Pirate Waves

This study looks at unlicensed radio in Poland in the early 1990s, concentrating on small local stations that broadcast without official permission. As in neighboring countries of the region, many of these stations started as grassroots projects with no profit motive, run for the benefit of their own communities.

The author builds the study from several kinds of material. These include documents held by public bodies, newspaper coverage of the period, conversations with people who worked at the stations, and officials who helped determine how the broadcasting system took shape.

The analysis finds that these pirate stations left a lasting mark, yet they were eventually overtaken by a licensed system shaped by commercial considerations.