Tag Archives: Pirate Radio London

The return of Radio London on 1206 kHz (July 29 – August 14, 2023)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, WD3C, who shares the following announcement:

RADIO PIRATE: The return of Big L Radio London on 1206 kHz, 24 hours a day, from July 29th to August 14th. Back with, in my pocket, a temporary license issued by OFCOM. This time Big L will be broadcasting not from a ship but from studios in a double decker red bus installed in Felixstowe’s Spa Pavilion car park on the seafront. This is an initiative of Ray Anderson, RadioFab and the Spa. Radio Caroline will no longer be the only pirate to have boarded for the 17 days of this special broadcast which will also broadcast all the hits of the years “Pirate Radio” with many famous DJs of the past!

You can tune in to 1206 kHz or find out more at www.biglradiolondon.co.uk ( RadioFab.com Facebook)

On August 12th, catch “Roger “Twiggy” Day’s Pirate Radio Hits Show” on stage at the Spa
Pavilion Felixstowe with Dave Berry, Vanity Fare and Chris Farlowe.

Many former DJ’s from pirate station are participating in the event. August 14 marks the 56th anniversary of the adoption of the “Maritime Offenses Act”. This will be, once again, the last day of broadcast of this ephemeral radio on 1206 khz.

Online and more info at www.biglradiolondon.co.uk
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The past, present and future of UK pirate radio

Radio Caroline circa 1960’s.

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Aaron Kuhn who shares this excellent article from Dazed:

The influence of pirate radio has endured despite government crackdowns and the rise of legitimate alternatives – today, it continues to thrive, both legally and otherwise

Drive around some parts of London today and you’re still liable to hear mainstream radio broadcasts drowned out by fleeting bursts of unfamiliar music. Pirate radio stations have been illegally hijacking the FM dial since the 1990s, but while the pirate scene is far smaller than it was in its heyday, the movement is still thriving on a local scale, while a vibrant array of online-only stations are inspired by the energy and spirit of the pirates. To put it simply, pirate radio never left London.

The UK’s pirate radio story starts with Ronan O’Rahilly’s Radio Caroline back in the 1960s, famously avoiding the authorities by broadcasting from international waters, but it was really the 1990s that paved the way for pirate radio in this country. Its evolution loosely follows that of the underground rave scene, which mainstream radio wouldn’t touch in its early days. “It’s the closest thing to mass organised zombie-dom,” BBC Radio 1 DJ Peter Powell said of acid house. “I really don’t think it should go any further.” Needless to say, it wasn’t going anywhere, and between 1988 and 89, pirate radio stations rapidly started to appear to serve a youth hungry for new sounds that weren’t being catered to by mainstream radio. By 1989, there were over 60 pirate radio stations operating in London alone.

While the first pirates – from Sunrise to Centreforce to Fantasy – mostly played music from America and European countries like Belgium, it didn’t take long for the British youth to start doing their own thing. “The UK kids realised people were making music in their bedrooms and they thought ‘I can fucking do that!’” exclaims Uncle Dugs, one of the UK’s leading authorities on pirate radio. Having been involved in radio (both legal and otherwise) for over 20 years, Dugs’ new book Rave Diaries and Tower Block Tales documents life as a young raver turned award-winning DJ after years on the pirate scene. As he explains, by 1991, London’s underground music landscape had become “99% UK producers and DJs,” transforming from acid house to hardcore and then to jungle. As London’s underground grew, so did its pirate presence, with legendary stations like Weekend Rush, Kool FM, Pulse FM, Innocence, and Defection springing up by the end of 1991. “You could flick through the radio and at every .2 on the dial there was a pirate station,” Dugs laughs. “There wasn’t even space on the radio for a new one.”[…]

Click here to read the full article at Dazed.

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Southgate ARC notes Ofcom’s approach to FM pirate enforcement

City_of_London(Source: Southgate ARC news)

“The UK communications regulator Ofcom have published information about tackling pirate radio

Although Ofcom have occasionally raided pirate stations operating in the 88-108 MHz band, such enforcement actions have been few and far between.

After the 2008/9 financial year, Ofcom stopped publishing their Prosecution/Formal Warning Statistics and subsequently removed all prosecution statistics from their website, perhaps to hide the fact that they no longer published them. It may be speculated the reason the statistics no longer appeared was because Ofcom had stopped undertaking enforcement action.

Currently in London there are over 25 pirate stations operating in the 88-108 MHz band. Many operate 24/7 so are not exactly difficult for Ofcom to locate if they wished.

In the Pirate Radio page Ofcom point out that they have issued Community Radio licences to former pirate radio stations such as Rinse FM and Kane FM. The inference that may be taken is Ofcom would like pirate radio stations to apply for community radio licences.

Read Ofcom’s pirate radio page at
http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2013/09/tackling-pirate-radio/

Large amounts of spectrum in 88-108 MHz will be vacated when national broadcasters shutdown their FM transmitters and move to DAB only from 2015 http://www.southgatearc.org/news/june2013/
dcms_dab_radio_reports.htm

2008/9 Ofcom radio prosecution statistics
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/may2010/ofcom_prosecutions.htm

Thanks to Mike Terry and BDXC for spotting this item”

And many thanks to the excellent Southgate ARC for posting this news.

For a brilliant mini-documentary on London pirates, check out this video.

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London pirate radio documentary offers insight

This documentary certainly touches on the motivation behind most pirate radio stations. I should note that while many FM pirate stations are dissapearing with the advent of online sources, shortwave pirates seem to be going strong and they use many of the same remote transmitter tactics that appear in this short film.

If you have trouble watching the embedded video above, please click here for the documentary video page.

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