Andrea Langlois et al - Islands of Resistance - Pirate Radio in Canada

CHAP TER 9
The Care and Feeding of
Temporary Autonomous Radio
Marian van der Zon
a large man entered the bar with a ghetto blaster
on his shoulder. It was tuned to TAR 99.1 FM, and punk rock music
from The Remanes, who were playing live on stage, spewed out. He
was already grooving, but as he turned the corner and caught view of
the stage, a huge grin covered his face. He yelled his support, which in
turn was picked up through the vocal microphones, only to be narrowcast
back through his radio and into his ear. He proceeded to rock
out on the edge of the mosh pit.
He wasn’t the first to wander into the bar that day, called forth by
the sounds emanating from the radios across Victoria tuned into TAR
99.1 FM. This was Temporary Autonomous Radio’s most recent festival,
cheekily being broadcast out of a bar full of people who had been
enticed by the live folk, traditional, roots, alt country, rock and punk
music being played by the bands taking over the airwaves. Between
bands, live interviews were taking place from the corner of the bar
— our on-air studio — interspersed with spoken word, sound art and
more tunes. Performers had been mentioning the bar name (omitted
here so that the venue can be potentially used again) all evening, much
to the manager’s chagrin, and people were listening in all over the city
due to the posters, internet and email lists, word of mouth and even
promotion on CFUV, the licensed campus and community station.
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