Category Archives: Pirate Radio

Pirate Radio Recordings: Radio Casablanca

CasablancaOn Sunday, December 17th, around 22:00 UTC, I happened to pick up the last thirty minutes of Radio Casablanca; a pirate that plays a nostalgic mix of music from the 1930’s and 1940’s. They were broadcasting on 6939 kHz in AM.

Close your eyes, and you can imagine what it must have sounded like back in the day Phyllis Jeanne Creore Westerman graced the shortwaves.

You’ll hear me tweaking the receiver in the first three minutes while, in the background, I was entertaining my children. I though about cutting it out but, on second thought, simply uploaded it as-is. I switched from a very wide AM bandwidth to AM sync and then AM sync with only the lower sideband (to kill some noise in the upper side band) after adjusting the center slightly below 6940 kHz.

I love how the recording starts on a tone and then morphs into Close as Pages in a Book by Benny Goodman and his Orchestra.

You can download the MP3 by clicking here, or simply listen in the embedded player below:

RadioCasablancaQSL122012

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Pirate Radio Recordings: Wolverine Radio, Dec 8 2012

Wolverine Radio’s upper side band signal came in loud and clear last Sunday (December 9, 2012) sometime around 2:25 UTC on 6940 kHz. Another great mix of music, complete with their interval signal.

It seems that their broadcast ended abruptly–no eQSL to decode at the end. Still, signal strength was quite good, as I’ve come to expect from this HF pirate.

Click here to download an MP3 of the entire show, or simply listen in the embedded Archive.org player below:

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Pirate Radio Recordings: True Classic Rock Radio

Last weekend, I caught a shortwave pirate I’d never heard before: True Classic Rock Radio.

Well, at least I’m pretty confident that’s their name. When I first heard their ID I couldn’t confirm it, but when I passed the clip to my buddy Andrew, he nailed it.

Funny thing is, when I go back and listen to the station ID now (check it out around 17:30, and then again at the end of transmission) it sounds so obvious.

This short broadcast includes some great classic rock and ends with Hendrix. I didn’t note the exact time they began to broadcast, but I heard them on between 3:00-4:00 UTC, on 6,925 kHz AM, December 8, 2012. Click here to download the mp3 directly, or listen through our Archive.org player:

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Pirate Radio Recordings: Grizzly Bear Radio

A few weeks ago, I found a pirate I had never heard before: Grizzly Bear Radio. They quickly nullified my claim that Radio Appalachia was the only pirate I knew of that broadcasts bluegrass music. According to Grizzly Bear, they transmit from the northwest US, so the fact that I hear them at all speaks of good propagation and Grizzly Bear’s antennas.

At any rate, I did manage to capture almost their entire broadcast–nearly 5 hours!–on October 6th. Unlike many of my recordings, this one is faint at times and you’ll have to listen through the static.  Still, this is what I enjoy about pirate radio, hearing some unique audio through the static. As grandpa used to say, this “builds listening skills.”

You can download an mp3 of the full recording, or simply listen in the player embedded below.  Enjoy:

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Pirate Radio Recordings: Radio Ronin Shortwave

(photo: Billboard.com)

Radio Ronin Shortwave’s AM signal came in loud and clear again last Friday night on 6925 kHz. Another great set of music–all pirate radio themed.  You’ll even hear KYAR  Pirate Radio from Pirates R Us.

This time, Ronin starts out with a Stones interval signal. You can download the MP3 or simply listen below:

Again, listener discretion is advised! This is pirate radio after all.

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Pirate Radio Weekend October 26th and 27th

(Source: SWLDX Bulgaria)

Pirate radio weekend!

Again, I’m organising a pirate radio event when most of the European and American pirate operators will be on air with their stations, playing music, sending greetings to listeners and having fun! The pirate radio weekend will take place on the 26th and 27th October (Friday and Saturday), as well as on the Sunday morning. I would like as many stations as possible to take part in it.

If you would like to take part in it, just tell me your frequency and time of transmitting, as well as your power and send them to my email: [email protected] ! Thanks in advance.

Regular stations ON AIR:

  • 4025kHz – Laser Hot Hits – United Kingdom – 45W
  • 6095kHz – The Mighty KBC (Saturday and Sunday afternoons) – 100kW
  • 6070kHz – Radio 6150
  • 7600kHz – Lightning Radio SW – Hungary – 25W

Stations list:

  • Radio True North (69XXkHz, 150XXkHz, 21XXXkHz) – Canada, 200W carrier on all bands below 21MHz, 40W on 21MHz. More information and a concrete schedule will be posted later.
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