From Radio Blackbeard to Galaxy International and beyond, there is still a buzz around UK-based free radio

It was 1994. Andy Winter's Radio Aires and Radio London had morphed into the Wizard's Magic Spell(WMS), adding a further dash of UK-based intrigue and something listenable to the 48 and 76 metre bands.

From an initial interest in late-1990 the free radio scene of my choosing, i.e. those stations that broadcasted from the UK, there was an ebb and flow before it seemed to hit the buffers during 1993. Listening conditions had markedly deteriorated and some of the operators formerly heard very often had decided to devote more time to extra-curricular activities - if indeed those things and not being behind a free radio 'pirate' station could be classed as extra-curricular. It was though an affront to my somewhat immature brain that several favourite broadcasters who were formerly prolific on 6 MHz were now using their time in ways which to them were akin to 'getting out more' - for example spending more time with the opposite sex, and less in dark makeshift studios whilst perhaps talking to a handful of listeners, or less. 

Dialling back to 1994, the emergence of WMS added a pleasing accompaniment to and perhaps was a consequence of improving conditions, complemented by the subsequent reappearance or return by those who had been relatively conspicuous by their individual and collective absence. The year in question seemed if anything to herald a new era for established and popular broadcasters such as Live Wire, Weekend Music Radio(WMR), Radio Armadillo, and Subterranean Sounds to name just a few. Supplemented by not only WMS but an additional UK-based broadcaster known particularly well by one of the aforementioned operators, the UK free radio scene on shortwave seemed to be galvanised, once more making it interesting, entertaining, and often compelling.

I first heard Radio Blackbeard one Saturday morning on 6 MHz. Station operator Dave Norris had always remained true to his dance music preferences - something he does to this day. Feeding listeners on a rich diet of commercial and lesser-known dance and trance classics Blackbeard had the beat and edge of an FM pirate station, but which lent a different dynamic to what was normally heard on the shortwave frequencies favoured by free radio operators. Two tracks that immediately spring to mind that I heard on Blackbeard were Tinman - 18 Strings and Nush - neither were especially ground breaking but very much of their time but despite this, were not heard a great deal on mainstream radio when compared to contemporaries such as The Prodigy, Tony di Bart, Snap! and Maxx. 

That was though often the point of free radio which resonated the most with me - hearing music that wasn't just another rehash of what could be heard on local(legal) FM stations or on Top of the Pops. The freedom to play what an operator wanted and not be hamstrung by playlists or demands by advertisers gave listeners to free radio a much wider choice, but what excuses did those broadcasting the same music that could be heard anywhere actually have? The argument does though remain that free radio operators had the license(pun intended) to play what they pleased; it wasn't their mandate to pander to demographics or 'safe' tastes, or even actually please their listeners. 

As the 1990s wore on I increasingly drifted in and out of free radio as guess what, I too started to get a life outside of the house and away from the Saturday night and Sunday morning listening routine. I would though periodically hear Blackbeard - a station I always regarded as a welcome antidote to an increasingly Dutchification of the free radio frequencies. 

A rebooted version of both Radio Blackbeard and Station Sierra Sierra, another giant of the UK-based free radio scene during the 1990s, coalesced into a joint venture known as Galaxy International; not to be confused with Radio Galaxy which eventually gave birth to the Radio Merlin we all know today. Galaxy International was no ordinary venture for Dave, and Sierra Sierra operator Paul Stuart, who took their fondness of shortwave broadcasting to great lengths by transmitting quite literally out in the field from remote locations, where local interference was minimal to non-existent and issues with neighbours hearing free radio operators coming through on their televisions and landlines was thankfully conspicuous by its absence. One track I remember being an obvious favourite of the station was Needin' U by David Morales and although signals were not always great the sheer effort put in by Dave and Paul, as well as an assortment of guests cannot be underestimated. The early days of mobile phone and email communication were utilised to connect listeners in real time with Galaxy International.

The years passed, and I assumed that like so many other stations Galaxy International and its operators had moved on, which was more or less correct. However, Paul Stuart can still be heard broadcasting on the Leicestershire-based community station The Eye but Dave has returned to his Buzz FM roots - albeit now on the medium wave band but with still the same passion for broadcasting and dance/trance music as ever.

The medium wave band is a tough nut to crack for low-powered operators who have so many legal UK and European powerhouse broadcasters to compete with, and where possible, avoid. Buzz FM has been broadcasting on either 1494 or 1512 Khz in the last year, although I last heard the station on the latter. Due to my location and distance from Buzz's QTH I am best able to hear the station via the Doncaster-based SDR remote receiver but only after 10 pm. If you are able to detect a signal but unable to identify the broadcaster, it is worth comparing what you can hear with Buzz's Radio.Garden stream to ascertain if indeed it is the station.

I have pondered if today's free radio should be more about the dwindling band of individuals who are joining the hobby, those from the past who are still 'doing it' or the now tenuous connections to yesteryear which we cling to in a scene that is a pale imitation of its former self. Free radio will always represent different things to different people, with the past being anathema to many listeners just as the modern day version of it is of little interest to those who were around in the various heydays of the genre. That though in itself opens up another argument of when were the halcyon days of free radio? Again, a straw poll would elicit many different responses.

My best wishes to Dave for renewed good health. I am sure he would welcome contact from anyone who hears Buzz FM. 

Hidden in plain sight: Those UK-based stations that slipped the net

The aim of this blog has always been to impart my personal experiences of hearing UK-based free radio stations on shortwave, but that doesn't automatically guarantee that I can fully do justice to the entire scene of the time just by compiling a compendium of operators that caught my attention during the 1990's. 

Even if I had had some of the finest listening equipment at my disposal, which as previously discussed I emphatically did not, it would have been nigh on impossible to not only have heard every UK-based station who ever transmitted during the decade, but to be a self-styled authority on the subject. I neither claim to have 'heard it all' nor to be an oracle on this strand of shortwave broadcasting, but my memories of the time, which have to some extent flooded back when initially stimulated, and a deep dive into what little research material there is on the internet have at least allowed me to give listeners who were there at the time, and those that were not, an as definitive as possible impression of what could be heard on the 76, 48, and 41 metre bands.

I do feel to be able to do this that the stations I never actually received but whose existence I was aware of in real time, and in many cases after the event, also merit some column inches. To do this is perhaps counter-intuitive to the blog's reason for being, but in a free society the theory goes that all are equal; in the world of free radio, whatever stripe, persuasion, or prominence every operator represented, I think it only fair that each gets as fair a hearing as possible. I will leave it to anyone who wishes to impart their own knowledge of any station mentioned, and those not, to do greater justice than perhaps I am able, but a more or less complete overview of the 1990's UK shortwave scene would not be worthy of the name without acknowledging those operators that I was not fortunate enough to receive.

Just because a station wasn't heard does not mean it never existed. You may ask as to how I can give credence to those whom I never received, and am therefore relying on loggings of the time to excuse my ignorance. Well, nobody could listen to free radio 24/7, with it being inevitable on this basis that broadcasts would always be missed. Also, as already stated, hearing low power operators was not always a certainty when using the basic receivers and rudimentary antennas that characterized my modest listening post. With an absence of internet message boards that now give listeners a real time 'heads up' as to who is broadcasting and where, the 1990's greatly relied on three things to hear the vast majority of stations: 1 - a half-decent receiver and antenna 2 - ample spare time and patience and 3 - being at the right place(frequency, band) at the right time, especially when the length of some broadcasts would be of the 'blink and you've missed them' type.

Some of the names I recall and that my research has confirmed include Radio Lion, Radio Fox, The Edge(with a London mail drop) and Radio Utopia. I have not been able to elicit any further information on this quartet but they were there, as were the equally elusive Power 48, UK GM(Good Music?) and Lightning International, a station fronted by the correspondingly meteorological-affiliated Steve Storm and that used an east Manchester P.O.Box number. My scrutiny has failed to ascertain if UK GM was a variation of the name used by Good Music Radio(GMR), a station I did receive and one mentioned in a previous blog post. 

A Scottish-based station, Radio Freedom International, afforded Andy Winter, the frontman of relay station Radio London and a guest on several other stations, his first chance to get on the air - at the age of 12. This would have been at some point in 1989, and perhaps a whole year before my transition from conventional shortwave listening to its alternative attractions. Although this would suggest Freedom was an '80's station and therefore a non sequitur for this blog, it did continue to broadcast into the early 1990's but was never actually heard by myself.

Relay station Overflow International  - in this example I define the term 'relay station' as I do for Radio London as a station without its own transmitting equipment - was another who used the spuriously-named Belgian International Relay Service, and might also have benefited from a broadcasting leg-up from Radio Mirage. There was some crossover between Overflow and Hampshire-based Freesound Radio, for whom DJ's of the former would guest on occasion, but in its own right this is another station whose path never crossed mine.

I have been informed by a very reputable source that Telstar South, a station familiar to those who listened in the 1970's and '80's, was also active on shortwave in the 1990's. Rebooted in the early part of the new millennium, albeit again not heard by your correspondent who at that point had stopped listening for perhaps a decade, original operator Horace Cracksman was once more at the controls and often heard on 5 MHz but by the time I had returned to taking an interest in free radio, he and Telstar South had once more escaped my attention.

In a previous post that ruminated on the change of names undertaken by several stations, Total Control Radio, later The Nitrozone, was among those mentioned. It didn't make any difference as to what the station, and its operator, were known as, insomuch that its infrequent but not extremely rare broadcasts remained elusive to me. The only time I actually heard Steve Collins/Des Francis was when he guested on a Subterranean Sounds broadcast. 

Perhaps the most unusual station which in truth most UK-based listeners probably never heard, Wrekin Radio International(WRI) only to my knowledge used 12 MHz, a higher frequency where daytime broadcasts would normally skip out beyond the UK, but be heard in continental Europe and perhaps beyond. As is often the proving ground for shortwave operators Wrekin began life on FM, in the county of Shropshire, taking its name from the eponymous hill, The Wrekin, that forms the most prominent part of the county's elevated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty(AONB). 

Situated at over 1,300 feet above sea level, The Wrekin would in theory be an excellent spot from where to conduct mobile broadcasts, but I am not aware if this occurred. It is said that WRI used 12 MHz to not only avoid a then crowded 48-metre band but to also position itself near a popular established broadcaster, in this case Radio Fax - 12255 kHz being one of its frequencies - to hopefully attract the attention of the sizeable audience who listened in to Trevor Brook's station.

Another station that a previous post touched upon was Radio Experimental, who might have also been known as the abbreviated Radio EXP. The brainchild of vocal free radio mainstay Gar(r)y Stevens, Experimental and indeed EXP, was a station I saw logged, I think on 6210 kHz, but was another that never darkened my radio, unlike another of Stevens' projects, Britain's Better Music Station(BBMS). The operator has over the years been heard on many stations, in particular those based in the south of England, but is not the same Stevens behind the https://members7.boardhost.com/PirateRadio/ website and forum - the latter often being more bear pit than a friendly talking shop. I am thankful to Kai Salvesen and XTC's Matt Roberts for their help untangling this Gordian knot.

I would of course welcome the fleshing out of any of the stations mentioned above; as ever, I am also happy to put more meat on the bones and where applicable, correct any inadvertent errors.