Liberation Radio Set to Move after 9-year Run

By Susan Dyer Reynolds

After running Liberation Radio out of the Richmond District for the past nine years, founder Richard Edmondson is ready to move on. During its first year, the station did mobile broadcasting from outside locations. For the past eight years, however, it has operated from Edmondson's Outer Richmond District home.

"I'm basically turning the station over to some younger people in the Castro District to let them carry it on," says Edmondson. "But I'll continue to be a supporter and advocate of micro-radio." Liberation Radio operates seven days a week, from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. on weekdays and until midnight on weekends. Like most micro-radio stations, Liberation Radio is non-corporate, non-commercial community radio operating at low-power FM transmission of 100 watts or less.

On January 20, 2000, a new FCC rule legalized low-power FM radio, which marked the first opportunity since 1978 for stations less than 100 watts to apply for a government license to broadcast. Liberation Radio, which does not have a license, operates from channel 93.7, a vacant location on the FM dial, and is a second frequency adjacent to two commercial stations. At one time, the FCC was considering making second adjacent frequencies legal, but decided against it, though Edmondson says he hasn't heard from the FCC in quite a while.

"We haven't heard from them in the last three years," he says, thankfully.

Edmondson started the station on May 1, 1993, as a protest against mainstream media censorship, as well as to give activists a voice.

"Media censorship was grossly apparent during the Gulf War, when major media was prostituted as a vehicle for the Pentagon," Edmondson says. "At the same time, I was homeless, living in my car with my dog and volunteering for Food Not Bombs. People were getting arrested for giving food away. We saw this station as our secret weapon to fight back and speak out against the mayor, city government and the mainstream media - without it, we didn't have a voice."

On May 9, 2002, Liberation Radio will celebrate its ninth anniversary at Cell Space, located at 18th and Bryant streets, with an event featuring live bands and readings. Also, right around that time, the station will move to its new home in the Castro District.

"We'll have greatly enhanced elevation for our antenna," Edmondson says excitedly. "We will reach the entire eastern half of San Francisco, as well as Oakland and Berkeley."

Ironically, the Richmond and Sunset districts will no longer be able to hear the station.

"At our last meeting we discussed setting up a repeater station, where you broadcast over the airwaves and someone gets the signal on the Internet and then rebroadcasts it over the airwaves," Edmondson explains. "But for this we would need a separate frequency and someone in the Richmond/Sunset area with DSL who was willing to have the transmitter in their home. It won't be happening any time soon."

Even more ironic is the fact that Edmondson himself will no longer be able to listen to Liberation Radio - the station he founded.

"I feel sad about leaving the Richmond," he says. "I feel in a sense that I am abandoning the area - I live in the Richmond and I won't be able to hear the station anymore unless I head over to the eastern part of the city. There's a certain amount of regret, for sure."