Pirate radio: C/D?

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In theory, I'm all for this. Music coming up from outside the corporate zone; personality, not playlists; taking back the means of information production and all that jazz (or 'and all that UKG and dancehall' for the pirates round my way.)

But, I occassionally find myself cursing them because they have managed to severly muck up the transmissions of the three stations I actually want to listen to (Radio 4, Resonance and, please forgive me, XFM).

So pirtate radio. Classic or dud?

― Anna (Anna), Saturday, 11 October 2003 11:21 (twenty-two years ago)

(Note: if discussing stations it's probably best not to mention the frequency of anything illeagal. In Britian at least, the Radio Authority comes down quite heavily on people who publish them.)

― Anna (Anna), Saturday, 11 October 2003 11:22 (twenty-two years ago)

''please forgive me, XFM''

we cannot! ;)

― ilm (jdesouza), Saturday, 11 October 2003 15:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Radio 3 is badly affected round my way but still classic just on the principle that gives another option but I hardly listen to radio anymore.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 11 October 2003 15:17 (twenty-two years ago)

i) Pirate radio is a metropolitan thing.

ii) Although they are almost definitely a lot of fun, incredibly influential on *mainstream* radio, from John Peel to Dizzee Rascal, vital to pushing forward *new music*, play stuff that wouldn't get played elsewhere, represent an important rebellion in this post-Murdoch media landscape, can obviously be seen as a liberating and empowering force, in both racial and personal terms, and seem irretrievably cool.

iii) I have still never listened to a pirate. Just like I've never complained about smog or ordered a latte really, really fast.

― Jim Robinson (Original Miscreant), Sunday, 12 October 2003 00:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Classic.

Re Anna's interference complaint, if a station is careful (and smart), they'll broadcast at a frequency that doesn't interfere with a legal station. That way, their signal never gets interrupted by the other station, and since they don't interfere with anyone else, it's one less reason for them to be shut down or even bothered with.

― Vonda Shepard, Sunday, 12 October 2003 02:01 (twenty-two years ago)

duh, classic.
Last week I finally got off my lazy arse early in the morning to listen to Nasty Crew on Major FM. There were just 3 MCs. The site has a video webcam so I actually got to witness D.E.E. going 'Uuuuhhh! Uuuuhhh!' I was so excited that I sent an SMS to my bro at school saying 'Nasty are on!' and he sent one back saying 'Uuuuhhh! Uuuuhhh!'

― Keith McD (Keith McD), Sunday, 12 October 2003 05:44 (twenty-two years ago)

classic. although apart from nasty crew on major fm i've not been listening to much recently - i've recently realised that i can pick up freeze fm where i live, but roll deep never turn up to their show and i've not stayed up late enough yet to see if nasty crew show up to theirs. i've not listened to rinse since roll deep got kicked off.

― toby (tsg20), Sunday, 12 October 2003 07:23 (twenty-two years ago)

SUBTHREAD:

Pirate radio in the US: Does it exist??

I sure as hell have never heard any. At least not round these midwest parts.

― MisterSnrub, Sunday, 12 October 2003 23:22 (twenty-two years ago)

San Diego has a pirate station called Free Radio San Diego. Santa Cruz has Free Radio Santa Cruz, which has been around for 8 years.

Some more links here:
http://www.freakradio.org/
then go to the links section

Though my favorite google search turned up Christian Pirate Radio!!! ("Christian Pirate Radio is a live 24/7 internet only Christian music
station dedicated to playing the best in Christian music!"). www.mycpr.com

― Vonda Shepard, Sunday, 12 October 2003 23:58 (twenty-two years ago)

theres supposedly a pirate station 87.9 in the LA area with good range... apparently juan atkins has a show on it.. there was a pirate station in lower manhattan for most of the 90s but i think they finally got sick of dealing with the FCC..

― carmen (carmen), Monday, 13 October 2003 01:49 (twenty-two years ago)

where can one download some good pirate radio broadcasts?

― mentalist (mentalist), Monday, 13 October 2003 08:53 (twenty-two years ago)

A massive big DUD.

Where I am in SE22 I can’t get anything over the left hand side of the FM dial for the frickin' pirates. Though this may also be partly due to geographic reasons – There’s a big hill and block of flats between me and Crystal Palace. I have to listen to Radio 4 on Long wave.

Why don’t they go and do their ‘big shout outs’ all over Magic or Heart or something.

― MikeB, Monday, 13 October 2003 09:16 (twenty-two years ago)

So i live in E2. There seem to be bloody hundreds of pirates filling the airwaves every weekend, lots of which sound pretty fine - but I can never work out any consistency in quality or DJs/MCs. How on earth would I know when to listen/which frequency to tune to? Or do you all just take pot luck?

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Monday, 13 October 2003 11:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Jim Robinson = me, essentially (admirer of pirate radio who never listens to it ...)

got to remember here that Radio 1's good periods - the early years, from Tiny Blackbird's breakfast mix of Motown and White Plains to Peel's early Top Gear shows, and the more specialist / less laddish parts of the decade now past since Matthew Bannister took over, were influenced and driven by former pirate DJs, and its fallow years from c.1975-93 were full of bland, slick presenters from hospital radio and the like who really knew very little about music compared to those who came after and at least some of those who came before ("that's what the Beerling era got wrong, they put on DJs because they liked the demo tape, but the best technical DJs aren't always those who know what's going on" - Pete Tong, 1998)

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Monday, 13 October 2003 11:46 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah i have a problem with pirates/interferance. like, everytime i try to put on rinse, i get strains of classic fucking fm coming through! Why don’t they go and do their ‘smooth daytime classics' all over Magic or Heart or something?

― ambrose (ambrose), Monday, 13 October 2003 13:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Jim Robinson = me, essentially (admirer of pirate radio who never listens to it ...)

Quite.

― Jim Robinson (Original Miscreant), Monday, 13 October 2003 16:17 (twenty-two years ago)

They ought to allow a certain frequency for anarchist radio - 87.0-89.0 .. whoever has the best transmitter wins.. Which leads to a question: Does the UK use the same frequencies (87-107) as the US?

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 13 October 2003 16:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I think this is my problem. I admire the spirit/ idea of it, but I'm not very keen on most of the music played by the pirate stations broadcasting near me.

On frequencies - pretty much Dave. I'm not expert enough to tell you about small changes, but that seems to be the range of my dial.

― Anna (Anna), Monday, 13 October 2003 16:25 (twenty-two years ago)

you Brits don't know how lucky you are

― Keith McD (Keith McD), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 10:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Last night on Deja Vu, the Nasty Crew vs Roll Deep battle reached hilarious heights: Wiley was responding to Sharky Major for dragging up paedophile rumours again (his response: "Sharky thinks he's a bad boy but he tries too hard...he has 10 GCSEs, he's a boffin, he's not from the roadside"). This culminated in a sing-song chorus of "Who ate all the pies, you fat bastard you fat bastard who ate all the pies."

Pirate radio: classic soap opera, with better beats.

― Chris Houghton (chrish), Tuesday, 14 October 2003 11:36 (twenty-two years ago)

did you record that, Chris?

― Keith McD (Keith McD), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 01:04 (twenty-one years ago)

My tape player's fucked so no, but someone did:

Wiley
Sharky

― Chris Houghton (chrish), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 08:24 (twenty-one years ago)

thanks!

― Keith McD (Keith McD), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 08:38 (twenty-one years ago)

don't suppose you know what the tracks are?

― Keith McD (Keith McD), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 08:39 (twenty-one years ago)

No idea, Keith. Try checking the forums at www.rwdmag.com or something.

― Chris Houghton (chrish), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 10:47 (twenty-one years ago)

nineteen years pass...

Lots of pirate activity in the shortwave bands tonight (holidays are always good for this). The most oddball one being D.B. Cooper Radio - Someone got on 6950.6 kHz, started off with Golden Earring’s “Radar Love” and then played nothing but songs and news stories about D.B. Cooper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCjSm5pCLP0

HF Underground thread: https://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,105843.0.html

― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 25 November 2022 05:45 (two years ago)

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