Doug Harroun 
Jason Fichtel
English 102.044
December 5 1999
Civil Disobedience: The case for Radio “Piracy”.
	There is a thorn in the side of the Federal Communications Commission, the 
branch of our United States government that oversees and limits virtually all forms of 
electronic communication in the United States from telephones to lasers and computers.  
That thorn is the micropower radio movement, also known as Low Power FM, and Pirate 
Radio. The Federal Radio Commission, predecessor to the FCC,  was appointed the task 
of regulating the airwaves of the United States in the early 1920s, and since then there has 
been an underground movement that seeks to oppose and undermine the governments 
efforts to control our airwaves.  In the past two decades micropower radio broadcast has 
gone from being a few misfit hobbyist doing the occasional broadcast from their 
basement into a large network of clandestine community activists with a joint mission: to 
provide a public service in their community not made available by “legal” commercial 
radio stations. These micropower stations provide a valuable community service, and as 
long as they are not causing interference or other technical problems, the FCC should 
have absolutely NO right to harass, disband, or regulate these stations just because the 
owners can not afford the multimillion dollar licensing fees. 
	The history of “pirate radio” goes back to the first recorded “pirate” broadcast by 
Reginald Fessenden on Christmas Eve of 1906. Since then broadcasts have traditionally 
taken to the airwaves on a major holiday. (Yoder 5) In the 1920s the Federal Radio 
Commission was formed and subsequently banned all unauthorized radio stations. For 
nearly a half a century the FRC oversaw who was running a station but did little to pursue 
those who ran a station without permission unless complaints were filed. With the Cold 
War looming in the near future, and radio and television frequencies getting saturated 
congress formed the Federal Communications Commission to oversee all radio and 
television broadcast in the United States.  Along with this new commission came new 
laws and regulations. Among these were new classes of station licensing and restriction 
on low power unauthorized broadcasting. Then with the passing of legislation in the 
1970s that drastically cut back the tax money being given to the FCC, they were forced to 
raise the price of licensing making the “voice of the public” available only to those who 
could afford literally hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars to set up a station. 
	In 1993 a group a UC-Berkeley students led by Stephen Dunifer took the 
Berkeley hills and began what was to become one of the biggest sharpest thorns in the 
FCC’s side. Known as Free Radio Berkeley, Dunifer’s station at 104.1 FM provided the 
Berkeley area with local news, information about community events, and advertising 
which was deemed too controversial by the local corporate radio stations. Silenced by a 
court injunction sought by the FCC Free Radio Berkeley has been off the air since June 
1998. 
	In their attempt to appease the large corporate lobbyist groups by shutting down 
low power radio stations, the FCC has ruined the fundamental goal of radio, that being a 
free community service to inform and entertain the public. Radio stations such as the 
above mentioned Free Radio Berkeley,  and Liberty City, Florida’s “Hot 97”  stations 
provide a service to the community which in no way restricts or infringes on anyone’s 
rights. In fact, in the case of the Liberty City station “Hot 97” run by DJ Bo, a low power 
community radio station can bring peace and sense of community to areas hard hit by 
poverty, drugs, and lack of community awareness. Used as a tool to unite a community, 
even at the cost of being controversial at times, micropower radio stations have been 
proven to serve communities not reached or covered by the large licensed “legal” 
stations. Yet the FCC said in their decision regarding Free Radio Berkeley they say that 
“full service broadcasters serve the greatest diversity of voices” and in this case, full 
service does not imply above average technical status of a broad range of programming, 
but rather those who have the money to play the game. 
	Also in their attempt to silence those community activists who would challenge 
the media monopoly, the FCC hurts something we as Americans hold dear, our freedom 
of speech. While the first amendment doesn’t guarantee our right to broadcast radio 
transmissions, it does give us the rights to express ourselves in whatever means possible 
so long a those means do not infringe on the rights of others. What is at issue in the 
FCC’s unfair practices here is not a direct attack on what is said, but in it’s means of 
delivery. When the subject of free speech was used in court as a defense of Free Radio 
Berkeley, the FCC stated that “it would not be in the public interest to provide a voice for 
the voiceless through low power FM radio” by saying this they are restricting our rights 
to free speech by limiting the means by which we may do so. Low power radios do not do 
anything to infringe on the rights of others if used in an organized fashion. The only 
difference between the high priced and high powered radio stations, and the smaller 
community radio stations is money. As long as low power stations to not interfere with 
other “legal” stations and do not serve to incite people to harm others, or break any laws 
that limit the acceptable terms of free speech, then the delivery method should not be 
controlled by any agency claiming to have any interest in upholding the constitution. 
Because the FCC is a government agency, it is sworn to do just that, and by attacking 
legitimate, although unlicensed “pirates” they serve only to protect the interests of the 
corporations, and nothing to protect the means of delivery necessary to be heard as 
allowed by the first amendment. 
	As for other uses of “pirate radio” there are many. Some might include a local 
alternative college radio, a business show exclusive to the downtown area, a political 
station, religious, philosophical, whatever. The basic idea is to provide an alternative to 
what is available from large corporate stations who have a business interest to protect. 
	So, with all these legitimate reasons for setting up a low power FM station, who is 
the FCC, and what right do they have to enforce their laws on a community that doesn’t 
ask for it? Officially the FCC is the Federal Communications Commission, established in 
the later 1940s to investigate and silence possible radio threats during the Cold War.