March 2010 – In 1990’s Pump Up the Volume, Christian Slater played Happy Harry Hard-on, a renegade pirate radio deejay who shocked and entertained his growing legion of listeners with R-rated language and intermittent moments of Was (Not Was) and The Jesus and Mary Chain. Broadcasting from an undisclosed location with his transmitter and voice changer, Happy Harry saved lives and changed hearts. His story, according to Hollywood, is that of the hip, young radical standing up to out-of-touch government bureaucrats who wish only to suppress free speech and obey their corporate masters. But how close to reality is this fictional narrative of unlicensed broadcast?
In January 1997, Jamie Schweser, Kristen Baumlier and other enthusiasts flipped the switch on for Iowa City Free Radio, a 5-watt station modeled closely after the popular Free Radio Berkeley. According to ICFR members, the original purpose was to radicalize the town and raise awareness for anti-corporate activism. Beaming out of pseudo-secret locations around downtown at 88.7 FM, ICFR offered up a fairly eclectic mix of music, talk, noise and politics until served with FCC papers on March 13, 1998. After laying low for a couple of months, ICFR went live again later that year supported by legal counsel and a few benefit shows at Gabe’s. It continued to broadcast regularly for the next few years until petering out due to lack of interest.
The democratization of media underwent a major shift in the years since the time of ICFR’s founding. The proliferation of podcasts, file sharing, social networking and endless blogging has made the original “power to the people” intent of free radio somewhat of a moot point. The radio waves are still under corporate control, but citizens have the choice to merely sidestep it as a preferred communications medium. This has cast a different light on the purpose of pirate radio in the new century.
In 2008, a small band of amateur broadcast engineers decided it was time to bring free radio back to town under the name Radio Iowa City. Orginally operating at 105.1, they eventually settled at 87.9 FM, a play of KRUI’s frequency. Whereas ICFR attempted to live up to lofty political goals, Radio Iowa City eschews the Berkeley model by being less rigid in its ideology. According to Radio Iowa City conspirator Marco Maisto, the station still has a civil disobedience angle but more importantly exists as creative and technical proof that it can be done. The benefit of this openness has allowed the station to act as an artistic catalyst as well as a platform for free speech. The serial drama, hip hop mixtape, bedtime stories and other original content produced by station collaborators is evidence their plan is working and could stand as exemplar of a new kind of pirate radio.
As a former DJ for ICFR circa 2006/7, I find this article confusing. I mean, I sat twirling dials and spinning records and cursing a little over the airwaves from around 9 to midnight at least one night a week–from a cozy little pseudo location. And yet your article makes it seem like this station wasn't there. Did I merely imagine my experience? Or did you not dig enough into the facts?
For the record, I know the station was “raided” a month or two after I started my show. Maybe the FCC didn't like the f-bombs I was dropping. But I know that the station was also on the air at least a year before I came on board, as I used to listen to it as I drove around the downtown area, and I used to watch some silly PATV broadcasts of the station's drunken DJs at the radio console.
Thanks.
You neither imagined your experience nor did I ignore the facts. I was also a DJ from 2001-2006 at both the N. Gilbert and S. Lucas locations. I made a poor choice of phrasing when I said “petered out due to lack of interest”. I should have said something like “intermittent broadcasting” because the regularity of operation wasn't as consistent as it was in the previous years. The station was indeed down for some time; I should have been more specific. My apologies for confusing you.