Another bank holiday Monday in England, the fourth in less than two months. Regular readers will recall my disappointment over the years as to what would be heard, and frequently not, on public holidays, be that because of poor broadcasting (and reception) conditions, my limited listening station and antenna, as well as station operators having other things to occupy their time off.
Today has been a mixed bag of what I've heard, and those stations that I either didn't receive, or were simply not active.
The recent albeit unorthodox return of Weekend Music Radio was today, similar to other bank holidays in England, conspicuous by its absence, lending credence to the notion that the relays of old and contemporary programming by Jack Russel are in fact emanating from the Republic of Ireland. I believe next Monday is a bank holiday in Eire, when we may hear WMR's programmes drifting across the Irish Sea on a day other than a weekend.
On to what I did hear. An early check of the bands yielded Radio Jennifer at 0730 on 6270 kHz, whilst later in the morning a Radio Pythagoras was detected on 6200 kHz. It would seem that this was a recording of a station from the 1980s, albeit with very occasional what appeared to be live interludes where a male announced an email address - something they of course didn't have in the 80s. I wonder therefore if this was a test by an unknown operator who doesn't at this stage wish to go public, instead airing archive material as a vehicle to getting 'on the air'?
Elsewhere, free radio stalwart Radio Pamela continue to get the very most (Steve Most) out of their low power operation, with a signal peaking at S7 on 6908 kHz. Also on the 43 metre band, Radio Nova stayed true to its preferred frequency, 6940 kHz, and rock-dominated programming with only jingle idents. Laser Hot Hits was also heard in the vicinity, on 6922 kHz, but I am never sure if the station broadcasts from the UK or Ireland, or if this too was an unofficial relay of archived material.
One notable absentee was Matt Roberts' Xenon Transmitting Company (XTC), a station otherwise synonymous with bank holiday free radio. On this occasion the operator was otherwise engaged, but will hopefully return on the next bank holiday, at the end of August, which unbelievably is the last one before the festive period!
Finally, its not shortwave but another kingpin of 1990s free radio, Radio Blackbird, can currently be heard on 1512 kHz. Between the aforementioned stations there are decades and more worth of free radio experience but when they've finally hung up their microphones, what will the scene be left with?
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