pirate radio

     You can see a depiction of a "pirate" radio station in the old movie American Graffiti. The radio "pirate" in the movie is modeled on a real radio pirate. His radio station broadcasts from a ship at sea to avoid detection by law enforcement authorities. Why law enforcement wants to find the radio pirate is not made obvious in the movie. When a pirate radio station broadcasts, other radio stations are lost to their listeners. We have an agency of the federal government--the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC--to assure that broadcasters share the radio wavelengths fairly. Each station is assigned a "frequency"--the number you see on the radio dial. If someone starts up an unlicensed broadcasting station, it can only be at the expense of a station already running. It's a form of censorship or shouting someone down--but this time it isn't by the government, but by the "outlaws".