Pirate Waves

Noteworthy, at the beginning of the political transformation almost all private radio stations in Poland operated illegally to a greater or lesser extent. Even those that applied for a special broadcasting permit eventually had to face the fact that under the Broadcasting Act, adopted at the end of 1992, private broadcasters were subject to criminal sanctions after July 1, 1993, if they broadcast without a license. Meanwhile, the licensing process dragged on and the authorities issued their first permits only a year later. Thus, it meant that with the exception of some church entities which could legalize their activity under a special law on the relation between the State and the Church (Sejm, 1989), all private broadcasters of that period were broadcasting illegally. Therefore, I use the term pirate stations with reference to such broadcasters, although, as I will try to show, this type of activity was not always perceived in these terms. By the way, it is worth emphasizing that we should not treat this term as pejorative. On the contrary, pirate radio stations in Poland and around the world played a positive role in expanding the scope of freedom over the airwaves. They also tried to respond to social needs.

The name pirate radio stations originates from radio stations broadcasting from ships, which could not legally transmit from the territory of a given country and thus tried to circumvent the law. However, with time, people started using the term with reference to illegal broadcasters who were eager to refer to the tradition started by these pioneering radio initiatives. This is because they were accompanied by a number of positive connotations. If we can say that radio as a medium has a certain magic about it, that impression is heightened in the case of offshore radio stations that broadcast, when legal operations on the mainland were impossible in most countries in Europe. Paul Harris, a scholar of the history of pirate radio in Britain, writes: “There is something irresistibly romantic about a ship wallowing lazily in a light swell and a small team of technicians and disc jockeys defying state monopolies to take programs into the homes” (Harris, 2001: VII).

Another very important aim of this book is to show the policy pursued in Poland after the fall of communism with regard to private radio broadcasting and its consequences for citizens. It is worth posing the question to what extent social interest was taken into account during the design of the new order in private radio broadcasting and whether it was the logic of social benefit or rather market logic that dominated this process. At this point, it is worth explaining that the market logic is characteristic of the commercial broadcasting sector, associated with profitability and competition (Croteau, Hoynes, 2006: 250) and does not fully respond to public needs. On the other hand, the social gain logic is connected with taking care of social interests also of those groups, which from the commercial point of view are not very attractive for broadcasters. It is expressed in an appropriate conduct of licensing policy to ensure the most pluralistic offer, which is connected with support for socially important broadcasters, such as, for example, public, community or local media in general.

The topic of proper attention to the public interest in designing the system of private radio broadcasting in Poland, especially in the area of the role and importance of local and community radio, is often overlooked in reporting on the history of Polish radio broadcasting, but it certainly deserves attention and scholarly reflection. As Denis McQuail rightly notes, groups, organizations and local communities should have their own media. In his opinion, communication is too important a field to be left only to professionals (McQuail, 1987: 123). However, this type of media needs support and special treatment when designing a media system. In this book, I would like to show to what extent the decision-makers were aware of the special role of this type of media and whether they took proper care of the public interest in this regard when designing the radio broadcasting system in Poland.

Noteworthy, pirate radio stations in the world paved the way not only for the development of commercial radio, but also for the third radio sector – non-commercial community radio stations (Buckley, 2016). It is difficult to explain the term community radio for there are many definitions of this type of media, which is due to the diversity of the sector, local conditions and the history of this type of media in different regions of the world. However, Peter Lewis presents a list of basic conditions a radio should meet to be called community radio. In his opinion, these are entities operating not for profit, but for social benefit. They are the property of a given community and are accountable to the community they serve and create the possibility of participation of a given community in the production of the program and management of the station (Lewis, 2015: 179–188). I will try to show that many local radio stations which started broadcasting after 1989 operated largely on the basis of principles similar to community radio.

This is an important issue, because many radio initiatives emerged at that time for non-commercial and pro-social reasons. At the beginning of the 90s there was a very strong connection between local broadcasters and local communities, they were often the voice of this community. Ryszard Miazek, a member of the first National Broadcasting Council (Krajowa Rada Radiofonii i Telewizji, later: KRRiT), admitted that in almost every city someone wanted to set up a private, non-commercial station (Modrzejewska, 1994a). The list of entities applying for broadcasting included several dozen of this kind of stations (KRRiT, 1996: 26). Foundations, associations, societies, community centers, universities, municipalities and other legal entities, such as the Polish Scouting and Guiding Association, wanted to set up their radio initiatives. Many stations established by private individuals also had a non-commercial, pro-social character. I will try to prove it by taking a closer look at the motivations of their creators, the organizational structure, the financing system and the diverse and community-oriented program.

It is worth mentioning that especially in the initial stage, there were many positive opinions about the effects of the transformation of radio broadcasting in Poland. In an interview published in Życie in 1996, Stanisław Jędrzejewski referred to the radio market in Poland as “the best radio market east of the Elbe” (Biegluk, 1996: 6). Other researchers also noticed positive aspects of the transformation process of broadcast media in Poland in later publications. For example, Bogusława Dobek-Ostrowska points out that as a result of the reform, the Polish electronic media market has become “one of the most diverse and competitive in Central and Eastern Europe” (Dobek-Ostrowska, 2002: 22). Stanisław Piątek, one of the important architects of the new media order in the field of radio and television broadcasting in Poland after 1989, adopts a similar position: “I believe that radio and television broadcasting has developed very well in general. This reform was a success” (Piątek, 2020). Therefore, the aim of this work is also to supplement the historical narrative regarding the transformation of the broadcasting system in Poland and to show that, for example, when it comes to ensuring access to the airwaves for citizens, we cannot so unequivocally classify this process as successful.

Moreover, I would also like to show that the transformation of the radio system in Poland followed a certain pattern of media transformation in other countries during the political transformation, especially in Central-Eastern Europe. As indicated by researchers dealing with the transformation process in this region, in the initial period, we could observe the operation of the participatory democracy model in some countries, but it was soon followed by a period of strengthening the power of political parties and majority democracy (Hadjiiski, 2001: 43–46), which was accompanied by the remoteness of societies from the civic model (Skowera, 2006: 117). The lack of an appropriate state policy that would take into account the needs of citizens on the air, combined with the general market-oriented tendency prevailing in Central and Eastern Europe at that time, led to the collapse of many non-commercial initiatives close to local communities. Therefore, I will present the changes concerning radio broadcasters in Poland against the background of changes that took place in other countries of the region.

The previously described goals and tasks that I have set for myself in this book allow for the formulation of the following leading research questions.

RQ1: Was the operating model of local pirate stations established in Poland similar to that of other pirate stations in the world, and in particular in Europe?

RQ2: Was the operating model of local pirate stations established in Poland similar to the operating model of community radio stations?

RQ3: To what extent did the process of transformation of the media in Poland, and especially of private radio broadcasting, fit into the process of transformation of the media in other countries undergoing systemic transformation, especially in Central-Eastern Europe?

RQ4: When designing a new media order in the field of private radio broadcasting, were authorities guided by the logic of the market or the logic of social benefit?

RQ5: Was it possible to design a more citizen and local community-friendly private radio system in the early 1990s?