About Pirate Television

The Pirate Television Production Company was started in 1997 and produces an award winning weekly 58 minute cable television series that runs on SCM- Seattle Community Media and Puget Sound Access in King County Washington.  Pirate TV is now also broadcast on Free Speech TV and provides audio for David Barsamian’s outstanding Alternative Radio and KEXP Mind Over Matters 90.3 FM Seattle.  

Pirate TV challenges the Media Blockade, bringing you independent voices, information and programming unavailable on the Corporate Sponsor-Ship.
  The show features talks, interviews and documentaries. The series, originally called “Crack the CIA” focused on exposing the secret foreign policy of the United States and the phony drug war but as the subject matter of the program expanded it was decided to drop the “Crack the CIA” moniker and just call the show “Pirate Television”.  

Pirate Television is produced by me, Ed Mays as a form of political / media activism.  I got involved in public access television back in the early 90s as a program originator for the Alternative Information Network project which produced the first nationally syndicated public access program- "Alternative Views".  This program won many awards over its 17 year run and eventually aired all over the world.

I was an original member of the Seattle Independent Media Coalition (SIMC) which eventually morphed into the first ever Independent Media Center, created to give independent (non-corporate) media coverage of the 1999 Seattle WTO rebellion.  I'm proud to say that it was me and my friends from SIMC who dreamed up and with help from activists who streamed in from all over the country, built the IMC in Seattle which spawned a world wide movement.  There are now IMCs everywhere!

Pirate Television continues to produce outstanding programming every week creating a much needed antidote to the corporate brain-wash by featuring progressive authors, intellectuals, politicians, independent  media figures, activists, musicians, and other intriguing personalities as well as extraordinary documentaries rarely seen on TV.

Pirate TV is free to community access stations and other broadcasters.  If you are interested in showing Pirate TV in your area, please contact me directly via the contact page.

Ed Mays
Producer, Pirate Television