So far in this blog I have name-checked the UK-based stations whose broadcasts were particularly memorable to me, and/or were heard the most often during the 1990's. With that list now having somewhat dwindled, I will move on to the other operators that I received less frequently during the decade, but still played a significant part in shaping the free radio scene.
The Wizard's Magic Spell, later Wizard Radio, might to some be little known from just one or both of these sobriquets, but the station operator was otherwise one of the most prominent UK free radio personalities on shortwave throughout the first two thirds of the '90's. A loss of interest in free radio, similar to that of your correspondent, was replaced with the inevitable principal aspects of adulthood but a gradual reintroduction to shortwave and beyond has resulted in an almost complete reintegration in a field of interest which although having moved on during the last 30 years, still offers every so often those reminders why this compelling diversion never really leaves those who initially become hooked. It is therefore wise to not rule out the Wizard's eventual return to the airwaves.
Several UK stations, similar to the previously mentioned Concept and WBMX, relied upon relays to get their respective points across. The misleadingly named Belgian International Relay Service - the clue to its actual location is not in the name - gave a helping hand to several operators during the early to mid-nineties, including Optimod and the former West Midlands-based FM station, Citadel Radio. These broadcasts would usually take place on 6239 kHz.
The World's Greatest Anorak Station(WGAS), a title to not only conjure with but with much to live up to, was in effect an offshoot of WNKR(West and North Kent Radio) and did exactly what it said on the tin. Whilst programming predicated on offshore radio reminiscence, as well as free radio from past decades that would be regarded by a certain generation as undoubtedly the genre's golden era might not have been to everyone's taste, it is important to remember that the stations I preferred might not themselves have been greatly popular with older listeners. All of those who tuned in to free radio would have the same desire to listen to alternative broadcasting that wasn't constrained by anything but personal circumstances and the operators' imaginations, but otherwise there would always be room for those who preferred contrasting output in what was and very much remains to this day a 'horses for courses' aspect to free radio.
Elsewhere, Rocket 48 and Good Music Radio(GMR) were two unrelated stations I distinctly remember hearing, but aside from the latter's rather cursory Beccles-based address, there is little I can add from my own memories of either. The same can also be said for the Free Radio Service London(FRSL), who I presume was inextricably linked to the operators of WNKR, WFRL(Wonderful Free Radio London), and WGAS. As ever, I am happy to receive input from those with greater knowledge on these and the other stations mentioned, and where applicable correct any inadvertent errors.
The 90's version of a station that had been in existence in previous decades, Britain's Better Music Station(BBMS), was fronted by the vocal free radio notable Gar(r)y Stevens. Also the voice behind Radio Experimental - I presume loggings of Radio EXP from the same era amounted to both names being one and the same - Stevens additionally involved himself with Irish station Ozone Radio International, although the former Westside Radio had greater resonance with this listener when under the sole control of Prince Terry.
Stations I also heard during his period included Radio Zodiac, and a one-off appearance during a QSO by the Gloucestershire-based Radio Jupiter.
Radio Skeleton was not a station I actually heard until a change of name to Radio Antares; more a case of being in the right place at the right time than deliberate avoidance of its initial alias. Operated by Oscar the Engineer, Skeleton and Antares straddled the decades into the new millennium, but alas our paths rarely crossed during a period when my periods of listening became fewer and further between, before ceasing altogether for the best part of a decade. Although I am digressing from the intended course of this blog post, other UK stations that I missed out on but who took up the reins during the early to mid 'noughties' were Radio Underground and the eponymous Grolschman.
A station that has now gone legit and broadcasts from Portsmouth on the English south coast, Angel Radio/FM indirectly stemmed from the by then former but fellow Hampshire-based operator Freesound Radio, whose transmitter would be used by its de facto successor primarily on 6219 kHz. There was also some crossover with Overflow International, another station that too for a time could be heard via the 'Belgian'(ahem) International Relay Service, and whose DJ's on occasion would guest on Freesound. Its former operator, Mark King, and the decisively nicknamed Weird Beard and Hippy Chick would provide much of Angel's output.
In keeping with the operators that appeared to be omnipresent on 48 metres, either relatively so or in actuality, I did not devote a great deal of listening time to UK Radio International, a station usually found on 6266 kHz. There was to me at the time a certain weariness of stations that were the antithesis of less being more, who held little in the way of surprise in their programme content and didn't engender rapt anticipation of when they might next appear on the bands. If time though has taught me anything about those operators who devoted so much of their lives to what seemed to be a 24/7 schedule, it is that they deserve my utmost retrospective respect. Just because a station has been around for a significant length of time doesn't automatically absolve it from criticism, nor that it is not beyond reproach, but equally so that it shouldn't be disrespected for ploughing its own furrow, come Hell or high water. That is, after all, what free radio is about. There are no rules, nor a right or wrong way to broadcast. Each must very well remain to his/her own, for both the broadcaster and listener.
A stalwart in West Midlands free radio, both on FM and shortwave, operator Paul Johnson was by his own admission a legal radio DJ in the making, having pursued without success a career in the mainstream - in effect using UK Radio and other well-known outlets as unofficial auditions for roles that never materialized. His untimely death, now some 18 years ago at the awfully young age of 42, left a sizeable absence on shortwave and in the lives of all who knew him. A future post will go into greater detail of Paul's radio backstory.
NEXT TIME: Those who were there, but I never knew.
