It's about the relationship between free enterprise and free-speech rights in the critical public sphere of broadcasting. Calif. It could force the federal courts to examine whether regulatory rules that reserve coveted TV and radio channels on public air space for commercial interests deprive citizens of their constitutional rights. It takes the form of broadcasting to a few square blocks or several square miles over low-power FM stations. These stations are deemed illegal because radio rebels operate them without a required federal license.
Radio guerrillas operate from homes, basements, garages, and backpacks.
They employ unused frequencies, trying to avoid interfering with licensed stations. The micro-radio movement includes minority voices speaking to or for inner cities, as well as ideologues for a variety of populist and religious causes, including freedom of speech. May. Six commercial radio stations exist in Decatur, but Mr. Williams argued that they refuse to serve African-American interests. Since 1990, he has aired such issues as poverty and police brutality - often in terms officials considered inflammatory. In May, a local-state SWAT team seized his equipment and put him in jail.