{"id":2825,"date":"2012-03-22T08:36:59","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T15:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=2825"},"modified":"2012-03-23T09:46:36","modified_gmt":"2012-03-23T16:46:36","slug":"fernwood-based-pirate-radio-station-reflects-on-raid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2012\/03\/22\/fernwood-based-pirate-radio-station-reflects-on-raid\/","title":{"rendered":"Fernwood-based pirate radio station reflects on raid"},"content":{"rendered":"

A local pirate radio station called Fernwood Autonomous Radio (FAR) was recently forced to shut down after Industry Canada caught wind of the station tapping into local FM airwaves and raided the station\u2019s domestic location.<\/p>\n

Joey Chaos, the individual who started the pirate radio station in Fernwood that was raided on February 23, first came up with the idea when he learned about it in school.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the equipment I used was even provided by a professor of mine,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

FAR was started as a way for locals to share their thoughts and expressions, he says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Joey Chaos and his letter from Industry Canada (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe had many local musicians play live shows, had locals speak about politics and other local issues, and we even had an acupuncturist perform acupuncture live while explaining the medical benefits of acupuncture on air,\u201d says Chaos.<\/p>\n

Bridge People were one of the local bands featured on FAR and were a glad to be a part of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the feeling of pirate radio being on airwaves one moment, then untraceable the next moment,\u201d says Bridge People\u2019s Seth Eggler. \u201cGiven the chance, I would definitely be involved with pirate radio again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chaos says he was aware of the potential repercussions of being caught for illegally broadcasting on radio airwaves, and believes the recent raid, including a cease and desist order, was a result of recent media coverage of the station.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a code red at our home-based station which would involve looking through the peephole, then hiding the equipment,\u201d explains Chaos. \u201cThe day we were caught we were blindsided by Industry Canada, who sent two employees who were rather amused by the situation and treated us well, rather than destroying or ceasing<\/del>\u00a0seizing our equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Industry Canada is responsible for managing the radio frequency spectrum. According to them, pirate radio can cause interference to public safety radio operations and aeronautical radio navigation and communications.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pirate broadcaster may not have considered Industry Canada\u2019s requirement to protect the public within the limits of exposure to radio frequency energy,\u201d says Alicia Long, a media relations representative from Industry Canada. \u201cUnauthorized transmission can also interfere with reception of properly licensed radio broadcasting stations in the surrounding area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chaos wasn\u2019t entirely disappointed about being caught because he feels like it has given more attention to the issue of freedom in media.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t covering situations that are too controversial and just wanted a medium where locals could be heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fernwood Autonomous Radio is currently looking into the options of getting a legitimate radio-broadcasting license or switching to digital-only broadcasts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A local pirate radio station called Fernwood Autonomous Radio (FAR) was recently forced to shut down after Industry Canada caught wind of the station tapping into local FM airwaves and raided the station\u2019s domestic location. Joey Chaos, the individual who started the pirate radio station in Fernwood that was raided on February 23, first came […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-march-21-2012"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2825"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2911,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions\/2911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}