Dialling for dissent

The secret history of Canadian pirate
radio is exposed in the new anthology
Islands of Resistance

UP WITH OPEN AIRWAVES: Andrea Langlois

by CHRIS BARRY

It’s hard to imagine anyone getting too worked up about pirate radio in the age of podcasting and Internet communications. After all, the medium of radio itself has arguably been in decline for decades while the AM dial—once regarded as a cash cow—is a virtual wasteland, with few media conglomerates eager to devote much attention to a radio band most cars don’t even pick up anymore. And when’s the last time you spent an evening sitting around your living room listening to AM radio—or radio on any frequency for that matter? Exactly.

So you’d figure pirate radio, which has never been as big a deal in Canada as it has in the U.S or U.K., would be completely irrelevant to mass communication in the second decade of the 21st century. Not so, according to Andrea Langlois, who both contributed to and co-edited an anthology on the subject called Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada, a series of essays chronicling the history of pirate radio in the Great White North, celebrating not only its potential as a vehicle for political mobilization but as an often overlooked medium for the communication of ideas unlikely to make the cut in other media.

“I don’t think radio will ever die,” states Langlois. “Sure, the Internet definitely offers certain opportunities, but not the same opportunities to connect with communities as radio does. Radio is a very accessible medium, you don’t have to go on the Internet, it’s portable and people are actually listening to it. Many people use both media anyway, like The Rock, the WTO pirate station that was set up in Montreal during the 2003 protests. Activists were communicating their issues through webcasts as well as their radio station, which they kept active throughout that entire protest.

“There are a variety of ways it’s used,” adds Langlois, “but one of the most amazing, in my opinion, is how small communities that don’t have local radio have set up their own pirate radio stations, like the indigenous community of Barriere Lake, who started one to engage youth and preserve their language and culture. We found an amazing amount of diversity among people using it, but the book often felt like investigative journalism. We really had to rely on our networks, going through friends of friends to find out who was actually doing this. Pirate radio is such an under the radar grassroots affair, it’s rarely a widely publicized effort.”

Not to mention illegal—which just might have something to do with broadcasters trying to keep a low profile outside of their listening audiences. “It’s true,” Langlois acknowledges, “in recent years, we’ve seen more incidents of stations being shut down by the authorities. One in Ottawa and another during the Olympic protests in Vancouver, where a pirate radio station broadcasting as part of an artists’ collective was asked to cease and desist. But the book is less about the legalities of pirate radio than examples of stations that will inspire people, hopefully encouraging a more cohesive pirate radio movement in Canada. What’s most important is that, as Canadians, we have a right to communicate, and areas of public communication, the Internet aside, are becoming increasingly enclosed. And if we don’t have access to the airwaves, then we don’t have access to very much.”

THE BOOK LAUNCH FOR ISLANDS OF
RESISTANCE: PIRATE RADIO IN CANADA
TAKES PLACE AT L’INSOUMISE
LIBRAIRIE ANARCHISTE (2033
ST-LAURENT) ON WEDNESDAY,
MAY 26, 5–7 P.M.