This time of year inevitably takes me back to the early days of my fascination with free radio on shortwave, specifically stations broadcasting from the UK.
The Christmas period was always a special time for the listener, with 48 metres buzzing with activity that generally respected the boundaries of other stations. In other words, there was (much) less of the indiscriminate frequency hopping we see today, even though it is now far easier to check activity through remote SDR's across multiple-locations.
The early days of my listening - from the autumn of 1990 - did though differ from later in the decade. I am not saying that my word is gospel but can only relate to personal experience. For example, the early years of the 1990s would see significant activity at Christmas on 6 MHz during daylight hours, whilst mid-decade onwards the festive listening bonanza would switch to 76 Metres, where the night-time scene was equally as compelling, if not more so, as its diurnal equivalent earlier in the decade.
In the early years of the 1990s Christmas Day listening would feel like a regular Sunday, with the likes of Britain Radio International, Radio Fax, Radio Orion, West and North Kent Radio, and Radio Confusion (later to become Subterranean Sounds) happily coexisting with Jolly Roger Radio and Ozone Radio International. Marathon broadcasts on multiple channels, often going out live including the taking of telephone calls on air, made Weekend Music Radio essential listening. Inconvenienced by local and personal circumstances ensured the likes of Live Wire Radio and Station Sierra Sierra would only pop up briefly during daylight hours, whilst Total Control Radio (later the Nitrozone) would appear on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. As mentioned ad nauseum elsewhere in this blog, TCR was one that constantly eluded this correspondent.
As the decade wore on, conditions dictated that night-time broadcasts became en vogue. The powerful Live Wire Radio was a staple of the nocturnal 3 MHz landscape, and even successfully broadcast in the 'Dutch' 1.6 MHz band. Other highlights during festive evenings included Weekend Music Radio with loop tape broadcasts, as well as Radio Armadillo, Wizard Magic Spell, Subterranean Sounds, and the Belgian favourite Radio Grensjager (Borderhunter).
I am not suggesting that the evening scene did not exist when 48 Metres predominated at Christmas time, nor that 6 MHz was dead whilst 76 Metres flourished. I would though say, albeit with my fading memory of what is now over 30 years ago, that there was a distinct difference between the early and mid-to late 1990s, as atmospheric conditions and logistical issues for operators ensured that necessity was the mother of all (re)invention.
In these days of instant messaging, the Internet, mobile telephony, and social media it is now a real stretch of the imagination to recall that the best way to contact a free radio operator who had been gracious enough to give you their landline number was to let it ring once during a live broadcast, for the recipient to check 1471 to see who had called. Such simplicity, but all good fun. I guess you had to be there.
There is no comparison of then to now. Everything has changed, from all the associated variables to life in general, to such a degree that it is difficult to put one's self back into the mindset of the early 1990s. To be fair, as someone of nearly 50 years young it seems unfathomable to be writing about something I first started listening to when in my early teens. There was though something authentic about free radio in those days, with vinyl being the go to format, and technical ingenuity arguably being far more important than it is now. Who could forget those iconic maildrops that made one wonder who lived at and accessed well-known free radio addresses, and at what seemed such off-the-beaten-track P O Box numbers in Merlin, Ontario, for example.
The component parts of free radio in the 1990s made for a heady mix of interest, intrigue, and mystery that was meat and drink to yours truly. Heck, some stations even managed to successfully meld technical mastery with behind-the-mic charisma, although the vast majority of operators would have to settle for one or the other.
As another year passes by and what were to me at least the halcyon days of free radio drift further into the distance, I remind myself that an unhealthy interest in nostalgia will always leave me feeling dissatisfied. However, for the best part of a decade free radio on shortwave at Christmas time was as big as deal to me as presents, family gatherings with those now long departed, and watching my football team play on Boxing Day. Maybe nostalgia isn't what it used to be, but there was a certain something about free radio at that time which could not be bottled, quantified, or explained. How it fitted into different lives, both those of operators and listeners, is of course individual and subjective, but I continue to look back with fondness, and even some sadness.
Seasonal felicitations to all in free radio land.
