Lousy Pirate Radio

get yr internet radio sorted.

You sure that wasn't the Dreem Teem? Heard them go on for hours once about how they saw some minger wearing tracky bottoms and high heels together.

A decent official radio station seems way better than pirate radio to me. You British don't know how lucky you are. We've just had a new station in Dublin which has some of the local DJs I like playing dance music on Friday and Saturday nights and it's like a godsend. I like the radio, for keeping me up with pop stuff but let's just say the presenters over here are the least funny, most annoying people I've ever had the misfortune to have to listen to.

If I hear the phrase "it's a scorcher" to describe a nice day again I'm going to fucking lose it and run someone down.

The pirate stations here are all a bit meh, they tend to play shit trance and hardhouse or else pophouse and the worse end of the pop charts.

Then there's the "indie" station Phantom FM which plays boring Irish guitar music like David Kitt and Turn 24/7 with the odd american band thrown in (no british music, they don't like you).

But I flicked through the dials at random one day and found this 60 year old (sounding) man playing big band music and samba. He was far wittier than any of the other DJs and the whole show had this nice feel to it, as if the only other people who'd been listening were actually dead in their living room or something.

It was the Three Wise Men apparently - the "last reunion" of a legendary pirate team or rather 3 stoners pissing about in their shed.

3 men, 1 record, 1 sound effect, 1 joke.

Dunno about Bassline FM, Pete, but from your description it sounds pretty much like the average Tim Westwood show these days (bomb sounds to actual records ratio: about 14:1).

Resonance FM (the London Musicians Collective thingy) is not strictly a pirate but might as well be. On the few occasions that I've actually been able to listen to the thing, they seem to be going through the complete recorded works of the Boredoms with links of the standard of: "Supah! Supah! This is velly dangelous! Supah dangelous!" in a Benny Hill does unfunny Jap voice kind of way.

Still, think of Fox FM and Fusion FM and Bill bloody Heine and his pullover potholes and be relieved at the hell from which you have just escaped.

We did find a great-sounding reggae pirate and an ok-sounding garage pirate (poor reception though) and Alix says there's a good bhangra station for when I get the AM aerial set up. It was just the awfulness of Bassline FM that struck us.

Pete: Sounds just like the Morning Zoo shows that plague commercial US stations. *Every* commercial US station. It's gotten to the point where I don't even listen to radio in the morning any more. Even worse, it's starting to spill over into the afternoons now--I always change the channel quickly if I hear people laughing on it.

I seem to be in effing pirate hell in N london, on saturday morning i could not get radio 2 AT ALL, due to about 7 competing pirates of varying natures all jostling over 88-91 on my dial, grrrrrrrrr...

I listen to local jungle pirate stations occasionally, but I soon lose my patience with too much "Big shout going out to the Upton Park posse" nonsense.

I thanked the heavens for the existance of private radio stations such as bassline. Altough the do have some downfall they provide listeners with variety and the lastest music that not all people have access to. I will admit that they do go on a times but I would rather listen to them then the commerical rubbish that is unfortunatley widely available.

It seems to me that you have listened to one show of the three wise men and have decided to judge the whole programming schedule of the station by it. BasslineFM has been keeping London and the surrounding counties abreast of urban music developments for years, They also have an extensive community support programme. I think you should tune back into 97.9 fm and try to catch a weeks worth of shows before you judge it. Also to anyone who wishes to make up their own mind tune in or log on to basslinefm.com.

I don't know, I find them verypleasant listening...

A friend of mine got them to do a "big up to the Morris E and the Suedehead posse".