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« on: April 11, 2016, 1717 UTC »
If I got any info wrong, please correct me. This is all my opinion. Again- I do not advocate for any one to break the law. Pirate radio is illegal, but so were many other activities that we fought against. Just because the law says something does not mean we cannot question it.
Standing up for pirate radio
By: Anthony Messina
*I wish to make this clear. I do not advocate for people to break the law, but in some cases, it is necessary. I also do not approve of pirate stations that broadcast offensive, inappropriate, or hateful material. They should be immediately shut down.
Pirate radio is rarely talked about, and fairly unknown to most people. In order to understand what makes a radio station a “pirate”, we must first understand how one needs to go about setting up a legal radio station. The Federal Commutations Commission which regulates all radio related activities is the sole agent that licenses and regulates radio stations that are operating within the boundaries of U.S territory, and I make that distinction because even on American embassies, radio stations that exist there must also be licensed by the FCC. So, if you run a station (whether it be radio or TV) without a license (except for part 15 radio, which we will get to in a few) you are a pirate operator. Pirate radio has different repercussions in terms of legal action, and in New Jersey for instance, it is a felony crime to operate an illegal radio station. However, pirate radio has been wrongfully branded as a heinous crime committed by hardened criminals with zero respect for the sanctity of the airwaves.
The FCC has been in cahoots with record labels and music licensing corporations for a long time. Companies like iHeart Media, Clear Channel, BMI and Capital Records all have ties with the FCC, including Verizon as well. Members of the FCC board of directors are all known to have been involved with the music companies and this is one of the biggest guiding principles of the “logic” behind the FCC’s licensing process. See, in legal radio stations, we must pay millions of dollars in licensing fees for the operation of our transmitters, but not only that. We must also pay thousands of dollars over to music licensing companies, and some of that money gets handed over to FCC directors as a payment for passing certain laws that have raised the cost of operating radio stations to discourage and basically make it impossible for local, independent radio stations to operate without going into total debt and have a strong, reliable radio signal. The FCC in 2001 allowed for a new type of radio station called “low power FM” which allowed for local low powered stations to legally broadcast. However, the amount of restriction, regulation and overall cost of the equipment and licensing fees still are very difficult for groups to even consider this a viable option of broadcasting when it can be done on the internet for a much lower cost and without any regulation.
Now onto pirate radio. Pirate radio has been around since Marconi and Fessenden. In 1906- Reginald Fessenden was the first man ever to get a human voice onto radio. Transmitting on 486kHz, he was heard by shippers in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on Christmas eve. This station, of course, was a pirate because he had no license to broadcast, mainly because there was no such licensing organization. Ever since these first broadcasts however, the government felt the need to have a regulating wing to ensure that the radio stations would be neatly organized to make the airwaves more accessible to regular citizens. In the beginning, the FCC (then FRC “Federal Radio Commission”) started out with good intentions, just as an entity that organized the stations in a sensible fashion so that it would be easier to license stations to open frequencies. This, of course, is well before the time of iHeart Media and ASCAP. Soon though, according to the NRB/ MLC “In 1914, a group of composers and publishers formed ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) to enforce their small performance rights, and to create a joint pool of musical compositions that could be sold in bulk to music users.” Basically, ASCAP wanted to ensure that they would be given credit for the work that they made, which is perfectly fine. Broadcast Music Industry, or BMI, was instated in 1939 to provide a lower- cost alternative to the ASCAP blanket agreement that radio stations had to subscribe to, was started by the National Association of Broadcasters. The soon impending association with the FCC was sure to come.
The FCC soon starting urging stations to get a BMI or ASCAP license to ensure that the stations were truly operating in public’s interest. Operating in the public’s interest is something that the FCC has always stressed to allow for them to instill more regulation on radio stations, such as content censorship, increased station license fees and even list of songs that the FCC deemed questionable after certain tragedies like 9/11. Stations that played Vietnam War protest songs were also censored by the FCC to try and keep the war approval high, even though it was to no avail. Pirate radio stations around the late 60’s started to pop up fighting against this censorship by the FCC and the corruption being propagated by the FCC’s involvement with BMI and ASCAP. The pirate radio movement really, though, began in England with stations such as Radio Caroline, Radio Veronica, and Radio Free London. Radio Caroline and Veronica both were the classic type of pirate station, broadcasting from ships in the open sea that were out of the jurisdiction of the British government. Hence, they had the right to broadcast with no need of license because they were in the open seas. This idea of going against the system that was set up by men who only wished to profit off of radio stations spread to America with pirate networks starting such as the Falling Star network by infamous pirate (now legal) broadcaster Allen Weiner. Other stations that became famous was Radio Newyork International, an actual ship of the coast of New York City and Radio Free East Coast.
The morals behind most pirate radio stations are simple; to play music that usually doesn’t get heard on regular stations, to have unique voices heard and discussing alternate opinions. Pirate operators are regular people who have a love for radio, music, and their communities. It has been already said in this piece that the FCC is corrupt and wishes to make it nearly impossible for regular working people to start their own station and get a decent coverage area. They did, however, give us part 15 radio, which is a complete joke. The FCC allows citizens to broadcast without a license for up to 100 feet. This is known as “yardcasting” where the FM signal barely gets past a person’s own house, which is basically a slap in the face from the FCC. Who else could hear your FM signal besides yourself and your neighbor if you’re lucky? This is why people turn to pirate radio because if they want a decent range for a good audience, the only way to do that is through pirate radio and the internet. You can ask yourself, why don’t you just use the internet since it is legal? Well, not everyone has the internet, and radio is a much cheaper alternative because you do not have to pay bandwidth costs for using the internet and people only need a simple radio with a good antenna to hear your station.
The most populous area of pirate stations are in the New York City area. The main type of pirate stations in that area are ethnic stations, such as Haitian, Cuban, Dominican, African, and Asian. In the New York City area, there are no licensed stations that cater to the ethnic audiences, so the people decided to fill that void with their own ethnic programming. This is a completely natural progression of events. If there is a lack of information or programming that a large audience wants to hear, they’ll try to do what they can to provide this information or programming. The ethinic pirates in NYC need to be allowed to operate. They are the most democratic and free stations in the nation, as they saw an opportunity to provide to the people what they wanted. It is a beautiful thing to see the free flow of information and programming that is not censored by the government, and only in America and some countries in Europe do you really see this total freedom of speech.
In the end, pirate radio wishes to keep the airwaves in the hands of the public. Ending the corruption that the FCC is plagued with and keeping the free flow of news, opinion, indie music and the voices of those who have no other way to speak their feelings are why pirate radio will never go away. Radio without the need of licensing and control from some government agency is how the fathers of radio saw it as; Fessenden, Tesla, and Marconi all felt that radio belonged truly to the people and that it could and should never be censored. Yet, the FCC continues to make it as hard as possible for the working man to start up a station that can cover 2-3 miles with a reliable signal, so that all people’s voices can truly be heard. Radio will always belong to the people through the continued success of pirate radio stations, and I will always stand up for them. It is the duty of all Americans to stand up for the people who need to have their voiced heard. There is a reason that the freedom of speech is the first amendment; it is because it is the cornerstone of democracy. If our voices cannot be freely heard without censorship and accessibility, are we truly a free nation? Pirate radio continues the tradition of necessary civil disobedience. We will always speak are minds in any way possible, much to the hatred of the FCC. Pirate radio will prevail because of the power of the idea of the freedom of speech, which is something that hundreds of other countries do not afford to its people. Pirate radio is free, democratic, and for the community. It will remain a staple of open media, and needs to be stood up for. If no one else will, then I will. Long live pirate radio!
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