Vincent
Thanks for your comments (others: please see comments and original article below). Your questions touch on the basis of net.radio philosophy. I think this is important enough to send around a couple of lists. 

1) Why we do net.radio....
Because it is so far unregulated. FM broadcasting reaches many people, true, but what is required to do it legally is such a financial and beauracratic nightmare that access to the airwaves is restricted to an elite, and wealthy, few. 

2) Legal vs. Illegal.......
To do pirate broadcasting is the obvious solution, but then it would be impossible to enjoy the support of legitimate organizations such as Cafe9 or the Center for Contemporary Arts. Furthermore, the underground nature of these kinds of projects limits the number of people involved as well to those 'in the know'...i.e. a core group of friends. 

3) Audience.....
Audience of pirate radio is also limited to those who are 'hip' enough to know about it. Public advertising for pirate radio, especially in a country where freedom of expression has been cracked down on such as the Czech Republic, is impossible. During the week of the S26 actions, Radio Jeleni reached at least 3000 listeners. I doubt that an underground pirate staion would have reached many more, and they would have been localized in Prague. With net.radio, instant information about the protests was available around the world without having to resort to the mainstream media.
(Incidentally, the pirate radio at 108 FM feel victim to the "technology just doesn't work right in the Czech Republic" syndrome... They never got it off the ground. No technology is realiable, no matter how simple or complex.) 

4) Access....
Broadcast radio is, by it's very nature, a ripple in the atmosphere and nothing more. In a word, it is temporary. Barring technical problems, net.radio can be archived permenantly. So you don't need a live connection, just a connection. The archives are working properly for the first time on the Radio Jeleni page, and I see a time very soon when everything will automatically archive. The chance to hear any broadcast from any time, and not just what is going on when it is going on, is here. 

5) Why we got away with it...
Probably because the government here discredited the power of the internet to convey information--a dangerous mistake, actually. During the protests, the Indymedia webpage was shut down several times, but not by the police. Instead, it was shut down by requests for information coming in at 50 times its capacity.
In the future of Radio Jeleni, I do see some trouble with the authorities, but not over our S26 broadcasts. The trouble will be over much more mundane concerns, such as money. Institutions, such as the Czech Author's Rights Association and the various offices and government mafias that 'regulate' broadcasting and telecommunications, see cash in the growth of the internet, and will want their piece of Radio Jeleni as soon as they become aware of it. 

Thanks again for your interest in discussion,
Derek
www.radiojeleni.cz


From: vincent farnsworth <reverendfeedback@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: Derek Holzer <republikasleazka@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: Free Radio Austin 97.1FM Shutdown Before Fortune 500 Protest
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 07:25:37 -0400 (EDT)

Hey Derek
That would be a good idea, complementing the webcast with an actual microradio broadcast. Any plans in that direction? I saw a sign in the convergence center that there would be pirate radio at 108 FM during the broadcasts, but heard only static when I tuned in. Do you know anything about it? I just know that I, like most people, don't have an internet-connected computer where I live so can't listen in the evenings or even most of the time. That's also probably why , as you say, Radio Jeleni got away with what it did recently. 

Thanks a lot for forwarding this.

Vincent

------Original Message------
From: "Derek Holzer" <republikasleazka@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: pilot-radio-l@xxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: October 12, 2000 8:50:07 PM GMT
Subject: Free Radio Austin 97.1FM Shutdown Before Fortune 500 Protest


Sometimes I wonder how we got away with what we got away with a few weeks
ago....
Derek


>For Immediate Release:
>Tuesday, October 10, 2000
>
>Contact: Reckless or Chance at (512) 476-3446
>
>
>
>Free Radio Austin 97.1FM Shutdown in FCC Raid Austin Activists and
>Community Leaders Link Shutdown to Fortune 500 Protests
>
>For the second time in less than a week, a microbroadcasting station in
>Austin, TX was shutdown by the FCC and law enforcement from various
>agencies.
>
>At around 10:30AM this morning Free Radio Austin, broadcasting at 97.1
>FM, was raided by a multi-jurisdictional task force of FCC, Federal
>Marshals, Austin Police Department, and suspected FBI agents. Lloyd
>Perry, an agent from the FCC regional office in Houston, personally led
>the raid and removed the transmitter and other equipment, including 2 CD
>players, 2 turntables and portable radios. Unlike other such raids in the
>past, the FCC encountered immediate resistance from community activists.
>Free Radio Austin had buried it?s transmitter several feet underground
>giving local community and media enough time to make it to the station to
>cover the event. Several cameras from traditional and independent media
>were busy recording Mr. Perry as he dug the transmitter from layers of
>thick clay and mud.
>
>Meanwhile, programmers and community began to chant slogans such as
>?Congress shall make no law to abridge the freedom of press.? Unlike
>raids that have happened with other microbroadcasting stations such in
>California, Florida, or even when local Radio One was shutdown, FCC
>agents were not able to quickly seize the equipment. The entire procedure
>took more than an hour. FCC agents were clearly not in a good mood as a
>crowd of some 50 or more community gathered around them.
>
>Lloyd Perry declined to give comment either to members of Free Radio
>Austin or to the media. Only last week, Mr. Perry had defiantly posed,
>cutting a wire on the tower of Radio One, for local media. But he was
>clearly not laughing or joking with media today.
>
>Papers delivered to Free Radio Austin 97.1 indicate that the warrant for
>seizure of equipment were signed by a federal judge on the same day as
>those for Radio One. However, members of Free Radio Austin claim they
>were in dialogue with the FCC and had never ignored or not responded to
>any correspondence from the FCC. In fact, several programmers claimed
>that
>they wanted to pursue microbroadcasting issues in legal proceedings as
>other stations around the nation have been doing in a burgeoning movement
>of grassroots radio.
>
>Local community activists in Austin cite that both Radio One and Free
>Radio Austin were shutdown only days before upcoming protests against the
>Fortune 500 Forum, an annual gathering of CEOs from some of the largest
>corporations in the world. They believe that these same CEOs, business
>leaders, and local Austin Mayor Kirk Watson were pressuring for the
>shutdown of independent media outlets that had planned to cover the
>protests.
>
>Organizers also cite ongoing political pressure from City Hall and the
>Austin Downtown Business Alliance to deny marchers a permit for an Oct.
>13th rally. Police claimed that a permit could not be issued because of
>traffic issues, but organizers counter that their freedom of speech
>issues outweigh these concerns. They also point out that other events
>such as concerts and University of Texas football games often cause
>traffic problems, but no one is trying to stop those events.
>
>The station was in the backyard of a programmer who prefers to simply go
>by the name Reckless. ?They destroyed our equipment. Necessity knows no
>laws. We will not be silenced. We are ALL speechless today,? she said,
>adding emphasis that free speech itself was the target of the FCC raid.
>She was adamant that she was not ?in charge? of the station. The station
>was run by a collective of community programmers who each had an equal
>say in how the station was run. Programmers at Free Radio Austin also
>pointed out that their battle for
>freedom of speech issues would not stop. They vowed to educate and assist
>others in the community on how to setup their own microbroadcasting
>stations. In the words of one programmer, ?Everytime they tear down one
>station, five more pop up and replace it.?
>
>---------------------------------------
>Related info:
>Fortune 500 Protest Media Contacts:
>Bryan at bcouser@xxxxxxxx / 512.929.8441 or
>Ernest at afa@xxxxxxxx / 512.479.4180.
>
>.                       [|=-=slave=-=|]
>.     Free Radio Austin 97.1 http://pirateradio.org/fra
>.
>.            Fortune 500 Protest  http://o13.org
>.
>.          Encuentro for Education and Days of Action
>.        http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~munkaj/encuentro.html
>
>
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