Pirate Cat Radio returns to Los Gatos — this time with FCC approval

The founder of Pirate Cat Radio has returned the station to his native Los Gatos, but this time Daniel Roberts has his paperwork in order.

Roberts, who began unlicensed broadcasts from his bedroom as a teenager, is now running KPCR as a Low Power FM or LPFM radio station that’s authorized by the Federal Communications Commission to broadcast noncommercial, educational content. Listeners can tune in to 92.9 FM anywhere from Los Gatos to North San Jose to Sunnyvale to hear alternative music, news of the day or interviews with artists. Roberts himself has a show called “The Shortwave Report,” on Mondays at 11 a.m., a 30-minute show that takes listeners on “a journey through the world’s headlines.”

“What Pirate Cat Radio is about is being a station where you can tune in, you’ll hear alternative subgenres of music, things outside of the mainstream,” Roberts said. “But you’ll also hear interviews from makers and creators, people who are doing things, people who are not just entrepreneurs, but artists and folks who are just out there exploring alternative ways of living and how to create and feed back to the world.”

Roberts said the advent of LPFM stations, which cover smaller distances with a lower wattage, has helped those with a mission similar to KPCR’s flourish, since the cost of regular station licenses clocks in around the $1 million mark – an unattainable price for the average community radio supporter.

It also means that KPCR is a nonprofit that has to run a lean, entirely volunteer-based operation, since Roberts is largely funding it out of his own pocket.

But his days of fending off FCC agents for running a “pirate,” or unlicensed, radio station are behind him. Though Roberts left the South Bay for some time, his connection to the community radio scene back home endured, as he worked to help get independent community radio stations off the ground all the way from Europe during the handful of years he lived there.

He revived Pirate Cat Radio in Santa Cruz back in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic. After securing a license in 2019, Roberts eventually pulled together a group of volunteers to help run the station, and they remained on 101.9 FM until December 2023, when he moved the station back to Los Gatos to be closer to its origins. The station is located on North Santa Cruz Avenue near Cinelux Los Gatos.

In addition to bringing unique perspectives to the soundwaves, Pirate Cat Radio also wants to invest in the community. Roberts said the station is working on a youth journalism project to help teach kids and young adults how to produce audio content and to report and broadcast news.

Roberts said he hopes he and his staff leave behind a legacy for their listeners and the community at large. “I just want us to have some minor touch or influence in people’s lives that wouldn’t be there otherwise,” he added.

Listeners can tune in to Pirate Cat Radio at 92.9 FM or stream the station at kpcr.org. For more information about hosting a show, email  info@kpcr.org.