RADIO WARS: The United States of America Versus Mbanna Kantako
by Sheila Nopper

Though a preliminary injunction was issued to Mbanna Kantako at a Federal Court hearing on October 4th ordering him to "cease and desist" the micropower station, Human Rights Radio; whether a permanent injunction will be granted will depend on it being proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the source of the interference with air traffic communications at the Springfield Airport between September 22-25 was attributable to Kantako's 106.5 FM broadcasts. So far, no date has been set for the upcoming trial. Yet related issues that were raised--and absent---during the court proceedings, reveal certain ambiguities and irregularities about the case.

Williford Gray, an electronics engineer from the FCC's Chicago office, testified that he had issued Kantako orders to stop broadcasting on several occasions during the 12 years that Human Rights Radio has been on the air. No planes have ever fallen out of the sky during that time. However, the FCC alleges that they monitored four days of potentially dangerous interference beginning this year on September 22 during which time Human Rights Radio was deemed by Gray to pose a "safety of life issue" that required an "immediate response." This latest FCC action came exactly one week after the FCC announced the names of Springfield area applicants for legalized Low Power FM licenses.

In building her case, prosecuting attorney, Elizabeth Collins, used the FCC proposal for legalized LPFM to attempt to discredit Kantako's right to communicate via his radio station. Yet Kantako himself would not qualify for such a license given the lack of amnesty provisions for formerly illegal broadcasters in the FCC rules even if he wanted to, which he emphatically does not. Kantako, who is blind, said he "does not recognize the authority of the FCC or the authority of the United States government." He described himself as "an African P.O.W." with the "human responsibility to share information with my people and to defend ourselves against genocide."

Ironically, it was Mbanna Kantako, who pioneered the micropower radio movement on whose coattails current LPFM applicants have ridden. Having grown into a nationwide grassroots civil disobedience campaign against corporate control of the airwaves, micropower broadcasting is arguably the catalyst which forced the FCC to develop the LPFM initiative in the first place in order to re-establish their regulatory control of the airwaves and, in so doing, create a Trojan Horse to divide the movement. Nevertheless, because of his prominence in the movement, Kantako's case sparked a successful international email campaign on his behalf aimed at getting the State Journal Register (SJR) to cover the story. The campaign was orchestrated by the IndyMediaCenter (a global network of activists who utilize media production and distribution as tools for promoting social and economic justice), which originated with the Seattle protests against the WTO in 1999.

The SJR finally did publish a story on Kantako's case the morning of his court hearing---five days after the multi-jurisdictional police raid of his station led by Federal Marshals who surrounded his home and confiscated his transmitter, broadcast equipment and computer. However, none of the 13 local organizations who recently applied for these LPFM licenses sent in emails to support Kantako. Nor were these prospective licensees among the ten people--which did include some members of the Springfield-based Media Activist Coalition---present at the court hearing to support Kantako. If their silence was predictably due to their fear of jeopardizing their chances of being granted an LPFM license because of challenging the FCC, then the agency's claim that the LPFM proposal was designed to "give a voice to the previously voiceless" on the radio spectrum rings rather hollow.

Moreover, neither in the court proceedings nor in the SJR's coverage was there any mention of Senate bill 3020, the Radio Preservation Act of 2000, and the increasingly successful lobbying efforts on its behalf by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and National Public Radio (NPR) to essentially prevent even legalized micropower broadcasts from ever happening or, if so, only in the most restrictive and token of fashions. To buttress their case, they claimed that LPFM would cause interference with not only their big megawatt stations, but air traffic signals, thus endangering human life.

Yet, elsewhere in the country, a prominent national activist on behalf of LPFM, Stephen Proviser, who founded Allston-Brighton Free Radio and Citizens' Media Corps in the Boston area, did not hesitate to come to the defense of Kantako. He has referred to him publicly as "someone in the forefront of the struggle for direct citizen participation in media." Proviser, who has become increasingly dismayed at the NAB/NPR onslaught on LPFM, also pointed out, "There are thousands of translator stations across the country which are technically identical to the proposed LPFMs." Translators are, in effect, low power stations that are approved by the FCC in order to extend the coverage of full power radio licensees. "The actual transmitters that translators and LPFMs will use are the same," he explained, "and low power translators are acknowledged by the radio industry to cause minimal interference." The NAB's hypocritical double standard in relation to LPFM is something that really galls LPFM activists like Proviser. He explained, "When NAB-affiliated stations were being re-evaluated [in 1996], the NAB considered their [i.e. translators] potential for causing interference acceptable--even when far less stringent protection requirements were being discussed. They now say that the FCC's proposed LPFM licensing policy, which has even more strict protection requirements against interference, would throw the FM band into chaos."

In this regard, the FCC recently attempted to appease NAB/NPR's opposition to its proposal with their "Reconsideration Order for Low Power FM Service" in which they stated, among other revisions, that the FCC was "committed to protect translator service in a manner compatible with the LPFM service." Yet even non-profit NPR has flatly refused to compromise and continues to support the Radio Preservation Act. Consequently, in an October 2nd press release, FCC Chairman William Kennard stated: "I had hoped that NPR would see that their overriding mission to bring noncommercial radio service to the public is furthered by the establishment of new LPFM radio service that would serve small communities and niche markets. It is a sad day when National Public Radio advocates a policy that would deny the public new radio service."

Williford Gray suggested in court that the air traffic interference alleged to have been caused by Human Rights Radio may have resulted from a defective transmitter. When questioned by Kantako, who was acting as his own attorney, Gray confessed that he hadn't done a bench examination of Kantako's transmitter because it was still in the possession of the U.S. Marshall. Meanwhile, Kantako claimed that he used a professional, government-certified transmitter that does not "spur" or cause "harmonics" that could create such interference. Bret Thomas, a federal airway transportation specialist, who amazingly claimed in court that during his investigation, he heard radio interference coming from the long demolished Hay Homes, also testified that interference with air traffic communications is a "common" occurrence that is frequently attributed to atmospheric conditions, and has even been known to be caused by the airport's own frequencies. Upon learning of Gray's testimony at the hearing, the founder of Free Radio Berkeley, Stephen Dunifer, who has an engineering background, countered FCC accusations when he claimed that "the ground to air transceivers (transmitters/receivers) used at airports function on the AM band and Human Rights Radio is a low watt FM broadcast. So," he concluded, "even if Mbanna's transmitter was defective, it would still not interfere."

Undaunted and unbowed, Kantako insisted, "I have a human right to communicate with my people by any means necessary." He has repeatedly stated that he will resume broadcasting as soon as possible. Given the national attention this case has already garnered, the upcoming trial will no doubt place Springfield's dirty laundry once again into the unwelcome glare of the media spotlight just recently vacated by Peter Fitzgerald.