From The Archives 14: Pirate Radio in the US

For my time in the Netherlands at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, I didn't end up with a lot of essays worth posting. Most finals were group assignments, and this was one for my History of Europe Through Music class. Pirate Radio is a pretty cool subject, and in our project we each had to write about Pirate Radio in a different country, and even though the US is definitely not part of Europe, I ended up writing about it for comparisons sake. We also watched the Pirate Radio movie, so that was fun. This also marks the first FTA post of something from my 3rd year of college.

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January 2018

            When it comes to pirate radio in the United States, the origin can be found in the same place as pirate radio in the United Kingdom. In the beginning, American DJs could be found on the British pirate stations, and sometimes they would receive their music from smuggling it from the US. But when pirate radios started popping up in the US, they tended to follow a different path than their British counterparts.

            Pirate radios in the US started in the 1980s and 90s and are even still being created today. Firstly, most American pirate radios are not actually on boats of any kind. Most are in their DJ’s houses. Rather than just fighting for the right to play rock, American pirate radios are often created to fulfill a certain niche of radio-listening people, or for activism. Licenses are expensive and hard to come by, so pirate radio is a good alternative for the underdogs as well as those you don’t want to conform to the government and Federal Communications Commission. The FCC will give fines or seize equipment when they receive complaints about pirate radios, but they generally do not have the resources to go after every potential pirate (TheGoodStuff 2016).

            Mbanna Kantako is an American pirate radio DJ and activist (Otwell 2012). His involvement with pirate radio began when it was suggested to him as a platform for his activism. As a blind black man, radio became a perfect forum for him, especially since none of the radio stations in his city were playing the politically charged hip-hop that people in his area wanted (Rushton 2013). And as an poor older man, Kantako could never pay a fine they might give him, so even when he did get raided and his transmitter taken by the FCC, somebody else would give him a new transmitter and he would just continue on (TheGoodStuff 2016).

            Sometimes pirate radios don’t care about activism at all, but are simply just normal people who want something different from radio. Bill Milosz is an example of someone who created a pirate radio out of love of radios as well as an interest in old radio drama and film noir stories (The GoodStuff 2016). While technically illegal since he does not own a license, he is not likely to be noticed by the FCC because he’s only taking up a small amount of wave space for a niche following of people. 

            Burning Man Information Radio is another example of radio with a niche purpose (Burning Man 2018). BMIR is for people interested in and attending the music festival Burning Man in Nevada. It gives important information, traffic notifications, as well as music for the community of festival-goers, and is streamed year-round. For a festival based out of de-commercialization, it is unsurprising that BMIR would also be an unlicensed radio available for all and separate from any kind of sponsorship.

            There are currently numerous pirate radios throughout the US, and especially a number of them in Boston. In the past 15 years, the FCC has cited over 90 times to Massachusets pirate stations (Khalid 2014). But even when the FCC opens up cheaper wavelengths for stations to buy, they make it difficult for pirate stations to apply for those legal spots. They have a history of not actually doing much to pirate radios, but in recent years they have shut down a few stations. As any pirate radio station would, the American stations have they run-ins and conflict with the FCC. But especially as the FCC considers how pirate radio adds diversity to the radio for people in communities unfulfilled by normal radio, the legacy of pirate radio in the United States will likely live on, barely touched.

Sources

Burning Man Information Radio. (n.d.). Retrieved January, 2018, from https://burningman.org/event/volunteering/teams/radio/

Khalid, A. (2014, May 14). Operating Without A License, Boston 'Pirate Radio' Stations Seek A Voice. Retrieved January, 2018, from http://www.wbur.org/news/2014/05/14/pirate-radio

Otwell, R. (2012, December 12). Radio Pirates Used Medium As An Organizing Tool. Retrieved January, 2018, from https://www.npr.org/2012/12/12/167091866/radio-pirates-used-medium-as-an-organizing-tool

Rushton, B. (2013, April 25). Keeping it real. Retrieved January, 2018, from http://illinoistimes.com/article-11283-keeping-it-real.html

T. (2016, November 11). What's So Good About Pirate Radio? Retrieved January, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LbKgi9_Gyg