The UK stations who slipped the net(part 2)

In the concluding post of a blog that has in the main focused on my experiences of UK-based free radio stations that were found on the shortwave bands during the 1990s, I am straying away from basing the content on purely my own listening experiences. 

When listeners past and present, along with former operators and those still firing up their transmitters eventually decide to digitize any audio and/or written word archive theoretically within their possession, I predict a relative glut of online information pertaining to the 1990s shortwave pirates that will be at the finger tips of those with an interest in the scene, either from a point of reminiscence or to compare today's free radio landscape with how it took shape three decades or more ago. 

Recently, I unearthed a cache of helpful, indeed fascinating sources of information via the archive.org website. It is true that such websites are only as good as the munificence of those who upload old free radio publications, some of which are older than me, and inevitably provoke the internet-age argument as to whether something doesn't actually exist unless it has been uploaded onto the World Wide Web. There is perhaps as much buried away in attic-based boxes that has yet to see the light of day as there is already 'out there' on the internet, but for those who think that life begins and ends with what is available online regarding any hobby, genre, or individual, the future will inevitably precipitate a radical reassessment.

That though isn't to say that we must all assume there is always 'more' to learn about some subjects and niches within niches that are by definition finite, especially when pertaining to a set period of time or era. Where one finds little else to go from circumscribed hard-and-fast data there then begins the process of reinterpreting personal relationships with the subject in hand, how incontrovertible information viewed retrospectively can justify, for example using free radio as an obvious default, where it fitted into our lives, and the hows and whys it did do to such an extent. 

Readers who have perused much or most of this blog will by now be familiar with when my inadvertent interest in free radio began - October 7th, 1990. What I have subsequently written has been based upon my experiences of hearing and corresponding with UK-based pirate stations on a regular basis from that date until perhaps 1997, from when my interest waxed and waned before petering out around 2001 - for at least the next decade. It did though occur to me that for nine months of 1990 I was until very recently unaware of other UK stations that were reported during the year prior my introduction in the October, some of who may have called time on their free radio existences at some point during the first three quarters of 1990.

To give a little personal context to the exercise, I decided to view archived copies of FRS(Free Radio Service[Holland]) Goes DX and Activity magazine, the latter which was to transmogrify into Free DX, dated approximately, or at the very least covered loggings from, October 1989 until September 1990, the full year before I joined the party. 

My findings were hardly revelatory, but did provide some interesting subplots to a scene that had arguably already started to tail off from its 70's and 80's apogee.

It was interesting to read about a certain DX-20 who was an increasingly familiar presence on 6 MHz, primarily within QSOs. This station would eventually become Live Wire Radio - or Light Wire as FRS Goes DX initially reported - and was first logged using its familiar moniker on June 3rd, 1990 with what FRS also detailed at the time as poor audio - from which little could be understood! How soon things would change, with operator Bill Lewis known throughout the free radio world as something of a technical genius. 

Radio Galaxy, not to be confused with a German station of the same name and the future Paul Stuart and Dave Norris-backed Galaxy International, began life on June 24th, 1990. Now far better known in the modern era as Radio Merlin than when it used its former alias, it is rare day when operator Paul Watt is not heard on 6305 Khz. 

Radio Pamela is another UK-based station operated by a sexagenarian that continues to haunt the airwaves, and has I believe done so since 1985. There was though also a station called Radio Tina that was logged several times in the twelve months prior to October 1990, and which was regarded as Pamela's 'sister station'. Another station that might have been linked to the aforementioned duo is Free Medway Town Radio, although there is little to suggest that this was the case. 

Falcon Radio was a relatively frequent broadcaster during 1989 and the earlier months of 1990 on 6.8 MHz but seemed to more less disappear into thin air. Perhaps the operator changed the station's name into one I am more familiar with from my own listening days, but otherwise disappeared as quickly as its avian namesake.

There was a UK-based Delta Radio, which I imagine only served to confuse matters for those reading logs pertaining to at least two Dutch stations of the same name. There would of course be no ambiguity when hearing the respective output of the various Deltas - a theoretical prize for anyone who can think of an appropriate collective noun - but the UK version was never one that I heard, be that because I simply missed its broadcasts or that the station had ceased broadcasting prior to October 1990.

Activity magazine logged a Radio Pythagoras on November 5th 1989, a station that had been particularly active during the late 1970's. To my knowledge there weren't any further broadcasts from this hypotenuse of free radio, although I am happy to proved otherwise. 

I remember a Radio Atlantis on 6210 and 6400 during approximately 1992-1994 which hailed from the West Midlands, but although older listeners will have potentially been confused by it ostensibly bearing the same identification as Radio Atlantis SW, a station with an Ashton-under-Lyne(Manchester) address, from my perspective there was only one broadcaster of that appellation which Plato might have listened to back in the day. As with Delta Radio, I am unaware if the original Atlantis of the two simply faded into the night during the early part of 1990, or rebooted its operation under a different name. Again, I suspect there will be someone out there who can fill in the blanks of what I am party to.

Finally, a R(ock)FM was heard on several occasions on 6 MHz, seemingly a relay of a London-based FM station. Nothing else is known, apart from the station representing another example of a fleeting presence on shortwave that was never to be heard of again. 

Here concludes the most exhaustive examination of 1990's UK-based shortwave free radio that has to date been undertaken, and the realization of your correspondent's best efforts to find its meaning within his own life and the decade in which it took place. 

I hope that further information, if indeed it is gathering dust in loft spaces and garden sheds, comes to light which will offer a more comprehensive overview of just what was out there on shortwave, UK style. Facts are facts, but one's own relationship with a fascinating, but at times strange broadcasting genre and any subsequent subjective opinions are 'each to their own', a maxim which succinctly sums up the concept of free radio, and its reason for being. 

Fellow travellers

Despite appearances to the contrary from the admittedly sole purpose of this blog, there was more to free radio on shortwave during the 1990s than just those broadcasting from the UK.

My focus then and now, if only latterly to reminisce and reassess the importance of pirate radio during my formative years, has been the UK scene and despite in the main giving short shrift to for example its often much maligned Dutch equivalent, there were stations beyond these shores that I fondly recall to this day. 

The Irish shortwave free radio scene mushroomed, peaked, and plateaued in the 1980s, before downsizing during the following decade. It has ebbed and flowed since, with today the likes of Radio Cuckoo and Premier Radio flying the tricolour for 48 metres. There are it seems also many transmitters still in active but intermittent service across the Irish Sea, often relaying internet-only stations and even Tenerife's Coast FM.

My recollections of Ireland's 1990s contribution to shortwave inevitably begins with Prince Terry's Ozone Radio International. As one of the first free radio stations I heard on shortwave, Ozone was for many years a staple of 6 MHz on Sunday mornings, primarily on 6280 kHz, where it often peacefully coexisted with West and North Kent Radio(WNKR) that for a time used 6275, and Mike Wilson's Radio Orion on 6290.

Using the famous Salisbury maildrop and without fail playing Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall, the station I believe that started out as Westside Radio was eventually undermined by a well-known UK free radio exponent who would, it is fair to say, polarize the opinions of listeners and fellow operators. When he began calling the station 'Radio Ozone' there was a feeling that Prince Terry had lost control of his own operation, which had arguably by then become an unfortunate mouthpiece and vehicle for this interloper.

Jolly Roger Radio was a prolific broadcaster for the majority of the 1990s, and could usually be found on or around 6230 kHz. Operator Joe Vincent was obviously an adherent of Country and Western music which is for me at least one of those 'each to their own' examples of free radio; I even recall receiving a QSL card from the station that certainly wouldn't have been for public consumption. The transmitter(s) of Jolly Roger would often be used to relay other broadcasters, with the North American Kranker Radio and Merseyside-based Concept Radio just two of the stations whose content gained a wider audience in this way.

Other stations of the time that transmitted from Ireland - there will be some that I have inadvertently overlooked - were the eponymous Dun Laoghaire Radio(DLR) who for a time were heard in parallel locally on FM and on 6220 kHz, Emerald Radio, and of course Jock Wilson's Radio Stella International and the speech-based Radio Fax, both of whom used broadcasting facilities somewhere in the republic. 

A station I was perhaps fortunate to hear when using my Venturer 2959 analogue receiver and rudimentary long wire antenna was Sweden's Radio Fusion, which at the time broadcast on the 41 metre band. An operator who at times was a weekly fixture on at least two of 6, 7, and 11 MHz was Peter Hills, the man behind Radio Waves International(RWI), the only French-based station that I can recall. If I am correct, several stations including the Antipodean Southern Music Radio were relayed by RWI, but my recollection of this is less certain and more hazy than it is on other aspects of free radio during the 1990s.

Despite being much larger in surface area and population than the Netherlands, Germany was never really known during the 1990s or arguably at any point since as a hotbed for shortwave free radio by its classic definition, but some notable examples were nevertheless synonymous with the decade's pirate scene. The longstanding Radio Marabu was well-known for its interesting and diverse music 'policy', with PFBS(Pirate Freaks Broadcasting Service), Chris Ise's Crazy Wave Radio, and Radio Northlight also representing free radio's Teutonic influence during this time. 

I am not cognizant of the exact location from where Radio Benelux would broadcast, but a simple process of elimination would suggest it emanated from one of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, or border country the latter shares with Germany and France. 

Which neatly brings me on to one of my favourite 'non-UK' stations from the 1990s - Radio Borderhunter(Grensjager). Broadcasting from somewhere along the frontier between two of the aforementioned nations, there was also something different, more listenable, about Borderhunter's output which set it apart from other, Benelux-based stations and in particular most of those in the Netherlands who had by this point long since sacrificed quality for quantity. It is unfortunate that I cannot recall the name of Borderhunter's charismatic operator, who I even heard at some point last Christmas on 76 metres, almost 24 years after first receiving a broadcast by this mysterious pirate, one midweek late night some time in April 1996.

The output from the Netherlands on shortwave(and 1.6 MHz) has occasionally been unfairly derided by myself, sometimes for good reason, but there were several interesting Dutch stations of the 1990s which I would listen to instead of rolling my eyes and keeping the tuning dial moving - when at times they did sound like just another CB operator playing at grown up radio.

Radio Orangutan was probably the fourth free radio station I ever heard, and one I recall receiving a QSL card from 5 days after writing to operator Freddie/Freddy. Usually found, or at least heard by me, on 6206 kHz, this station was raided at least once and disappeared for a significant length of time, but did subsequently return to 48 metres. I really cannot recall the style of output broadcast by Radio Orangutan, but as an impressionable youth at the time it is likely that my interest was initially piqued by the station's name!

The evergreen Radio Barones, more specifically its operator Johan, remains to this day a charismatic presence on 1.6 MHz and to a lesser extent on shortwave, where he was heard a few days ago by others(not me) broadcasting in parallel on both bands. I think the crux of the matter as to why free radio was for a time so captivating to me is neatly summed up by the likes of Johan, Mr. Borderhunter, and the more personable of their UK counterparts. There was never any of the 'and that record was...and the next record is...' from these operators who often had something interesting to say, had a certain mystic about them(at least to a young teenager like me at the time), played good music, and were often characterized by very strong signals. Perhaps this was a free radio survival of the fittest, or more to the point the technically proficient, and who by happenstance were not incommoded by neighbourhood issues that would compromise the amount of power so many operators could push through their rigs.

Another Johan, the late operator of Radio Nooitgedacht, was a fixture of the Dutch mediumwave scene and despite his broadcasts being solely in his native tongue, there was again something about this station that made it that little bit more interesting to me than most of the others who use what is often unkindly referred to as the 'trawler band'. I only ever heard Nooitgedacht on 1636 kHz, who was often identifiable by a distinctive piece of admittedly cliched Dutch music. I believe that Johan passed away in 2015.

During the 1990s there were several Radio Deltas(or Delta Radios) who at times would confuse listeners as to which they were listening to. One of those heroes of the phonetic alphabet or riparian alluvial deposits has since gone legit and can frequently be heard on 6020 kHz - https://radiodelta.am/ - but with absolutely no disrespect intended, does not have the allure or cachet that goes hand in hand with 'real' free radio.

Other Dutch stations I would hear frequently during the 1990s included Radio Korak, often on 3927 kHz and similar to Radio Pacman, would frequently call CQ to the likes of Live Wire Radio for a post-broadcast QSO. Due to their anglicised moniker I was probably initially dismissive of the Farmers from Holland, whose programmes turned out to be not what I would call my cup of tea and often obliterated much of 48 metres with a signal that could wipe out those broadcasting up to 20 kHz either side of for example 6285 kHz, one of their usual channels. Listening to what sounded more like an alcohol-fuelled private party that had by that point got way out of control - some of my egregious neighbours would surely approve - the Farmers certainly knew how to enjoy themselves and didn't die wondering. Whilst there is no suggestion that any of the collective have since passed on, there might well be a drying out clinic somewhere in Europe that at some point in the past received a block booking from the Netherlands...

The Free Radio Service Holland(FRSH) continues transmitting to this day, having racked up over 40 years of broadcasting on shortwave. Again, a name that was perhaps chosen so to appeal to a greater listenership does not give any great indication of individuality or how it sets itself apart in an otherwise sea of generica. Stating such longevity and a commitment to broadcasting are both laudable, but less than a handful of transmissions per year makes FRSH to me at least seem like a novelty station that lacks spontaneity and who run to a definite schedule - something I would suggest is counterintuitive to many of free radio's ideals. In this sense there is little to separate it from 'once a year'/blue moon' broadcasts by a Radio St. Helena or Radio Andorra, that are ticked off the lists by radio's equivalent of twitchers. 

As an island nation there has often been a reluctance in the UK to even attempt to learn or understand languages common to continental Europe. If anything, the attitude by many UK residents that the English language is our gift to the world and should therefore be routinely spoken by every bartender and hotelier from Spain to Slovenia is embarrassing, and betrays an arrogance born from a sense of entitlement that harks back to Colonial times. Perhaps this has subconsciously affected the way I have over the years dismissed many free radio stations from 'other' countries, when if anything I should applaud some of their operators for speaking English to a better standard than many of those who insist the language is their own mother tongue. 

This blog has given me much to ponder about the importance I gave to free radio in the 1990s, but also how tacit or unabashed prejudices were potentially underlying in seemingly harmless, subjective personal preferences.