Land of the Pirates

Freedom fighters of the airwaves? Or freeloaders clogging up the dial?

The practitioners of illegal radio broadcasting--so-called “pirate” radio--have one view, the Federal Communications Commission another. But regardless, the phenomenon is growing rapidly across the country, thanks largely to increasing accessibility and affordability of low-wattage transmitting equipment. A site on the World Wide Web devoted to the topic lists more than 100 unlicensed stations in the United States with a variety of music, political and religious formats currently on the air.

In L.A., a Silver Lake-area station has been broadcasting a free-form musical menu as KBLT-FM on 104.7 for about a year. Though heard in only about a five-mile radius, it has become through word-of-mouth a key piece of that community’s vibrant pop culture scene.

And on June 20, participants and supporters from the Western United States will gather in Carson for a third annual conference to discuss various issues surrounding the movement, with scheduled speakers including Stephen Dunifer, founder of Free Radio Berkeley, which has been engaged in a court fight with the FCC for nearly two years in an attempt to stay on the air.

Where Heftel Inc. recently spent $115 million to buy a frequency in L.A., it takes only a few hundred dollars to get an unlicensed operation on the air. And that, say supporters, is the reason for going underground. Mega-corporation owners simply can’t, or won’t, serve real community interests.

But it’s also a reason for it being illegal.

“Quite naturally, when you think that here are legitimate broadcasters who have paid quite dearly for their business and there’s someone undercutting them even with a tiny part of the market, they have a right to have it stopped,” says John Winston, assistant chief of the FCC’s compliance and information bureau.

Unlicensed stations can also interfere more concretely with authorized ones, by interfering with their signals--though the Silver Lake station doesn’t seem to be doing that. The closest located station with the same frequency is in Oxnard and is not generally heard in L.A. anyway.

No one directly connected with the Silver Lake station would comment, which is understandable given that penalties for conviction of operating an illegal station can be as much as 10 years in jail and $100,000 in fines. But its supporters are quite vocal: A benefit concert to raise funds for legal defense should the station be cited by the FCC was held earlier this year.

“You hear more local bands there than you can even on the small college stations like [Loyola-Marymount’s] KXLU,” says Paul V., manager of Silver Lake band Extra Fancy.

“It’s a real community thing,” says John Roeker, who co-owns the Silver Lake shop/community center You’ve Got Bad Taste with rock singer Exene Cervenkova and manages the band Stone Fox. “Silver Lake has its own bands, own clubs, own publications, own store and now it’s own radio station.”

Roeker says the impact of the station is tangible. Demand for recordings by local bands increases when played on the station and promotional tie-ins that his store has done with the station have brought in streams of people.

That’s all well and good, says the FCC’s Winston. But it doesn’t change the agency’s stance.

“People say this is their 1st Amendment right and it serves a market otherwise not served,” he says. “But that’s up to Congress as to whether or not the law needs to be changed. If they want the law changed, they should go through legitimate channels, not just break it. I liken it to what if America woke up one morning with no traffic laws. Let us all just drive at will.”

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Flashback Weekend: Gary Calamar of KCRW-FM (89.9) will mark the 30th anniversary of the famed Monterey Pop Festival with a special edition of his weekly music show, “The Open Road,” Sunday from 8 to 10 p.m. Calamar has done new interviews with several participants, including Eric Burdon (who played the fest with the Animals), Tommy Smothers (who emceed the event), documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker (who directed the film “Monterey Pop”), Micky Dolenz of the Monkees (who attended simply as a fan) and rock photographer Henry Diltz.

He also will play some musical performances that were not released on the Rhino Records boxed set from the concert or on the film due to contractual reasons, including music by the Grateful Dead, the Buffalo Springfield (with David Crosby sitting in for a departed Neil Young) and Simon and Garfunkel. The latter, he says, is particularly interesting, since Paul Simon, who had spent some time living in England, did his between-song patter with a swingin’ English accent.

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Country Kindness: KZLA-FM (93.9) is hosting a benefit concert June 30 at the Cowboy Boogie in Anaheim with proceeds going to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Lee Roy Parnell, Kevin Sharp and Thrasher/Shaver are set to perform and there will be a silent auction of such country collectibles as cowboy hats autographed by Clint Black and George Strait and various signed tour jackets, CDs and photos.