After broadcasting over the radio airwaves in the Santa Cruz, Ca. area for almost 10 years without a license, in defiance of federal regulations, one day this fall, the U.S. government decided to take some action. On Sept. 29, 2004, Federal Marshals, aiding the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), raided Free Radio Santa Cruz (FRSC), seizing radio equipment to disable their broadcasts. I wondered what FRSC volunteers, and other microradio, or “pirate,� radio station volunteers, were feeling about this raid. It seems so often the government does things like this to “set an example� for others, to be a warning to others engaging in similar activity, to deter them from continuing on with defiant behavior…and sometimes that type of governmental intimidation works, and sometimes it does not. Questions linger, such as what the federal government intends to do with FRSC’s seized radio equipment. I interviewed several West Coast microradio station volunteers about their reactions to the FRSC raid for this article.

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