So the smart thing is to establish some sort of orderly system whereby the microbroadcasters won't interfere with the big corporations' ability to make money. That's a role that's become increasingly important in places like New York City, where people's rights to parks, gardens, and other forms of public space are under attack. We've got hiphop kids talking to folks from the radical Puerto Rican poetry scene, and East Village rockers talking to gardeners and squatters, and Sister Sheba from the Black Community News Service. All of these people are now allies, and they all represent different constituencies, and they all bring their listeners with them. The chemistry is really beautiful.
People start to relate to each other instead of being alienated as different cultural subsets.
FM, Brooklyn's mobile pirate station, which broadcasts live performances from friends' apartments and local venues. The fact is, anyone who wants to hook up a transmitter in their living room and start broadcasting can do it. The station's half-extended antenna leans against the front window, giving the night's broadcast a range not much further than the bathroom down the hall. Of course not all Free 103 shows are so slack. Last Memorial Day, it broadcast a DJ battle on top of the Willamsburg Bridge, and on Saturday it aired a live performance by jazz legend William Parker and his quartet, Other Dimensions of Music, from an undisclosed location in Park Slope.