FM 101: Hong Kong's pirate radio station survives

It’s Monday evening and sociology student Lee Ka-lok, 21, is sitting with 18-year-old Yiu Yat-sum in the broadcast studio of FM 101 in Kwun Tong. They’re live on the air with a weekly show about music, arts events and neighborhood gossip. It’s pretty much what you would expect for a small community radio station, except for one small thing: what they’re doing is illegal.

While Hong Kong’s lively and lurid newspapers embody the territory’s culture of free expression, it’s another story for broadcast media, which operate in one of the most restrictive regulatory environments in the developed world. In addition to the government-owned RTHK, just two private companies -- Metro Radio and Commercial Radio -- control Hong Kong’s entire radio spectrum. 

No money, no radio

Lee Ka-lok in his element.

In order to be granted a broadcast licence, broadcasters need a signal that can reach every corner of Hong Kong, and they must promise to carry programming that serves the interests of the entire population, which eliminates the possibility of niche or community-based radio. They also need to have millions of dollars just to pay for the annual licence fee. In effect, these requirements exclude any sort of not-for-profit, independent or community-based radio station from getting a licence to broadcast.

It’s a situation that some have compared to North Korea -- even mainland China has a broader range of radio stations than Hong Kong. Last year, a group of artists, musicians and cultural activists banded together to launch FM 101, a station with the very political goal of opening Hong Kong’s airwaves to the people, but decidedly non-political content geared at indie music lovers, arts afictionados and ordinary people living in Kwun Tong.

In February, one of the station’s founders, 28-year-old rock musician Leung Wing-lai, sat in the station and said, “All I want is a place to play indie music. It’s absurd that this is illegal.” Two weeks later, FM 101 was raided by officers from the Office of the Telecommunications Authority (OFTA), who seized HK$20,000 worth of transmitting equipment.

Perhaps fearing the publicity of a court case, OFTA did not press charges against FM 101, and the station raised enough money from the public to buy an even stronger transmitter. It’s now back on the air throughout most of Kowloon and even parts of Hong Kong Island.

“If you have this great platform and only give access to the rich, and not the grassroots and the community, you’re killing freedom of speech,” says Leung. “All of us here are involved in arts and culture, but there’s no place for us in the radio stations that exist.”

Leung Wing-lai prefers to broadcast on FM radio for its accessibility.

 

 

 

A gathering place

As Lee and Yiu banter on air, Leung smokes a cigarette in FM 101’s cluttered living room. A tattered cartoon rendition of the French revolutionary painting “Liberty Leading the People,” drawn by Kwun Tong-based street artists Graphic Airlines, hangs on the wall behind him. The rest of the room is festooned with stickers and posters by other street artists. One wall contains news clippings about FM 101 and the station’s supporters, which include prominent activists like Christina Chan.

Sitting on a sofa next to Leung is Kimmy, who hosts a weekly music show. “I agree with the station’s values, but what’s most important is that this is a human place,” she says. “We want to share the music we like, some meaningful music, not just pop music. Other radio stations are tied by commercial interests. Here we have the freedom to do what we like.” She usually plays music by local bands like AMK, an early-1990's group with lyrics inspired by everyday Hong Kong life. Its name stood for “Adam Met Karl,” as in Smith and Marx. “A lot of local activists are also in bands, so I try to play their music too, to capture what’s going on,” she says.

During a break in his show, Lee comes out to chat with the others. “We stay away from saying what should be done,” he says, explaining that the station’s hosts opt for a soft treatment of Hong Kong issues, rather than the firm didacticism you might expect from a pirate radio station. That gives them a chance to explore topics that are rarely addressed on commercial radio stations, like art or queer issues.

Open airwaves

Graphic Airlines' homage to Delacroix's "La Liberté guidant le peuple."

Next year, the government will open several new digital radio channels, which it promises will be available for community and cultural use. But Leung says that nothing can compare to FM radio, which is accessible even to “taxi drivers and hawkers,” as he puts it. The only solution that would suit him would be to allow small stations like FM 101 to have unfettered access to the airwaves.

The government says this is not possible, since every radio frequency in Hong Kong is already licenced to RTHK, Metro Radio and Commercial Radio. They aren’t all being put to use, though. According to OFTA, 101 FM is licenced to Metro Radio, which uses it only for low-powered broadcasts to Stanley -- nearly 10 miles from Kwun Tong.

The idea of opening the airwaves might not be as crazy as it sounds. What FM 101 is doing -- broadcasting radio programs to a small area on a frequency that is occupied elsewhere -- is actually legal in the United States and the United Kingdom, where a surge of pirate radio stations in the 1960s and 1970s led to an overhaul of radio regulations. Not-for-profit community stations are now common throughout both countries. In Hong Kong, by contrast, licence fees are so high that OFTA actually makes an annual profit -- HK$72 million profit last year and HK$102 million the year before that.

Staying alive

FM 101, meanwhile, is struggling to make ends meet. Though it successfully raised money from the public right after its equipment was seized in March, the police have now cracked down on its fundraising efforts. At the July 1 pro-democracy rally, police officers formed a human shield around an FM 101 fundraising booth. Its members now pay for the studio’s rent and maintenance costs out of their own pockets.

To keep the station going, FM 101 is teaming up with Shanghai Street Artspace to host a series of three radio workshops. For the final edition, the participants will go live on the air. “That will be illegal,” says Leung with a wry smile.