What we made our DJ's sign before getting shut down
KBFR Mission and Policies
Our Mission:
Boulder Free Radio is an act of civil disobedience aimed at taking back the public resource called Radio. It is an action and a protest against the selling off of the limited public resource of radio spectrum to the highest bidder. It is an action designed to support our community with a democratic media that will give the average citizen access to the airwaves and provide exposure to new and local music, under-represented ideas, opinions, news and information on local goings on and to do so with an understanding that we are responsible to the community and it’s wishes about content and the balance between free speech and the use of profanity. We commit that we will give fair access to all citizens on all sides of a community, state, regional, national or global issue.
At our core, we believe in the community supported use of free speech and access to new music, ideas, opinions and news.
We understand that being a member of KBFR is a privilege, not a right and agree to abide by the Policies and procedures put into place to keep KBFR safe and to continue to support the community it serves.
Boulder Free Radio(BFR) is a benevolent dictatorship(BD). The BD is supported by a council of captains (5-10 BFR members chosen by the BD and other captains for their experience, wisdom, knowledge, skills and ability to help govern and grow BFR). Most decisions are discussed among the BFR DJ’s and captains, reviewed in regular captain meetings and approved. When necessary the BD will be asked for a decision, but only as a last resort. The BD has the right, responsibility and duty to overturn BFR group and Captain Council decisions if he deems it necessary for the overall betterment of the operation, but only if absolutely necessary and he believes it is necessary for the long term health and survival of the station. The BD has final say, when exercised, on all BFR business.
Policies: Policies are rules that are required and agreed to by all members of the group before joining that allow us to operate and serve the community. These are not negotiable and are required activities and observances of how we operate.
Due to the underground nature of KBFR and it’s unlicensed status with the FCC, we will always be at risk of a bust by federal agents of the FCC, usually, backed up by a federal warrant and federal marshals. These warrants rarely name individuals and generally use old maritime laws used to seize (appropriately) pirate ships where the names of the captains and crews where unknown. In practice, the agents will first visit the STL location and issue a warning to stop operating. KBFR’s policy is to immediately shut down and move the STL location. This ‘resets’ the legal process and, in theory, should make it difficult for the FCC to obtain a warrant allowing them to take the equipment. At some point, we expect them to stop warning us and simply find the STL, and obtain a warrant. At that point, we will lose equipment, but not the studio, although that is not guaranteed. In order to protect the studio and, if possible, the STL setup (including transmitter, computer and mixer worth about $5000), the following policies are required of all KBFR group members. In addition, to avoid unduly antagonizing the FCC, controls around conduct and use of profanity and use of threats are outlined here.
- No drugs, guns or anyone under 18 in the studio at any time.
- No smoking (of anything) in the studio. Alcohol is fine
- New DJ’s are vetted by the program manager and approved by the Captains Council. DJ’s are encouraged to recommend potential new DJ’s
- Once a month meetings are required. If you miss the meeting, you are suspended from studio access (and your show) for one month. If you miss a second meeting, your status as a KBFR DJ is forfeit.
o You can miss a meeting if you inform one of the captains BEFORE the meeting. The reason must be significant and usually involves you being physically out of town.
- Showing up is required. If you miss two shows in a row, your show time is made available to the program director for rescheduling of another existing or new DJ.
o Sending an email out to kbfr@kbfr.org at least 4 hours before your show telling the group your show is available negates this control.
o If your show is taken, you can petition the program director for another time slot.
o If this happens 3 times (i.e. missing 2 shows in a row and not telling anyone) your status as a KBFR DJ is forfeit
- All DJ’s are required to help support the station financially.
o Monthly dues of (usually) $30
o Help in putting on benefit shows that add to KBFR’s reserve
o If you don’t pay your dues, you don’t get the key code to the studio
- All DJ’s are encouraged to find support duties that help the station
o To keep it going, we need all DJ’s to be ACTIVE members of KBFR by spending time on things outside of their weekly shows. These include but are not limited to:
§ Keeping the studio clean and neat
§ Bringing in needed supplies
§ Recycling cans, bottles and plastics
§ Managing T-shirt/button/sticker/CD distribution and cash
§ Reviewing CD’ sent to KBFR by artists, producers and record companies
§ Assisting in recording live shows in the van
§ Assisting with computer/networking needs
§ Helping with benefit concerts (including ‘producing’ them end to end)
- Profanity (defined by ‘the 7 words you can’t use on television, in addition to the words ‘faggot’ and ‘nigger’) is allowed. However, only under the following conditions:
o Between midnight and 6am: anything goes. Say whatever you want.
o Between 9pm and midnight: Use good judgment
o Between 6pm and 9pm: contextual use of profanity is fine- as in ‘I can’t believe fucking GW killed 19 more kids in iraq today!’. Gratuitous use of profanity is strongly discouraged and will cause you to eventually lose your show. Overuse will turn off listeners and has a higher chance of being heard by kids and their parents as well as shriveled up old lady’s and born again Christens with an axe to grind. These folks WILL call the FCC. Enough complaints from them will bring about a visit and a bust.
o Between 6am and 6pm: keep profanity to a minimum- same as you hear on network TV (shit, asshole, etc. class words are OK). Businesses listening during the day used to be our largest listening base and have tuned out due to profanity. We want them back.
o Use of profanity within recorded comedy and music is allowed anytime. Keep in mind the time of day and try not to abuse this privilege. They ARE listening.
- No DJ may threaten, on air, any entity or person, for any reason.
o This includes statements like: “someone should blow up Disneyland”; “Someone needs to kill that bastard GW” (this will almost guarantee a visit by the secret service); “someone should beat the hell out of the Boulder City Council”, etc.
- New DJ’s will have a 3 month ‘review’ period. After 3 months on air the Captains Council will review if their show is original, interesting, entertaining and if it fit’s into the overall KBFR effort of adding back to the community.
- Communications- DJ must check email regularly. At least twice per week. KBFR’s underground and distributed nature requires that we use an encrypted email system to keep our communications secure. Other than our monthly meetings, email will be our primary means of communication.
I agree with the above mission statement and agree to abide by the policies:
DJ Name:_________________________
DJ Name Signature___________________________________ (DO NOT SIGN REAL NAME)
Date:____________
Our Mission:
Boulder Free Radio is an act of civil disobedience aimed at taking back the public resource called Radio. It is an action and a protest against the selling off of the limited public resource of radio spectrum to the highest bidder. It is an action designed to support our community with a democratic media that will give the average citizen access to the airwaves and provide exposure to new and local music, under-represented ideas, opinions, news and information on local goings on and to do so with an understanding that we are responsible to the community and it’s wishes about content and the balance between free speech and the use of profanity. We commit that we will give fair access to all citizens on all sides of a community, state, regional, national or global issue.
At our core, we believe in the community supported use of free speech and access to new music, ideas, opinions and news.
We understand that being a member of KBFR is a privilege, not a right and agree to abide by the Policies and procedures put into place to keep KBFR safe and to continue to support the community it serves.
Boulder Free Radio(BFR) is a benevolent dictatorship(BD). The BD is supported by a council of captains (5-10 BFR members chosen by the BD and other captains for their experience, wisdom, knowledge, skills and ability to help govern and grow BFR). Most decisions are discussed among the BFR DJ’s and captains, reviewed in regular captain meetings and approved. When necessary the BD will be asked for a decision, but only as a last resort. The BD has the right, responsibility and duty to overturn BFR group and Captain Council decisions if he deems it necessary for the overall betterment of the operation, but only if absolutely necessary and he believes it is necessary for the long term health and survival of the station. The BD has final say, when exercised, on all BFR business.
Policies: Policies are rules that are required and agreed to by all members of the group before joining that allow us to operate and serve the community. These are not negotiable and are required activities and observances of how we operate.
Due to the underground nature of KBFR and it’s unlicensed status with the FCC, we will always be at risk of a bust by federal agents of the FCC, usually, backed up by a federal warrant and federal marshals. These warrants rarely name individuals and generally use old maritime laws used to seize (appropriately) pirate ships where the names of the captains and crews where unknown. In practice, the agents will first visit the STL location and issue a warning to stop operating. KBFR’s policy is to immediately shut down and move the STL location. This ‘resets’ the legal process and, in theory, should make it difficult for the FCC to obtain a warrant allowing them to take the equipment. At some point, we expect them to stop warning us and simply find the STL, and obtain a warrant. At that point, we will lose equipment, but not the studio, although that is not guaranteed. In order to protect the studio and, if possible, the STL setup (including transmitter, computer and mixer worth about $5000), the following policies are required of all KBFR group members. In addition, to avoid unduly antagonizing the FCC, controls around conduct and use of profanity and use of threats are outlined here.
- No drugs, guns or anyone under 18 in the studio at any time.
- No smoking (of anything) in the studio. Alcohol is fine
- New DJ’s are vetted by the program manager and approved by the Captains Council. DJ’s are encouraged to recommend potential new DJ’s
- Once a month meetings are required. If you miss the meeting, you are suspended from studio access (and your show) for one month. If you miss a second meeting, your status as a KBFR DJ is forfeit.
o You can miss a meeting if you inform one of the captains BEFORE the meeting. The reason must be significant and usually involves you being physically out of town.
- Showing up is required. If you miss two shows in a row, your show time is made available to the program director for rescheduling of another existing or new DJ.
o Sending an email out to kbfr@kbfr.org at least 4 hours before your show telling the group your show is available negates this control.
o If your show is taken, you can petition the program director for another time slot.
o If this happens 3 times (i.e. missing 2 shows in a row and not telling anyone) your status as a KBFR DJ is forfeit
- All DJ’s are required to help support the station financially.
o Monthly dues of (usually) $30
o Help in putting on benefit shows that add to KBFR’s reserve
o If you don’t pay your dues, you don’t get the key code to the studio
- All DJ’s are encouraged to find support duties that help the station
o To keep it going, we need all DJ’s to be ACTIVE members of KBFR by spending time on things outside of their weekly shows. These include but are not limited to:
§ Keeping the studio clean and neat
§ Bringing in needed supplies
§ Recycling cans, bottles and plastics
§ Managing T-shirt/button/sticker/CD distribution and cash
§ Reviewing CD’ sent to KBFR by artists, producers and record companies
§ Assisting in recording live shows in the van
§ Assisting with computer/networking needs
§ Helping with benefit concerts (including ‘producing’ them end to end)
- Profanity (defined by ‘the 7 words you can’t use on television, in addition to the words ‘faggot’ and ‘nigger’) is allowed. However, only under the following conditions:
o Between midnight and 6am: anything goes. Say whatever you want.
o Between 9pm and midnight: Use good judgment
o Between 6pm and 9pm: contextual use of profanity is fine- as in ‘I can’t believe fucking GW killed 19 more kids in iraq today!’. Gratuitous use of profanity is strongly discouraged and will cause you to eventually lose your show. Overuse will turn off listeners and has a higher chance of being heard by kids and their parents as well as shriveled up old lady’s and born again Christens with an axe to grind. These folks WILL call the FCC. Enough complaints from them will bring about a visit and a bust.
o Between 6am and 6pm: keep profanity to a minimum- same as you hear on network TV (shit, asshole, etc. class words are OK). Businesses listening during the day used to be our largest listening base and have tuned out due to profanity. We want them back.
o Use of profanity within recorded comedy and music is allowed anytime. Keep in mind the time of day and try not to abuse this privilege. They ARE listening.
- No DJ may threaten, on air, any entity or person, for any reason.
o This includes statements like: “someone should blow up Disneyland”; “Someone needs to kill that bastard GW” (this will almost guarantee a visit by the secret service); “someone should beat the hell out of the Boulder City Council”, etc.
- New DJ’s will have a 3 month ‘review’ period. After 3 months on air the Captains Council will review if their show is original, interesting, entertaining and if it fit’s into the overall KBFR effort of adding back to the community.
- Communications- DJ must check email regularly. At least twice per week. KBFR’s underground and distributed nature requires that we use an encrypted email system to keep our communications secure. Other than our monthly meetings, email will be our primary means of communication.
I agree with the above mission statement and agree to abide by the policies:
DJ Name:_________________________
DJ Name Signature___________________________________ (DO NOT SIGN REAL NAME)
Date:____________
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