I have to admit that I didn’t get much of a chance to scan the radio dial the last two times I was in Seattle in 2006 and 2009. However when I first visited in 2002 there was certainly a vibrant pirate scene. During my time there for the first Reclaim the Media conference there was also a parallel convergence of unlicensed broadcasters who comprised a “mosquito fleet” of stations taking over empty spots on the Seattle dial, providing some airwaves resistance to the NAB Radio Show happening at the same time. Though pirate stations have come and gone in Seattle, there always seems to be at least one or two on the air at any given time. The hilly landscape provides many easy opportunities to get an antenna up high without having to construct much of a tower.

In any event, radio enthusiast’s visiting Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia should bring along a receiver and do a band scan for stations that will be more interesting than most cities.

No related posts.

In these nearly fifteen years of study I’ve become very used to the typical misconceptions that turn up both in the press and among pirates themselves. They range from the myth that pirate stations interfere irreparably with airplane to communications to the ill-founded belief that the so-called “emergency authorization” clause in federal regulations can be used to defend unlicensed broadcasting.

Radio pirates in 48 states don't even need a Get Out of Jail Free card.

One of the most pernicious misconceptions turned up in a recent interview with John Miller of FCC Free Radio right here at RadioSurvivor. In explaining the various reasons why he decided to end unlicensed broadcasting in favor of being online, Miller told Jennifer Waits, that “Unfortunately people [pirate broadcasters] go to jail now.”

To be fair, Miller is not entirely mistaken with this assertion. Currently there are two states, New Jersey and Florida, with laws on the books that make unlicensed broadcasting a state crime. In New Jersey its a fourth-degree felony, punishable with a fine of up to $10,000 and eighteen months in prison. Florida’s law is harsher, with a maximum penalty of 5 years in the pokey. But these are the only states with such laws in the US. In California, where FCC Free is located, there are no anti-piracy laws, state and local cops have nothing to do with pirates and nobody is going to jail.

John Anderson at DIYRadio.net studied FCC enforcement actions for his Master’s thesis, and recently took up this misconeption and laid it to rest quite succinctly:

Mythbusting time: The FCC cannot arrest people and send them to jail. FCC field agents are government inspectors, not licensed law enforcement officials. In fact, when they do have to call in “the law,” it’s typically either Federal Marshals (see Freak Radio Santa Cruz) or the local po-po (see San Francisco Liberation Radio).

In both cases, the “arrest warrant” was for the equipment conducting the unlicensed broadcasting, not for actual people. And when the FCC does go after individual people, it does so typically by seeking a monetary forfeiture; sending folks to prison for pirate radio is messy, arduous, and not typically worth the effort. Even then, such fines are a bitch to collect.

Even among the two states where unlicensed broadcasting is against state law arrests only are really happening in Florida. I can find no reports of anyone in New Jersey having even been arrested, never mind going to jail. Out of the entire country Florida is a special case to begin with, serving as home to a proliferation of unlicensed stations unseen anywhere else in the US. But, again, while there have been reports of arrests in Florida–such as this recent bust in Fort Myers–I’m unable to turn up any good reports on convictions and jail time.

Therefore, for all intents and purposes, there are only two states in the US where a pirate broadcaster seriously risks jail time, and only one where there is a record of arrests. In the forty-eight other states, jail time is so remote so as to be not a risk at all.

Now, unlicensed broadcasting is still against the law, and the FCC can issue fines. But, as John had documented for the last decade, the Commission’s track record for actually collecting those fines is not that great.

I don’t mean to claim that unlicensed broadcasting carries no risk, but rather to put that risk in perspective. Many people break laws every day, whether it’s by jaywalking or speeding, smoking pot or internet file sharing. And some of those people get caught and pay fines, get sued or go to jail. Yet those activities continue, with many violators making a rational analysis to weigh the risk of getting caught against the benefits of that activity.

No doubt it can be a shock to receive a letter from the FCC threatening thousands of dollars in fines, and I don’t blame anyone on the receiving end for deciding to put away her transmitter and antenna. Yet, being hassled by the FCC on an administrative charge–not criminal–is still a very different thing than dealing with real criminal charges from the police.

Unlicensed broadcasting carries risks and anyone thinking about becoming a radio pirate should give those risks due consideration. But, unless you live in Florida or New Jersey, don’t be spooked into thinking you’re likely to go to jail, even if the FCC catches you red handed.

No related posts.

FCCFREE RADIO Turns off the Transmitter

Lately there’s been a lot of buzz about the comings and goings of pirate radio stations, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area.

New station Radio Valencia is about to begin broadcasting any day now in San Francisco and pirate radio stalwart Freak Radio Santa Cruz is continuing in its mission, while looking for a new transmitter site.

On the flip side, San Francisco’s Pirate Cat Radio is sticking to the Internet, after getting fined by the FCC in 2009, while its owner is overseeing the day-to-day operations of a licensed FM community radio station an hour away from the city in rural Pescadero.

Like their rebel radio compadres in the Bay Area, FCCFREE RADIO is also in a state of transition, as they make the switch from being an unlicensed FM station to operating as an Internet broadcasting company. Things have changed a lot since I visited FCCFREE RADIO a year ago. At the time, owner John Miller and Program Director John Hell talked about their plans for the unlicensed LPFM community station in San Francisco, citing their desire to “put the local back into radio.” Since my last visit, they’ve built up their schedule and have attracted a following of listeners both online and over the terrestrial airwaves.

However, something very significant happened on May 7, 2010. They turned off the station’s transmitter.

I was eager to visit FCCFREE RADIO again to learn more about why they decided to remove the station from the FM airwaves, so on June 25th, I stopped by to revisit the station and learn more about what owner John Miller has in store.

John told me that the staff of FCCFREE RADIO voted in favor of turning off the transmitter after a recent visit by the FCC to the transmitter site. Although John exudes the confidence and bravado of a long-time underground radio broadcaster, he was clearly spooked by the latest letter from the FCC. He said, “I had the FCC at my door in record time,” adding, “They must be angry.”  After a couple of notices from the FCC, they decided to change the station’s course. He told me that times really have changed for pirate radio, saying, “Unfortunately people go to jail now.” While reminiscing about stations like Boulder Free Radio, John talked about how “they were heroes” and “did it on a grand scale,” but that they were hit extremely hard by the FCC.

The decision to take FCCFREE RADIO off of the FM airwaves has turned out to be a “blessing” according to John, who argued that ultimately “the transmitter was a hindrance” and that since they’ve abandoned the terrestrial broadcast, “doors have opened” for the station. He acknowledged, “I love the power of radio,” but pointed out that, “the world is going a different way.”

In terms of the future of FCCFREE RADIO, John has big plans, including expanding the studios into space that has recently opened up in the station’s South of Market building in San Francisco. Soon there will be a second studio and an office for John. The main studio is now outfitted with a turntable, CD players, computer, and monitors. Although there’s no library of physical music, they do have a digital library containing 6,000 pieces of music. Currently there are 31 shows on the air, with around 24 of those programs airing live from FCCFREE RADIO’s studio, making for over 70 hours of live programming a week. A handful of DJs produce their shows remotely, from locations as far flung as Tokyo and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Scare notices from the FCC

He told me that a number of opportunities have come their way, saying, “There’s a lot of things we can do with content” that is already produced by the station’s DJs.

As we’d discussed when I visited the station last year, John has a strong affinity for comedy and has been helping to find a sonic home for some of his favorite DJs and comedians. He told me that long-time San Francisco DJ M. Dung will be joining the station this summer.

John said that it was exciting to “have good talent” and that it’s a thrill for him to be “working with folks that I grew up with.” He added that even though the heyday of commercial radio is gone, talented radio personalities from the past “can live here.” In addition to ex-commercial radio DJs, FCCFREE RADIO is still full of former college and pirate radio DJs from stations like KFJC, KUSF, and Pirate Cat Radio.

Programming at FCCFREE RADIO includes music and talk, with DJs having full control over their programs. John said, “I don’t tell them what to play.” DJs are simply asked to employ common sense, pay their dues, and attend monthly meetings. Some of the current shows include the blues-oriented Bottleneck Cafe, rockabilly-focused Big Guitar Show (formerly on KFJC), the sex-positive program Sexploration with Monika, and Lost in America (music and talk). When there isn’t a live show airing, there’s either a rebroadcast of a previously-run program or automated music kicks in.

John said that the schedule is pretty full right now, with room for only about 10 more programs. But, there are dreams of expansion for the station with plans to offer up two different Internet streams and syndicate their content even more broadly. John seems pleased that his underground station is gaining both listeners and the attention of potential suitors, saying, “It has become a business for me.” Although mum on specifics, it’s clear that dodging the FCC is no longer part of his daily ritual and that he couldn’t be happier.

Related posts:

1. Hey radio pirates, think twice before you invoke emergency authorization
2. Freak Radio Santa Cruz’s transmitter looking for a new home
3. The Latest in Pirate Radio: FCC Enforcement, Austin Free-Staters and Canadian Strip Club Pirate

Freak Radio Santa Cruz is one of the longest-running unlicensed stations in the country, in addition to having one of the highest profiles. The station has survived by pure tenacity, probably also aided by being located in the small seaside college town of Santa Cruz rather than a larger city where it would be under the nose of the FCC. That said, Freak Radio has had its run-ins with the Commission over the years. The most recent was a notice sent to the landlord of the building housing its transmitter.

Station volunteer DJ Uncle Dennis tells SantaCruz.com that

“Basically, we got a call saying the landlord had received a notice from the FCC saying a illegal transmitter was found and that he would be fined if he didn’t get rid of it…. This is a typical tactic they use to deal with unlicensed broadcasters.”

Long-time organizer and DJ Skidmark Bob confirmed the story to John at DIYmedia.net. However, John also notes that Freak Radio keeps its studio and transmitter separated, and so the station can continue its live internet stream in the interim.

In other–much more clueless–pirate news, Rhode Island’s Block Island Times reports on unlicensed WOHP (“Old Harbor Pirates”) broadcasting out what is presumably a bar called Club Soda. However, it sounds like organizer DJ Jonah the Profit is a little hazy about broadcast regulations, telling the Times that

the group isn’t breaking any regulations…. “We operate under a 100-watt frequency,” explained Profit, so as not to interfere with other stations or two-way radios. “We abide by the FCC rules(.)”

I’m not sure what a “100-watt frequency” is, but if he means they’re broadcasting with 100 watts of power on the FM dial without a license, then WOHP sure as hell is breaking regulations. Did anyone at the Block Island Times fact-check this? Anyway, I’m not sure how busy the Boston FCC office is, but with this story in the press and the DJs’ apparent lack of a clue it’s just a matter of time before the Commission pays them a visit.

No related posts.

Radio Valencia

Of course I’m biased, but San Francisco seems to have always been ground zero for radio innovators, back from the early days of pioneering technologists, to the freeform FM era, to punk and new wave stalwarts in college and commercial radio in the 1980s, to pirate radio champions like Free Radio Berkeley in the 1990s, to the web radio entrepreneurs of the 2000s and beyond.

Although the lure of Internet-only radio is turning the focus away from terrestrial radio for many; there are compelling reasons why radio enthusiasts continue to launch licensed and unlicensed AM and FM stations in 2010.

In San Francisco, a brand new unlicensed community radio station, Radio Valencia, is about to get off the ground, with a hoped-for launch date of early July. Housed in artist/musician/activist/former San Francisco mayoral candidate Chicken John’s warehouse “Chez Poulet” in the Mission District, it’s being envisioned as not only an underground radio station, but also as part of a larger non-profit community resource.

Named by Chicken John, Radio Valencia will probably evoke memories for many San Franciscans of the former restaurant of the same name (known for its well-crafted playlists of music) that met its unfortunate demise after several fire engines crashed into its corner storefront on Valencia and 23rd Streets. Although Chicken John says that the radio station is not meant to be an homage to the old Radio Valencia, it will no doubt appeal to some of the same folks who frequented the place back in the 1990s.

John Hell in the work-in-progress studio at Radio Valencia

When I visited the station last Thursday, I got to see the beginning stages of the studio that had been built by Chicken John in a week’s time. One of the founding members of the station, John Hell, talked to me about the collective vision for Radio Valencia and how it will be different from his numerous other radio endeavors.

Ironically, it was just about a year ago that John Hell chatted with me about his then-new radio project, FCCFree Radio. Although enthusiastic about the possibilities of that particular station at the time, John Hell recently parted ways with FCCFree Radio after having philosophical differences with the station owner.

Because of his strong passion for and commitment to radio, it was clear that it wouldn’t be long before he landed at another radio start-up. John Hell is no stranger to radio, having worked at college stations KCSM and KFJC, pirate stations San Francisco Liberation Radio, Pirate Cat Radio, and FCCFree Radio, as well as on the crew that founded the LPFM station Radio Free Burning Man that operated out in the Nevada desert during the annual arts festival from 1994 to 2008.

When John Hell was approached by his long-time friend Chicken John (they met at Burning Man and soon after began doing events like “The Church of the Burning Ulcer” together), the initial idea was to start up an Internet radio station. As they discussed things further, the concept for Radio Valencia developed even more and the hope is that eventually it will be a community center with an open-door policy and a full schedule of events. Chicken John, John Hell, and other early participants (including Evolution Control Committee’s Trademark Gunderson and PhotoBoof’s Wrybread) presented the idea of this new station to other like-minded folks in their social networks and reached out to former college and pirate radio DJs and friends with deep connections in various arts and culture scenes in San Francisco.

Stage at Chez Poulet

John Hell said that he’s been amazed by the response and told me that he already has 30 DJs committed to hosting a total of 24 different shows at Radio Valencia.

When I asked him how this station will be different from others in the area, he said that it will be much more community-based, community-oriented, and community-run with “no central leadership.” He was reluctant to portray himself as any sort of leader at Radio Valencia and instead hoped to recruit others who will take a leadership role over various projects at the station, pointing out that “organically, some leadership may grow.”  He pointed out that they will not have mandatory meetings and will shy away from having too many rules at the station.

Although Radio Valencia will officially be Internet-only, they are “expecting” to also broadcast at 89.9FM in San Francisco, although they won’t be hosting that signal themselves. When I asked how they selected the frequency, John Hell said, it’s because it’s between KZSU and KFJC.  Radio Valencia’s DJ RICK! acknowledged that “90% of our listeners will [probably be] online,” so with that in mind, he’s working really hard to have a “modern website,” with opportunities for listeners to interact with DJs and the ability to view the site on mobile devices.

With so many people listening to radio online, I asked John Hell why it was important for Radio Valencia to be on FM as well. He said, “radio is only really radio when it’s terrestrial radio.” He pointed out that a lot of people can’t afford high speed Internet connections, so for them terrestrial radio is crucial, saying, “Radio is vital for a community.” RICK! added that he wants to hear amazing radio over the airwaves, saying, “Every time I rent a car…I want to cry [because of the radio choices]…I don’t want to give up on terrestrial radio.”

Vinyl Records on the Bathroom Wall at Radio Valencia

John Hell said that unfortunately the “LPFM Act made it very hard for urban locations to get a license,” adding that big broadcast groups have lobbied hard to “push out low power stations” in their areas. Although he’s not personally up for the paperwork, he said, “I would be fine if we filed for a LPFM.” He added that in the absence of that, “I believe that the air does belong to the people and the people who really deserve the opportunity to do radio” aren’t able to get access.

Both John Hell and RICK! reminisced a bit about growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, with John Hell arguing that, “20 years ago..radio was awesome [here].” RICK! said that he remembers the thrill he got when he sat in the audience for the Alex Bennett Show and said that it was amazing to have a morning radio show that was produced locally. He pointed out that “it was fun to have someone talk about the city” he lived in over the airwaves.

When I visited last week, the tiny studio contained a couple of turntables, a board, a rack, and insulation crafted from large burlap coffee bean bags. Since my visit, CD players, a cassette deck, and monitor speakers have been installed. The studio sits in a space just inside the entrance to the warehouse, nestled next to a washer & dryer, and a bathroom decorated with vinyl records. Beyond these entry-way amenities there’s a huge, 2-level, open warehouse space that is both a living space (bedrooms upstairs) and an event space for live music, radio shows (the Ask Dr. Hal Show was recorded there in front of a live audience), a weekly Dungeons and Dragons night, and underground dinners hosted by the chef behind ForageSF and the SF Underground Market.

John Hell told me that he was excited about the possibilities that will be afforded to the station because of the physical space and he hoped to be able to air live bands and host a variety of events there.

In terms of the DJ lineup, John Hell is hoping to having DJs on the air 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in 2-hour shifts. All DJs will be expected to pay quarterly dues and there will be occasional meetings that DJs will be invited to attend. Radio shows in the works include a jazz/metal program, local music shows, new music shows, public affairs/interview-based programs, a sound collage program, and a revival of the Ask Dr. Hal show. Currently there’s no music library, but there’s hope for one in the future.

We concluded our visit with John Hell reminiscing about doing radio out in the Nevada desert during Burning Man. He told me that at that station the door was open all night and he said, “I really enjoyed the immediacy of that experience,” adding, “that is radio.” Although he wasn’t sure how many people might wander in off the street into Radio Valencia, John Hell was excited about the possibilities.

Related posts:

1. Chicago Independent Radio Project hits the ‘net, waits for an FM
2. FCC Commissioner Clyburn Suggests Channels 5 & 6 for Radio
3. The decade’s most important radio trends #9: The FCC Authorizes Low-Power FM

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.

Related posts:

1. FCC FREE Radio in Content Deal with SF Station Website
2. Radio Valencia Launches in San Francisco
3. Chicago Independent Radio Project hits the ‘net, waits for an FM

For Americans it may be hard to believe that Spain only this year passed a law that gives a new Spanish central radio authority the ability to pursue and shut down unlicensed radio broadcasters. Back in January the Spanish radio industry group AERC complained that 3000 pirate stations are operating in the country and need to be shut down.

For its part the government recently claimed to have opened 109 cases against pirate operators since 2007. With the recently passed law the secretary of the Media of the Generalitat says the job will become easier.

I know relatively little about radio broadcasting in Spain, although I have often heard that the radio dial is more chaotic than in other European countries. For instance, apparently 504 of the unlicensed stations are operated by municipalities. (Just imagine if your local city or town government ran its own pirate radio station!) Additionally, some 124 ostensibly licensed stations operate on a frequency other than the one they were assigned.

Given these kinds of stats I seriously doubt that the Spanish government is likely to make much of a dent in the country’s number of unlicensed stations. The FCC has been around for seventy-six years and I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t at least 3000 pirate stations operating in the US right now. At best the Commission does a pretty good job of keeping unlicensed operators more underground and less organized by playing a good game of cat and mouse. I reckon Spain has quite a way to go before it can even hope to have that level of success.

No related posts.

Worcester, Massachusset’s unlicensed Flava 105.5 has received some mostly positive press coverage recently for its focus on underserved Caribbean populations in the area. Probably not coincidentally, about two weeks after it appeared in the local newspaper the FCC issued the station a Notice of Unlicensed Operation (NOUO) ordering it to cease broadcasting immediately.

In a follow-up story reporting on the Commission’s action that appeared in the News Telegram on Saturday the station’s general manager said that “We’re no longer on the air. … We’re not in business.” However, the paper’s reporter noted that the station was still on the air as of Friday night.

Every FCC field office prioritizes unlicensed stations differently. Sometimes a station operating as openly as Flava 105.5 might go unbothered for months. Other times the Commission will act quickly once a station gets noticed. A significant variable in this is how loudly local licensed broadcasters complain and bug the FCC.

In this case it looks like the Boston field office has been hitting unlicensed stations all over its geographic area of responsibility since February. Scanning over the Enforcement Bureau’s recent field actions it looks like quite a few Massachusetts stations were on the radar. The Boston field office issued NUOUs to another Worcester station, along with stations in Hartford, Webster, Boston, Norwood, Boxford, two stations in Mattapan(1, 2) Springfield and three stations in Brockton (1, 2, 3). Additionally, the Boston field office sent NUOUs to four stations in Rhode Island and three in Connecticut over the same period.

In the first article on Flava 105.5 a local online radio director was quoted saying she’s “heard of a lot of Haitian radio stations popping up in the Boston area.” This pattern looks a lot like the unlicensed activity in the New York City and South Florida areas which also have significant Caribbean and Latino communities who are otherwise not well served by licensed stations, commercial or noncommercial.

I was actually surprised at the number of notices the Boston field office sent out this year (20!). That number alone represents a lot of unlicensed broadcasting. But if you take into account the likelihood that there are many other stations that haven’t been identified by the FCC or just haven’t been contacted yet, I’d say there’s a pretty big pirate scene going on in southern New England. The Commission doesn’t note the kind of programming aired on the stations it contacts. But just looking over the names of the persons identified in the notices there seem to be what look like a lot of Latino and Hatian names.

The takeaway from this is that there are still a lot of communities and groups who are not well served by licensed broadcasters, leading a significant number of people to take to the air without a license to fill the void. This is especially true in big metropolitan areas, like greater Boston, where low-power FM licenses have not been available in the densest population areas. I think it’s fair to say that even if LPFM licenses to become available there will not be enough to go around, and not much of a dent will be made in the number of unlicensed broadcasters.

Finally, I must note that all the Boston office has done is sent out warning letters that say the equivalent of “we’re pretty sure you’re broadcasting without a license and you better cut it out!” That letter alone is enough to scare a lot of unlicensed broadcasters off the air. But it’s a long way from the NUOU letter to a real fine, and then collecting the fine or taking a station off the air by police force.

While LPFM provided a very needed avenue for many different populations and communities to obtain broadcast licenses, the service is not and will not be enough to make up for the lack of diversity on the majority of the radio dial. While the FCC may have hoped LPFM would hold back the tide of pirate radio, a decade later there’s no evidence that happened. There may be fewer outwardly political pirates like Free Radio Berkeley, but that doesn’t mean today’s stations aren’t there for important reasons.

No related posts.

What many probably don’t realize is that pirate radio is still going strong in the UK, especially in big cities like London. Contemporary pirates are also inspired by the fact that the BBC still doesn’t play a lot of cutting edge popular music, which these days means electronic music and British forms of hip-hop. There are private commercial stations in the UK now, but nothing on the scale of what we have in the US. (And, one should note, American commercial radio doesn’t do such a hot job of playing cutting edge music, either.) So pirates in Britain’s big cities are the ones bringing the newest music to the airwaves.

Pirate aerial on top of a tower block.

From a technical standpoint these London pirates are much more sophisticated than their American counterparts. Radio pirates tend to be much less prominent in most US cities outside of South Florida, and tend to be smaller operations where transmitters and studios are still co-sited. However, a few US unlicensed US broadcasters have made use of internet-based STLs to help them avoid capture by the FCC, often in a cat-and-mouse game.

The documentary also takes us back forty years to a less well known aspect of 60s pirate radio, visiting abandoned anti-aircraft forts in the sea that were taken over by pirate broadcasters. This documentary is fascinating and well worth your sixteen minutes.

No related posts.

Skulltime for Kids Pirate Shirt

Debuting back in 1987, way before pirates were ever deemed cool and a full 8 years before “Talk Like a Pirate Day” was ever conceptualized, Skulltime for Kids hit the airwaves of Foothill College radio station KFJC 89.7 FM in Los Altos Hills, California.

Captain Jack, the creator of the show, told me that the original idea for the program was born during a graveyard shift that he did with a fellow DJ in which they pretended to be pirates. He said that those initial late night shows were hilarious and that other station staff members encouraged him to base a show around that concept.

So, in 1987 Skulltime for Kids began as a Wednesday afternoon “children’s show,” hosted by the pirate Captain Jack.

The early years were a solo operation, with Captain Jack playing children’s records and spinning tales about his pirate life. He always alluded to a character called Skully, who was the “phantom bartender on Skull Island,” but it wasn’t until 1992 that another DJ offered to join the show in order to bring Skully to life. By 1996 or 1997 Skully was a regular fixture on Skulltime for Kids and around that time I started listening to the show (and joined the staff of KFJC).

There are a lot of things to love about Skulltime for Kids. There’s always plenty of banter about pop culture and music trivia and over the years I’ve found the show to be the “go to” place for news about dead celebrities, as they do rousing tributes to recently departed pop culture fixtures. Both Captain Jack and Skully are also thrift store junkies, so they often play amazing vintage children’s records with songs and stories from the past.

Various other station members (and even visiting musician Will Oldham) have come on the show playing a number of characters, from Bubba (voiced by former Music Director Ken “Spiderman” Hamilton), to the Sea Hag, to Crow’s Next Willy (Will Oldham’s alter ego).

When I talked to Captain Jack and Skully about some of their favorite moments from the show, they both shared with me the fun they had in crafting a 9-week-long “Skull Island Saga,” in which they revealed an elaborate backstory about how Skully used to own Skull Island. Skully told me, “we were trying to get Skull Island back…and then Bubba came in…He’s a Budweiser truck driver…and he ends up saving the world.” Apparently the ongoing drama included cliffhangers and a helium balloon sent up to save people.

Captain Jack told me that one of the other central characters on Skull Island was the Blood Ape, “a fabled experimental musician.” He said that they actually made a Blood Ape demo that was made available to lucky listeners.

Surprisingly, the majority of what happens on Skulltime for Kids is not scripted and just occurs in the moment as improvisation. Since it’s an afternoon show, there are some children who do listen to the show, although Captain Jack and Skully point out that some of the content is a bit “over the line” for kids. The talk can get saucy, but it’s all veiled under clean language and tempered by pirate voices. Like crotchety old punk rockers, they talk about the good old days, music, heroes from the past, and their dreams for the future. Throw an old Disney record or two into the mix, and it’s pure genius.

You can listen to Skulltime for Kids on Wednesday afternoons from 5 to 6pm Pacific on KFJC 89.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or online from anywhere in the world.

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