Posted on 09/29/2004 9:32:52 PM PDT by KneelBeforeZod
U.S. Marshal Service served a warrant on a tiny Santa Cruz pirate radio station early Wednesday, rousting and frisking the pajama-clad residents of the co-op house from which the station has been broadcasting.
No one was arrested. ``This is not a criminal action against people,'' said Supervising Deputy Cheryl Koel.
The object of the federal action was Free Radio Santa Cruz, an FM micro-station boasting from 35 to 40 watts of power and offering round-the-clock music, activism and other local programming, in addition to such national programming as Radio Pacifica's ``Democracy Now.''
The blue-jacketed marshals and agents of the Federal Communications Commission dismantled the station's equipment and carried it to a waiting pickup with a camper shell as the crowd yelled ``Shame! Shame!'' and ``Go home!''
``They got me out of bed,'' said Erin Calentine, 21. ``They were yelling, `Federal marshals! We have a warrant! Come down! We're here for the radio,' '' she said.
After being frisked, the residents were kept outside for about half an hour while the marshals ``secured the location,'' said Calentine, quoting the marshals' cop-speak.
Hours later residents, programmers, friends of alternative radio and enemies of corporate media, joined by two city council members, one council candidate and two congressional candidates, milled around on the sidewalk and in the street, being careful to avoid traffic.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Cruzio Pingio
I'm sure they feel like proper martyrs now. I guess Internet broadcasting is too expensive for their hippy pocket books.
IIRC, you can now get micro power FCC licenses pretty easily. Sounds like this guy just didn't want to go through the procedures.
And what pieces of work these politicians are supporting him. Why not support the ability of everyone to do what he did, and start broadcasting their signals on whatever frequency they feel like? Maybe simulcast rush over the local air america affiliat's frequency...I'm sure the liberal politicians would be all in favor of that, wouldn't they???
Santa Crux ping.
Eventually, digital broadcasting will render this nonsense, and the FCC, moot. We'll be able to have as many stations as we wish to put up with.
only the hardest hitting details included in this article...
Geeez! What kind of range would they have with that rig. Even with a very, very good antenna they couldn't get out very far with it.
(No taking up for the guys. I know what they did is illegal. Just an observation)
Fishing for the Anarchist vote? Who were they?
I wonder if the Feds sent in the same Thugs they used in Waco, Ruby Ridge and Miami?
FreeRepublic has it's own radio station??? I had no idea!
Pajama-clad?
Why didn't they just start a blog? ; )
FM station has less range then AM stations. A 35 to 40 watt AM station will have a range of a mile or too. I have picked AM stations as far as Denver and New Orleans.
That's far enough to reach all the hippies in that little town.
As much as I like SW, I have to say that these idiots are so-o-o-o passe. Did they have a VW microbus parked out back?
Yeah, that place is infested witn hippies. The college I went had Co-ops too. I have been there. They are always and really dirty. Co-ops are a disaster.
Democracy Now is about as communist a group as ever started.. In Alaska they on TV late at night sometimes.. (Amy Goodman moderates).. Makes you want to do something rash these people..
You'd be surprised. 40 watts is REALLY a powerful pirate station (most are in the 1 to 5 watt range). With 10 watts on 87.5 FM you can broadcast a good 30 mile radius. The only problem is that 87.5 is an open channel and the feds monitor it fairly carefully.
If you bury your pirate station in the middle ranges, you are less likely to get caught, but you won't be able to transmit as far because of interference from other broadcasters.
If there are no obstacles in your path and no other local stations on your frequency you can get a good 8 to 10 mile line of sight radius with 10 watts.
If they had kept the station down in the 5 to 10 watt range and didn't broadcast cuss words and made it sound halfway professional, they probably could have run the station for a long time. Most pirate station operators make the mistake of broadcasting stuff that regular radio stations can't. Like profanity and obsenity. That'll get you shut down really quick.
Well, radio broadcasting is not my strength. Thanks for informing me. Are you in broadcasting? I know there are I think 50 to 100 kilowatt FM stations. I wonder what their range is? I know 50 kilowatt AM sations have a really long range.
Well up until Christmas eve of last year you could say that. That's when the FCC came to my door to explain to me that they had reason to believe that there was a FM radio signal emanating from my property that appeared to be exceeding the legal limit of 100 milliwatts. :-)
I have an internet station now. :-)
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