Published Saturday, November 28, 1998, in the San Jose Mercury News

Airwave activists broadcast atop tree

BY RENEE KOURY
Mercury News Staff Writer

Two ``free radio'' activists went out on a limb this week to protest a federal crackdown on small pirate-radio operators across the land -- planting themselves high in a redwood tree in Berkeley and defiantly broadcasting without a license.

Calling themselves ``Tree Radio Berkeley,'' the renegades set up their antenna and 40-watt transmitter powered with a car battery Monday afternoon in a makeshift wooden studio high in the tree off Derby Street. They broadcast around the clock for the next three days, beaming out their message that radio waves should be available for anyone to use.

 The deejays, who kept their real names secret in case they get plucked by police, remained aloft through Thanksgiving, daring the Federal Communications Commission to come and get them.

 On Wednesday, the FCC paid a visit and told the pirate deejays to ``stop broadcasting or the federal marshals will make you stop,'' said the broadcasters' spokesman, Russell Bush of Oakland.

 ``Realistically speaking, since it's the holidays, we don't expect much to happen until Monday,'' Bush said.

 ``One of the most wonderful parts of this is having the freedom to say what we want to say,'' said one of the broadcasters, a 25-year-old Oakland activist who called himself the Birdman of Berkeley. His co-anchor called herself ``Sparrow.''

 ``I don't think the FCC agents are capable of climbing trees, so we're safe,'' Birdman said. ``We're hanging in there.''

 FCC officials declined Wednesday to comment on what action they might take. But they defended the agency's yearlong campaign to shut down an estimated 300 unlicensed, micro-powered radio stations across the nation, saying they can cloud air traffic control signals and licensed radio broadcasts.

 ``Letting all these operators decide which frequencies and which equipment to use can lead to interference,'' FCC spokesman David Fiske said. ``We want to give the community more voices, but it has to be done with licensing and regulation or it will be chaotic.''

 He noted that the FCC will decide in December or January whether to consider creating a license for low-watt stations.

 Only stations with at least 100 watts can be licensed. Many commercial stations operate with as many as 40,000. The Berkeley activists say only big media corporations can afford to own radio stations, which has led to homogeneity in music and news on the air.

 Radio mini-stations have popped up around the country over the past five years as people looked for ways to reach out to neighbors or deliver specialized information. Broadcasters range from churches preaching the Gospel to alternative rockers, and conservative ideologues to left-wing activists.

 The movement was inspired in part by Berkeley broadcast activist Stephen Dunifer, who sold low-watt radio kits and operated his own Free Radio Berkeley station for years until he was ordered by a court last summer to shut down. Though the Berkeley tree broadcasters say they are not affiliated with Dunifer, they are demanding the FCC grant him a right to broadcast.

 ``We want to send a message to the FCC that micro-powered radio should be free and decriminalized and open to all,'' spokesman Bush said. ``There is no question that we need an alternative to the kind of programming we get on commercial radio.''

 Braving wind, rain and pitch-dark nights, and secured by safety harnesses in case they should fall off their perch, the two treetop broadcasters beamed out reggae and rhetoric, punk rock and political commentary.

 The program was picked up by many admirers -- at least those at the base of the tree -- but also reportedly by some listeners as far away as Marin County who knew to tune into the 104.1 FM station formerly used by Dunifer.