MEDIA: FCC Moves To Legalise Pirate Stations In Haitian Communities

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Roosevelt Joseph

NEW YORK, May 4 2000 (IPS) - In the last five years, the number of pirate Creole language radio stations in Brooklyn, Queens and New Jersey has been growing steadily. With names like Radio Etincelle, Radio Galaxy Plus, Radio Lakay, Radio Petion-Ville, these stations can be found mostly on FM dials and have been popping up in Haitian enclaves, serving a group where radio is the glue that holds it together.

But with legalisation looming, these illegal stations, which are mostly low power, may decide that remaining illegal is better than being regulated by the Federal Government.

“The amount of regulations that the FCC is going to impose on the license, the fees will kill them,” says Vladimir Petit-Frere, owner of Radio Etincelle in Flatbush, Brooklyn. “It’s going to cost those with licenses a lot of money to keep up with the regulations. And low-power radio cannot operate as a commercial station, so where are they going to get the money?”

But money is not the only problem the newly licensed broadcasters will face, adds Petit-Frere. Stations will be subjected to regular inspection, and every little piece of equipment will need to keep up with the regulations in order to meet strict FCC (Federal Communications Commission) approval, he notes.

Those who have licenses will be shut down within a year because they will not be able to keep up with the regulations, he predicts.

But John Dingers, Professor of Journalism at Columbia University, says fears of widespread shutdowns are unfounded.

“This is the biggest advance in community radio in 50 years,” Dingers said. “For anyone to say what the FCC is doing is a trick is just plain silly. Micro power radio stations would allow some people in small towns to broadcast football, basketball and anything that is community-oriented.”

Ricot Dupuy, manager of Radio Soleil in Flatbush, Brooklyn, said he supports legalisation, but it must be done in a way that protects the interests of all the players.

“Allowing small communities access to the airwaves is a good thing to do,” said Dupuy, whose radio station operates on a special chip as a sort of cable radio. “The whole micro radio thing is a legitimate demand for under-served communities.”

In Haiti, most people get their news from the radio, partly because of a high rate of illiteracy and because most people can’t afford a television. At times of political and social unrest, radio reporters and stations are the first to be targeted and shut down.

Michael Bracy, Executive Director of the Low-Power Radio Coalition, or LPFM, adamantly supports the FCC move to open up the airwaves to small broadcasters.

“This clearly will be the most significant opportunity in decades for community groups, educational institutions, religious organisations and local governments,” said Bracy.

“LPFM will provide a low-cost means of serving urban communities and neighbourhoods around the United States,” said Rev. Calvin O. Butt of the Abyssinian Church of Harlem. “In the Village of Harlem in New York City County, LPFM can help to unite our local residents, while ensuring that their collective needs and concerns are addressed.”

Earlier this year, the FCC voted to open the radio airwaves to hundreds of small broadcasters to run inexpensive low-power FM radio stations.

The new LPFM services consisted of two classes of LPFM radio stations with maximum power levels of 10 watts and 100 watts. The 10 watt stations would reach an area of two miles radius and the 100 watt stations would have a maximum radius of four miles, far smaller than the territory reached by most commercial radio stations but roughly the same range as many college stations.

But limiting the coverage area of these radio stations does not sit well with broadcaster Petit-Frere. He said that with 100 watts he can cover the five boroughs and part of New Jersey depending on where his antenna is located.

Most of the FCC Commissioners, including Gloria Tristani and Susan Ness, expressed support for opening the air waves to churches, schools, and community-based organisations.

“My grandfather, the late US Senator Dennis Chavez, taught me that one of the most important things we can do as public servants is to give a voice to the voiceless,” said commissioner Gloria Tristani. “That’s why I’m proud to support low-power radio.

“The new low-power service responds to the needs expressed by thousands of individuals and community-based groups who envision a vehicle to provide a very localised service.”

“We begin a process that offers access to the airwaves to many Americans,” said FCC Chairman William E. Kennard in a statement released recently. “I look forward to the FCC’s receiving applications from many groups that will have a voice to serve their local communities.”

His statement was welcomed by many low-power broadcasters, including Ted Coopman of Black Liberation radio in Springfield, Illinois and Stephen Dunbar who started Free Radio Berkeley in California in 1993, both of whom called the move good news for community radio.

But the National Association of Broadcasters, one of Washington’s most powerful lobbying groups, thinks that opening the FM band is not such a good idea at all. The group says the new stations will interfere with the signal of existing stations and also make the transition to digital radio more difficult.

Petit-Frere does not think much of the move, its supporters or its opponents. He does not much care what the FCC does, particularly as he is sceptical of the body’s motives.

“License or not, I will still go on the air anyway. They can do whatever they want, but pirate radio will go on,” he says.