Pirate radio station claims new channel
By DAN WHITE
Sentinel staff writer

SANTA CRUZ — For the past year, 96.3 FM sure sounded weird in Mid-County.

Even weirder than usual.

Rolling through Live Oak and Capitola, drivers heard broadcasts from the Free Radio Santa Cruz pirate station and the Air 1 Christian rock channel duking it out on the same frequency.

The result was an unintentionally hilarious mix of sounds and messages.

One moment, there would be poetry slams, howling punk bands and angry broadsides against the City Council. The next moment born-again boy bands would be crooning about Jesus.

The clash is over. On May 8, Free Radio’s self-described anarchist pirates moved off the 96.3 FM frequency, saying they wanted to be responsible stewards of the airwaves while making "a good faith effort to avoid interference with Air 1."

The pirate station also has moved to a new downtown location. But the 9-year-old Free Radio’s switch to 101.1 FM, an unoccupied portion of the bandwidth, won the programmers no favors from the federal government.

Just five days after the move, Federal Communications Commission investigators came knocking at the relocated station’s doors and, according to the pirates, told them to cease broadcasting.

A Free Radio broadcaster asked the FCC investigators if they had received complaints of interference, and, according to the collective, "both agents said the only problem was the station isn’t licensed," and "threatened to return with a warrant."

The FCC has made other visits to Free Radio over the past few years, including one that provoked a supportive resolution from the City Council. None has led to confiscated equipment or arrests.

An FCC spokeswoman would not confirm or deny a visit to the station. The FCC would only reiterate that pirate stations are a concern because they’re unlicensed and can clutter the bandwidth.

The FCC regulates radio licensing. Would-be low-wattage broadcasters must enter long waiting lists for a shot at their dreams. Aside from regulating bandwidth, the FCC can levy hefty fines, and revoke licenses of stations for repeated "blue language" offenses.

Pirate stations escape this oversight by sidestepping license requirements altogether.

While the FCC insists they oppose pirate stations because they are unlicensed, local pirates insist the government is trying to reign in "underrepresented voices."

‘An intelligent move’
In regard to the FCC visit, Vinnie "V-Man" Lombardo of Free Radio said he’s "preparing for the worst but hoping this is just a routine visit."

But he vowed that if the FCC tries to bring him and others to court, "it will not be the end of Free Radio Santa Cruz. It’s a collective group effort. If they raided our station, our listeners would come to our defense and we would be back on the air in no time at all."

As for Air 1, Lombardo insists his station did not cause problems because Santa Cruz is not in Air 1’s primary broadcast area.

He said Air 1 caused far more interference to Free Radio than vice versa, but that the station wants to be responsible and, in certain parts of Santa Cruz County, the broadcasts "sounded like crap."

This is not the first switcheroo for Free Radio. In the mid-1990s, when Free Radio Santa Cruz started out, its frequency was perilously close to KUSP FM. The late Peter Troxell of KUSP contacted the FCC about the problem and also made calls to Free Radio, which agreed to a frequency change.

Listeners welcomed the latest move.

"Sounds fine to me, maybe even better than before," wrote one fan in an e-mail.

An Air 1 broadcast engineer, Richard "Skip" Bushell, credited Free Radio with "a very intelligent move" when it switched to 101.1.

"It was the best thing they could do, said Bushell, 64, of Salinas, who owns a 10-watt Air 1 repeater high on Fremont Peak, which picks up a different Air 1 frequency out of Hollister and electronically translates it to 96.3.

Bushell, legally licensed to use the 96.3 frequency, has been doing so for about a year. He said he switched to that frequency from 95.9 FM, because of interference with a Spanish-language station. After the switch, he said he tried to call Free Radio and ask it to move over but did not get a call back.

In fact, said Bushell, a Free Radio contributor once called him up and asked what he was doing on their frequency, "and the legality of this." Bushell said the conversation was "cordial ... But I told him, change channels. I don’t have that option."

Two messages, one frequency
It’s hard to imagine two stations with more different programming strategies.

Free Radio is run by volunteers who keep the station alive with money out of their own pockets, from T-shirt sales and listener contributions, including money given to the station via PayPal, an online service that lets users e-mail payments directly to another account. The money pays for rent and equipment costs.

Free Radio’s primary goal is "to be more inclusive to communities that are underrepresented in the mainstream media," among them, "women, people of color, the queer community" and the homeless.

Free Radio embraces illegality as a form of civil disobedience. The Web site features a doctored image of FCC chair Michael Powell, appearing to wear a Free Radio shirt.

The most famous contributor is Amy Goodman, whose popular "Democracy Now" show runs on Free Radio. For the most part the programming, which runs 24 hours a day, features local programs, from an "oldies" show to occasional knock-down debates with a guest from the City Council.

Music and profanity flow freely. There is no top-down structure, no corporate-mandated playlists and no censorship, though the collective says it frowns on hate speech.

Among its featured artists: traveling singer-songwriter David Rovics, author of "The Flag Desecration Rag," an anti-jingoism sing-along. Sample lyrics: "But the flag is just a rag, just a worn-out, tired, dirty, blood-soaked rag."

In contrast, Air 1 is a branch of a nonprofit ministry dedicated to spreading "the message of Christ" while relying on donations "to keep the airwaves positive and uplifting." Subscribers get a verse of the day, via e- mail.

The station publishes a list of belief statements, such as, "Jesus Christ rose from the dead and is returning soon."

Among the featured artists is Skillet, whose most popular song is "You Are My Hope." Sample lyrics:

"Angels sing, Jesus reigns, and every knee bows down."

Bushell is a Moody Bible Institute grad whose politics are conservative, "though I don’t consider myself a radical right-winger by any means.

For most of Air 1’s 96. 3 coverage area — primarily Watsonville to Monterey and down the Salinas Valley toward Soledad — there were no problems due to Free Radio broadcasts.

Air 1 also broadcasts from the UC Santa Cruz campus on another frequency, 90.7 FM.

However, before the pirate station’s switch, Air 1 reported some "destructive interference" in areas halfway between Salinas and Santa Cruz.

Bushell said his mild annoyance would have been far more intense if there were more interference.

In fact, he said that if Free Radio ever seeks to "do something legitimate, we’ll do the engineering for them free of charge."

Bushell still speaks of Free Radio with a mixture of bewilderment and amusement.

He laughed as he spoke of driving around Santa Cruz, thinking he would tune into some Christian light rock, only to hear "someone ranting at the City Council, ranting at the Bush administration."

Bushell said he was surprised the FCC had paid a visit to the station after the frequency switch.

"Why they would get a (warning) afterwards, I have no idea. Normally that would make them receive less attention. I suppose the commission was about to come down on them anyhow."

Bushell said Free Radio is only asking for trouble from the FCC when it keeps making fun of the agency.

Such lampooning is "an invitation for the government to shut them down," said Bushell. "It’s like saying, ‘I dare you, Big Brother.’ "

Contact Dan White at dwhite@santacruzsentinel.com.