BREAKING NEWS: Federal Marshals raid KFAR

Sir Diddimus · Post by **Sir Diddimus** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 12:15 pm

WBIR.com wrote:BREAKING NEWS: Federal Marshals raid Knox radio station

Federal Marshals raided "pirate" Knoxville radio station KFAR Wednesday morning.

According to witnesses, the agents entered the station at approximately 10:00 am with no warning, and began carting away all of the station's equipment.

KFAR stands for "Knoxville First Amendment Radio." The station has been operating without a broadcasting license on 90.9 FM.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has previously warned the station to stop broadcasting.

The station is run by a cooperative group with no official management. Its programming tends to be leftist in nature, but has also included anarchist, Green Party, Christian, and libertarian commentary and music.

Reported by: Katie Allison Granju, Web Producer
Last updated: 9/15/2004 12:09:32 PM

http://www.kfar.org/

QueenOfTheFlock · Post by **QueenOfTheFlock** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 12:27 pm

Damn...that sucks.

JaNell · Post by **JaNell** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 2:13 pm

Don't they have actual criminals to arrest?! :jazilla:

snarfcat · Post by **snarfcat** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 2:29 pm

well, they shouldn't broadcast without a license. There are reasons in place that people have to have a license.

They were warned. They didn't stop. Screw 'em. They should have known better. You don't mess with the FCC repeatidly and not expect them to take action.

JaNell · Post by **JaNell** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 2:46 pm

Actually, that's not the whole story at all. They were prepared to get a license for low-wattage stations, but that option got voted down, making it impossible for smaller stations to transmit legally.

Here's a few related articles and columns on the problem:

Pirates Of The Air (News-Sentinel, July 4, 2004)
Whose Airwaves Are They, Anyway? (1996)
Low Power Radio Informational Meeting (June 10, 2004)

snarfcat · Post by **snarfcat** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 3:18 pm

ah, well my comment was an uninformed one. I still would not have broadcasted without a license after the FCC warned me not to. That is just ridiculous.

Thrall · Post by **Thrall** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 4:23 pm

snarfcat wrote:ah, well my comment was an uninformed one. I still would not have broadcasted without a license after the FCC warned me not to. That is just ridiculous.

I do not know the particular thoughts or motivations of the individuals involved with KFAR but if I were working for a pirate station it would be a demonstration of civil disobedience

now follows my mini rant:

Air waves do not belong to the FCC they belong to the citizens and yes some sort of regulations need to be in effect to prevent every wing nut who thinks he is wolfman jack from broadcasting over oneanother...However,
licensing fees are not cheep and the hoops you have to continually jump through to maintain your license are not few. so the situation currently exists where the citizens are denied access to their property unless they are in the business of "professional broadcasting" and we all know what quality programing that results in. Am i out fighting the good fight? No, i am content to sit at home and gripe about it from time to time. It isn't one of my personal crusades People are out there fighting it though, because for them it is that important, and not at all ridiculous.

i am not trying to give you a hard time or start a debate, just pointing out one possible reason the station did not shut down when they were warned.

Vachy · Post by **Vachy** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 4:25 pm

snarfcat wrote: I still would not have broadcasted without a license after the FCC warned me not to. That is just ridiculous.

I would. The greater issue to me would be what right does the FCC have to regulate broadcasting? You can't own air, you can't own radio waves. And if you don't like the idea of false ownership or the FCC, then protest and stand up for yourself. KFAR knew the consequences, they had warnings, and they kept on anyway, standing for what they believe in. So good for them!

Sir Diddimus · Post by **Sir Diddimus** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 4:38 pm

Thrall wrote:
snarfcat wrote:ah, well my comment was an uninformed one. I still would not have broadcasted without a license after the FCC warned me not to. That is just ridiculous.

I do not know the particular thoughts or motivations of the individuals involved with KFAR but if I were working for a pirate station it would be a demonstration of civil disobedience

now follows my mini rant:

Air waves do not belong to the FCC they belong to the citizens and yes some sort of regulations need to be in effect to prevent every wing nut who thinks he is wolfman jack from broadcasting over oneanother...However,
licensing fees are not cheep and the hoops you have to continually jump through to maintain your license are not few. so the situation currently exists where the citizens are denied access to their property unless they are in the business of "professional broadcasting" and we all know what quality programing that results in. Am i out fighting the good fight? No, i am content to sit at home and gripe about it from time to time. It isn't one of my personal crusades People are out there fighting it though, because for them it is that important, and not at all ridiculous.

i am not trying to give you a hard time or start a debate, just pointing out one possible reason the station did not shut down when they were warned.

Well said!

Vachy · Post by **Vachy** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 5:18 pm

Lol, Thrall made my arguement 2 minutes before me. Oh well. Glad someone feels the same.

snarfcat · Post by **snarfcat** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 5:22 pm

I appreciate all your feedback to my comments. I stand by them but I also understand and am happy you stand by your comments as well. I am not one who enjoys breaking laws, whether I think them silly, or unjust. They obviously knew the consequences, and still continued on broadcasting.

That's fine, it's their equipment and their decision.

There are things in the world that have to be rebelled against, and I commend those who rebel against unjust laws, or who petition to get those laws changed. That's how the world evolves. I was simply saying that I am not going to feel sorry for those people losing their equipment when they knew they were directly going against a Federal agency. Me, I don't mess with the feds, but then I am not a revolutionary person either, at least not where broadcasting is concerned. I would, however, "fight the good fight" for other things, that I believe firmly in, as I'm sure these broadcasters believe firmly in their right to broadcast.

I do not believe everyone should have the right to broadcast whatever whenever. I do believe there should be laws regulating that. There are all kinds of laws concerned with "air" so keep that in mind, for the lady who mentioned you can't own air. For instance, there is a law against smoking near a public building in California. Smokers may not dig the law, but it's a law. One I happen to like, but that's a different story

Anyway I didn't want to debate, I was just sharing my opinion, which was, as previously mentioned, uninformed. I would not do something that would allow untold thousands of dollars worth of equipment to be seized by the gov't however, if I could avoid it. That was my point saying it was ridiculous for them to do. Try fighting it another way, and keep your equipment at the same time. That was basically my whole point about that.

Lost Traveler · Post by **Lost Traveler** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 5:26 pm

ahh you guys got to it first well anyway heres 6s version fo it.

[url=http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=2306235]September 15, 2004

KNOXVILLE (AP) -- Agents from the Federal Communications Commission raided a pirate radio station Wednesday in Knoxville.

The three FCC officials were accompanied by three U.S. marshals when they closed down the station called Knoxville First Amendment Radio and confiscated all its equipment.

Officials said the station did not have a broadcasting license or any official management. It operated in a secluded area of Knox Country out of a trailer that once served as a crack house.

The FCC had previously visited the station twice and warned it to cease operation.

Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved[/url]

http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=2306235

JaNell · Post by **JaNell** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 6:09 pm

Lost Traveler wrote:It operated in a secluded area of Knox Country out of a trailer that once served as a crack house.

So KFAR is guilty of gentrification?!
Shame on them! :roll:

Post by **Bone** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 6:14 pm

True, that the idea of "owning" the airwaves is silly. however what licensing does is creates a threashold for stations. Without the system that is currently in effect, a station owned by multimillion dollar corp. could in effect widden their broadcast frequency and power basically squashing their compition in sheer tower output.
Pretty soon you might have one station that broadcasts all of knoxville because no other transmitter has the power to over power the original signal.

Other things the Liscensing system does is to create accountablility for what is broadcast. What would happen if say someone broadcast a false ERS signal and said that there was a Nuke meltdown in OR and everone needed to evacuate immediately or similar info. This could undermind the whole Emergency Response System, all because someone was pulling a practical joke.

While I don't agree with how the FCC has the licensing system set up. It is a nessicary evil.

I think it's sad that KFAR got shut down, but thems the breaks when you play with the Feds. The people involved are damn lucky that they aren't currently in jail with HUGE fines and jail time hanging over their heads.

The FCC tried to be nice, by all rights they could have confiscated the equipment the first time they went in then fined or took everyone in the station to jail. Instead they made requests on two seperate occasions for KFAR to comply. KFAR gave em the finger...

I can't say I have sympathy for em.

Hardcoregirl · Post by **Hardcoregirl** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 9:47 pm

Preach tha word Thrall!!

Seaneleth · Post by **Seaneleth** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 7:30 am

I personally think that the FCC was created to get in the way of the First Amendment. It's what they mean by 'regulation'.

I don't like this one little bit. I suppose I'm more than a little fond of the station, I got to rant on it and piss off the elderly. But this is some shitty shit.

Spam · Post by **Spam** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 1:18 pm

OK the FCC and the US Marshals were VERY nice to KFAR. The Warrant was just for equipment, not for any people. They could have very easily arrested everyone there, they didn't, they didn't want to. They could have kicked in the door and trashed the place taking the equipment, they didn't. They picked the lock to the door as not to damage the building, when they took the 300 and 50 CD rotation decks they took out EVERY CD and stacked them up neatly so that the CD's could be recliamed by the owners. They dissasimbled the rack the equipment was in instead of trashing it or taking it with them, I helped build said rack. They also left the tower standing, they just disconnected the transmitter. All in all I would like to commend the FCC and the Marshals for their profesionalism and courtasy that they extended KFAR. Like it or not what KFAR was doing was illegal, the low power liecense is a falacy they were operating well over the low power limit, I could pick up KFAR on my cheap car stereo in West Knoxille. I also agree with Bone that the FCC is a necesary evil.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 6:24 pm

Look, the issue is not whether KFAR should or should not have the "right" to broadcast. The issue is that they WERE breaking the law, they WERE warned, and what happened WAS inevitable.

Many people, myself included, tried to lobby for KFAR two switch over to a legal, internet-broadcast station, which would have not cost any more money - probably substiantially less, in fact - and would not have resulted in seizure of equipment which no one will get back.

I'm sad it happened, but you can't be surprised. I'm only surprised the FCC were so nice about it and waited so long to formally shut them down.

JaNell · Post by **JaNell** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 7:49 pm

Jack wrote:Look, the issue is not whether KFAR should or should not have the "right" to broadcast. The issue is that they WERE breaking the law, they WERE warned, and what happened WAS inevitable.

Many people, myself included, tried to lobby for KFAR two switch over to a legal, internet-broadcast station, which would have not cost any more money - probably substiantially less, in fact - and would not have resulted in seizure of equipment which no one will get back.

I'm sad it happened, but you can't be surprised. I'm only surprised the FCC were so nice about it and waited so long to formally shut them down.

I suspect that the timing has to do with the Presidential election.

A webcast from a seperate location would have been pretty smart.

Spam · Post by **Spam** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 9:55 pm

I very seriously doubt it had anything to do with the election. If they had wanted to they could have made KFAR look like a bunch of radicals that were anti government, which some of them are, and painted the whole deal in a much more unflattering light. It pretty much came down to enough in enough and they went in an shut them down. I still say that the Marshals bent over backwards to be nice to all envolved while still doing their job serving a federal warrant. If it was political they would have busted multiple pirate stations across the country at once and done it in a spectacular way. They didn't they came in, did their job and left. They brought the media with them to cover their asses from KFAR saying they were a bunch of jack booted thugs.