By the time I had stumbled upon the shortwave free radio scene in the autumn of 1990, change was very much in the air. The Berlin Wall had fallen just a year earlier, with the UK rave music scene exploding in many northern towns forgotten by Margaret Thatcher's divisive 11 years in office. Freedom of expression and the desire for self-determination gained significant momentum, as the first, ultimately terminal cracks in both the Soviet Union and the Yugoslav Federation foreshadowed the chaotic and ruinous years that lay ahead.
The music charts were not to be left out. Is was two Scottish bands, Primal Scream and The Soup Dragons, who opined through their respective tracks Loaded, and the Rolling Stones cover I'm Free, that they, and not just the post-Thatcher nation but also throughout Eastern Europe and beyond wished to be 'free to do what they want to do' and be 'free to do what they want - any old time'. Accidentally or otherwise, these two tracks matched and spoke for the prevailing zeitgeist of the time.
To define free radio would perhaps be self-contradictory; the idea, after all, of being a 'pirate' station was/is to not conform in terms of style, musical content, and within the confines of a broadcast schedule. In that sense there are no definitions, templates, or modi operandi to satisfy, but it would be surprising if the motivation of some station operators wasn't to play devil's advocate to the British Broadcasting Corporation's(BBC) hegemonic grip on legal shortwave operations emanating from the UK.
I always favoured, as I do to this day, speech-based programming interspersed with diverse music and to some extent, audience participation. That though is a personal preference, and reflects a desire on the part of the station to not only air his favourite tracks that more than likely would not be heard on legal radio stations, but to also please the audience. There were stations in the 1990's, some of whom are still around today, I felt were more interested in 'rocking for themselves' than for those who might be listening, but in the spirit of free radio, a medium without constraints or policies, this 'each to their own' approach to broadcasting is neither right nor wrong, but will obviously suit some of the listenership more than others. That again reflects a freedom of choice usually absent in legit but identikit FM and MW stations.
I dis though nevertheless find it surprising that many operators, who had obviously gone to significant effort to construct a transmitter and acquire all the associated hardware, had relatively little to say once they hit the airwaves. I understand we are not all the same, with some being more gregarious, opinionated, and curious about the world around us than others, but to simply play continuous music with often only canned IDs, or limiting verbal participation to saying who the last track was performed by, was not necessarily the entertainment I sought in the 1990's. I must though again remind myself that freedom to broadcast how one likes runs in tandem with being able to choose who to listen to; that is as just as much the wont of the audience as is the broadcast style which the station operator decides to pursue.
Freedom came in many forms for the UK shortwave free radio scene during the 1990's, although one aspect that might have escaped the attention of some listeners was how several stations during the decade changed their operational names. There was probably a variety of reasons behind these decisions unrelated to each other, ranging from clashes with stations of similar names, putting distance from a past that might have included visits from the authorities, or simply wishing to move on and present a more mature image than one which a previous name might have suggested. It was not obvious that a change of music or type of programme precipitated certain stations to broadcast under different names, although as with all the content in these blog posts, I am happy to be proved wrong by those with greater knowledge and who had the inside track.
One such station began life as Total Control Radio(TCR), before moving on to be known as The Nitrozone. Now, it is particular odd for me to write about TCR, what with their broadcasts and those under its future moniker always being elusive to my best attempts to hear them. I only knew about both names from loggings of their broadcasts in various free radio publications from the time. The mystery to me was that I would usually be listening to shortwave at the time TCR/The Nitrozone were broadcasting, but only knew they had done so after the event. I can only put it down to the station running very low power which my extremely modest analogue radios of the time could not receive. In fact, the only time I heard the station operator, who I believe also changed his name from Des Francis to Steve Collins, or vice versa, was when he guested on a Subterranean Sounds broadcast.
Those who listen to the 48-metre band in the modern era will be all too familiar with the almost omnipresent Radio Merlin International, very much a staple of a UK free radio scene that has noticeably dwindled in the last 20 years. What many people will not realize is that Merlin has been around in its current guise for the best part of the last three decades, but was originally known by me in 1990 as Radio Galaxy. Station operator Paul Watt has been the man at the helm since the mid-1980's, and whilst raids by the authorities presumably brought about a desire to change to a name shared by the Ontario town which once acted as a mail drop for the station, Galaxy and Merlin have in many ways remained indivisible from each other. Just as Merlin can now be heard any day of the week on 6305 kHz, sometimes day and night, I recall Galaxy being an ever-present on or around 6240 kHz. The effort Paul Watt goes to to keep the station on the air is perhaps taken for granted, but over 30 years of broadcasting is not something to be taken lightly. That in itself is not a reason alone to pay Merlin excessive reverence, but broadcasting is obviously an obsession for Paul that doesn't show any signs of being on the wane.
Radio Orion was one of the more interesting UK-based stations that in many ways ticked the boxes of what I preferred from a free radio broadcaster. With an excellent music policy that was often procured from record store bargain bins, presenter Mike Wilson laced his programmes with chat that ranged from the highly intelligent to the plain silly but always with an articulate delivery, if albeit one that bordered on the apathetic and world-weary. For several years in the early 1990's Orion was a Sunday morning fixture on 6290 kHz, before a period of absence - I forgot for how long and the reason behind it - from which Mike reemerged as the Bogus Jobseeker, not just as a change of name for himself as such but by what Orion would go on to be known as. At the time those who were registered unemployed in the UK would receive Jobseeker's Allowance(JSA) - unemployment benefit by another name. In return for receiving the pittance that was designed for those in receipt of it to not be able to financially manage and therefore be coerced on that basis into taking any work, rather than from actively seeking a role they wished to undertake, it was alluded by 'Bogus' that he was so self-named because of feigned attempts to secure work whilst receiving these state benefits.
It was very much the change of identity which gave the Bogus Jobseeker an almost cult following, with wry observations about walks/bike rides along canals to the mannerisms of neighbours which complemented an eclectic taste in music that betrayed a deep knowledge and appreciation of what he played. Later known simply as the Bogusman, listeners were perhaps left from another change of identity to conclude that the man himself was now in employment, or had if nothing else ceased claiming JSA. Radio Orion would also spawn an offshoot broadcaster, the uncompromisingly named Vic Hitler, who would by this point need a separate vehicle away from the eponymous Bogus Jobseeker, and eventually broadcasted under the name Fresh Air 2000, an example of the QSL issued at the time can be seen on Will Phillips' excellent website: Fresh Air 2000 - QSL card
A station I heard less of during its first identity than its second coming, Radio Confusion was initially known for playing 'indie' music from labels such as One Little Indian, now itself renamed as One little Independent in the wake of George Floyd's death. When broadcasting on 6 MHz I would at times struggle to receive broadcasts fronted by operator Steve Midnight, but a move to night-time transmissions on 3 MHz coupled with an improved receiver, a Sangean ATS-803A, enabled better reception of who had by then become Subterranean Sounds. Musical highlights included the only place on shortwave where I heard drum n' bass/jungle tracks, and Mr. Midnight's liking for recordings by, for example, the Future Sound of London and Birmingham-based collective Broadcast.
Where the likes of Subterranean Sounds have called time on broadcasting another station, one I first heard in 1991, and whose past bears little nominal relation to its current semblance, continues to this day. The Xenon Transmitting Company(XTC) has if anything had something of a renaissance since the advent of the novel coronavirus, resulting in several lockdown special broadcasts which have not only rolled back the years to when shortwave free radio had several UK-based stations whose musical preferences dovetailed with interesting, speech-based content, but has also been a welcome (re)addition to what in modern times has become a somewhat depleted UK presence on 48 metres.
Starting life as Radio Mutiny and under the guidance of the exquisitely named Tommy Teabags, what eventually became XTC is now in the hands of Matt Roberts, an archetypal-form of DJ name that often uses two Christian names as a 'stage' identity. It also represents, by Matt's own admission, a name more in keeping with someone of his age than the previous, though somewhat time-limited nom de plume could realistically do.
In recent years broadcasts by XTC were usually restricted to bank holidays, but the last ten months have arguably represented the station's most prolific period, something which worldwide and personal circumstances have undoubtedly precipitated - to the benefit of those interested in speech-based output laced with an outstanding taste in music. Even my rather twee requests for tracks by the KLF and yes, Primal Scream's Loaded, have been met with subsequent airplay of both. Of a similar vintage to me, albeit a few years hence, Matt himself grew up on the relative fine dining experience of the early to mid-90's UK shortwave scene, and is one of the last bastions of what not only first attracted me to listening to free radio, but which held my attention for the best part of a decade.
Notwithstanding several Dutch operators who change names like the wind, the altering of what they are identifiable by is now a feature of the past for the UK's free radio presence on shortwave. There are stations who are ostensibly recent newcomers but that I suspect were around in the past and are now potentially labouring under different aliases, but that is only a theory rather than a fact, and anyhow does not represent a seamless change of name which many of the above examples demonstrated.
Each station had its own reason for a change of titular direction, but a desire to do so neatly encapsulates a facet of free radio where evolution, and indeed revolution, ensured that it remained fresh and very much a movable feast, as opposed to the now horrific generic offerings on FM where 'The Hits' and 'Heart' have engulfed many local, individual presences and identities.
NEXT TIME: Who's still around?
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