COURAGE, TRUTH & BOOTY:

I've been thinking: why do we do Pirate Radio? What's the motivation? Why do we keep bringing it up after the FCC visits and closes us down? Part of it comes from knowing that they don't really have alot of power to stop us. But we also know they'll never stop. It is, after all, the government. They never get tired, and they never forget. But if we stay swift and unkown, there's no reason we can't outlast them and grow Pirate Radio to the point where it's so big, it has to be made legal, and something the government no longer is able to shut down. Eventually, they'll have to find a way to make it legal and 'legit'. But only if we stay true to our belief that it's important and has to continue on. Monk started out as a guy with a transmitter in his basement, but that guys long gone. What he is now is group of people, with on of that group becoming leader and taking on the personality of Monk for a period of time, running the ...

The benefit show went great! Several hundred people showed up and the Fox Theater asked us to come back and do another show in two months! Thanks to the folks fo Boulder for all your support! To all you pirates... this is a great way raise money for your cause! If you have a local music venue, get some of the local musicians that you've been supporting by playing their music and doing live shows on air to play a benefit show for your station. Feed them and give them a keg back stag (make sure the foods good. You should be able to get a local restaurant to two to donate some kick ass food, we did). If you have it, your local micro brewery's a candidate for donating a keg (again, we found one.. Twisted Pine.. great guys..excellent beer). Print up tshirts to sell in the lobby. And if you have the ability, copys of CD's from recordings of on air broadcasts from bands that have played in your studio... or shows of your more 'out there' DJ's who are fun...

BENEFIT NIGHT! So tonight we find out if Boulder really suports KBFR. If the benefit is a success and we end up actually making enough money to operate the station for awhile.. well.. damn.. we'll just have to keep doing it! If not, well, that tells us alot. We'll know in the next few hours. Monk@kbfr.org Boulder Free Radio: Radio So Good, It's Illegal "Monk is a ghost and in many ways, many people" -BURG

The Story of the Dread Pirate Roberts. There is a story that teaches us a lesson about how a single persona can be a multitude of people and a useful way to run a pirate radio station. The Dread Pirate Roberts was a feared pirate of the seas off of England in the 1700's sailing a ship called the Black Beauty. Pirate Roberts would raid rich ships owned by the royalty and government of England off the coast of the island. During this time, the Pirate Roberts would choose a apprentice, although the apprentice didn't know he'd been chosen. The Pirate Roberts would teach this person all there was to know about sailing the Black Beauty, and all the secrets of the pirate operation. Where the best places to hide treasure where. Who could be trusted, who to avoid. All the knowledge needed to lead the crew of free spirits. Every few years, after becoming rich raiding the ships of the rich and powerful, the Black Beauty would dock in London and take on an entirely new ...

Back on the air. 48 Hours after being visited by the FCC and our compliance in shutting down, KBFR is back on the air. Special thanks to Sargent Socket for coordinating the teardown and setup almost flawlessly. And to Lash and Friends for finding a new home for our main transmitter (the van, of course, is always operational, you never know where we'll be actually located when we're broadcasting). KBFR is owned by BURG (The Boulder Underground Radio Group). A group of extremely diverse but in more ways than you would think like minded people who believe in free speech and freedom of the airwaves. Monk@kbfr.org Boulder Free Radio: Radio So Good, It's Illegal "Monk is a ghost and in many ways, many people" -BURG

BUSTED by the FCC- What happened on 2.13.04 At about 8:30pm (yes, they do work nights- so operating just nights and weekends is no protection: you might as well go 24/7 if you're going on at all), FCC Agents knocked on the door of a house where KBFR had put an STL (Studio Transmitter Link). This STL was fed by a DSL modem we'd hidden in the garage. None of us lived there. It was a renter who had no knowledge of the STL operations (although we hear they acted like us and told the agents to get off the property). They had been told by the owner of the house that it was a ham radio rebroadcaster. This is the same story we gave the owner as well. In exchange, we paid him for his monthly cable modem as 'rent' for the STL space (and we accessed is cable modem to provide the 'ham radio feed'). The FCC then posed as the renters and called the station. On one line (cellphone) they called as the FCC saying they were busting the STL. On the OTHER line (inte...

8:30PM.. BUSTED BY THE FCC!!!! Down we go. Stay tuned (pun intended). monk@kbfr.org

CENSORED

Here's an email I wrote to a fellow from a local conservative think tank. He wanted to do an article on KBFR so I wrote up a fairly detailed response. I included the entire email thread just for good measure. Monk@kbfr.org -------- Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2004 07:57:15 -0800 From: monk@kbfr.org To: Jon Caldara Reply-to: kbfr@kbfr.org Subject: RE: [KBFR] kbfr article Jon, I can appreciate where you're coming from. Maybe I can answer some of your questions about what KBFR is about in this email. We work out of many environments. We have storage space we rent to keep equipment in. Sometimes we'll work out of a garage somewhere when we have a live band (or we'll pull the van up to a band practice studio and stream it live). Primarily it's a van, though (it's a fully outfitted as a radio station.. you'd be amazed at what you can fit into a van and how little it can cost compared to a regular station). If you park a va...