Page 373 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

| P rate Rad o

arrest him. When authorities realized such a course of action could backfire in
the increasingly tense situation, they left him alone for years, spurring many
to realize the FCC was not always ready to enforce its own regulations. WTRA
is now known as Black Liberation Radio and continues to broadcast without a
license, even after a raid of its equipment in 1999.

tiMeline

1906—On Christmas Eve, Reginald Fessenden broadcasts the first-ever radio broadcast
of music and voice over long distances. From an unlicensed station he built in Brant
Rock, Massachusetts, his broadcast includes a reading and Christmas song, and is
heard by unsuspecting wireless operators on ships as far away as off the coast of
Virginia.
1937—The first experimental FM radio station, W1XOJ, is granted a construction permit
by the FCC. The birth of FM—a cheaper and easier medium to build and operate than
AM—eventually makes it possible for a movement of pirates to flourish.
1947—XERF, one of the most famous of the “border blaster” radio stations, begins oper-
ation from Cuidad Acuna just across the Rio Grande in Mexico. These border stations
were not pirates, but represent early attempts at subverting the U.S. licensing system
by broadcasting from stations licensed in Mexico near the U.S. border. Some border
blasters did, however, broadcast content in violation of U.S. consumer protection law,
such as a station in Kansas whose on-air healers advocated “goat gland surgery” to
improve masculinity.
1958—Radio Mercur, the first known station to broadcast from a ship in international wa-
ters (the first offshore European pirate station) launches. Others, like Radio Caroline,
follow in the 1960s, until passage of the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act of 1968
made such broadcasting practically illegal.
1973—The FCC refuses to renew right-wing, fundamentalist Christian radio operator Rev-
erend Carl McIntire’s radio license for station WXUR because the station did not com-
ply with the Fairness Doctrine, which required time be given to opposing viewpoints.
In response, McIntire becomes a pirate, broadcasting off the coast of New Jersey from
a former WWII minesweeper, marking a new era in his long-standing fight against the
FCC—a battle he eventually lost, although an important precedent is set regarding
the FCC’s authority to regulate offshore broadcasting.
1979—At the behest of newly created National Public Radio, the FCC eliminates class D
licensing, a service used by many noncommercial, educational broadcasters. This move
further fuels the explosion of pirates in the 1980s and 1990s.
1987—Mbana Kantako launches a pirate radio station in the Springfield, Illinois, housing
project where he lives. The station later becomes known as Black Liberation Radio and
is credited with inspiring a generation of future pirates.
1995—The FCC files a motion against California’s Stephen Dunifer and Free Radio
Berkeley, sparking a prolonged court battle during which time pirate radio in the