> I've kept up with this some and I didn't start just today. My first
> real job was in a small radio station where I played records, read
> news, and took out the trash. I'm a big radio fan.
>
> What I know of the facts you refer to is there were two people in
> Florida, one a biker and electronics nut and the other a right-wing
> fringe guy who both got busted big by the feds. The biker supplied a
> lot of equipment and aid and comfort to other people
> interested. There was also a station in Texas started with equipment
> donated by a Butthole Surfer. I think I heard that station one night
> outside Austin. It's hard to tell because Austin has such great
> regular radio. There was a guy in Berkeley, maybe he was an
> anarchist. And then there were tons of people setting up stations
> and reading local community calendar events and high school sports results.
>
> In sum, there was a wild and mixed crew of people, including
> religious types, both fundamentalist and square, who were interested
> in pushing low power through. Another player you left out was local
> government agencies who wanted to use it to broadcast traffic and
> weather advisories.
The pirate radio movement of the 90s involved a wide range of people, but anarchists played a significant role in putting stations on the air, providing equipment to new stations, doing activism, promoting the movement, reporting on the movement (see my article for MaximumRockNRoll) and much more. One of the primary *lobbying groups* for LPFM, the Prometheus Project, was spearheaded by anarchists.
If anything, anarchists haven't really tooted their horn enough about their work in this movement.
The pirate radio movement in the U.S. of the last 15 years has been more widespread than people know or the FCC will admit. I even found out that
a friend of my family once ran a pirate radio station in rural Missouri.
Politically, I think the FCC was moved to adopt the new LPFM regulations in response to the direct action and because the telecommunications agency was making more demands for spectrum. The FCC was having problems putting a dent in the movement and they needed to get the spectrum under control for cellular and digital radio.
Chuck