same time he was operating the board at an internet radio service, speaking into the microphone, and serving bacon lattes. The Order shows no evidence and makes no claim that the transmissions were deliberately relayed point-to-point or affirmatively controlled from the Pirate Cat Radio studio.”

Roberts’ attorney concludes his Petition for Reconsideration by stating his concern that the forfeiture order “depicts a new standard of Section 301 enforcement that is vague, amorphous, incomprehensible, over reaching, and Unconstitutional. The Government should reconsider this Order and on reconsideration should vacate the penalty.”

Pirate Cat Radio is no longer broadcasting in any form, but former Pirate Cat Radio volunteers (without Roberts) are now running the online-only Mutiny Radio from the former Pirate Cat Radio Cafe.

Pirate Cat Radio Back in June 2010 (Photo: J. Waits)

On Friday, the FCC posted a notice that a forfeiture order (PDF) for $10,000 was issued to Pirate Cat Radio founder Daniel “Monkey Man” Roberts for “willfully and repeatedly violating section 301 of the Communications Act of 1934…by operating an unlicensed radio broadcast station” in San Francisco.

The letter is a follow-up to an earlier Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture that was issued to Roberts on August 31, 2009. Roberts responded to that notice on October 23, 2009 and claimed that he wasn’t involved with the broadcast transmissions of Pirate Cat Radio and that he additionally was “financially unable” to pay the $10,000 fine.

Last week’s forfeiture letter from the FCC discounts Roberts’ arguments and reiterates the FCC’s finding that Pirate Cat Radio “operated a radio broadcast station without a license issued by the FCC on 87.9 MHz in San Francisco, California.” It goes on to describe that the station had operated from Pirate Cat Cafe and Studio in San Francisco beginning in 2008 and that “the Enforcement Bureau’s San Francisco Office issued numerous warnings and Notices of Unlicensed Operation (‘NOUOs’) to Roberts…” In late April, 2009, FCC agents located the source of the radio transmissions, identifying an antenna on a roof of a residence in San Francisco. At the same time, the agents also “observed Roberts operating and controlling the unlicensed radio station” and subsequently “recognized Roberts’ voice and identified Roberts as the voice on the unlicensed transmissions on 87.9 MHz.3.”

In Roberts’ response he argues that broadcast transmissions did not emanate from the Pirate Cat Radio studio and “alleges that the internet streamed program service from PCR is downloaded and broadcast by third parties.” The FCC refutes this and used statements from the Pirate Cat Radio website, Pirate Cat Radio press releases, and from press accounts to argue that Roberts knowingly operated a pirate radio station. The Forfeiture Order states,

“Roberts solicited funds on the PCR website stating that ‘[d]onations go towards monthly station cost of running the FM transmitter and help Pirate Cat Radio buy new radio station equipment.’ Roberts also stated on the PCR website ‘that Title 47 Section 73.3542 of the U.S. Code of federal regulations currently allows Pirate Cat Radio 87.9fm to legally broadcast with out [sic] a formal licence [sic] from the FCC.’ In addition, in August 2009, Roberts accepted a certificate from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors which recognized Pirate Cat for its ‘trailblazing efforts toward freeing the airwaves from corporate control, providing the community with training in radio broadcast skills, empowering voices ignored by traditional media outlets, and contributing to the advancement of the city’s coffee culture.’”

Requests for an interview with Roberts went unanswered, but his attorney Michael Couzens tells me that he is “surprised” by the forfeiture order. Couzens says, “We will pursue all our legal rights and remedies.  It’s my belief that freedom of association is a fundamental right protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.  They are using ‘guilt by association’ to tie Mr. Roberts into an extra-legal  transmission, where there’s no evidence of him doing it.  I hope that is not the law of the land.  We’ll fight.”

DIYMedia‘s John Anderson is a long-time follower of enforcement actions against pirate broadcasters. He told me that it’s hard to say if the FCC will actually collect any money from Roberts. Anderson says, “The FCC’s overall forfeiture collection rate is pretty abysmal – in 2000 it was under 25%, and that was the last time the agency officially studied the issue.” He also explained that forfeiture orders have a “five-year statute of limitations, and the FCC can’t force collection without filing a civil lawsuit for judgment against a recalcitrant pirate.”

After the FCC’s “Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture” back in 2009, Pirate Cat Radio ceased its terrestrial broadcasts. The station continued as an online-only station and by May, 2010, Roberts helped get community radio station KPDO on the air in Pescadero, California. By October, 2010, Roberts and Pirate Cat Radio were working to raise funds in order to launch additional FM radio stations. However, starting in November, 2010, questions emerged about the relationship between KPDO and Pirate Cat and by March, 2011, Roberts argued that he’d transferred Pirate Cat Radio’s web streaming service to the non-profit entity that owns KPDO. That statement was later refuted by KPDO’s founder and Roberts subsequently left his position as KPDO’s station manager. By this time, Roberts’ involvement with the day-to-day operations of Pirate Cat Radio in San Francisco had also ceased (he was apparently out of the country), leading Pirate Cat Radio DJs to re-launch the station on June 1, 2011 as Mutiny Radio.

The staff at KPDO have also moved forward without Roberts and are working to get their station back on the air terrestrially after they were forced to move their antenna and vacate their old studio several months ago. Catherine Peery, President of Pescadero Public Radio Service (which oversees KPDO), told me that KPDO is fundraising and navigating the permit process in order to get the station’s antenna relocated. They are currently broadcasting online and are retrofitting their new studio, which will be housed in a bread truck. The hope is that KPDO will be broadcasting over FM by early 2012.

Mutiny Radio Launches Today

Today the former Pirate Cat Radio/PCR Collective relaunched their online-only community radio station in San Francisco as Mutiny Radio.

As mentioned in our post yesterday, with this new name they hope to reference their pirate past, but also suggest that they are moving on to a new chapter in the station’s history.

According to a statement on their website today:

“Today the PCR Collective, the community  of DJs that formed moments after the collapse of Pirate Cat Radio,  announced the launch of a new broadcast home—Mutiny Radio.

Streaming  live from San Francisco’s Mutiny Radio Café, Mutiny Radio features the  same eclectic mix of live music, interviews, DJ performances, news, and  comedy the members of the PCR Collective have been producing for the  past 6 years.”

If you stop by the Mutiny Cafe today, it’s expected that they will be slapping on a new coat of paint to symbolically transition to their new identity.

Pirate Cat Radio Signage in March 2011 (Photo: J. Waits)

It’s been an interesting few months for Pirate Cat Radio to say the least. As we reported, the online-only community radio station broadcasting out of a cafe in San Francisco was taken off the air by its founder Daniel “Monkey Man” Roberts after a contentious call with Pirate Cat volunteers back in February.

Roberts, who had started Pirate Cat Radio as an unlicensed terrestrial station when he was a teenager in Los Gatos, eventually brought the station to San Francisco, where it operated out in the open in a cafe in the Mission District. Soon after an appearance on Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” television show in 2009, Pirate Cat received a request for forfeiture from the FCC and has been off the terrestrial airwaves ever since.

Pirate Cat Radio had continued to operate until February 2011 as an online-only station, while Roberts had made some forays back into terrestrial radio by helping to get community radio station KPDO up and running in the coastal community of Pescadero and by attempting to purchase a terrestrial signal for Pirate Cat.

In part, these other radio projects may have helped to hasten the end of Roberts’ reign over Pirate Cat. After volunteers at Pirate Cat raised questions with Roberts about station ownership (they were told that an investor owned the cafe and that KPDO owned Pirate Cat Radio) and finances, Roberts took Pirate Cat Radio’s website and webstream offline. Roberts, who did not respond to a request for an interview, is believed to still be out of the country after leaving the U.S. last fall. When I spoke with him in March, he tried to address concerns about discrepancies over the ownership of the station and cafe and about his absence; yet several months later there are still unanswered questions and the stations that he managed (Pirate Cat Radio and community radio station KPDO) have moved on without him.

Following the February 13 website and webstream shutdown, Pirate Cat Radio staffers regrouped and renamed themselves the PCR Collective. They created a new website and webstream and have been working to continue on in much the same way as before, but without the leadership of Roberts (who they apparently have not been in communication with at all).

Tomorrow will mark yet another rebirth for the group, as they re-launch under a new, yet-to-be-revealed name at 8am. When I caught up with the station’s Minister of Programming Aaron Lazenby last Friday, he explained that they’ve felt like they’ve been in a “weird, interim period” since February in which they’ve been working to keep the station going. He said that they’ve also been developing a new identity for the station and it seemed like June 1st was the right time to start things over with both a new station name and a new coat of paint throughout the studio. Lazenby said that they have been “tired of living in the wake of that drama” and added “we’re ready to be something else.”

Lazenby told me that in advance of tomorrow’s name change, there will be a closing ceremony of sorts on the air at PCR Collective tonight hosted by DJ Nylon. Starting at around 6pm tonight, a number of long-time and former DJs will be coming back “to kind of close the book…on that era.” He said the closing ceremony will serve to “remember what was best about the time we spent with Pirate Cat.” Lazenby added, “We’ve been so surprised and pleased…with the work that’s been done…we don’t have that many hard feelings at this point.” He said that although it’s been a period of transition over the last few months, it’s also led to “collaboration that’s been awesome.”

Tomorrow morning volunteers will paint the cafe that houses the station and the hope is that the new colors and new look of the station will create an entirely different feel to the place (to see what Pirate Cat Radio looked like last year, take a look at my station tour post on Spinning Indie).

Although Lazenby was mum about the new station name, he did explain that, “We’re trying to find the right balance of where we’ve come from and where we’re going,” adding that they picked a name that “showed the scars” of the past, but also expresses where they are going. He said that they are looking forward to having a new name, new logo, new T-shirts, etc. This summer they expect to also host a block party celebrating their new future as a station.

Lazenby also told me that the station is full of new volunteers, many of whom are largely unaware of the prior drama at Pirate Cat. Although there are plenty of veteran DJs, he guesses that about half of the staff is are new to the station. As in the past, they plan to continue on as a volunteer-run, community-based station. The main changes are to the leadership structure (it’s now a collective) and to the communication style (“a lot more transparency”). Lazenby, who started at Pirate Cat 3 years ago, said that he’s optimistic about the station’s future, especially since they made it through the past 3 months and have been able to keep the station running and online. He said, “We’re all really proud of that. And now we get to really enjoy it.”

KPDO logo

In the aftermath of the departure of Pirate Cat Radio founder Daniel “Monkey Man” Roberts from the scene, the Pescadero low-power community radio station he was managing is carrying on, trying to clear the haze of confusion he left behind. The San Mateo County Times followed up with KPDO, including its founder Maggie Celeste Worden, reporting some new facts challenging some of Roberts’ earlier claims.

Recall that earlier Roberts had claimed he consolidated Pirate Cat Radio’s streaming radio operation into the foundation that owns and operates KPDO. In a press release he posted as a comment to one of Jennifer Waits’ stories on the situation Roberts claims,

Earlier, in August 2010, I transferred Pirate Cat Radio, the web streaming operation, to the Pescadero Public Radio Service (PPRS) not-for-profit foundation, which is the owner of KPDO, the radio station in Pescadero.

However, Worden tells the County Times that it ain’t so. Monkey’s lawyer, Michael Couzens, backs up Worden’s counter-claim, telling the paper that an attempted transfer failed, and therefore, “that transfer was null and void.”

Roberts, who apparently had been serving as president of the foundation operating KPDO, has let go of the reins there somewhat more easily than at Pirate Cat. He has agreed to step down and become vice-president while Worden takes over as president.

Interestingly, Worden herself posted a stinging comment to the story, taking to task the author’s characterization of Roberts as “station director and chief visionary.” Worden writes,

Daniel Roberts as ‘chief visionary’ is almost laughable! The vision for KPDO is and always was a community supported, community operated, community oriented station, and NEVER was to be a mouthpiece for PCR. My founding vision, back in 1994, was a cross between KFAT, Pacifica and Northern Exposure, only in the beautiful surroundings of the South Coast: and so it shall be!

Personally, I’m glad to see KPDO moving forward from this unfortunate circumstance. I hope that KPDO remains a true community station, an asset of both the volunteers who make it work, and the listeners who rely upon it.

Pirate Cat Radio and Cafe in June 2010 (Photo: J. Waits)

On Thursday, I posted an article, Questions Raised at Pirate Cat Radio and KPDO after Leader Leaves the Country, reporting on recent events at two local community radio stations in the San Francisco Bay area: Pirate Cat Radio in San Francisco and KPDO in Pescadero. After the article ran, I heard from Daniel Roberts, the founder of Pirate Cat Radio, who was interested in clearing up some details related to the story.

In his call with me he provided some clarification on the ownership of Pirate Cat Radio (an online-only radio station that also operates a cafe at the same address in San Francisco’s Mission District).

He said that he owns 20% of the café business, with 80% owned by an outside investor, Raymond Chen. According to Daniel, Raymond claims to be a majority owner in the Pirate Cat radio station as well and that is where the ownership dispute comes in to play. Because of this assumption, Daniel says that Raymond filed paperwork with the city of San Francisco indicating that Pirate Cat Radio Inc. owned the online radio station.

Daniel told me that there are “three different entities” related to Pirate Cat Radio and Cafe:

1. Pirate Cat Radio Inc.: a non-profit, which currently owns nothing according to Daniel. Daniel and Raymond are on the Board of this organization.

2. Pirate Cat Radio and Café: This is the cafe business, which was formerly a “sole proprietorship,” until Daniel sold 80% to Raymond Chen. Daniel still owns 20% of this business.

3. Pirate Cat Radio: This is the “radio operation.” Daniel states that its name is trademarked and registered to him personally. He says that the online-only radio station is currently owned by Pescadero Public Radio Service, which also owns KPDO. According to Daniel there was no purchase or “moving of funds.”

Daniel said that he had shared budget information with the staff of Pirate Cat and that the firing of volunteer DJ Pirata Margarita was not because of anything related to her questions about the budget; that it had to do with her “inciting” the volunteer staff. He admitted that he “poorly orchestrated the sale of the café,” but also stated that the new investor is “trying to put a wedge in this 14-year-old operation.”

Daniel added that he wished he could be in San Francisco right now, saying, “If I could, I would.” Although he’s not sure when he’ll be returning, he said that he does plan to come back to manage KPDO.

Today, Daniel issued a press release, which can be found as a comment to my earlier post. In it, he shares much of the same information that he spoke with me about, but also states:

“Earlier, in August 2010, I transferred Pirate Cat Radio, the web streaming operation, to the Pescadero Public Radio Service (PPRS) not-for-profit foundation, which is the owner of KPDO, the radio station in Pescadero. I did this because of several reasons:

The Pirate Cat Radio web streaming operation (PCR) was designed to be a non-profit community service, not a money-making company. PPRS is a not-for-profit corporation. Both PCR and KPDO have identical missions and similar programming formats. I felt it was only natural to merge PCR into PPRS.

Second, in order to get a good change of streaming on channels such as XM or Sirius, it was necessary to have a not-for-profit corporation, not an individual, running PCR. Rather than setting up a new corporation and organize another board of directors, it was easier and cheaper to merge PCR into PPRS…”

He also mentions that although Pirate Cat Radio is not currently operating, there are plans to open more stations:

“Pirate Cat Radio’s operations have been officially suspended for the interim. Despite the station being off-line, plans are already in effect to open 3 new Pirate Cat Radio locations in Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles by the start of 2012.”

In Daniel’s letter he explains that personal issues have required him to be out of the country. He says,

“During the past 6 months the stress of my work, fundraising for KPDO, and personal financial problems unfortunately caused a rift between me and those close to me. This has resulted in some personal complications and required me to go to Europe to get things in order. During this time I have been working on various radio and media projects through out Europe.

I have every intention of returning from Europe in 2011 when my affairs are in order, and resume my activities with KPDO, community radio, etc.”

You can read Daniel’s entire press release here.

**********

To get more background on the history of Pirate Cat Radio and KPDO, read my field trip reports on Spinning Indie:

Radio Station Field Trip 21 – KPDO in Pescadero (May 2010 visit for station launch)

Radio Station Field Trip 23 – San Francisco’s Pirate Cat Radio (June 2010 visit)

Pirate Cat Radio Cafe. February 2011 (Photo by J. Waits)

Last year there was a lot of buzz about San Francisco’s formerly pirate radio station Pirate Cat Radio going somewhat legit, with its founder and owner, Daniel “Monkey Man” Roberts, taking over the management and re-launch of nearby FCC licensed community radio station KPDO in the coastal community of Pescadero. In the months following that news, there were also hints that Roberts had his sights set on other FM frequencies and that perhaps he had dreams of a radio empire.

Two weeks ago I started to hear rumors that changes were afoot at Pirate Cat Radio. Initially I heard the salacious account (which turns out to be mostly untrue) that Daniel had stolen money, skipped town to Switzerland, and had been ousted by staff after taking Pirate Cat’s stream down. Although he denied my request for an interview, stating that it is a “legal matter,” he said, “Pirate Cat Radio is still mine, it’s just closed for now.” Daniel’s Facebook page says that he’s currently in Estonia; although it’s more likely that he’s in Bristol, England, having recently worked on the December 1, 2010 launch of community radio station Bristol Static. In an article in the SF Weekly, Daniel Roberts’ lawyer indicates that as of February 16, he believed Daniel to be in the U.K.

In the meantime, back in San Francisco, the DJs and staff at Pirate Cat Radio and Cafe have organized themselves into the PCR Collective and tell me that they are excited about the station’s future. It’s been a hectic two weeks for them, starting with a short, but contentious call on February 13, in which they confronted Daniel with questions about the ownership and finances of the station. During that call, in which they were asking for more transparency about station operations, Daniel refused to address their concerns. After hanging up, he proceeded to take the Pirate Cat Radio website and web stream offline. Despite those moves, staff of PCR Collective are trying to operate the station and cafe as they did previously. They’ve re-established a web stream and have set up a new website for the PCR Collective.

Pirate Cat Radio. February 2011 (Photo: J. Waits)

I caught up with several staff members on Sunday at the station. Although there is clearly animosity between the DJs and Daniel, I was told that many of the rumors floating around about the station shut-down aren’t true. Pirate Cat’s DJ Canary told me, “Monkey did not steal anything.”  However, many DJs did express that there had been ongoing concerns about the management of the station over the past few months.

In November 2010, DJs were told by Daniel that he had sold 80% of Pirate Cat Radio Cafe to an outside investor. They were also asked to pay their monthly DJ dues to the new investor starting in December. At their next staff meeting, DJs were told to no longer pay the investor, but to instead deposit money into the Pescadero Public Radio Service (the license holder for KPDO) account. This turn of events created some concerns, which eventually led Pirate Cat’s Minister of Technology, DJ Pirata Margarita, to ask for more transparency from Daniel. When she asked to see a budget, he fired her.

A December 1, 2010 filing with the City of San Francisco indicated that “Pirate Cat Cafe and Studio” was owned by Pirate Cat Radio Inc. starting on November 19, 2010. A January 4, 2011 filing with the City of San Francisco said that “Pirate Cat Radio Station” was also owned by Pirate Cat Radio Inc. beginning November 19, 2010. These filings supersede an earlier fictitious business name filing for Pirate Cat Cafe and Studio (from March 2008 to December 1, 2010) in which Daniel Roberts is listed as the owner. Based on information gleaned from the California Secretary of State website this week, Daniel Roberts is the “agent of service of process” for Pirate Cat Radio Inc. Understandably, members of the PCR Collective told me that it’s still unclear who owns what. They also mentioned that they were surprised when Daniel recently told them that Pirate Cat Radio had actually been sold back in August 2010 to Pescadero Public Radio Service (whose President is currently Daniel), which operates community radio station KPDO.

Although there are still legal and ownership issues to sort out (particularly in terms of who owns the radio station and who owns the cafe), the members of PCR Collective say that they are focused on moving forward by creating a very different organizational structure from the Pirate Cat Radio of the past. This time around, it will be a “consensus-based media organization,” in contrast to the “almost fascist” management style that one DJ attributed to Daniel. One DJ who sees great potential in a San Francisco “network of autonomous collectives,” is Diamond Dave, who has a long history in the San Francisco underground, with connections stretching from the beatnik era to anarchist organizations to modern-day collectives.

According to a statement by the PCR Collective,

“The volunteer staff of Pirate Cat Radio are not a party to the sale of the Pirate Cat Radio. Our efforts from the beginning have been to extract ourselves from the ownership situation and focus on our core mission: making quality radio and building a supportive community. That is what we are focusing on now.”

Longtime Pirate Cat DJ Patrick Simms said although he recognizes that Daniel “put himself out there to build Pirate Cat Radio,” he finds fault with his leadership style. DJ Pirata Margarita agreed, saying that Daniel did a lot of great things and that perhaps a driven personality like his was required to accomplish all that he did. Patrick said that Daniel (aka Monkey) helped to put a structure in place for the station and that the only difference between the old and the new Pirate Cat Radio is that “Monkey is no longer here.” Pirata Margarita explained that in the restructuring of the station, the plan is for things to work “more democratically.”

As part of their plan to move forward, DJ Pirata Margarita worked to re-establish a webstream for the station. She told me that fellow community radio station Radio Valencia was very supportive and that one of their tech folks helped her to get the Pirate Cat stream going again. She also told me that Radio Valencia also challenged the Pirate Cat Radio volunteers to a bowling match, as a sign of friendly competition. She added that “inadvertently…Monkey has set the stage…for this community of radio stations” in San Francisco, since by this point there are so many former Pirate Cat Radio DJs doing radio at other stations.

Daniel "Monkey Man" Roberts at the KPDO Launch Party in May 2010. (Photo: J. Waits)

In addition to the turmoil and confusion over at Pirate Cat, there is also some concern at the other station run by Daniel Roberts, FM community radio station KPDO in Pescadero. In November, after Daniel left, he told KPDO volunteer Shannon Bowman-Sarkisian that he would be out of town for awhile due to a family emergency and asked if she would manage the station in his absence. It was her understanding that Daniel was in England, where his wife was from.

By January, Shannon said that she started to become concerned because Daniel wasn’t saying when he’d be coming back. She told me that she felt “blind-sided” by the turn of events at Pirate Cat Radio and was especially surprised to read in the SF Weekly article that Pirate Cat had supposedly been sold to Pescadero Public Radio Service, since she had no knowledge of that. Shannon said, “I’ve never met anybody from Pirate Cat. How can we own them? How can we be expected to know what’s good for Pirate Cat? It’s a really weird situation and it’s not really what I expected to happen with KPDO.”

When asked about this rumor, KPDO founder Maggie Celeste Worden told me today, “That’s actually kind of a legal impossibility” for Pescadero Public Radio Service to own Pirate Cat Radio.

Shannon also told me that since Daniel’s disappearance she’s also learned about KPDO’s relationship with Common Frequency. She said that she heard that “Common Frequency helped us get a new license that is supposed to increase our broadcast range. We were told after the fact…Even if it is a really good move for the station; I don’t think you can just make decisions.”

According to Common Frequency’s Program and Technical Director Todd Urick, “Common Frequency is providing KPDO pro bono assistance in options for strengthening its broadcast signal.” Additionally, he told me that “Monkey has been providing assistance [to Common Frequency] in preliminary planning for some speculative Bay Area radio projects” and that his “role at any future station hasn’t been defined yet.  His current role is a project facilitator, but since he has been in the UK we have been in less communication with him.”

Shannon added, “I feel really upset. I feel like we’ve been betrayed to a certain extent.” Like her cohorts at Pirate Cat, she also said that she respected Daniel’s work, saying, “It’s not that I think he’s a bad guy…He’s put all this time, money, and energy [into the station]…On the one hand, I recognize that and appreciate it…KPDO wouldn’t be what it is without him….at the same time, I don’t agree with the decisions he’s made, they’ve been made unilaterally.”

To that end, KPDO staff members met yesterday to discuss the station’s future. Shannon said that she feels really positive about the future and is particularly excited about the station’s upcoming 1-year anniversary party on May 7th, saying that as a staff they feel competent to run the station in Daniel’s absence.

Today, station founder Maggie Celeste Worden concurred, telling me that “the station is doing fine,” that it has an “amazing staff of volunteers”  and that “KPDO is solid and standing on its own two feet.” She told me that in the past year she swapped duties with Daniel and that he is now President of the Board, while she is the Secretary. She also said that Daniel’s expected date back at the station is in April. Maggie, who has lived out of the area in recent years, said that she’s been considering moving back to the Pescadero area and is thrilled to see that the station that she dreamed about 17 years ago is up and running and providing an outlet for different voices in the community. She added, “The excitement is amazing…if one person can turn on a station, then we can keep democracy alive.” In terms of the perceived turmoil, Maggie surmised, “I think there’s much ado about nothing.”

**********

To get more background on the history of Pirate Cat Radio and KPDO, read my field trip reports on Spinning Indie:

Radio Station Field Trip 21 – KPDO in Pescadero (May 2010 visit for station launch)

Radio Station Field Trip 23 – San Francisco’s Pirate Cat Radio (June 2010 visit)

The Kickstarter campaign has until October 21 to raise the money.

San Francisco’s Pirate Cat has an interesting history. For a while it was an unlicensed station, then it went off the air following government pressure, then it starting providing programming for a station in Pescadero.

Now here it is, pursuing a legit license! Next thing you know, the staff will be doing presentations at the next NAB convention in Vegas! (Just kidding).

KPDO in Pescadero. Photo by Jennifer Waits

On Saturday, May 8th new community radio station KPDO 89.3 FM launched in Pescadero, California, in a rural community halfway between San Francisco and Santa Cruz.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, the station is being run by Daniel Roberts who is also at the helm of Pirate Cat Radio in San Francisco.

I was excited to be on the scene at KPDO for their coming out party on the 8th.

I got the chance to talk to Daniel about the station, tour the facilities, and catch some pretty amazing bands across a wide range of genres.

To see my complete station tour, take a look at my post on Spinning Indie.

KPDO Launches in Pescadero

In an interesting turn of events, San Francisco’s Pirate Cat Radio (PCR) will be providing programming for a new full power FM community radio station down the coast in Pescadero that is launching tomorrow.

Fined by the FCC for broadcasting over FM without a license, Pirate Cat Radio has been operating as a web-only station since last fall. In March Pirate Cat Radio founder Monkey announced on the Pirate Cat website that he was named General Manager of Pescadero community radio station KPDO and that he planned to “utilize most of Pirate Cat Radio’s 53 radio shows as content for KPDO, until a formal studio is built in Pescadero.” Over the past few months, Pirate Cat Radio DJs have been announcing the call letters KPDO over their netcast in advance of this week’s launch of the KPDO webcast.  The terrestrial broadcast launch of KPDO at 89.3 FM in Pescadero will be May 1, 2010.

This week Pirate Cat Radio DJ Russel Forster outlined this transition in a blog post for the SF Underground Radio Examiner. He writes:

“PCR has made the unusual move of leaping at the chance to create a community radio station network that will be protected by the FCC rather than pursued by it.

Pirate Cat Radio will continue to have a studio in San Francisco that will broadcast over the internet, and KPDO will broadcast a mixture of its own and PCR content (in the form of volunteers’ weekly news/talk/comedy/music shows) from a separate studio in Pescadero.”

Monkey and his crew from Pirate Cat Radio are actually taking the helm of a station that’s been licensed since 2003. According to an article in the Half Moon Bay Review, KPDO was originally conceptualized by former Pescadero middle school teacher Celeste Worden back in 1994.

Celeste came up with the idea to use radio in her classroom as a way to inspire writing and this eventually led her to found “a nonprofit called Pescadero Public Radio Service” and under these auspices “applied for a broadcast license from the FCC.”  Unfortunately by the time the license was granted, Celeste had moved away from Pescadero so could not shepherd the new station and had trouble finding someone who could. The piece states that,

“…she found a broadcast site and set up a transmitter. For the past seven years the station has limped along on autopilot, intermittently spurting classical music filler – fulfilling the base requirements to avoid cancellation.

In November, Roberts caught wind of Worden’s predicament with KPDO and pounced. Within three days, the radio lover produced a preliminary programming schedule and station plan. Worden was convinced.”

Currently Pirate Cat Radio is located in the urban setting of San Francisco’s Mission District, with programming aligned with the interests of their San Francisco-based DJs. In the beginning days of KPDO, many of these shows will air in Pescadero, but it’s not clear if this is the type of programming that the local community there is hungry for.

As the new General Manager of KPDO, it will be interesting to see how Monkey makes the transition into legitimate, licensed broadcasting with all of the related FCC rules and paperwork. I think everyone is also anxious to see how he conceptualizes KPDO as a separate entity from Pirate Cat Radio and how he is able to connect with the local, coastal community of Pescadero.

According to the first issue of the KPDO newsletter, the station is soliciting volunteer DJs interested in hosting music or public affairs shows. The station promises to provide an outlet for local music, local public affairs programming, and community debate as well as offering “radio education for youth and young adults.”

It’s great to see that this ghost station of KPDO is getting an opportunity to be a full-fledged community resource and I hope that Pescadero residents are eager to participate in its evolution as both listeners and programmers.

To celebrate the launch of KPDO, there will be a big all-day bash in Pescadero featuring music, food, and film on Saturday, May 8th starting at 10am.