Old recordings

Several months ago, I put out an appeal to anyone with an archive of free radio recordings from the 1990s with a view to them being digitised for the internet age. Well, although it seems that my request fell on stony ground I have recently unearthed, on YouTube, a cache of fascinating clips of UK stations from the decade in question.

Whilst Achim Brueckner's website has a wealth of free radio recordings including many from UK-based stations, the sheer number of files on his website can make it somewhat time-consuming to find exactly what you are searching for. By that I do not intend any criticism of what is an incredible cornucopia of free radio miscellanea, but I am indeed fortunate to have recently stumbled across the Pirate Radio Archive YouTube channel which has a comprehensive mix of recordings that spans the lifetime of free radio from the 1960s to the present day. 

In keeping with this blog's reason for being, here are some highlights:

The big cheese himself, Bill Lewis of Live Wire Radio.

Radio Confusion, which later became Subterranean Sounds.

The inimitable Jack Russel of Weekend Music Radio.

A very young sounding Matt Roberts of Radio Mutiny, later to become the Xenon Transmitting Company.

Radio Orion, with the late Paul Johnson of UK Radio at the controls. 

48 metre band regular, West and North Kent Radio (WNKR).

Radio Pamela, still going strong 30+ years later. 

The late Norman Nelson of Radio East Coast Commercial. 

Paul Stuart of Centre Radio International that became Station Sierra Sierra, with the operator also being one half of 'out in the field' station Galaxy International. 

Radio 48, the first free station I ever heard on shortwave. 

The above is just a flavour of what could be heard broadcasting from the UK on shortwave during the 1990s, particularly the earlier part of the decade, but there will of course be other stations from the era to be found on the excellent Pirate Radio Archive YouTube channel.

This blog has somehow staggered along to its fiftieth post and will therefore raise its bat to the pavilion for a well-earned half century. It has retired more than once only to re-emerge with more 'never can say goodbye' musings on a great era of free radio, a genre that was though already in decline from its golden, halcyon era from the 1960s to the mid to late 1980s. 

It is of course relative to when one started listening to hobby pirates, with the 1990s representing a significant high-water mark compared to subsequent decades, but those who listened in the preceding years will likely say it bore no comparison to what went before. Different times, people, technologies (including mediums of communication), music, expectations, standards, and societal norms are all reflected in how free radio has changed.

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