Pirate Radio USA

The film started out as a documentary on pirate radio, and evolved into a commentary on corporate control and infringement on our rights and freedoms. Our journey was hosted by DJ's Him and Her, the Producers of the Film, Jeff Pearson and Mary Jones. It was an interesting ride through Independent Media, and civil disobedience.

They got up for a Q+A after the screening, and fielded questions from the activist audience. I had a question, but couldn't bring myself to ask it. The more I thought about it after leaving the theatre, I had to ask.

I understand that the airwaves should be public property, and support your fight to reclaim them, but what about the rights of the artists/musicians whose work you are broadcasting?

So, I hunted down the filmmakers today to ask them about it, and talked to Mary Jones. She said that most musicians had no problems with it, because of the scale of the audience. It was the record labels and publishers that were a little more difficult to deal with. And now that Low-Power FM radio has been legalized and licensed in the States, the smaller broadcasters have jumped through all the hoops to give them license to broadcast. She said that It wasn't really an issue because of the tiny scale of pirate radio broadcasters.
Fair enough.
My thought is that you get some serious underground cred having your work played on pirate radio. arrrrrr.

I left the theatre in the mood for some civil disobedience, but was too tired to act on it. Memories of making mix tape radio shows with 2 shoddy tape players when I was 8 years old, but that's another story.