Media & Feedback

Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada click here for the news release! (PDF)
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International Journal of Communication 5 (2011), review of Islands of Resistance by Barry Rooke (Contributor Mackenzie York-Krieger).

“Overall, Langlois, Sakolsky and van der Zon bring to light the relatively dark and previously unexplored world of pirate radio within Canada. I would once again strongly recommend this book to those in the campus/community industry as a way to better understand their role as a provider of alternative media. The hope would be to encourage more open content on the air, as well as for stations to adopt a united cause to push the boundaries of social programming, rather than leaving it to individuals who risk their own safety to broadcast their messages illegally. We must determine to what degree our free speech is truly free, and thus announce it to the world—not as pirates, but as mere citizens with our tongues wagging and our ears to the airwaves.”

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April 2011

Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radion In Canada, the first book about pirate radio in Canada, won a 2010 Monday Magazine M Award for best local non-fiction. The M Awards recognize Victoria’s visual, literary and performing artists and are now in their ninth year.

What Monday Magazine had to say about the win:

“While there were a lot of close races in the M Awards this year, this was one of the few where the winner was clear right out of the starting gate. It seems this book documenting the history of pirate radio in the Great White North really captured the attention of M Awards voters this year —and, given that it’s the first book to do so, we’d say it’s deserving of the support.”

Read more HERE.

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March 3, 2011

Pirate radio: saving the world over the airwaves: the University of Victoria’s student newspaper The Martlet’s Nathan Lowther reviews Islands of Resistance.

“More than just playing music, the pirates in this book create culture, resist globalization, undermine centralized authority and just make art.”

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Winter 2010/11

Concordia University Magazine highlights Islands of Resistance in their Words & Music section (see page 44).

Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada… invites readers to journey with them to the islands of resistance that still exist in the sea of regulated radio.”
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Dec 17, 2010

Islands of Resistance makes The Tyee’s holiday Books for the Giving list!

For your ham radio-loving bachelor uncle who distrusts the Canadian government:

Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada edited by Andrea Langlois, Ron Sakolsky & Marian van der Zon (New Star Books). This anthology explores Canada’s apparently “thriving” pirate radio counterculture through 16 essays and one seven-act docudrama. Contributors discuss how hidden trailers and low-watt transmitters across the country are doing battle with the “homogenous frequencies” of mainstream radio. Buy the book also for its cover art: A righteous skeleton shouting manifestos into a microphone as his buddy raises a sword in solidarity.”
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Dec 13, 2010

A review of the book, by Heikki Uimonen, in Soundscape – The Journal of Acoustic Ecology, Vol. 10 Number 1, Fall/Winter 2010, pp. 33/34 click here for the review! (PDF)

Islands of Resistance in an excellent compilation, especially in its ability to document contemporary alternative media, thus serving future radio scholars or anyone interested in the subject. This is emphasized by the fact that radio contents or the actual work of the radio stations are seldom documented.”
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Sept 30, 2010

THIS Magazine reviews Islands of Resistance, reviewer: Kelli Korducki, Sept/Oct 2010, p. 41 click here for the review! (PDF)

“Whether describing pirate radio as an integral platform for Oaxacans rarely given a voice in mainstream Mexican media (via the community-run Radio Planton station) or chronicling the role of short-wave broadcasting in challenging the gender binary at a British Columbia university campus, Islands of Resistance makes a convincing argument for the continued relevance of pirate radio as a means for liberating the marginalized and emboldening the radical.”
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Sept 23, 2010

An interview on pirate radio hosted by Colin Dower of Each For All, CFUV Radio, Victoria

A radio interview with Ron Sakolsky & Marian van der Zon, by Colin Dower, Each For All, of CFUV, 101.9FM, Victoria.

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Sept 3, 2010

Burning Billboard

David Widgington blogs about, “Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada.”

“After reading Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada, all I wanted to do was become a pirate. Not the kind that steals from the rich in a capitalist bent to become rich myself at the expense of others. I wanted to appropriate what is already mine: the public airways, and broadcast what corporate media despise most: defiant free-form radio that encourages audio creativity and promotes social justice.”

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July 7, 2010

Geist Blog

Patty Osborne blogs about one of the island book launches of, “Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada.”

“I got there on time (I’m from the city) but few oth­ers did, so I picked up a copy of Islands of Resistance from the book table, opened it at ran­dom and couldn’t stop read­ing. Lots of inspir­ing sto­ries includ­ing the cre­ation of Radio Barriere Lake, a pirate radio sta­tion in one of the poor­est com­mu­ni­ties in Canada, and another about Temporary Autonomous Radio (TAR), a pirate radio sta­tion that holds day-long fes­ti­vals in secret (and not so secret) loca­tions. For only 20 bucks I got to take home a trea­sure chest full of the kind of anar­chaic joy and play­ful­ness that had been a big part of my evening in the back hall. What a steal.”

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June 24, 2010

The first half hour of an interview on pirate radio hosted by Sarah Buchanan of CJSF Radio, Vancouver (skip the first minute – a previous show)

The second half hour of an interview on pirate radio hosted by Sarah Buchanan of CJSF Radio, Vancouver

An excellent hour-long interview with Andrea Langlois & Marian van der Zon, by Sarah Buchanan of CJSF, 90.1FM, Vancouver.

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June 14, 2010

Gorilla Radio Podcast

An interview with Marian van der Zon, by Chris Cook of Gorilla Radio, CFUV 101.9FM.

“And; “Inspired by a passion for justice, a defiant libertarian ethos, a desire for autonomy, or for purposes of artistic expression.” Marian van der Zon is one of three dedicated pirates who put together the anthology of tales from across the spectrum of the country’s illicit radio dials, Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada.”

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June 13, 2010

Electric Sky Podcast

An interview with Marian van der Zon, by Mark Blevis of Electric Sky, on the recently released book, “Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada.”

“I grew up with a romantic view of radio pirates; ordinary people using public airwaves to build communities from locations offshore, from basement studios and from mobile transmitters in the backs of vans. As passionate as I am about radio, I never knew pirate radio had a Canadian scene.”

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June 11, 2010

Pirate Radio in Canada, by CBC Radio, Victoria, BC On the Island, June 11, 2010.

An interview with Andrea Langlois and Marian van der Zon of the recently released book, “Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada” on CBC Victoria’s, On the Island, with Gregor Craigie.

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June 9-15, 2010

Airwaves ahoy! by Amanda Farrell-Low, Monday Magazine, Victoria, June 9-15, 2010.

“We might not have the Radio Carolines of the U.K. or the FCC raids of the United States, but Canada’s pirate radio scene is a vibrant one—and one that’s now documented in Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada (New Star, 256 pages, $21), a new book edited by Andrea Langlois, Ron Sakolsky and Marian van der Zon.”

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June 10, 2010

Pirate Radio in Canada, by CFUV Radio, Victoria, June 10, 2010.

An interview with Marian van der Zon of the recently released book, “Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada” on CFUV Victoria, by Cherylann Nesbitt.

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June 6, 2010

An interview with Dave-O, The Lovecast, CHLY Radio, Nanaimo, June 5, 2010.

The podcast: “This is my interview from the June 5 2010 Lovecast with broadcaster, musician and professor Marian van der Zon. She is the co-editor of the new book “Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada”

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May 30, 2010

Squatting the Airwaves: Pirate Radio in Canada
An interview with Andrea Langlois and Ron Sakolsky
Available at http://aaron.resist.ca

An interview with Andrea Langlois and Ron Sakolsky of the recently released book at the annual Montreal Anarchist Bookfair. “Islands of Resistance: Pirate Radio in Canada” is a book recently published by New Star Books which offers a fascinating collection of writings on autonomous media making on the airwaves. From tactical radio used during street demos, to radio art, to indigenous community radio, the editors of this book take the reader out on the high seas to look at the often under-appreciated history of pirate radio in Canada.

Produced by Aaron Lakoff. aaronlakoff (at) gmail.com

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May 22, 2010

Interview with editor/author Ron Sakolsky, and authors Sheila Nopper, Kathy Kennedy, and Charles Mostoller on CKUT in Montreal.Click here to listen or download. Visit the CKUT News Collective’s blog at http://ckutnews.wordpress.com/

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May 20, 2010

Dialing for dissent: The secret history of Canadian pirate radio is exposed in the new anthology Islands of Resistance. by Chris Barry. Montreal Mirror, May 20-26, 2010

“What’s most important is that, as Canadians, we have a right to communicate, and areas of public communication, the Internet aside, are becoming increasingly enclosed. And if we don’t have access to the airwaves, then we don’t have access to very much, said Langlois”