Then versus now

As I like to say, comparisons are odious. To outright compare eras, people, individuals, and even free radio stations suggests one is approaching from an analogous perspective to reach negative, pejorative conclusions, coming from a 'better in my day' standpoint, if you like.

There are many variables to consider when standing up the 1990s free radio against its modern day iteration. Societal changes, particularly but not exclusively perpetuated by Social Media have altered humanity, and of course how people access and produce aural content. The advent of internet radio stations obviously involves a different form of technology required to bring an 807 valve rig into life, but unless one is misty-eyed about the ways of the past and lamenting how Social Media and Machine Learning AI have dulled individual and critical thinking, there are few if any compelling arguments to state which is 'better'. Preferences are one thing, what is actually better is quite another, but that only really stands up if there are two (or more) different approaches (traditional and contemporary) that ultimately arrive at the same outcome. 

My longwinded way of attempting but failing to get to the nub of comparison when in effect standing one era against another is, yes, odious. If I was going to find a criterion to laud one scene over another, it involves the wider significance of everything now being instantly accessible, rather than one having to work for it and wait. If only from an intellectual perspective, I feel it is correct to suggest that what is pondered over and then actioned is preferable to the instantly achievable. 

Leaving aside tech, societal change and the changing face of media consumption from linear to one-demand - heck, I even listen to Weekend Music Radio on catch up - this blog post is going to look at the respective shortwave free radio scenes, and how they stack up against each other. Not from a critical standpoint, but merely how they have changed, or perhaps have not.

Firstly, there are still plenty of familiar voices on the bands that in some cases were taking their first tentative broadcasting steps in the 1990s, whilst others have been around even longer. Radio Pamela, Pandora, Weekend Music Radio, and the Xenon Transmitting Company (XTC but previously Radio Mutiny) as a collective are arguably more active on shortwave than they were 30+ years ago, whilst further afield the likes of  Radio Delta / Delta Radio, Voice of the Netherlands, and even Radio Barones are still 'out there'. 

It is obvious to me that several stations from the UK that have only appeared in relatively recent times involve older operators who were first introduced to the hobby in perhaps the 1980s, or earlier still. I am not suggesting that there weren't any older operators in the 1990s, but in those days 'start up' stations such as Radio Confusion (later Subterranean Sounds), Live Wire Radio, Radio Blackbeard, Station Sierra Sierra, and so on were founded by a much younger demographic than those today who are introducing new names to shortwave. This obviously suggests that the nuts and bolts of building a free radio station is not appealing to younger age groups, with the technology and processes to get on the airwaves in general, not just shortwave, being far different to what they were. 

This leads me into broadcasters who like to relay other stations, not from cassettes sent to them a la the Northern Ireland Relay Service, but seemingly random choices from the internet that presumably correlate with the operators own interests / tastes, if albeit without the knowledge of  anyone involved with the inadvertently relayed station. There was an example of this only the past week, as Dance UK, an internet collective of DJs, found itself being relayed onto 6.9 MHz. Another illustration of this is the intermittent relaying of Coast FM, a Tenerife or Canary Irelands-based station, for reasons only known to the relayer. If you enjoy a station, why not just listen to it in the comfort of your own home, rather than feeling the need to be a conduit between the originator, and a somewhat bemused shortwave audience?

I am not saying the relays other than those pre-arranged and paid for didn't occur in the 1990s, but I would say that in the main it is a far more recent phenomenon, and obviously reflects the number of stations worldwide instantly available online, and their commensurate accessibility. Perhaps the rig owner simply wants the thrill of broadcasting on shortwave, but without the effort of putting out their own programmes? 

It has often been a moot point as to whether shortwave operators actually want to communicate with listeners, many of whom are slavishly devoted to QSL-card collecting rather than spending a greater length of time listening to what used to be semi-curated programmes, with a dash of off the cuff chat for good measure. I am though not a hypocrite; in my far younger days I was impatient to hear an ID, write down a track or two, before combing the band for other stations. To receive demands for a QSL on this basis must have really grated with some / many operators, to several of whom I was probably a borderline pain. This contrite author is now very much a poacher turned gamekeeper. 

However, for those stations that did / do like to receive feedback (no pun intended) about their signal and modulation, listeners were far more important in the past than in the contemporary SDR waterfall times in which we live. It is now extremely easy to monitor your own signal using a remote SDR from just about anywhere in the world, which severely restricts the need to solicit contact from listeners. If a station operator can self-monitor whilst playing music they presumably like, where is the motivation to put out an email address? Talking of such, in the early 1990s until about 1996 contact was all about writing to 'snail mail' addresses, often to locations synonymous with the time: Victoria Road, Salisbury; Green Park, Bath and so on, along with often heard P O Box drop offs in Wuppertal, Merlin, and Herten. There would also be a few stations that would risk their own addresses being announced, or that of a trusted associate, but there would always be a risk that a listener would, for example, put Midlands Music Radio on the envelope, instead of the more vague but safer MMR. 

After 1996, I recall mobile telephone numbers being announced and just before the turn of the millennium, email addresses would become more common. Nevertheless, when I left the hobby in 2002/3 (until about 2015) mailing addresses were still common, if albeit complemented by their email equivalent. Nowadays, it is exceptionally rare to hear a postal address or a mobile number being announced. The change from traditional to electronic mail is understandable, and of course is instantaneous, but phone contact, or the lack of it, suggests that many programmes are pre-recorded, removing the element of live interaction between operator and listener. There will though be individual reasons depending on the station in question, but the phone ringing in the studio during a live broadcast certainly added a frisson of interest, at least to this listener.

One counterintuitive downside to instant messaging is just that - its immediacy. Gone are the days when listeners would have to accept quite a wait to hear from operators, who in most cases would have to twiddle their thumbs before their box number or remote address forwarded their mail. Nowadays, listeners know that stations that announce an email address will receive their email straightaway, and in their minds will assume that a reply will be just as swift. For all the good things that Weekend Music Radio has brought to free radio, prompt replying has never been one of them ! However, I think I am right in saying that Jack has received emails complaining that a very recently sent previous email has not been replied to, even if it was only sent a day or two before. This is now though a societal norm; the instantaneous nature of technology and a cutthroat marketplace has brought up a generation hardwired to expect everything yesterday. 

There will I am sure be other areas of free radio that are very different in the modern era to what is four decades ago, but the use of 3 MHz in the 1990s during the evenings precipitated a significant amount of enjoyment I gained from the hobby. As far as I am aware, 76 metres is not characteristic with the free radio scene of today, but back in the day was the backbone of much of what was broadcast from the UK. It has been addressed ad nauseum within this blog, but the likes of Subterranean Sounds, Radio Armadillo, Weekend Music Radio, Wizard's Magic Spell, and Live Wire made Saturday nights something to look forward to. If one station wasn't active, others would be. There was, it seemed, an etiquette of not broadcasting when one of your aforementioned  contemporaries was active, compared to today when all the technology in the world doesn't seem to be enough for some operators to check a frequency before deciding upon it.

Previous posts have reminisced about bank holidays and shortwave free radio. Of the few bank holidays we have in the UK, this is perhaps the one that I associate the least with listening to hobby pirates, as conditions often worsened before rebooting in the late summer / early autumntime. Maybe I just had other things to do during the brief spells of nice weather normally associated with late May / early June. The realities of adult life means that will probably involve visiting a garden centre.

Has free radio changed of its own accord, or is it simply mirroring wider social change ? I personally think the latter, and whilst the Alan Deutschman book screams Change or Die, free radio will continue to buck trends in some ways, but in the end be just as influenced by moving with the times as any other part of life. Putting aside the futility of stating which era was better, I am though sure, for me at least, which I prefer.

The 90's to present day: Who still remains on shortwave?

The overarching aim of this blog was always predicated on harking back to a past that is not memorialized elsewhere, other than perhaps by a few downloaded QSL cards and certain stations mentioned little more than in passing. If I can be afforded to use 'the past' in this sense as a reference to the 1990's, there are though several links to it still active on shortwave to this day, some of which are continuations in one form or other that have endured over the last three decades. 

Radio Blackbeard was a station I first heard in 1994, who I initially recall using 48 metres on Saturday mornings. The history of the operator's interest in free/pirate radio did though go back to the 80's, when Dave Norris started broadcasting on FM under the name Buzz FM, within a certain metropolitan area of England's East Midlands. Friendship with free radio leviathans Bill Lewis and Paul Stuart eventually led Dave into shortwave broadcasts using Radio Blackbeard as his HF hat, with a dance music policy favouring the trance genre that reflected the staple output of Buzz.

I cannot recall when Radio Blackbeard ceased broadcasting under that guise on shortwave, but Dave has never really left the scene, including what was for a while a regular stint on Lazer Hot Hits. and continues to this day to broadcast under his original ident but on 1494 kHz, albeit with a limited geographic reach due to a strong Moldovan broadcaster that uses the channel during daylight hours. Buzz is though occasionally heard some distance away when conditions allow, including via the Scottish-based Argyll SDR remote receiver. 

There was though to be another strand to Mr. Blackbeard's presence on shortwave in the 1990's. Regular broadcasts with Station Sierra Sierra's Paul Stuart and other local radio luminaries commenced in the latter part of the decade under the name Galaxy International, not to be confused with the entirely unrelated Radio Galaxy, the previous name of who we know today as Radio Merlin. These entertaining but labour-intensive transmissions were conducted out in the field, quite literally, where remote broadcast sites would be used to reduce the chances of RF interference piquing the interest of local neighbours and the authorities. Running regular broadcasts from car batteries in countryside where there will always be a passing hiker with more than a little curiosity as to what is occurring is though a form of free radio martyrdom, and whilst highly laudable and even a tad romanticized for those listening rather than at the sharp end, it was inevitable that these enjoyable live broadcasts would eventually come to an end. I always recall the 1998 David Morales track Needin' U being a regular feature of broadcasts, and was obviously a favourite at the time of Paul Stuart.

My previous blog post mentioned how not only did Radio Mutiny and Radio Galaxy eventually morph into XTC and Merlin respectively, but that they are to this day still operating to some degree or other on shortwave. Whilst Merlin is a daily feature on 6305 kHz XTC's presence is a case of less being more, although by Matt Roberts' own admission the station has perhaps been more active since the advent of the novel coronavirus than at any other time in its history. 

The 1990's version of Radio Mi Amigo brought me at the time into contact with the amiable Terry Phillips. Subsequently involved with the likes of WNKR(West and North Kent Radio, in case you were wondering), WFRL(Wonderful Free Radio London) and Focus International, Terry can still on occasion be heard guesting on Radio Pamela, which brings me on to...

Another operator who has been broadcasting on shortwave long before I became aware of free radio stations on shortwave, Steve Most's Radio Pamela has remained a constant presence insomuch that the name has remained unchanged since I first received the station in 1991. I would otherwise say that Pamela's broadcasts have over the years been sporadic, although I undoubtedly missed a great many of them what with Steve's penchant for transmitting on frequencies outside where many listeners would venture to hear free radio broadcasts. As with XTC Radio Pamela has over the last year been a particularly and relatively frequent presence, predominantly on 7 MHz, mainly 7605 kHz, and latterly 6803 and 6319 kHz. With a liking for rock classics and even the Japanese take on the genre, the best way to keep up to date with Steve's intentions is via his Twitter page: Radio Pamela Twitter 

Aside from Radio Pamela there was also a short-lived station in the 1990's named Radio 49, who I believe that Steve Most was also involved with. Any further information would be appreciated.

Since the demise of the Bogusman's broadcasts following a raid two years ago by OFCOM(Office of Communications) that was precipitated by the use of an International Distress Frequency - the one in question being 6312 kHz - and something of a schoolboy error for such an experienced free radio operator, Mike Wilson/Bogus has been completely absent from conventional broadcasting. Conventional in this sense would equate to free radio operators using their own broadcast equipment - transmitter, antenna, et al. 

In recent times the inimitable Bogusman and his unorthodox take on life that remains a nonpareil on shortwave has once again resurfaced, albeit having finally fallen on his sword by going legit and paying for broadcast slots on the German-based Channel 292. It would be very easy for the Bogusman to call it a day now that the classic route to free radio broadcasting has all but been closed to him but who knows, perhaps using alternative facilities is just a stop-gap before re-emerging on shortwave in a manner to which he has been accustomed under various guises including Radio Orion and the Bogus Jobseeker. Another former exponent of Orion, The Ghoul, someone who revels in shall we say a rather atypical broadcasting style has also been heard on Channel 292, whose schedule for both 6 and 9 MHz is worth keeping an eye on for future Bogusman programmes.

My logbooks and hard copy QSL cards from the 1990's have sadly long since bitten the dust, and therefore cannot act as a useful point of reference when compiling these blog posts. I am therefore very much relying on, and at the mercy of, my memory which inevitably will not recall all that occurred on shortwave that emanated from the UK. A classic example of this is not being able to pinpoint the exact time I first heard Radio Pandora, although I would estimate it to be during 1993. As was common with other stations during the first Covid-related lockdown I noticed a spike in Pandora's output, often with a signal that was far stronger than during my frustrated attempts to hear station operator Steve St. John in the '90's. 

As I have written elsewhere - Free Radio in the time of Covid-19 - listening to shortwave free radio during my convalescence from novel coronavirus provided some much needed solace and positivity, and in many ways reignited my interest in free radio which admittedly has since fluctuated. Radio Pandora was one of those stations that helped my recovery by not only broadcasting when I had little else to do but rest, but also through replying to my emails which were perhaps the first ever correspondence I shared with Steve, 27 years after first hearing him on the 48-metre band. Radio Pandora has once more retreated into the shadows, but I believe that some broadcasts have been made on Medium Wave frequencies.

Kudos to both Steves, Most and St. John, for persevering with a hobby that is obviously in their blood. I don't know about Steve Most, but the operator of Radio Pandora is somewhere between the end of his seventh decade and the early part his eighth, but it is the commitment and persistence of these and other operators who have over several decades regaled listeners with their own choice of music, often I am sure despite at times awkward personal and local circumstances and when they've had to very much work around difficulties to remain on the air.

NEXT TIME: More of the stations that formed the UK free radio scene on shortwave in the 1990's.