CityView's Nathan Sparks lashes out at KFAR

This is from the August 2004 CityView magazine (http://www.cityviewonline.com), under "the last word by Nathan Sparks". As it is a direct slam on KFAR (Knoxville First Amendment Radio - http://www.kfar.org) and mentions deejays without giving their names, and mentions the website without giving it out, and spreads lies about the station, this blogger feels it is important for an online copy of the printed opinion piece to be available so that all may read it without actually supporting Mr. Sparks' magazine (which is available at local grocery stores and at all the local Haslam-owned Pilot gas stations)... One more thing, there are rumors that some people who are invested in local radio stations are co-owners of CityView, which would explain why they spend a full page bashing and trashing and attacking KFAR, which is an acronym and therefore shouldn't be in quotation marks, in my opinion. You can email Nathan Sparks at editorial@cityviewonline.com or nsparks@esper.com, or call him at (865) 690-3000 ext 11. You can email KFAR at info@kfar.org or call them at (865) 577-7955. Okay, here goes:

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Thou Shalt Not Steal

Americans seem to love stories about David conquering Goliath, the little guy overcoming gigantic obstacles to defeat superior foes. As appealing as these stories are, persons of adequate judgment cannot help but wonder about what such battles cost, who pays the bills, and who, if any one, actually wins when the little guy chooses to violate the law to succeed.

Against the backdrop, we examine "KFAR," the Vestal FM radio station that claims to be a "pirate" station, operating an illegal transmitter in violation of Federal Communication Commission rules.

Legally-licensed radio stations must conduct exhaustive engineering studies to determine which broadcasting frequency is available that meets the rules. This way, a prospective new station owner can be certain that he is applying for a frequency that is truly available, at the exact spot he intends to construct his transmitting system. The cost of such studies can vary but could run between $2,000 and $3,000.

"KFAR" (we put the call sign in quotes, because it is not a legally assigned call sign, but one chosen by the operators to stand for Knoxville First Amendment Radio) apparently conducted no such studies, instead picking a frequency, realizing that it did not matter what other stations, or the FCC, thought about their choice, anyway. They selected 90.9 and began broadcasting. Illegally, of course.

Operators of an illegal business enterprise such as this get to skip past many things that legal businesses must address. We wonder if they bothered to get an electrical inspection of their transmitter installation, which is something legal radio stations are all required to do. "KFAR," according to its Web site, is even conducting fund-raisers and soliciting donations for new equipment to compensate for a burglary suffered by the station right after the Knoxville News Sentinel invested a large portion of Page One, along with a full page runover, to an article that explained in detail the philosophies behind the station. The story ran complete with a photo of a masked disc jockey, proudly flaunting his defiance of U.S. laws.

Absent from the article was a list of "booty" these pirates are looting, or the fact that the station and its pay-to-play personnel are stealing from each song-writer, performing artist, music publisher and record company - as they apparently pay no licensing fees to the main organizations that collect royalties from legal radio broadcasters and distribute them to the creators of the music.

Federal copyright laws specifically require that every radio station, commercial or non-commercial, have a performance license from ASCAP, BMI or SESAC, the three non-profit organizations that collect money from radio stations and other performers. If the pirates in Vestal are playing music that is covered by agreements between writers and one of these non-profit organizations, we wonder if they realize that even non-commercial stations must either purchase a blanket licensing agreement, or negotiate individual clearance deals with each songwriter whose material they perform.

The station does, however, have a permanent address on Reed Lane in South Knoxville. Property records indicate the house and lot are owned by Knox County employee (and candidate for County Commission), Martin Pleasant. In a telephone interview, Pleasant stated he was aware of the station operating on his rental property, and when asked why he didn't evict them, he stated: "But I support what they do." We then asked if he supports such a violation of federal laws, and he simply stated, "Yes, I do. I mean, I think it is a protest thing, and I totally support what KFAR is trying to do, because of media consolidation... because the people have lost control and access of the airwaves. So it's a direct protest to that."

But as far as the perpetrators of this appropriation of citizen resources are concerned, it is hard to put a finger firmly on anyone who is in charge. The desire for anonymity of the on-air "personalities" centers primarily on three things:

1. If no one is officially in charge, no one is responsible. "KFAR" claims to have some 50 DJs at any given time, each of whom pays a fee to get time on the air.

2. Each DJ uses an alias and will not reveal his or her real name.

3. Anyone who is willing to pay for an available time slot can be a DJ on "KFAR." But if you have listened for a few minutes, you will have already figured that one out. Perhaps if they possessed more talent and some more popular positions on interesting subjects, instead of ranting endlessly about their pro-drug beliefs (to name just one), some of these people might even have been able to land jobs with real radio stations, instead of having to hide out at the end of a dead-end street, breaking several laws, and stealing spectrum space and usage from the American taxpayers. Their parents should be proud.

As "KFAR" explains, the penalty for doing what they are doing - operating an unlicensed FM station - can be a fine of as much as $10,000, seizure of all equipment and a year in jail. And, if they are playing copyrighted music, it is possible for the principals of the station to be slapped with civil penalties in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The News Sentinel quoted one of the airwave pirates as saying, "...we'd be back on the air in two days." But it may be difficult to erect a pirate radio station inside a federal penitentiary.

The FCC appears to be waiting for someone - perhaps a legal broadcaster, perhaps a citizen who is unhappy with being a victim - to formerly [sic] complain about the outlaw station.

We are a nation of laws, and everyone is expected to obey them. If the authorities choose to ignore the existence of this radio station, then we wonder what might be next. How about an airline with unlicensed pilots or planes flying without inspections, or banks with no licenses or regulatory control over their activities? "KFAR" seems to be embracing illegality, thumbing its nose at the concept of legality, and doing it all with impunity. It's time to put an end to this nonsense.

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