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

• islands of resistance
in the radio art community, her transmitter building workshops have
resulted in a greater proportion of Canadian pirates being sound artists
than has been the case in the US. On the other hand, Dunifer’s
international impact among radicalized grassroots radio pirates is
more widespread than that of Kozinuk. Yet, Kozinuk is not apolitical;
she has used pirate radio as a tool in protest situations in Canada and
continues to use pirate radio as a means to challenge social norms.
Moreover, Canadian radio pirates do not seem to have any interest
in promoting the kind of nationalist agenda that is sold to the listeners
of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as “Canadian
identity.” They also typically resist the free market seductions of the
corporate sector, which has as its main goal the selling of audiences
(potential consumers) to advertisers. Most Canadian radio pirates
typically enjoy being independent of both, and free to fly the Jolly
Roger rather than the officially sanctioned flag of the nation state or
the branded banner of the multinational corporation. However, not
all radio pirates would consider themselves to be radical resisters or
movement activists. Radio pirates take over the airwaves illegally for
various reasons. Some do so to maintain language and culture, or as
a statement of indigenous sovereignty. Others wish to create community
or to protest domination. In some cases, the objective is to give
direct voice to the voiceless by strengthening the self-defined identity
of a singularly-minded group or of a group that is more inclusive of the
complexity of different geographical, ethnic and gendered realities.
For some, the primary motivation is to create art or to devise a space
of self-representation in relation to music, politics, the spoken word,
sound art or radio drama. For others, their dedication to autonomous
radio goes beyond content and becomes a participatory experiment in
lateral organization and facilitates access to the skills and tools needed
for cultural production. Finally, some go on-air as pirates to exercise
the individual freedom to use radio in experimental and unconventional
ways, such as the method of repurposing explored by Kristen
Roos (Chapter 14). In all cases, as pirates they exhibit the underlying
philosophy that the airwaves should be freely available.
The context of who is a pirate radio practitioner has changed over
time. Anne MacLennan (Chapter 3) documents how, in the 1920s and
1930s, competing border radio stations licensed in Mexico and the US
were considered to be pirates by the CRTC because their signals overpowered
those of Canadian stations. Today the definition of piracy is