Final broadcasts

Despite the passing of what is now a significant period of time, several UK-based shortwave free radio stations that have figured in this 1990s retrospective can still to this day be found on or around the 48 metre band. 

It is not the albeit honourably mentioned Radio Pamela, Xenon Transmitting Company(XTC), and Radio Merlin, as well as dormant stations like Weekend Music Radio(WMR) and Radio Pandora who are both it seems on extended hiatus, that are the focus of this blog post. 

When recently (re)listening to a YouTube clip of Live Wire Radio from approximately 20 years ago, it dawned upon me that this might well have been the last broadcast I ever heard from station operator Bill Lewis. That is not to say Live Wire called it a day at that time, but as I drifted away from the hobby and without any hard copy records or memories to suggest otherwise, there is a fair chance that this was the final time or one of the last when I heard one of the 1990s most recognizable free radio voices. 

Indeed, I can only be sure that I heard this broadcast as my phone call to the studio was acknowledged early in the show!

Despite delving into the 1990s UK-based scene to the greatest extent that I could, I have since pondered just when stations such as Live Wire, Subterranean Sounds, Scotland's Radio Gloria, and WNKR to name just a few broadcast their final programmes. It has also been a point of minor fascination as to whether these and other stations knowingly broadcasted their last programmes in a final flourish, or that they simply never returned to the air. This and what motivated individual operators to call it a day can only be answered by the protagonists themselves, but changes in circumstances, disillusionment with the hobby, and simply outgrowing what might not have had the same allure as the early salad days will surely rank highly in what has caused the significant hole left in UK free radio on shortwave by stations to this day who are conspicuous by their absence. 

It is far easier, or less difficult, to know how stations came into being and when they did so, but what characterized their final days and the reasons behind them by and large remain a mystery. This is though perhaps a metaphor for hobby pirates whose very existence must on the whole remain enigmatic and discreet. 

The door perhaps remains ajar for some stations who I otherwise assume to be consigned to history, and as such there may be operators who never actually 'officially' quit. If though broadcasters disappeared due to the deteriorating quality of free radio on shortwave, there is little on that basis to encourage them to return today.

By definition there are no rules, expectations, or standards demanded by free radio, and as such station operators can leave on a whim and return with alacrity without the need for explanation to listeners or to justify their actions to 'the man'. It is that unpredictability that has always lent a certain distinction to the scene, if albeit some operators let their so-called celebrity go to their heads - the only places it actually existed. 

It would be of interest to me if anyone out there has on record when the stations who have seemingly 'gone for good' actually called time on their presence on shortwave. Any recordings of final broadcasts would also be appreciated, even if only with hindsight has it since become apparent that these were the last times that they were heard, at least to date. 

Those were my memories - how about yours?

Two weeks after the dust has settled from the previous, and at the time final blog post detailing my experiences of UK-based shortwave free radio during the 1990's, I had hoped to receive a greater level of reader feedback than the amount my memories have effectuated. 

There has been some very welcome contact with a couple of well-known station operators of the time, one of whom is still relatively active on 48 metres to this day. I have also been pleased to share many emails with my Norwegian correspondent, someone with a depth of knowledge of the 90's scene that could only have been developed by a listener as immersed in free radio to the extent I was at the time. 

I admit that a lack of visual cues in the form of back in the day QSL cards and stickers has not helped to stimulate conversation, but my collection of free radio memorabilia has sadly long since bitten the dust. It would be easy for me to crib pertinent verification cards and the like from the internet but doing so would miss the point which my blog aimed to achieve but never quite knocked out of the park: to entirely reflect and encapsulate memories of a now very distant but once important time of my life.

Therein perhaps lies the issue - too much time has elapsed and those who listened with great interest and anticipation have long since left the scene, with nary a look back over the shoulder to reminisce, or even become reacquainted with today's scene that would be flattered by deception if described as a poor imitation. The same can be said for station operators, who perhaps have 'grown up' and in some cases would prefer to not look back to a time that might even embarrass them. Each protagonist, whether part of an expectant audience or as a broadcaster has whether they wish to impart it or not a story to tell from the 1990's, an era of free radio that undoubtedly heralded the inexorable decline of the medium.  

My writing is not to everyone's taste, nor would I ever intend to strive for something that is impossible to achieve. Although my research was as thorough as it could be for a niche within a niche whose presence on the internet was already more or less conspicuous by its absence, there will inevitably be gaps in the content where I have not done certain stations justice, with perhaps some broadcasters inadvertently overlooked altogether.

It is including these circumstances that I respectfully request the comments and memories of those who were there in the 1990's, in whatever form that took. This is not a request to stellify my blog or any particular stations, nor indeed to court pejorative observations, but field the views of those who perhaps saw things the same as I did, in a completely different way, or somewhere in between. I am not looking to rewrite history but ascertain what, if anything, my blog has brought to mind for those with this once upon a time shared interest. If though you remember you might not actually have been there; who can say...

Over to you. There may yet be further mileage to be had out of this blog, but not at the expense of tenuous, digressive, or discursive content that veers off topic to a point where a dead horse is being mercilessly flogged.