From: "Pete triDish" <petetridish@hotmail.com>
Subject: MRN: showdown at the liberty bell- Mutiny vs.FCC
Date sent: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 20:27:06 PDT

Press Advisory: For Immediate Release 4/16/98
Contact: Diane Condom, Pete triDish (215) 474-6886 (215) 476-WPPR box 2

Pirate Radio Station Targeted by the FCC; Radio Pirates Sail Forth in Protest

Radio Mutiny returns to the Air in front of the Liberty Bell- dares FCC Chairman and Commissioners to arrest them in public

Wednesday night, April 15th, as Americans across the land rushed off their hard earned money to the federal government, yet another instance of the frivolous squandering of our tax dollars played itself out on a porch in West Philly. Agents from the FCC crawled out of their little holes to try to scare West Philly's radio pirates off the air. Threatening fines, equipment confiscation, and jail time, the feds made their second attempt to terrorize the community broadcasters out of exercising their first Amendment rights. "I shut down for the evening so we could rally our troops, but I told those FCC agents that they could kiss my Bill of Rights!" said Jeannie LeFitte, a Radio Mutiny DJ.

"Radio Mutiny's response will be threefold" said Bertha Venus, a Mutiny DJ. First, we brought our co-conspirator Ben Franklin into the battle by upgrading his 18th century free speech tool- his famous printing press- into a twentieth century free speech tool- a pirate transmitter, just like ours. As Ben says, "Necessity knows no Law." (photos of guerrilla statue alteration outside of City Hall available on request) Second, we will continue our campaign to meet every instance of FCC harassment with ten new transmitters, ten new micro-stations. Third, and most importantly, we will return our voices to the air on Wednesday, April 22in front of the Liberty Bell. At High Noon, we have challenged the FCC to bust us in front of the American people and this symbol of liberty.

"Our lawyer, Stephan Presser, legal director of the ACLU, wrote Chairman Kennard and requested that all correspondence regarding our case be directed through him as our counsel. Instead, they came like stormtroopers in the night to harass and intimidate people. If Kennard thinks that his policy of censorship of microradio is doing anything for the American people, let him come out from his fancy office in Washington and explain himself as he leads us out to the paddywagon." said DJ Buster Moon.

West Philly has become a flashpoint in the nationwide struggle to free the airwaves from corporate and government domination. The two sides, which have been mildly sparring for years, have upped the ante to a ferocious pitched battle in the past two weeks. Just last week Radio Mutiny hosted a gathering of pirates from the entire eastern United States, and sponsored the first of two national debates between thecorporoate foes of Free Radio and the ordinary people of this land, who are fighting to take back a piece of the public airwaves. Radio Mutiny's Condom Lady took on Richard Lee, the FCC's chief enforcement agent. Two days later, attorney for Free Radio Berkeley, Luke Hiken duked it out with the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas. On the first day of the NAB convention, the FCC issued 5 ten thousand dollar fines to pirates and shut down two stations in Tampa as a token gesture of their slavish indulgence of the NAB's commercial interests.

At 12:30pm on the 15th, pirate stations in Milwaukee, New York, Boston, Iowa city, and Tampa that had been harassed by the FCC and had temporarily stopped broadcasting defiantly returned to the airwaves together in a joint act of Electronic civil disobedience. In addition, Radio Mutiny's recent 25 city tour helped jump start a number of new free radio stations. "We've made good on our promise to the FCC that for every station harassed, ten more will be started until the FCC cries uncle." said Anne Tenna, of the Radio Mutiny Roadshow.

In response to this most recent attack on the faire shippe Radio Mutiny, the motley crew of radio mutineers will hereby shiver the timbers of the FCC with a 20 watt blast of microradio in front of the Liberty Bell. The FCC Chairman has been invited to enforce the law- but does he dare to profane this symbol of liberty and face the wrath of the American people? Come out and see for yourselves- High Noon, Liberty Bell, Wednesday, April 22nd