Page 372 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

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system of allocating access to the airwaves. “What unites these microbroadcast-
ers,” writes Rijsmadel, “is the systematic exclusion of them and their audiences—
who frequently are also participants—from their local media, be it commercial
or public, radio or television.”

why PiraTE?
Pirate radio is often the project of communities looking to fill a void on the
radio and bring neighbors together. In Vermont, Radio Free Brattleboro fought
their impending FCC closure with widespread support including that of the city
council and Senator Patrick Leahy, himself a co-sponsor of legislation to expand
low-power radio, in part because of pressure from the Brattleboro community
he serves. In the United Kingdom, north London pirate Lush FM operates as
a community-run station and is involved in local anti-gun and violence pre-
vention programs. A recent survey by the British communications regulator
concluded that one in six adults regularly listens to pirate radio, with the figure
even higher in some of the most ethnically diverse and poorest neighborhoods
in London (Ofcom 2000).
Pirate stations and their organizers have influenced policy decisions related
to the allocation of radio licenses and the structure of broadcasting sectors. In
the 1960s, an explosion of off-shore pirate radio stations emerged in the waters
off the coast of Britain. These stations, set up on old fishing boats, served as al-
ternatives to the monopoly the BBC had, at the time, over the airwaves. While
the BBC was highly regarded for its role in providing quality news and public
affairs, it offered only limited hours of pop music airplay during the height of
popularity of British bands like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Pirate sta-
tions like Radio Caroline captured the zeitgeist of the times. As a result, many
scholars credit the influence these stations had on the BBC’s decision to launch
less-centralized local radio services and a pop music channel (BBC Radio 1—
whose first DJs included a number of former pirates like John Peel). In Hungary,
the first community station in the country began as a pirate in 1991, during the
early post-communist years. Tilos Rádió (“Forbidden Radio”) defiantly went on
air to bring attention to the fact that there were no legal means for community
groups and independent broadcasters to apply for a license. Tilos was eventu-
ally licensed four years later, following the development of a media policy with
strong support for community stations, and continues to be at the heart of cul-
tural life in Budapest.
In the United States, a group of pirate broadcasters have been key actors in the
movement to expand legal alternatives for community-based or amateur broad-
casters. In 1986, housing rights activist Mbanna Kantako set up a radio station
to serve the African American community of Springfield, Illinois. The station,
WTRA, Radio of the Tenants’ Rights Association, began as a community orga-
nizing tool for the housing project. The station was ignored by authorities for
several years, until it broke a story about what ended up being a high-profile
police brutality case. When agents came to shut down the station, Kantako went
downtown to the federal building and the police station and dared officials to