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

The Art of Unstable Radio • 169
where two campus/community radio stations already broadcast a panoply
of political views, music and cultural expression. As a volunteer
programmer, I had ample access to the airwaves and the freedom to
broadcast very experimental material. In terms of garnering listeners,
1800 watts of FM on an established frequency would seem to be much
more effective than a measly 2 watts heard intermittently in shifting
local areas. In practice, however, such small transmitters might effectively
re-materialize radio, and propose a renewed social engagement
with the medium, as listeners and senders are all close by, even in faceto-face
proximity with one another. Such a portable transmitter is
perfectly suited for unorthodox, experimental interventions and infiltrations,
with the intent of generating unique social and/or aesthetic
circumstances, and for critically questioning the conventional notions
of transmission that dominate the dial, persisting even in independent
radio culture. In short, building my own transmitter and turning it on
provided me with a first tangible sense of the untapped potential for
radio outside of the need for or restrictions of the complex economic,
political or technical infrastructure of a radio station.
Tetsuo Kogawa describes many of his radio activities as “radio parties,”
where local and translocal transmissions provide the occasion
for social gatherings. 5 In my own nascent radio practice using low-watt
transmitters, these smaller fields of transmission enabled unexpected
social interactions. NRRF 90.7 FM (No Regular Radio Frequency) was
a one-day radio intervention during the Mile-End Harmony Festival
in Montréal on April 28, 2001. The weekend before, I had been one of
the thousands of protesters who were tear-gassed by police during the
rallies against the proposed Free Trade Agreement of the Americas
(FTAA) in Québec City, where I had also made audio field recordings
of the events. Back down in Montréal, I teamed up with Richard Williams
to rebroadcast the raw sonic materials of protest on the street of
our local neighbourhood, using a 1-watt FM transmitter and a series
of radios distributed around the table and down the street from where
we were narrowcasting. Our initial intention was to inject this turbulent
soundscape into the relative calm of the neighbourhood, provoking
political reflection and allowing the events to literally continue
reverberating out into the community.
What we did not anticipate was the degree to which people attending
the street festival would be eager to discuss their impressions of
and/or perspectives on the protests, as many people in the area had