FCC Raids radio free brattleboro

An early-morning raid today backed by Federal Marshals has rfb off the air. The FCC had secured a warrant for arrest of the transmitter and associated gear “from a Burlington magistrate,” which means it did not come from the Brattleboro-based judge hearing the station’s case. Surprisingly, they actually left some gear behind (not much, but it wasn’t a complete scouring).
This is a highly unusual move as the FCC has typically let any court proceedings play out before attempting another enforcement tack. In fact, the station’s reaction to the raid notes that it had dropped its own attempt to secure an injunction against the FCC because of assurances that the agency would keep the dispute in the realm of the courts. Apparently a lack of patience caused the agency to renege. Continue reading “FCC Raids radio free brattleboro”

AMC Rocks Haus; FCC Drops Lit @ BLR

Freshly back from the 2005 Allied Media Conference, which definitely lives up to its hype. I didn’t get a good sense of just how many people were there in total, but the AMC bowling party was definitely overflowing. The microradio workshop went off great (I caught nobody napping). The dulcet sounds of pirate radio songs, bust audio, and the KJR culture jam simulcast could be heard throughout the Bowling Green State University student union for the duration of Saturday. Now it’s time to hope that inspiration takes root.
With three AMC sessions going on at any given time I ended up flitting between various things, except for Sunday, when I indulged in the conference film festival. Most of the panel sessions were taped, although the raw audio is of variable quality. I met a lot of talented and passionate people doing amazing work, like further exploration of the “hybrid radio” concept (webcasting plus microradio), turnkey tactical webcasting, radical librarianship, and oodles more. Continue reading “AMC Rocks Haus; FCC Drops Lit @ BLR”

AMC Ahoy!

The seventh annual Allied Media Conference kicks off today in Bowling Green, Ohio. Hundreds of radical media activists from around the country will converge on the scene to share skills and plot projects. The microradio workshop goes down late Saturday morning. Says the schedule:
This session will provide an overview of the national microradio scene, current FCC policy and enforcement trends, and the prospects for expanded legal LPFM radio. It will also feature a working demonstration of a microradio station, to show just how easy it is to take back the airwaves. As a part of this demonstration we will discuss various operational tactics to mitigate exposure and enforcement concerns. Continue reading “AMC Ahoy!”

FCC Seeks Summary Judgment in radio free brattleboro Case

According to this article in the Brattleboro Reformer, the FCC spent the last 15 months ignoring judge J. Garvan Murtha’s concerns about the lack of local access to the airwaves. That’s why he denied the agency’s request for a temporary injunction against rfb in the first place.
Instead, the best assistant U.S. Attorney Michael P. Drescher can come up with, apparently, is “we don’t give out licenses to 10-watt stations, therefore radio free brattleboro must not broadcast.” Which is not exactly true: the FCC’s LPFM service contains a provision for so-called “LP-10” stations that would broadcast with 10 watts or less, but it has never solicited applications for LP-10 stations. How can a station acquire a license the FCC maintains on its books but refuses to issue? Continue reading “FCC Seeks Summary Judgment in radio free brattleboro Case”

Scene Reports: California, Illinois

California: Skidmark Bob just interviewed Monkey of the infamous Pirate Cat Radio. Monkey scored an early copy of Stephen Dunifer’s TV transmitter kit and put Pirate Cat TV on the air six months ago; its 80-watt signal can be seen on Channel 13 in the San Francisco area. Programming consists of a growing catalog of DIVX .avi files on a homebrew server with a terabyte of storage, and the station is actively soliciting more content.
As for Pirate Cat Radio, Monkey says there’s about 30 DJs presently, and the dues-paying fundraising model takes care of their needs. At the end of the interview he says the station will soon “upgrade” from 220 to 1,000 (!) watts, mostly by moving to a directional antenna system. Continue reading “Scene Reports: California, Illinois”

Pirate-Buster Patented DNA Database Search

A trivial postscript to the saga of Knoxville’s First Amendment Radio, whose demise in 2004 was attributed in large part to David Icove: ultra-cop, righteous ham, and, apparently, mad scientist. In the months leading up to the bust, a team (of which Icove was a part) received a patent on a “parallel data processing architecture” designed to make DNA database searches fast and easy.
In a biometricheavy War on Terror™, there’s obvious potential in such proprietary knowledge.

Berkeley Liberation Radio Faces Eviction

Captain Fred tells DJ Rubble (via Indybay IMC) that the station’s received notice to move out by the end of June. BLR’s been at its current location (in Oakland) for more than three years.
The landlord was initially supportive of the station, but there have been some complaints about blanketing interference. Normally such complaints are pretty easily rectified but BLR’s neighbors happen to be band practice spaces that contain gear especially sensitive to strong RF fields.
The station is looking for a 10×10′ room with roof access, preferably in a commercial space, where “a somewhat raucous atmosphere” can flourish. “We’d really like to find some landlord who has a grudge against the federal government,” says Fred.

Microradio @ AMC

The Allied Media Conference has accepted the proposal for a microradio workshop. Don’t know its exact spot on the schedule, but if you’d like to get a comprehensive overview of the current scene and explore some of the tactical evolutions currently taking place, then AMC is the place to be next month.
The entire schedule looks excellent and includes sessions on zines and DIY distribution generally, blogging, webcasting, puppet-making, “artistic recycling,” copwatching, and lots more. AMC organizers themselves are blogging in the runup to the event – sounds like the entertainment side of things will also be chock full of goodness. Rumor has it next year’s AMC will be here in Champaign-Urbana.

Sacramento Microbroadcaster Sues FCC

KNOZ-LP has no license from the FCC. It’s an 84-watt hip-hop outlet run by a local publisher/promoter in Sacramento, California, squatting 96.5 Mhz. It’s pretty open about why it exists: to offer airtime to local artists who can’t crack the door at the three licensed “urban-format” stations in town. You even can grab aircheck-style mixtape samples of its programming online.
KNOZ went on the air in May of 2004 after the station’s founder, Will Major, consulted informally with the FCC. He was told he’d have to file a license application for an LPFM, and that he couldn’t do that until a new LPFM filing window opened (possibly in 2006). More informally, claims Major, he was told that so long as he stuck to the operational guidelines of the LPFM rules, kept a filled-out license application handy, caused no interference, and generated no complaints, he shouldn’t have a problem. Continue reading “Sacramento Microbroadcaster Sues FCC”

St. Petersburg's Pirate Radio Network Down But Not Out

Bob Noxious has two brass ones: after a scant two months on the air and scads of publicity to show for it, the FCC showed up the day before April Fool’s and told him to shut up. He has complied – for now –
Although we will have to endure a short time of static on the radio, we won’t be silenced for long. Thanks to modern technology…when the PIRATE RADIO NETWORK returns, [the station] will be broadcast from MULTIPLE transmitters in numerous locations throughout the area. Not only will that expand the listening area, but it will be with a much crisper and cleaner signal. Lets see how many transmitters the F.C.C. can shut down at one time! Continue reading “St. Petersburg's Pirate Radio Network Down But Not Out”