Armed (FCC?) agents raid, shut down unlicensed Free Radio

[cyberpj]

Agents raid, shut down unlicensed Free Radio

By Joe Hughes and Frank Green
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
July 22, 2005

Federal agents armed with a search warrant shut down Free Radio 96.9 FM, the self-proclaimed oldest-running and most notorious unlicensed radio broadcaster in San Diego, in a midmorning raid yesterday.

About a dozen armed agents – some wearing shirts with the initials FCC, for Federal Communications Commission – served the warrant in South Park about 10 a.m. They seized amplifiers, computers, a transmitter and other equipment that effectively knocked the station off the air, witnesses said.

Agents also climbed onto the roof of a house next to a wooden shack that served as the studio for the station, removing a 43-foot-tall antenna in sections and putting it in a van.

Dayn Reardon, 22, was one of several supporters of the station who watched the raid.

"This is a fight over free speech," said Reardon, who vowed that staff and loyal listeners will hold fundraisers and buy new equipment to get the station back on the air at an undisclosed location.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20050722-9999-7m22piracy.html

[donco6]

1. Whew! I feel safer now!

:sarcasm:

[cyberpj]

5. makes you wonder what they were really after, doesn't it? such force. nt

[KharmaTrain]

2. Here We Go Again...

More Radio Free Berkley and Radio Kind. But there's always something else under the radar here.

The FCC just doesn't swoop down and find the stations in thin air, it's usually a tip off from someone in the area...someone whose getting interference., or another radio station whose signal is being messed with by the illegal signal.

While I'm a big supporter of low power radio and massive revisions of the Telcom act to reverse the trend and bring radio back to the local level (owned and operated), some of these stations are violating laws that hurt it for others who are trying to do it legally, through LPFM and Part 15 AM.

Here's more info from the Alt.Pirate.Radio group. Not many stories posted yet.

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.pirate.radio/browse_thread/thread/355ff9672c343e00/bce41e98eebd8d45?lnk=st&q=Alt.+Pirate+San+Diego&rnum=2&hl=en#bce41e98eebd8d45

[coffeenap]

3. Hey KT--I just emailed the FCC to ask if they commonly

use armed agents to shut down a shack-based broadcaster. Surely not?

[KharmaTrain]

4. Yes They Have...

I'd have to google a bit...but look at the raid on the Tampa Station of the "Party Pirate" several years ago.

The Secret Service and Treasury agents (those are the ones who do the busting) game in with guns drawn.

I just found that story:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/misc.activism.progressive/browse_thread/thread/c5ea86801e3de26/66ca5c1d7a84b1f5?lnk=st&q=Party+Pirate+Tampa+Busted&rnum=1&hl=en#66ca5c1d7a84b1f5

Federal Marshalls and the FCC came to his door at about 6:30 or 7am, gained
entry to his residence and cuffed him, then said they had a warrant or
somesuch to take his equipment. Then, a Ryder truck pulled up front, and
they cleaned out the station, located in the his home's garage. All told,
the Feds got away with over $50 K worth of stuff, including, so Brewer says,
items that are "his presonal property and the property of others...including
a sound recording studio which had NOTHING to do with the radio station."


Perhaps even more disturbing: They also dismantled his 150-foot tower.
Perhaps they reasoned: Leave the tower up, and he will go back on the
air. However, what the FCC didn't realize is that the tower was licensed and
LEGAL, with several public service agencies and a HAM repeater using space.

[wli]

6. they'll do anything to shut up the left