Captain Fred (CF): Could you talk about the limits of free speech, and how you deal with it at
Seattle Liberation Radio?
Geov Parrish (GP): Seattle Liberation Radio is a rotating collective of people. Then there's a
larger community of people who come in and do programming. Even before we went on the air
we went through a very long and involved, and, for those of us who aren't fond of meetings;
tedious, procedure of deciding what we wanted on the air and how we were going to go about
that. On the one hand, obviously we wanted to champion free speech. We wanted an open forum
for the public. On the other hand, there were things that we were not comfortable broadcasting.
We didn't want somebody from the Klan, to pick an extreme example, coming in and saying,
'Well, this is an open microphone for anybody in the community to come in -- here I am.' We
did not want SLR to be a cable access forum of the radio airwaves. What we wound up with was
essentially a series of what we call value statements that simply said we didn't want hate speech
on the air. We did not want things that were offensive to various communities and we went
through and listed them. We did not want programming that was usually heard on licensed radio
stations. The other thing we said at the same time was, 'If you're coming to us, and you have
something that you'd like to do on the air, and we don't feel it would be appropriate for our
station; start your own.'
CF: I was looking at this SLR handout sheet that you brought with you and I was wondering if
you could read some selections from it to our Radio Califa audience?
GP: OK, here goes:
"Seattle Liberation Radio is a not-for-profit collective of political, cultural, and media activists
who -- just like you -- can't afford to buy a radio station. So we decided to start one of our own.
It's run by the community, for the community, and everyone is welcome to join in and help out.
SLR is part of a new movement of microradio media activism that's taken hold in Seattle and
across the country. As fewer corporations own more of our media, and as government policy (as
in the 1996 Communications Act) gives more of our publicly owned radio and television stations
to these enormous corporations, there remains almost no chance for our voices to be heard.
Low-power, community-based stations like SLR are a chance to get our foot in the door before
the economic elite slam it shut. SLR is not about selling things -- products, image, or lifestyle.
We're about people talking, exchanging news, playing music, performing audio art, and
communicating with each other about what's real in our daily lives. You may not be used to
hearing voices on the radio that sound like you -- but it's habit forming. It's exhilarating. It
may even inspire you to want to broadcast, too. And that's what we want to see happen.
Our mission is to build community in the Capitol Hill district of Seattle and to encourage other
independent radio ventures throughout the city, state, and country. To that end, we provide an
avenue for voices otherwise unrepresented in the mainstream press to be heard -- on our radio
station. We will be broadcasting at 103.1FM in the Capitol Hill area.
The FCC has a mandate to shut down those operating without a license, citing the chaos that
would surely commence if people were to start broadcasting on their own. But, with the excellent
signal quality that can be achieved with low-cost transmitters, we see the true motives of the
FCC. The real issues are not technical -- they are political. It's about auctioning off freedom
exclusively to those who can afford it.
We can use your help, whether you live locally or anywhere else. Help us by sending us
programming of any sort -- news, commentary, arts, entertainment, educational, anything.
Anyone with technical knowledge of this sort could also lend a hand in engineering. Of course,
we can always use financial support. And others involved in similar ventures should get in touch
as well. We can be contacted at PO Box 85541, Seattle, Washington, 98145; email:
slr@scn.org."
If you'd like to start your own station, get in touch with us and we'll show you how.
CF: What is your vision of the ideal SLR listener...?
GP: There is no ideal listener. What we ask for people to do when they get behind a microphone
is exactly what we're doing here, which is to have one-on-one conversations with whoever's
listening. It's not about projecting image. It's not about being perfect and coming back and
doing a second take when you fuck things up or use inappropriate language, because the FCC
will come down on your fuckin' head. It is about being real and having the same sort of
conversations that you would have over the fence or through the wall with your apartment
neighbor. These are the same sorts of interactions with other people in the community that are
becoming increasingly rare in our lives. It's about communicating with one another and, for that
reason, the ideal listener is whoever you want to talk with.
We encourage our people to think not in terms of the commercial radio approach where we want
music that will appeal to "females 25-44 who live in Walnut Creek and make between
$65-95,000 a year and have a boat." That's not what this kind of broadcasting is about, and it is
such a fundamentally different way of using the technology that I think it's eye-opening for
people to really consider what the possibilities are. Most people haven't been exposed to the
idea that this kind of medium -- or that any kind of medium, not just radio but television or
newspapers or whatever -- can be used by people to communicate with each other, as opposed to
being a very one-way, top-down communication that is used to promote a corporate agenda of
consumption, materialism and buying things and the powerlessness which goes with that role.
We are about trying to empower people, trying to convince people that their own voices are
important, both the people who are on the air and the people who are listening. And if the people
who are listening want to be on the air, well, come on down!
CF: We had a really excellent meeting of micropower broadcasters on April 6th in San Jose.
Over a hundred people from all kinds of radio stations made it to this event. It really gave us a
sense of belonging and a sense of power to realize there are a lot of people out there who support
what we're doing and want to get their own radio stations going. We all need to be working
together and to support each other because if each of us just acts as one little isolated voice with
no connection to anybody else, we'll just be silenced. The federal authorities will come down on
our necks. Our equipment will be confiscated, smashed. In fact, that is the normal way the FCC
deals with people who violate their regulations and it's only through some sort of miracle that
Free Radio Berkeley got a judge that was somewhat sympathetic to the cause. Somehow FRB has
been allowed to keep going as it has for so many months now, 24 hours a day, seven days a week
of in-your-face radio. Also, we're finding out that other stations are getting a chance to thrive
for the same reason because the FCC is not really going to make a move on either FRB or a lot of
other stations until this case is finally resolved. So somehow we have this little window of
opportunity here, and it really is quite wonderful.
GP: It's not entirely luck though. I think a large part of it with FRB as with some of the stations
back east that were on the air before FRB, has to do with community support. The FCC is more
reluctant to go after stations that are highly visible, that have a strong base in the community and
where the random and arbitrary enforcement of their rules is going to become a political issue.
That is what has happened in the East Bay. That is what has happened in San Francisco. It's not
just luck '
-- June, 1996
