Dead Air:
Berkeley Liberation Radio Seeks New Studio After Latest FCC Crackdown 

CAMILLE T. TAIARA / San Francisco Bay Guardian 6jul2005

[Several more articles below]

After 11 years on the air, Berkeley Liberation Radio, 104.1 FM – progeny of historic Free Radio Berkeley, which launched the national fight for micro-powered radio licensing in the United States – pulled the plug June 27. But BLR programmers vow not to remain silent for long.

BLR received two notices from the Federal Communications Commission in mid-June citing the station for operating without a license and for refusing to allow the agency to inspect the station's equipment. The letters, which FCC agents slipped under the door of the building at Telegraph and 55th Street that housed BLR's studio, ordered station operators to stop transmitting within 10 days or face sanctions.

This is the third time the station has been shut down: The original FRB was shuttered by court injunction in June 1998; successor BLR was forced off the air for four days in 2002, after the FCC raided its studios and confiscated its equipment.

But BLR programmers suspect this latest FCC crackdown may have been triggered by a minor mechanical malfunction: A small fan inside the station's transmitter stopped working, causing BLR's signal to bleed into the adjacent radio spectrum.

"Captain Fred," BLR's technological guru, suspects the meltdown may have interfered with the transmissions of radio neighbors ranging from classical station KDFC (102.1 FM) to KITS (105.3 FM, otherwise known as "Live 105") for as long as a month before BLR caught on.

"In the meantime, we were getting evicted anyway," said Captain Fred, who explained that BLR's landlord hopes to put the space to different use. So the station decided to go off the air voluntarily.

Now BLR's programmers are looking for a new home – which they say they intend to keep in a separate location from their transmitter to complicate future detection by the FCC. The station has also announced it will begin streaming content on the Web beginning sometime this month.

The FCC has been cracking down on micro-powered stations. On Oct. 11, 2003, the FCC shut down San Francisco Liberation Radio, the city's longest-running micro-powered station, after 10 years on the air and numerous attempts to obtain a license. SFLR is appealing its case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (see "Round One to the Feds," 3/23/05).

Longtime BLR programmer "Emperor Nobody" sees the FCC's latest strike as part of a greater effort by the feds and their corporate sponsors to "remake reality to fit their agenda," as the station has been a virulent critic of the Bush administration and big business abuse of power.

Anyone with a space in Berkeley to offer as a new studio for BLR should e-mail berkeleyliberationradio@yahoo.com or write them at PMB 2000, 2140 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94704.

source: http://www.sfbg.com/39/40/news_berkeley_lib_radio.html 19jul2005

Berkeley Liberation Radio Signs Off in Monday Show

RICHARD BRENNEMAN / Berkeley Daily Planet 15jul2005

The collective that brought Berkeley Liberation Radio to the airwaves signed off the air at one minute after 4 Monday afternoon, the casualty of a terminated lease and impending federal action. “We are gone, but nevah forevah,” said the program’s host just before the plug was pulled.

The micro-powered station that broadcast out of a warehouse loft off 55th Street between Telegraph and Shattuck avenues just inside the Oakland border had lost its lease because other tenants said the station’s 99.5 watt signal was interfering with their reception of other stations.

The intentionally unlicensed station had also been served with a cease and desist order two weeks giving the station ten days to get off the air.

The atmosphere on the last day was more celebrational than mournful.

“This is absolutely the best time I’ve ever had here,” said Libertarian radio host Zippie the Yippy. “We should’ve done this more often.”

“I always felt like I was doing ballet all these years,” said Soul. “I never wrote anything down.”

Skunk, who acts as Zippie the Yippy’s co-host, said he showed up at the station one day as a guest and “he just expected me to show up ever after.”

The show’s regular broadcasts “made me always look forward to Mondays,” he said. “But this media star stuff is getting to be too much. I can’t walk down the street without someone recognizing my voice,” he quipped.

“The message is, we’ll be back,” said Emperor Nothing. “We’ll come back on the Web and on the air.”

By offering a wide range of voices across the political spectrum, he said, the station was offering something other that the “voices of the corporations, the compliant and the very wealthy” available on mainstream stations.

“Cheers to the new radio station rising like a phoenix out of the ashes,” said Native American broadcaster Thunder. “The airwaves belong to the people!”

Magdalena, who broadcast Frank Zappa recordings on her regular Monday show, hosted the last program, which ended with comments from the eclectic cast and Captain Fred, the station’s tech manager.

The small broadcasting studio grew ever more crowded as the last hour wound down, voices raised in pitch and speed as the clock counted down the final few minutes.

Vinyl LPs and CDs were boxed up, ready to be hauled off, and empty plastic boxes were scattered around to supplement the limited numbers of folding chairs.

There was dark ale and Mexican beer for those who imbibed alcohol, and a distinctive 60’s fragrance that hinted at the presence of another favored Berkeley celebratory substance.

The was a tense moment or two that quickly passed, with one deejay whispering in a reporter’s ear, “Hey, it’s a collective.”

Before the signoff, Soul read from the station’s Statement of Purpose.

“Berkeley Liberation radio exists to provide a voice for the diverse community within the Berkeley/Oakland area and beyond. Further, it is a vehicle that we establish to bring about social change. Consistent with a vision of creating an alternative diverse hybrid society free of sexism, homophobia, racism, and all other forms of oppression, programming on Berkeley Liberation Radio will be reflective of these goals and ideals.”

A camera from KTVU television taped the final seven or so minutes as each of the broadcasters and Captain Fred said their final, brief words of farewell.

Once the plug was pulled, Magdalena pulled her last CD from the turntable, and the deejays began unhooking the equipment, to be stored until the station is reincarnated.

source: http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?issue=06-28-05&storyID=21713 19jul2005

FCC Threatens Berkeley Liberation Radio 

RICHARD BRENNEMAN / Berkeley Daily Planet 15jul2005

The next sound a Berkeley Liberation Radio (BLR) broadcaster may hear just might be the dreaded knock on the door from a federal SWAT team. A Federal Communications Commission (FCC) notice served on the station Friday charges that 104.1 FM was operating without a license and that the station’s signal was bleeding into other, licensed frequencies.

The action followed two days after federal agents served a cease and desist order at the station, which broadcasts from a second floor studio at 5427 Telegraph Ave. in Oakland.

For Screwy Lewie and Soul, the notice stirs up memories of the Dec. 11, 2002, raid when more than a dozen armed U.S. Marshals accompanied by an Oakland police officer raided the station and seized all the equipment and CDs, leaving behind only the station’s inventory of vinyl LP albums.

“They shoved a gun into the face of a student who was visiting at the time,” said Soul, who hosts the Isabella Show Friday mornings at 7.

“We were told not to go back on the air again, but we were collectively able to gather up new equipment and everything we needed to go back on the air again on Dec. 27. We’ve continued ever since.”

Berkeley Liberation Radio is a classic example of microradio, the mostly unlicensed stations that broadcast at less than 100 watts of power—typically with a broadcasting radius of about five miles from the transmitter.

When the FCC agreed to license microradio five years ago, the decision didn’t automatically legitimize the host of small stations, many distinctly leftist in character, that were broadcasting at the time.

Instead, under the Bush administration, the lion’s share of licenses have been granted to churches.

“They won’t license stations that had early actions against them,” said Screwy Lewie, who hosts “The Vinyl Time Machine.”

A new raid would fit in with two other recent actions: an Oct. 15, 2003, raid on San Francisco Liberation Radio that shut down the station and a similar raid last Sept. 29 that shut down Radio Free Santa Cruz.

Berkeley attorney Alan Korn, who has represented the San Francisco in challenging the action, said current federal legislation weighs heavily against microradio stations in urban areas.

Under lobbying pressure from corporate broadcasters, Congress narrowed FCC regulations that defined the frequency distances between existing stations and microradio broadcasters, further limiting the opportunities for microradio in the heavily crowded urban airwaves.

“The rules require huge gaps [between broadcast frequencies],” Korn said, “much more than necessary.”

The FCC notice served Friday claims 104.1 is detectable above the allowable limits, and also charges that the station is also encroaching on frequencies used by air traffic controllers and aircraft at Oakland International Airport.

Korn, who serves on the National Lawyers Guild’s Committee on Democratic Communication, said he is skeptical of the latter claim, “but it’s a good way to make certain that a judge will issue a warrant,” he said.

While a federal trial-level judge rejected his appeal of the FFC seizure at the San Francisco, the case is now on appeal before the U.S. Courts of Appeals’ Ninth Circuit, traditionally the most liberal in the federal system.

BLR staffers are quick to note that theirs isn’t a pirate radio station—an illegal broadcaster who usurps a frequency already assigned by the FCC.

Soul noted that “the FCC is saying they won’t give a license to anyone they say has violated the law. Besides, that’s not our intent.” She doesn’t want the license herself.

Unlike some of the all-volunteer staff, Screwy Lewie said he’d like to see the station get a license.

Both broadcasters are long-term veterans of microradio. Soul’s been with BLR and its predecessor since 1998, and Screwy Lewie since 1996.

After the closure of Radio Free Berkeley in June, 1998, BLR was born the following year outside the studios of KPFA when the station was forced briefly off the air.

For Screwy Lewie, the station has helped him fulfill a lifelong dream. “I’m doing exactly what I want to do,” he said.

And like others on the staff, he vows to keep the station running whatever happens with the pending FCC action.

Asked about what was happening with BLR, an FCC official in Washington, speaking only on background, would allow only that no comment was possible because of the ongoing investigation.

Second Crisis

The current contretemps with the feds isn’t the station’s only crisis. Other tenants in the building they now use have complained that their transmitter is interfering with electronic equipment, leading to an eviction notice from their landlord.

Even before the FCC notices, the station had planned a fundraiser for this Friday to help raise cash to find a new home for their operations.

The $20 a head function will be held at the Oakland Metro near Jack London Square at 201 Broadway in Oakland starting at 7:30.

source: http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?issue=06-21-05&storyID=21650 19jul2005

FCC Pulls Unlicensed, Low-Watt Oakland Radio Station Off The Air

AP (undated)

OAKLAND An Oakland radio station has pulled the plug on its unlicensed broadcasts after receiving a cease-and-desist order from the F-C-C earlier this month.

The government says Berkeley Liberation Radio's low-watt signal was encroaching on other, licensed frequencies.

The station, which has been transmitting music and political commentary on 104-point-one F-M since 1994, denies stealing the frequency of other stations.

The station's staff claim they were being unfairly targeted for their criticism of the Bush administration. Also, they don't recognize the F-C-C's authority and refuse to apply for a broadcast license.

The F-C-C declined to comment on its move against the station.

(APcredit: Oakland Tribune)

source: http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=3530154 19jul2005

Berkeley Liberation Radio Receives 10-day Notice from the FCC 

by rubble / Indybay.org 20jun2005

6 year old microradio station has 10 days to respond. Community support is needed!

On June 15th, BLR received an FCC notice of illegal broadcasting. The notice cites broadcasting without a license along with illegally using the 104.1FM band space, and also may have alleged interference with another station. The 10 days are up on June 27th, BLR has until that date to respond formally. The station is seeking legal assistance and will meet as a group to strategize.

This is a difficult period for the 6 year old microradio station. An eviction notice was received in early May by the owner, forcing the station out of its present location by June 30th, so station members have already been looking for a new broadcasting location before the FCC notice was issued.

BLR has been broadcasting since 1999, shortly after Free Radio Berkeley shut down, and has been at its present location for about 3 years. A warrant is already out against the station as a part of a 2002 FCC raid. Stay tuned for more information as it is made available, community support is definitely needed!!

source: http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/06/1748436.php 19jul2005

An interview with Captain Fred of Berkeley Liberation Radio
about their search for a new broadcast location. 

Indybay (20-25 min) 

audio: MP3 at 2.9 mebibytes http://www.indybay.org/uploads/berklibradio.mp3

(download torrent) http://www.indybay.org/uploads/torrents/berklibradio.mp3.torrent

Berkeley Liberation Radio will be evicted from their studio at the end of June. Microradio studios are difficult to find because of the technical issues involved and the harassment and contentious legal status forced on stations by the FCC. This interview with Captain Fred describes what they are looking for along with a history of the station and current issues with microbroadcasters in the Bay Area. Anyone who knows of a potential space can contact by: PMB 2000, 2140 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94704 or berklibradio@juno.com.

www.peacehost.net/blr/

source: http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/05/1740210.php 19jul2005

Berkeley Liberation Radio Packs Up, For Now

DIY Media 29jul2005

The station shut down earlier this week in preparation for moving out of its present space by the end of the month. The Berkeley Daily Planet was there, and reports that things ended with a party:

The small broadcasting studio grew ever more crowded as the last hour wound down, voices raised in pitch and speed as the clock counted down the final few minutes.

Vinyl LPs and CDs were boxed up, ready to be hauled off, and empty plastic boxes were scattered around to supplement the limited numbers of folding chairs.

There was dark ale and Mexican beer for those who imbibed alcohol, and a distinctive 60’s fragrance that hinted at the presence of another favored Berkeley celebratory substance.

Quite a different portrayal is found in the Alameda Times-Star, which did, to its credit, quote Berkeley city councilwoman Kriss Worthington: "I think they provide important perspectives that have a hard time getting onto larger radio and TV stations. It's important that they're able to express their views."

source: http://www.diymedia.net/archive/0605.htm 19jul2005