Author: Dan

First off, my sincere apologies to Ghost and the KFAR crew. I dug up old and incorrect information in my post yesterday, so much for my librarian skills. Ghost left some comments correcting me, which I encourage everyone to read.

Basically, the window to apply for a low power FM license is closed. So that ship has sailed and KFAR must fly a pirate flag to broadcast. And by the way WDVX is not a low power FM station.

It appears as though the deck is stacked against KFAR, they would like to broadcast legally, but they can’t. And I still think the raid was politically motivated, as 100 watts of transmitting power can’t interfere with much. Maybe a mosquito 2 inches from the transmitter is inconvienced.

So I stand corrected and firmly back in KFAR’s corner. Play on, I’ll be listening.

The Knoxville News-Sentinel has an article on the KFAR rally at last night’s City Council meeting. While I still respect KFAR’s first amendment/civil disobedience stance, I’ll admit my opinion is shifting away from KFAR’s side of things.

There appear to be ways for KFAR to broadcast legally, and at least one local radio station has done this, WDVX. So if there is a legal way for KFAR to broadcast, why haven’t they explored this option?

The second half of Metropulse’s Citybeat talks about KFAR’s shutdown and how it may have been politically motivated. That makes sense to me, the names on the affidavit as complainants were FBI agents and a TVA agent. And KFAR isn’t exactly establishment media, somebody probably didn’t like what they heard. But why are the TVA and FBI listening to KFAR anyway?

KFAR 90.9 FM, South Knoxville’s pirate radio station was raided by the FCC and shut down. I listened to KFAR, mostly on the Internet, because they had interesting people and music you wouldn’t hear anywhere else. The Knoxville News Sentinel has a detailed report. KFAR should have their version of events posted soon.

You can help out by donating to KFAR.