Pirate Cat Radio was on the air as early as 1998, when its founder Daniel Roberts—known on air as "Monkey Man"—was 17. It was one of several unlicensed
pirate radio stations operating in the region at the time. The station's equipment was under his bed, while the antenna was located in a tree. Later, Pirate Cat Radio originated from somewhere on the
San Francisco Peninsula on 87.9 MHz. Writing for the
San Francisco Chronicle in 2003, James Sullivan referred to Pirate Cat Radio as "renegade, punk-rock-oriented". For a time, a pirate TV station operated as an adjunct to Pirate Cat Radio. Roberts regularly received cease-and-desist notices from the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) but contended that the
War on Terror fulfilled a clause in broadcasting regulations allowing stations to operate without a license in times of national emergency or war. By 2007, Pirate Cat Radio was also broadcast on pirate radio transmitters in
Los Angeles and
Gerlach, Nevada. In addition to music, it aired international news from
Al Jazeera and local community issues programs, with politicians such as San Francisco mayor
Gavin Newsom as occasional guests. In 2009, the FCC fined Roberts $10,000 for broadcasting without a license. Roberts left the Bay Area for a time to relaunch
KPDO in
Pescadero, the first time he would operate a legal radio station. The original Pirate Cat Radio, which continued as an internet station, closed on February 12, 2011, amid strained relations with staff. Roberts left for Europe, while former Pirate Cat personalities put a new internet station on the air as
Mutiny Radio, which continued programming through the end of 2023 and operations through January 2024. ==Legal revival==