Final broadcasts

Despite the passing of what is now a significant period of time, several UK-based shortwave free radio stations that have figured in this 1990s retrospective can still to this day be found on or around the 48 metre band. 

It is not the albeit honourably mentioned Radio Pamela, Xenon Transmitting Company(XTC), and Radio Merlin, as well as dormant stations like Weekend Music Radio(WMR) and Radio Pandora who are both it seems on extended hiatus, that are the focus of this blog post. 

When recently (re)listening to a YouTube clip of Live Wire Radio from approximately 20 years ago, it dawned upon me that this might well have been the last broadcast I ever heard from station operator Bill Lewis. That is not to say Live Wire called it a day at that time, but as I drifted away from the hobby and without any hard copy records or memories to suggest otherwise, there is a fair chance that this was the final time or one of the last when I heard one of the 1990s most recognizable free radio voices. 

Indeed, I can only be sure that I heard this broadcast as my phone call to the studio was acknowledged early in the show!

Despite delving into the 1990s UK-based scene to the greatest extent that I could, I have since pondered just when stations such as Live Wire, Subterranean Sounds, Scotland's Radio Gloria, and WNKR to name just a few broadcast their final programmes. It has also been a point of minor fascination as to whether these and other stations knowingly broadcasted their last programmes in a final flourish, or that they simply never returned to the air. This and what motivated individual operators to call it a day can only be answered by the protagonists themselves, but changes in circumstances, disillusionment with the hobby, and simply outgrowing what might not have had the same allure as the early salad days will surely rank highly in what has caused the significant hole left in UK free radio on shortwave by stations to this day who are conspicuous by their absence. 

It is far easier, or less difficult, to know how stations came into being and when they did so, but what characterized their final days and the reasons behind them by and large remain a mystery. This is though perhaps a metaphor for hobby pirates whose very existence must on the whole remain enigmatic and discreet. 

The door perhaps remains ajar for some stations who I otherwise assume to be consigned to history, and as such there may be operators who never actually 'officially' quit. If though broadcasters disappeared due to the deteriorating quality of free radio on shortwave, there is little on that basis to encourage them to return today.

By definition there are no rules, expectations, or standards demanded by free radio, and as such station operators can leave on a whim and return with alacrity without the need for explanation to listeners or to justify their actions to 'the man'. It is that unpredictability that has always lent a certain distinction to the scene, if albeit some operators let their so-called celebrity go to their heads - the only places it actually existed. 

It would be of interest to me if anyone out there has on record when the stations who have seemingly 'gone for good' actually called time on their presence on shortwave. Any recordings of final broadcasts would also be appreciated, even if only with hindsight has it since become apparent that these were the last times that they were heard, at least to date. 

Those were my memories - how about yours?

Two weeks after the dust has settled from the previous, and at the time final blog post detailing my experiences of UK-based shortwave free radio during the 1990's, I had hoped to receive a greater level of reader feedback than the amount my memories have effectuated. 

There has been some very welcome contact with a couple of well-known station operators of the time, one of whom is still relatively active on 48 metres to this day. I have also been pleased to share many emails with my Norwegian correspondent, someone with a depth of knowledge of the 90's scene that could only have been developed by a listener as immersed in free radio to the extent I was at the time. 

I admit that a lack of visual cues in the form of back in the day QSL cards and stickers has not helped to stimulate conversation, but my collection of free radio memorabilia has sadly long since bitten the dust. It would be easy for me to crib pertinent verification cards and the like from the internet but doing so would miss the point which my blog aimed to achieve but never quite knocked out of the park: to entirely reflect and encapsulate memories of a now very distant but once important time of my life.

Therein perhaps lies the issue - too much time has elapsed and those who listened with great interest and anticipation have long since left the scene, with nary a look back over the shoulder to reminisce, or even become reacquainted with today's scene that would be flattered by deception if described as a poor imitation. The same can be said for station operators, who perhaps have 'grown up' and in some cases would prefer to not look back to a time that might even embarrass them. Each protagonist, whether part of an expectant audience or as a broadcaster has whether they wish to impart it or not a story to tell from the 1990's, an era of free radio that undoubtedly heralded the inexorable decline of the medium.  

My writing is not to everyone's taste, nor would I ever intend to strive for something that is impossible to achieve. Although my research was as thorough as it could be for a niche within a niche whose presence on the internet was already more or less conspicuous by its absence, there will inevitably be gaps in the content where I have not done certain stations justice, with perhaps some broadcasters inadvertently overlooked altogether.

It is including these circumstances that I respectfully request the comments and memories of those who were there in the 1990's, in whatever form that took. This is not a request to stellify my blog or any particular stations, nor indeed to court pejorative observations, but field the views of those who perhaps saw things the same as I did, in a completely different way, or somewhere in between. I am not looking to rewrite history but ascertain what, if anything, my blog has brought to mind for those with this once upon a time shared interest. If though you remember you might not actually have been there; who can say...

Over to you. There may yet be further mileage to be had out of this blog, but not at the expense of tenuous, digressive, or discursive content that veers off topic to a point where a dead horse is being mercilessly flogged. 

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. 

Part 2: More of the stations I heard in the 1990's

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.

More UK stations I heard in the 90's (part 1)

In the early 1990's there were perhaps 20-30 UK-based free radio stations active on shortwave, a figure itself that was probably significantly lower than that in each of the preceding two decades. Nowadays, the number is somewhere between 8 and 12, notwithstanding the locational ambiguity of station like Laser Hot Hits and Radio Harmony.

The Radio Harmony of today is frequently heard blasting out on 5780 kHz, which it is doing as I type. In 1991 I recall a station of the same name that for a relatively short time was a regular feature around 6295 kHz, usually outside of the days conventionally thought of as the only times to be able to hear free radio stations. As with the contemporary Radio Harmony I don't recollect being too enamoured with its 90's namesake, but one thing that does stick in my mind was its rather unusual mailing address, a city somewhere in the US named Venus, before reverting to a post office box number in the genteel Essex seaside resort of Frinton on Sea. I presumed then as I do now that both stations, by nominal happenstance or connection, use(d) transmitters based in the Republic of Ireland, as I also came to believe about Laser Hot Hits that although originally located in the UK, the station's broadcasts eventually radiated from across the Irish Sea. It is these sort of uncertainties, and when programmes are recorded in one country but broadcast from another, that makes it difficult to attribute stations to being British, Irish, or from wherever.

My estimate of the amount of stations broadcasting from the UK during the 1990's initial years is based upon who I actually heard, but also from the little research material pertaining to that era that is available online. There were many other stations that I never actually had the pleasure of receiving, although several did call it a day in the early part of 1990 - several months before I started listening to 48 metres. Some of my previous blog posts have focused on who would be regarded by those who listened regularly as the big beasts of UK shortwave free radio, but there was plenty else out there besides, including those whose broadcasts were frequently heard to stations more fleeting in lifespan, to the point of being ephemeral. And then there were those that I never heard for whatever reason, whose only actuality became apparent to me through free radio publications, and from subsequent research. This blog post will though concentrate on who else I did hear, some of whom I corresponded with.

A station I believe closed down at the end of 1990 but from who I received one of my first QSL cards was Atlanta Radio. Operated by well-known free radio personality Mark Stafford, details of his wider radio career can be read at Mark Stafford and whose connection to radio, albeit through syndicated broadcasts, continues to this day: Stafford's World

Another station I only briefly received during the early 1990's was Derbyshire-based WBMX,  whose operator used the Northern Ireland SW Relay Service's facilities before going legit in BBC local radio. A fellow UK-based station that also relied upon being relayed to reach a shortwave audience was the Merseyside stalwart Concept Radio, who for a while could be heard via Eire's Jolly Roger Radio on 6230 kHz. The history of Concept and the station's embracing of modern technology through which  archived shows are streamed can be viewed at Concept News and Concept Radio

There will be many among you who are familiar with the MW Free Radio website dedicated to the Dutch Medium Wave scene and operated by David, probably the most knowledgeable person anywhere, including in the Netherlands, when it comes to what can be heard between 1.6 and 1.7 MHz. It will though perhaps be less known that David, who started listening to free radio only a few months before I did, was very active within the hobby from an early age, including the production of the self-published Pirate Chat periodical that ran for approximately six years and which gave him a solid grounding for what has today become a very successful writing career. Furthermore, as presenter Andy Winter(I think that is correct) this man for all free radio seasons produced programmes for other stations, including Live Wire Radio, and his own relay station, Radio London. There is a further connection with UK shortwave free radio that from 1994 to what is now a period of dormancy which links David to the 48 and 76-metre bands, but at the risk of saying too much and drawing all the many strands of his free radio life together, I will leave it to the man himself to elaborate further, should he wish to.

Elsewhere during the nascent years of listening to shortwave, stations I heard included Radio Gemini, Radio Ability - a station dedicated to championing the cause of the disabled and relayed by a Radio Atlantis otherwise unconnected to previous stations of that name - and the Hampshire-based Freesound Radio. 

Free radio has also had its brush with humour. Although characterized as being free from musical constraints, broadcast schedules, and programme styles it is inevitable that pirate broadcasters can become somewhat formulaic when faced with the obvious restrictions redolent with often being one-man bands transmitting from bedrooms, or in problematic remote locations. It was therefore refreshing to at times hear the already broken mould being fractured some more, albeit with often time-limited and one-off programmes aired for example on April Fools' Day. 

Voice of the Gout Sufferers was a name that would on occasion appear, obviously coincidentally, on frequencies used by Scotland's Radio Gloria. Usually consisting of short but sweet(or should that be sour?) diatribes by Bap McPhee the broadcasts would be gone as soon as they arrived, but proved that shortwave could also be a showcase for those who didn't take themselves too seriously, which several operators(no names mentioned) were perhaps in danger of doing so. Other similar instances included Weekend Music Radio's alter ego Wee Guy Radio that if memory serves me correctly once referred to Radio East Coast Commercial's operator, the late Norman Nelson, as Norman Nesquik! 

A station that was heard so infrequently that many believed it did not actually exist at all, Voice of the Leek was the only broadcaster I recall that purported to be broadcasting from Wales. Airing programmes concerned with issues of independence for the principality, there has since been some doubt cast as to whether the operator had a genuine or exaggerated Welsh accent, but regardless of the authenticity of the broadcasts they undoubtedly sprinkled the 48-metre band with an alternative to what was already termed alternative radio, but could at times be depressingly samey. Some would argue that impersonation, if that's what it was, was not in this example the highest form of flattery, but I even recall an unnamed station unfavourably comparing a character from the vulgar UK magazine VIZ to another certain well-known free radio operator of the time. Answers on a postcard...

Groovy Granny was a station that was heard for a time in the late 90's and into the early part of the millennium. It is moot as to how groovy a man purporting to be an ageing disgracefully octogenarian actually is, and whilst material for such a concept would in the end be finite, this was another example of how shortwave could be used in the name of free radio just as much to further an operator's bizarre humour as to broadcast one's own favourite music. A station QSL is included here courtesy of the Shortwave DX blog website

In many ways the UK version of shortwave free radio typified a spirit to break away from what was by then an already homogenised legal radio scene which offered little in the way of variety, or the need for presenters to think beyond the script placed in front of them. If though it was bad then, what is now to be found on FM is beyond awful. As the amount of UK-based stations on shortwave has fallen so has the multi-sided variegation of what once represented diverse characters, opinions, and music tastes, which reflected a time of freedom of expression that prosaic FM dross and political correctness have since made it their business to stamp out. 

With a larger amount of stations on the air there was always the chance of a greater diversity of styles and individuality, something which has inevitably drained away now that active UK stations number no many than perhaps a dozen. That, by the way, is not a criticism of any of those operators who continue on shortwave, when I am sure it would be far easier for them to not do so.

NEXT TIME: Part 2 of the stations who made up the UK free radio scene on shortwave in the 1990's.