Favourite Radio Stations past and present.

[bluepilot]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

in cities like London, Oxford, Bristol and the Medway towns - there were plenty of FM pirate stations

I remember when I lived on Crouch Hill in the early 70s I heard strange whistles whilst listening to Radio 1. A bit of tuning and I discovered Radio Bignoise which seemed to be somewhere fairly local and was sometimes interrupted by the owner's mother bursting in to the "studio" and wanting to know what he was up to. You could contact him (I vaguely remember his name was Keith Watts) via his girl friend Linda with offers of donations and/or somewhere to hang his antenna.

There seemed to be quite a few pirate stations once you started looking. Radio Netley broadcasting from the Netley marshes was another. Records were limited and seemed to do the rounds. This one:
Guy Ropes and the Tent Pegs
was quite popular and accounted for a lot of the air time. It would spend a few days on one station being played several times an hour and then get transferred to the next station after a meeting in a pub somewhere.

[Nickthedentist]

Originally Posted by Richard_FM

Ethnic radio stations were an interesting part of the 1980s pirate scene.

London Greek Radio was an example, which was once raided while on air & led to a shouting match betwwen the police & a DJ who sounded like Harry Enfield's Stavros, or so I've been told.

Ah yes, I loved LGR toowhen it was a pirate. It was still fun to listen to in the early 1990s when it was legal too, and shared its frequency (103.3?) with WNK. Listening to it felt like being on holiday!

[Junk Box Nick]

From my childhood/youth:
Radio Caroline South was my favourite of the 60s era (I heard many of the other offshore stations of the time but stuck on 1187)
Early 70s: RNI and some Caroline. The short lived daytime English Caroline on 773 was a brief great escape from daytime R1!
R1 and Luxembourg in the gap between the MOA and RNI.
I also listened to Radio 4 quite a lot too!

By the time of the Dutch MOA commercial radio had arrived and BRMB could be heard in my area. I also listened to Trent 301.

Mid to late 70s: Beacon Radio 303, AFN, Caroline

By the end of the 70s decade Caroline (Mi Amigo) had sunk and commercial radio could not be heard where I was living, however, I was now happy to listen to Radio 2 with very happy memories of Ray Moore, Terry Wogan, JY and Brian Matthew's Round Midnight programme. In the 80s at times when the R2 programmes didn't interest me I listened to Laser 558 and Caroline. Far too old for Radio 2 now!

Originally Posted by 'LIVEWIRE?'

A supplementary question, what was the first 'pirate' radio station? My bet would be either Radio Nord (off the Danish Coast?), or was it Radio Sud?

If we're talking ship-borne pirates in the accepted sense (broadcasting had been done from ships before the pirate era) then Radio Mercur off the Danish coast in 1958.

My poser: What station aired the first (regular) offshore pirate broadcast specifically for a UK audience?

[Station X]

Radio Atlanta?

[Aub]

Radio Atlanta became Caroline South, i believe.

My favourite was Radio London.

Cheers

Aub

[electronicskip]

Radio Caroline and also Radio Tower for me back in the day.

[Sideband]

Radio Caroline and Radio London ('Big L') were my main pirates. I loved Kenny Everett on 'Big L'. Radio City also gave a good signal from one of the forts (the forts are still there but in very poor condition....no walkways between them now. You can see them from the Isle of Sheppey). Also (briefly) was 'Swingin' Radio England' an American style pirate along the lines of Radio London but it was only around for about 6 months until the end of 1966. Thumping signal on 270m I think. I think the same ship also carried Britain Radio on 355m which was more like Radio 390 with light entertainment music...also a thumping signal.

Up until about a year ago, I listed to Radio Two but it seems to have got a little tired.....My station of preference in the car now is Radio Jackie...'The Sound of South West London.....' It was a former pirate that started back in 1969 until it got raided in the 1980's. It was off the air until around 2006 when the original management applied for the licence to run a local station due to close down. They revamped the playing style and re-launched Jackie and it now has a permanent place on 107.8 FM. Great for local news and traffic reports that actually apply to me and their playlist includes plenty of classic pop songs from the 60's through to the 80's.

[rontech]

In the early 1950's my favourite was Luxembourg on 208, ( yes it faded a bit after dark!).

Loved Dan|Dare, it was a sort of substitute after the BBC axed Dick Barton Special Agent and also later in the evenings, Perry Mason.

Later, in the 1960's the Radio Three "Building a Library ( classical ) and also Radio 2's Ted Heath big band show. both these on Saturday mornings. ( The stations may have been The Third Programme and the Light programme in those days

[ITAM805]

My old Mum used to work occasional nights in the 50's, and my Sis would baby sit me and we would listen to Luxembourg, in the dark on a maroon and cream Marconi set. The panel lamps projecting it's glow through the rear vents onto the wall, like a block of flats, that how I remember it !

'Big L' was the go to station for me and my peers in the mid 60's, although Caroline and Radio City got an occasional hearing. That stopped of course in 67', thanks to Harold Wilson and co.

Caroline continued into the 70's and yes 'Loving Awareness' became the mantra. In fact Ronan O'Rahilly's was promoting a band of the same name that we saw at Bromley College around 1975. Happy days

[Ted Kendall]

Originally Posted by ITAM805

...'Loving Awareness' became the mantra. In fact Ronan O'Rahilly's was promoting a band of the same name that we saw at Bromley College around 1975. Happy days

...with Norman Watt-Roy and the late lamented Charlie Charles, later of the Blockheads.

[Graham G3ZVT]

In the weeks before RNI started on MW they did some tx tests on around 6.6Mhz and spoke to some of the regulars there. I think they used the callsign "One-Zero".
They were clearly at broadcast strength and quality all over the UK, a bit of a contrast to the 19 sets et all.

It's just what I remember, no intention of starting a discussion about "Echo Charlie".

[emeritus]

I used to mark the pirate stations on the dial of our radiogram with self-adhesive labels. AFAIR there were about 10. I think I still have brief excerpts of Britain Radio and Radio England on RTR tapes, but currently no working recorder to play them on.

[ITAM805]

with Norman Watt-Roy and the late lamented Charlie Charles, later of the Blockheads.

Quite so Ted, in fact I saw Blockheads around 1977 in a pub in Peckham Rye, before they hit the big time

My fave 'radio' station today is France Musique - on the internet

[Sideband]

Does anyone remember when RNI was broadcasting as Caroline International (before the real Caroline started again) during the 1970 election? It was an attempt to get young voters (the 18 year olds were able to vote by then) to vote against the then Labour government who had shut the original pirates down three years earlier. RNI had recorded an election song based on the Dads Army tune. That was a fun time!

[bluepilot]

Originally Posted by Sideband

Does anyone remember when RNI was broadcasting as Caroline International (before the real Caroline started again) during the 1970 election?

Remember it well. One day they were calling themselves Radio North Sea and the next day there was Radio Caroline (I don't remember it calling itself International but its a long long time ago). I don't remember any explanation or announcement of the name change. Just that suddenly there was Caroline where RNI had been. I don't think we listened to it very much as it was being jammed at the time.

The Conservatives won the election. I don't know whether RNI/Caroline helped.

['LIVEWIRE?']

What I do remember is that, during the jamming period (incidentally AFAIK.the only time a British Government has ever jammed any broadcasts), RNI/Caroline changed its frequency a few kHz HF of the one it had been using, but the Jamming continued on the original frequency. Morw importantly perhaps, the Government's use of a jamming transmitter set a precedent, which, thank goodness no later government has ever made use of to suppress any broadcasts from any source.

Radio Tirana and the other propaganda stations on shortwave, OK propaganda but they tried everso hard to make interesting programmes and supplied a stonking signal. I have never been very interested in, or often listen to music stations. I still like Radio China International, it's another point of view and one of the last few english language shortwave stations.

[Sideband]

Originally Posted by bluepilot

The Conservatives won the election. I don't know whether RNI/Caroline helped.

There is a report somewhere on one of the offshore radio sites, that Ronan O'Rahilly was fully aware of the Caroline/RNI venture and simply asked/paid/bribed RNI to broadcast as Caroline International during the election campaign since at the time the original Caroline was rusting and vandalised in a Dutch harbour. When the Tories won he was apparently approached by a leading Labour politician asking why he did it. Ronan's reply was 'You hurt Caroline, so I hurt you!'

Who knows if RNI/Caroline helped at all? It makes an interesting story and you don't get intrigue on the radio like that anymore!

[Nymrod121]

I recall my Band II VHF/FM-DX mentor, Bob Dewick (Bradwell-on-sea) saying at the time that the jamming station was probably based at or near Canewdon (one of the first group of AMES 'Chain Home' sites). If so, it must have been a temporary antenna/mast radiator because the last CH tower had long since been relocated to the Marconi Research Laboratories at Great Baddow. Anyone know otherwise?

Currently, I'm listening to a couple of my present-day favourites: France Bleu Armorique on 103.1 MHz from Rennes - a 470km path - courtesy of the expected tropo lift as the high pressure area moves away. Also SamFM on 106.0 MHz from Chillerton Down, I.o.W. Solid RDS station ident on both
Guy

[G6Tanuki]

Originally Posted by Sideband

There is a report somewhere on one of the offshore radio sites, that Ronan O'Rahilly was fully aware of the Caroline/RNI venture and simply asked/paid/bribed RNI to broadcast as Caroline International during the election campaign since at the time the original Caroline was rusting and vandalised in a Dutch harbour. When the Tories won he was apparently approached by a leading Labour politician asking why he did it. Ronan's reply was 'You hurt Caroline, so I hurt you!'

Who knows if RNI/Caroline helped at all? It makes an interesting story and you don't get intrigue on the radio like that anymore!

There's a movie - "The Boat that Rocked" - which was allegedly inspired by the 60s pirate scene.

Having watched it I can say it's only ever so loosely correct, but is still a good laugh if you can null-out the historical inaccuracies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boat_That_Rocked