RADIO PIRATES STORM CAPITAL
by Paul Kane
States News Service, October 5, 1998

WASHINGTON -- A rag-tag crew of radio pirates marched through the downtown
section of the nation's capital Monday, toting bullhorns and signs as they
protested outside the Federal Communications Commission.
   After a 30-minute stint outside the FCC, the group of 50 to 60
   protestors
marched a few blocks to the National Association of Broadcasters, where
they lived up to their pirate image: stealing the NAB flag and hoisting up
the skull and crossbones, the Jolly Roger.
   "They were loud at times, and they moved on," said Rosemary Kimball,
spokeswoman for the FCC. "It was interesting."
   In the process, police arrested two of the microradio advocates, as
   they
prefer to be called. One of the protestors was arrested for stealing the
NAB flag, but the industry declined to press charges and the protestor was
released, said Dennis Wharton, spokesman for the NAB. The other was
arrested for swearing at a Washington Metro Police officer. Further
information was not available about that arrest.
   The microradio broadcasters were protesting the FCC's ongoing crackdown
on illegal radio operations across the country. In the past year, the
agency has closed at least 260 low-power, unlicensed radio stations, 44 of
which were in Florida and 10 in California.
   The microradio protestors say they provide a fresh, community-based --
   if
sometimes irreverent -- look at news, music and culture in the areas in
which they broadcast, providing diversity to an increasingly
corporate-dominated industry.
   The FCC, and the industry, contend that the unregulated broadcasts
   often
interfere with transmissions from larger radio stations. Worse yet, the
FCC says there are documented cases where pirate radio transmissions have
interfered with air traffic control communicatons with planes.
   "That absolutely cannot be allowed," said Kimball, whose boss, FCC
chairman William Kennard, is trying to set up a plan that would allow the
pirates to broadcast but in a more regulated fashion.
   In the meantime, Kennard has promised to continue cracking down on any
illegal operators, prompting the defiant march on Monday. They carried a
large puppet depicting Kennard as Pinocchio being manipulated by General
Electric and the NAB.
   FCC aides said they weren't sure whether the protestors were actually
broadcasting the march over a pirate radio station. Within a little more
than an hour the march was over, without incident, other than the two
arrests and a stolen flag. But they left behind a few posters, pasted onto
the newspaper honor boxes outside the FCC that summed up the disrespectful
tone of the day.
   "Radio pirates do it on the air," one said.