By Camille T. Taiara

After 11 years on the air, Berkeley Liberation Radio, 104.1 FM – progeny of historic Free Radio Berkeley, which launched the national fight for micro-powered radio licensing in the United States – pulled the plug June 27. But BLR programmers vow not to remain silent for long.

BLR received two notices from the Federal Communications Commission in mid-June citing the station for operating without a license and for refusing to allow the agency to inspect the station's equipment. The letters, which FCC agents slipped under the door of the building at Telegraph and 55th Street that housed BLR's studio, ordered station operators to stop transmitting within 10 days or face sanctions.

This is the third time the station has been shut down: The original FRB was shuttered by court injunction in June 1998; successor BLR was forced off the air for four days in 2002, after the FCC raided its studios and confiscated its equipment.

But BLR programmers suspect this latest FCC crackdown may have been triggered by a minor mechanical malfunction: A small fan inside the station's transmitter stopped working, causing BLR's signal to bleed into the adjacent radio spectrum.

"Captain Fred," BLR's technological guru, suspects the meltdown may have interfered with the transmissions of radio neighbors ranging from classical station KDFC (102.1 FM) to KITS (105.3 FM, otherwise known as "Live 105") for as long as a month before BLR caught on.

"In the meantime, we were getting evicted anyway," said Captain Fred, who explained that BLR's landlord hopes to put the space to different use. So the station decided to go off the air voluntarily.

Now BLR's programmers are looking for a new home – which they say they intend to keep in a separate location from their transmitter to complicate future detection by the FCC. The station has also announced it will begin streaming content on the Web beginning sometime this month.

The FCC has been cracking down on micro-powered stations. On Oct. 11, 2003, the FCC shut down San Francisco Liberation Radio, the city's longest-running micro-powered station, after 10 years on the air and numerous attempts to obtain a license. SFLR is appealing its case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (see "Round One to the Feds," 3/23/05).

Longtime BLR programmer "Emperor Nobody" sees the FCC's latest strike as part of a greater effort by the feds and their corporate sponsors to "remake reality to fit their agenda," as the station has been a virulent critic of the Bush administration and big business abuse of power.

Anyone with a space in Berkeley to offer as a new studio for BLR should e-mail berkeleyliberationradio@yahoo.com or write them at PMB 2000, 2140 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94704.

E-mail Camille T. Taira