Radio 4 Today: 80s landbased pirate radio feature
MikeBr
Posts: 7,886 Forum Member
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0's Pirate Radio covered on a 5 minute feature on BBC Radio 4 Today this morning, good to hear the comparison with, and tribute to, Radio Caroline. "The ICA has just launched a new exhibition to look back at the pirate radio renaissance of the early 1980s. Stations broadcasted music from the roofs of residential tower blocks and tended to celebrate black culture. Lindsay Wesker presented on Kiss FM and Elayne Smith presented on LWR."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02snhdg
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02snhdg
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Radio Jackie wasn't central to Black Culture though, which appears to be the tenet of this exhibition.
I regularly used to listen to LWR in 1986 and 1987 as well as other stations like JBC and TKO.
Yes likewise. Thanks MikeBr. I got into the London pirates from about '84 onwards. I remember listening to Elayne Smith's show on LWR, she was always DJ Elayne back then.
Seems an odd item for a national feature since most of the country could not receive any landbased pirate stations. Another case of London-centricness.
I live in a small town in rural north Staffordshire and I could receive land-based pirates in the 80's here.
PCRL from Birmingham springs to mind.
Not at all - they were undoubtedly a huge part of black culture. And consequently concentrated on urban areas. This doesn't make it London centric.
Does anyone know where they transmitted from and what power they used?
There were a lot of pirates in the 80s nationwide, but the line about how they 'tended to celebrate black culture' probably wasn't true of many of them outside London. I remember listening to the likes of Sunshine, KFM, numerous Merseyside stations, not to mention the Irish pirates.
The London pirates were better documented because of magazines like AM/FM, the editor of which has published Londons Pirate Pioneers which doesn't just cover the 80's soul/reggae and other music of black origin stations.
The Radio 4 Today item concentrated on the licencing restrictions both when the 60s offshore pirates operated and the 80's pirates. All this led to deregulation, more commercial radio licences and community radio.
The exhibition has been at Stoke prior to the ICA and will then go on to Leicester.
Birmingham Tower Blocks and for a short time a church according to this article.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/jan/31/radio.ofcom
Lots more about the station here
http://www.thepiratearchive.net/pcrl/
I guess New Style Radio is kind of the sucessor to PCRL?
1242 kHz: Radio 241 (1980 approx) then moved to 1197 khz and became Radio 252
Then it moved to 1179 kHz then 1125 and became Merseyland Alternative Radio.
This remained until around 1986 I think but only at weekends then they moved to FM in the early 90s.
Other MW pirates were Radio Rhondda (used same transmitter as MAR on 1125 kHz and was then renamed "The Rhondda Jukebox") when it became a non-stop 60s station. This later became Radio Merseywaves on the same frequency.
There was also MMR (Merseyside's Music Radio) on 1179 kHz when MAR was on 1125. This was on air on weekends August to October 1980 only.
Then 1179 was used by Radio Eleanor, from around 1981-1984.
The only weekday MW pirate I remember was Radio Alpine, which used 999 kHz Monday-Friday only fromaround 1000-1500 but this was during part of 1981-2 only and closed before Red Rose started.
Then in around 1983 or so, 1026 kHz was Storeton Community Radio. Can't remember how long this one lasted for.
On FM, Kiss FM 102.7, Radio Julie, Concept Radio 99.8, Z100 on 105.1.
And that is about all I can remember but it certainly did pave the way for proper official community radio. One London pirate I know of was Radio Shoestring which operated in Walthamstow but I know nothing about that one or what happened to it. XFM was a former pirate - the X so called because they did not know what to call it apparently!
And in Salisbury, Radio Sarum was a pirate around 1985. Many of these stations I know of however were mainstream, but I think Radio Shoestriing was a house station.
Nice memories there Jimbo!
You forgot Radio Merseywaves on 242 around 1984. SCR lasted about three years. Both very popular.
WFM was the Soul/Dance station of the Wirral on 90.3, Tuesday and Sunday nights.
WABC played Anerican Top 40 on 97.55, Sunday nights, a follow on from 102.7 Kiss FM which broadcast Sundays.
I worked at Peters Hi-Fi back then, and one day Andy Davis walked in. Wanting to buy some C-120's, he opened his mouth. "Are you the guy on the radio?" I asked. He said yes, but never came in again!
Richie Wild's posts have sure stirred up some wonderful Merseyside pirate radio memories for me. I remember the various stations that Andy Davis was involved with such as J one thousand which broadcast on Sundays from 9.am to 7.pm on 1107khz then at 7.pm that station would switch to 1242khz. I also remember Veronica FM which as far as I know was the 1st Mersey pirate to broadcast in stereo. Merseyside Free Radio (MFR) was such good fun to listen to each Sunday on 97.6 FM. Steve Bishop who broadcast with Andy Davis on MFR also had a station known as Veronica AM.
John Dwyer's Merseyland Alternative Radio with its theme music Altlantis by the Shadows was another station that I was fond of.
I've got fond memories of tuning into Concept Radio each Sunday. Jim Lowe and Tom Webb the 2 dj's that ran Concept would most Sunday's at around midnight present a programme called the Webb and Lowe show. That programme would feature Jim and Tom talking about various issues, it would also sometimes feature a guest apperance from dj Keith from KDA and Wirral FM.
Jim and Tom would also take the Mick out of BBC Radio Merseyside each week, and they would also take the Mick out of other pirate dj's , Bert Williams being a regular target.
Bert Williams would on the stations that he was involved with have a habit of playing the same selection of golden oldie records but each week in a slightly different order.
Interestingly, all but two of the stations focussed on rock or some kind of alternative pop music, not Soul and Dance or Reggae, as in London. The other dance one, around '88, being Horizon. This features "The Miami sound" in particular, playing the likes of Exposé, Sweet Sensation, Cover Girls, Stevie B...
UK Governments in the 60s and 70s constantly decried the pirates because "they were
causing interference". in fact the greatest interference to AM at the time were stations
in East Germany using enormous power, contrary to international agreements and
from Spain. 247m was particularly affected by the Albanian station which blotted out
the BBC all along the south coast of England. The real reason for the opposition to
commercial radio was the fear that Government would loose its complete control of the way that information and entertainment was disseminated to the population.
The internet has deprived Governments of this power to some extent.
Wow, that was kind of them! But, I guess, if you're jacking it in, what would be the point? These days I think there needs to be oldies Pirates, as corporate radio is shunning the older listener. With the internet one station could be relayed across the country. Let's hope someone starts one soon! It would be Pirate Radio coming back on itself, playing the stuff they played on Caroline and Radio London.
RJN was run by the late Rick Dane ( real name Eric Haydock)
Each Saturday and Sunday RJN would play the likes of AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple , Rainbow and the Beatles. It's worth bearing in mind the fact that none other than Janice Long was a listener to RJN. I remember Andy Davis being a dj on RJN.
CCR used to broadcast on Sunday evenings ( round about 1985 if my memory serves me right) on 103.5 FM. CCR used the Donna Summer version of State Of Independence as a theme tune. I seem to recall that Ray Rose was a dj on CCR.