Washington, D.C. Report for Montrose Radio Weekly Meeting 10/6/98

O.O. Jones reported from Washington, D.C. via telephone on Monday, Oct. 5,
1998 that things went well for the two day event: "Showdown with the FCC."
His actual quote was: "Things are going pretty spectacularly here!" O.O.
reported that Texas had one of the largest representative contingents with
about 10 people from Houston, San Marcos and Austin combined. The largest
contingent came from Radio Mutiny in Philly, who were sponsoring the
events. There were also about a half dozen reps from Steal This Radio in
NYC. O.O. hosted one of the seminars on Sunday concerning the technical
aspects of microbroadcasting. Andrew Yoder, author of several "pirate
radio" books was another workshop facilitator as well as the
www.radio4all.org group. The three microKIND producers, from San Marcos,
with whom Montrose Radio shared the ride to D.C., were instrumental in
providing general leadership during the events. We need to continue
working with them. Susie Creemcheese, of the Montrose Radio "Local Show"
stayed up all night on Sunday helping make puppets and costumes for
Monday's demonstration. As far as the march and protest on Monday against
the FCC and the NAB, it was a reported success. The 100 or so marchers
managed to stop traffic for awhile on Pennsylvania Ave. The police decided
to provide a group of about 8-10 blue uniforms to escort the angry radio
pirates to their destinations. Outside the FCC building they cranked up a
backpack held transmitter and let the FCC know which frequency to tune in
to and challenged them to shut them down. The demonstrators continued
broadcasting for awhile and played pass the hat with the transmitter, so
no one would confiscate it. Then they moved on to the NAB building where
they took the NAB flag down from their flagpole and hoisted the "Jolly
Roger" in a raucous spirit of piratedom. Unfortunately the NAB flag came
up missing, and the police decided to use that as an excuse to arrest some
of the demonstrators. O.O. Jones was interviewed at the event by NPR and
the Washington Post did a piece on the event. Our group stayed in D.C. an
extra day to discuss matters with congressional representatives