SAN MARCOS PIRATES HOIST SAILS, ILLEGAL BROADCASTERS DON'T TRY To HIDE
by Rob Patterson Copyright (c) 1997, The Austin AmericanStatesman

Those merry pranksters down in San Marcos are at it again,
this time on the radio. Beaming across our sister city to
the south at 30 watts on 105.9 FM is KIND radio, an
unlicensed station launched by the activists behind the
Hays County Guardian and the current medical marijuana
initiative on the San Marcos city ballot in May.

Unlike the illegal microbroadcasters here in Austin who
have been recently sending signals out on 105.9 this
area's last unlicensed FM frequency the San Marcos
microbroadcasting rebels aren't concerned about secrecy
and anonymity (even though unlicensed broadcasting is
punishable by a $10,000 fine and/or up to a year in jail).
In fact, on March 22, they even sent a letter to the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) telling the agency
what they are doing.

We're not hiding anything,'' said Jeffrey Zeal''
Stefanoff, one of the principals responsible for launching
KIND. We even sent (the FCC) a check in case they need
help getting down here. We just hide behind the
Constitution.''

KIND went on the air March 26, and within three days
they had filled 24 hours, seven days a week with community
and music programming by friends and volunteers. Last
Thursday night, I took a drive down to San Marcos to listen
to KIND and visit their studio.''

Ensconced in a tiny room in the converted garage of a
southeast San Marcos home, KIND's homebase is a funky,
low tech, almost juryrigged affair. But the couple of
hours of programming I heard, for all its glitches and
roughness, had the sort of bristling, raw energy you only
get in broadcasting when people are doing something they
feel passionate about. The KIND folks contend that San
Marcos is currently underserved by radio stations, and they
are merely correcting the situation. In their sometimes
humorous letter to the FCC, they accuse Austin of stealing
their local FM station (the 103.5 signal licensed to San
Marcos that broadcasts Oldies 103, headquartered in
Austin).

Ironically, there are those in the San Marcos
establishment who agree in principal with KIND. Phil
Neighbors, president of the San Marcos Area Chamber of
Commerce, also feels that the city is underserved by radio
and needs a station. His organization recently put together
a task force to study the feasibility of getting a local AM
signal currently airing network material to become a
station based out of and serving the area.

KIND has already been ticketed by a San Marcos building
inspector for running a business in a residence. Stefanoff
and partners Joe Ptak and Joe Simpson contend that they are
an allvolunteer operation, not a business.

But anyone who's willing to wave a red flag at the FCC
isn't about to sweat a city ticket, especially when they've
already been to the Supreme Court and won. In 1993, the
high court ruled in favor of the Hays County Guardian in
their case against Southwest Texas State University, which
had tried to prohibit distribution of the Guardian on
campus. We're expecting to fight the FCC,'' Stefanoff said.
If they were to back off and not come after us, I would be
very surprised.''

With all the current talk of the Internet and
regulation, let's not forget that the issue of who has
access to the radio airwaves remains an equally potent and
extremely contentious issue. The micro broadcasters here
and elsewhere appear to be in the vanguard of the battle to
keep the radio waves in the service of the general public.
And the way things appear to be shaping up, Central Texas
just might turn out to be a significant skirmishing ground.