more on the pirates in san antonio : Houston Indymedia

in order to publicize the FCC public hearings on localism to be held in san antonio the following day, a band of rowdy pirates made a rukus outside of clear channel (headquartered in san antonio) tuesday morning (Jan 27 2004) they held banners and signs demanding the return of the airwaves to the people. since clear channel has such a monopoly on local radio, it seemed a worthy target. the swashbuckling scallywags made lots of noise, drumming, dancing jigs, enacting call and response such as(imagine scruffy pirate voice here) pirate one:" who's airwaves?" pirate two: "ARRRRR airwaves!!" pirate one: "who're the REAL pirates??" pirate two: "Clear Channel!" pirate one:"what're we gonna make them do???" pirate two:"walk the plank, the scurvy dogs!"

the animated band also publicized the appearance of a pirate radio station that popped up on the airwaves, and could be heard in san antonio throughout the day: 102.3 fm KRRR radical rebel radio. the radio broadcast featured songs such as "screw the FCC" and "seize the airwaves," some classic pirate songs, as well as historic recordings of pirate radio in Texas and assorted jolly pirate tunes. the station also announced the rally and FCC hearing the following day in downtown san Antonio. at least two large scale banners announcing the station call numbers were also spotted around town.

On the way to the hearings, and waiting in line the next day, KRRR 102.3 fm could be heard again in the downtown san Antonio area. What I don't have photos of, and what no recording devise could possibly capture, is how wonderful it was to be at the hearing, to see all those people, to hear all of those voices speaking out about how important it is to them to have diversity in programming & public access to airwaves-- how disgusted everyone is by the clearchannelization of radio etc, etc. it was truly amazing. Corporate voices were pretty much drowned out (for once) in that room, and the FCC got an ear-full from everyday people who are angry about the selling of OUR public airwaves to mega corps who could give a rats ass about anything community related.

This is only a partial report. If anyone has photos of these events or more to report, please do so!

of course the cops had to try to assert their rule over the seven seas; one of the pirates was issued a ticket for crossing the street against the light.