Monday, June 25, 2007

Irie FM Manchester

Visited Manchester today, to join the march and demo to demand that Gordon Brown pulls the troops out of Iraq.

On the way there and back, I heard the pirate Irie FM on 105.8 FM.


Signal was heard as far as Stockport on the way home, on a pocket radio/mp3 player inside the Stop The War coach.


On returning to Chesterfield just after 6pm, I noticed Chesterfield ILR Peak FM 107.4 was off-air (reason unknown).

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Thursday, June 14, 2007

Tower block nightmares

Just seen part 2 of the Tower Block Dreams series (here on YouTube). Sad to say, something in it left me with a nastier taste in the mouth than a pint of Bitrex.

It seems the practice of sabotaging pirate radio stations, which was not unknown in Birmingham in the late 1980s /early 1990s, is still going on. As an ex-pirate who still supports free radio, from a free speech and free expression point of view, I decry and condemn the practice of pirates sabotaging other pirates.

Occasionally. there may be mitigating factors behind such moves - such as, if another pirate is deliberately jamming or recklessly causing inteference, is broadcasting truly abhorrent material (such as racism, kiddie porn, libel or threats), or has itself sabotaged another station (including grassing them to the DTI). However, even in such cases, the merit of vigilante action such as sabotaging transmitters is highly debatable.

Besides, broadcasting to or from the same area as an existing pirate is not, in my opinion, a valid excuse for taking them off-air. Indeed, by only allowing one station in an area, such activity is acting not unlike the Establishment regulatory authorities :-(

The reason given for the sabotage (in Tower Block Dreams) is that too many pirate stations in an area are more likely to attract the DTI. I know DTI raids are far from fun, I was raided on Starforce FM back in 1997. And there are many means pirates can use to reduce the risk of studio raids and prosecution - eg the use of link systems, secure transmitter sites (perhaps with security measures such as look-outs or CCTV), measures to avoid interference to other stations or radio users.

But doing the DTI's dirty work should not be one of them!

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Tuesday, June 12, 2007

WCR Wolverhampton disability arts programme

I see Wolverhampton's community radio station WCR FM 101.8 now has a disability arts programme, Outside Centre, on Wednesdays from 3pm to 5pm. (Thanks to the Danmail discussion group for this info).

WCR has quite a long history as a community radio group. Back in the early 1990's, they had a regular broadcast via BBC Radio WM's 828kHz MW transmitter, and did several RSL's under the name of Challenge FM.

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PGFM 87.7 from Leeds

PGFM from Leeds has an RSL on 87.8 - seems to have taken over from ELFM on the frequency, and with very similar coverage!

RDS = PGFM87-7

Is from Pudsey Grangefield School.

PGFM website

First heard around 16:00 tonight, at the time they were playing "old oldies" including cheesy comedy records like "When I'm Cleaning Windows" and Benny Hill "Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West)"!

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Friday, June 08, 2007

Download Radio on 87.7

In Bolsover tonight, on 87.7, a station announcing as Download Radio was heard from 20:40.

Format was indie rock music.

Signal strength was very weak, driving only a few metres made the signal disappear/reappear.

I suspect this was a programme name on, or a relay via, RSL ELFM from Leeds (website says their broadcasts take place from midday until 8pm daily).

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Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Y2k Southend video on YouTube

Tower Block Dreams, a series which has been aired on BBC Three TV, has quite a lot of good info/video shots of UK land based pirate radio. Refreshingly, from what I have seen so far at least, it gives a surprisingly fair and factual view of the UK pirate radio scene, often from the point of view of pirate radio presenters themselves.

For those who haven't already seen it live (I didn't for starters!), it is now available on YouTube. Can be found by visiting YouTube and searching for "Tower Block Dreams" (although I initially found it by searching "pirate radio").

The clip I saw first was Southend Pirate Radio Part One, about the Southend-on-Sea (Essex) pirate Y2K FM. According to the programme, Y2K FM reaches as far as East London and Kent - I guess that's not surprising, if they have their antenna on a 80 foot mast on the top of a high tower block!

(I may or may not have heard this station in the past while visiting London, although I'm not really sure - confusingly, there is another station also called Y2K FM from North London.)

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ELFM returns in East leeds

ELFM 87.7 has returned as an RSL from East Leeds.

RDS = ELFM

Strong signal in Garforth area. On the A1, ELFM can be heard south as far as junction 37 (near Doncaster).

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