ABSTRACT
During the Salvadoran civil war of the 1980s, a major objective of the government was to silence Radio Venceremos, a guerrilla-operated station that broadcast from Morazán province. Governments also use diplomatic pressure to silence free stations when they believe that the unlicensed transmissions are supported by or located in a foreign country. The most common action taken by governments is to simply raid unlicensed stations and seize their transmitters, thereby forcing them off the air. By seizing the transmitters, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) immediately put the free radio broadcasters off the air and on the defensive, requiring them to go to court to get their transmitters back, where they would be required to show that they had a legal right to operate the transmitters. News of the FCC raids in Tampa were distributed nationwide almost immediately over the internet to other microradio broadcasters, who encouraged Brewer, Kombat, and Kobres to organize a local movement protesting the FCC’s actions.
