Punk, ska, post-punk and old soul across the South Bay.
Daniel Roberts was 17 in 1998 and already running Pirate Cat Radio from a transmitter under the bed in Los Gatos, antenna up a tree. It moved to 87.9 on the San Francisco Peninsula, where Roberts, Monkey Man on air, argued that the War on Terror triggered a wartime clause letting stations broadcast without a licence. The FCC fined Roberts $10,000 in 2009 and the online version closed in 2011. A low-power licence came in 2019, the stream returned in 2020, and since late 2023 the station has been on 92.9 FM in Los Gatos, back where it began.
Nobody hands the hosts a playlist, so the week swings hard. Mike Park, who started Asian Man Records, brings rare ska 7-inches and indie cuts, and Kitty Castle sticks to hardcore and crust. Weekend mornings drift somewhere else entirely, toward exotica and old blues. There is a fair amount of talk as well, mostly long interviews and news, and the same shows go out on 101.9 in Santa Cruz.
The pirate kept its eyepatch.
