Is Pirate Radio Still A Thing In 2023?

[@scottlarson1548]

There is a station here that many people think is a pirate. Near the end of the year it suddenly begins transmitting and plays random things like classic radio shows from the 1940s. That certainly sounds like pirate radio content but it's actually a licensed AM radio station that the owner has decided isn't worth operating full time yet it needs to transmit for a certain number of hours during the year to avoid losing its license.

[@chrismurray5846]

Interesting. I was tuning around a radio a few months back and heard an old 40's radio drama late at night on AM, old commercials and all, and wondered who it was possibly geared to.

[@fieryfredthebeaconlighter2259]

I was a DJ on a pirate back in the late 70’s early 80’s… absolutely loved it.

[@PaperworkNinja]

I would have loved a drum & bass station back when I was in college. I still wouldn't mind it now, 25 years later.

[@sivoltage]

Do it

[@helijim]

The luxury pirates have today is how they link from the studio to the transmitter. In the good old days, it was done with band 4 and band 1 links, and also microwave links, which was even better. Now you just use a dongle with a 3G card with a raspberry pi and stream the audio to this via the internet and there's your link. The great thing about this is that you can have transmitters anywhere and everywhere in the world as opposed to being in range of your studio.

[@Thefreakyfreek]

Or not use radio at all and just stream your stuf to the internet directly If that are more in to the music part of it And not the iligal stuf

[@m0-m0597]

The internet is overrated

[@telebubba5527]

@@m0-m0597 I purely use the internet radio for more than 20 years. FM is dead to me, just as DAB+. I can get multiple 10s of thousands of radio stations from all over the world and a lot of them without any advertising. I've never really understood why people pay for streaming services. It's totally unnecessary. I used to be into the pirate radio stations in the 60s and 70s on the North Sea and after that land pirates for a while, but I think there are non left here today because of the internet. I haven't listened for a while.

[@michaels106]

@helijim the good old days when especially on a hot day the link would start crackling over the transmission. Remember that happening and I touched the link wire in the studio and it sent a shock straight up my arm that f***ing hurt But it stopped the crackling over the transmission. 😂

[@JamesHalfHorse]

Yeah internet and/or wireless tech has finally gotten reliable enough I was able to switch my STLs from 900mhz analog links to internet based equipment or a wifi link to the tower. The encoders I use give me up to 60s dynamic buffer to deal with packet loss. How it does it is pretty cool and the listener never notices the delay changing. I am still on bonded T1s at one location but the rest is fiber from the wisp that rents tower space from us. But yeah a pi you can remote into playing mp3s into a 100 dollar chinese fm transmitter will get you places. In a broadcast group some guys I think in South America somewhere who build their own transmitters then add an amplifier stage to bring it up to a few hundred watts maybe a kilowatt. Throw it all in a 4u rack chassis with some power supplies and you got a radio station. No idea if it's legal or not or if there is regulation wherever they are but seem to take pride in building with what they can get. All of it is off the shelf online but nowhere near legal in the US at least.

[@joshjones3227]

Myself and a friend visited London in 2009 and I brought an FM receiver and recorder with me. From a friend's flat in central London we heard Force 106.5, Innacity 102.5 and Supreme dance 96.1. I heard many other stations, but those are the three I have recordings of. I noted there were more pirates on the air than commercial stations.

[@vwestlife]

It's interesting that there are so many dance stations, and they're all using RDS. In New York City, the pirates are mostly ethnic, many are only on the air during evenings and weekends, and very few, if any, are transmitting RDS.

[@billmilosz]

There was an FM pirate operating in Chicago for about the past 10 years; shut down by the FCC in spring of 2022. I haven't heard any pirates since.

[@Brettski777]

Kurupt FM will never die !! Keeping it real. 😊

[@RingwayManchester]

The rest are irrelevant

[@AutisticFloppa]

keepin it kurupt! throw up the k's

[@WorldMoneyWins]

I always wanted a pirate station. The movie "Pump Up The Volume" still holds water to this day!

[@radioweebdx7680]

Always bring an FM radio with you when you visit London.

[@Trancetechniqueradio]

That's how I discovered Rude FM And Dream FM Back In 1996.

[@TheOnjLouis]

I grew up listening to London’s pirate radio stations. My uncle Adrian (RIP) even broadcast on PRS in the 80’s as ‘DJ Pickles.’ Good times, good times.

[@cybersheep]

Great video, and long may Underground Bass keep the spirit of the original Kool alive!

[@gonzo_the_great1675]

Apparently the London pirates are venturing into DAB. With multiple pirate studio feeds on the mux.

[@3rdalbum]

Fascinating, I never thought there would still be pirate radio. I fancied myself as a pirate radio DJ and I used ro play music through a single walkie-talkie. That *was* when I was like 12.

[@andykirby]

Amazing rog! We had a great time in London 🙌🏻

[@LeaennaGrace]

UNDERGROUND BASS IS ALIVE AND KICKING ❤ FRESH STATION WITH SOME OF THE MOST TALENTED MCS DJS, #EAZYLIFE

[@daddydagoth4669]

Near me (Midwest USA), large chunks of frequency from 20-30MHz have been overtaken by radio pirates. It’s rendered much of the 10m band and CB unusable; it’s been going on so long that I’m surprised the FCC hasn’t done anything about it.

[@JW12345.]

A couple of days ago i heard some old guy shouting about 'Mother Nature' on 26 Mhz

[@jvanb231]

Large chunks of CB are unusable ... super bowl users like to talk on channel 5, 6 and 7 all at once.

[@mr.pavone9719]

Until they start affecting advertising dollars or organizing terrorist attacks, the FCC won't do much.

[@RevMikeBlack]

I'm in coastal South Carolina. I haven't found any pirate stations yet in that range, but I'll start looking.

[@Isochest]

I do hear a lot of US CBers between mainly 26-28mhz using high power AM by the sound of them here in the UK. Always a good indicator for openings on the 10m ham band. Didn't know they went down below 26MHz. I hear loads of Russians too all over that segment

[@danielscotcher]

I do miss pirate radio days in my area, Raw FM 107.9 was around Luton for many many years. I still tune into some when I’m working down London

[@halfbakedproductions7887]

Apparently Ireland has such lax and patchy regulation that pirates there have been broadcasting on DAB. I also personally believe they should have an amnesty for some of these stations. Most of them are perfectly harmless (at least in terms of the content) and the local community enjoy them.

[@Firefoxfifty]

I'm in Ireland, and I used to love listening to the pirate radio stations when they were at their peak in the late 80's early 90's.

[@MyOwnWayMusic]

I was a lookout on Radio Jackie 227 metres MW/AM back in 1974 when I was 14. The big regular stations were Radio Jackie 227m, Radio Kaleidoscope 266m MW AM. There was the LTIR (London Transmitter of Independent Radio) 94.4 mHz VHF FM in London but from my home in Medway Kent I could never pick up these transmissions. The LTIR carried various stations including Jackie, Kaleidoscope, Aquarius and others.. The 1970's was the golden era for Land Based Pop Pirates. Shortwave was quite busy on Sunday mornings in the 49 metre band with various stations..

[@MATTY110981]

Radio Jackie is still going.

[@ronnierocket1819]

it is still busy on the 48 meter band, as we call it. from 6,200khz to 6,400 khz. also the part of 69,00khz to 6,999 khz is used.plus some on the 41 meter band.their is also part of the am band 16,11khz up wards the dutch use .

[@rogerphillips7270]

I also had some limited involvement with Radio Jackie in my late teens, as well as some other stations. It’s good to see they got a licence.

[@rhodaborrocks1654]

Is there still any medium wave activity, that's where most of the action was back in the '70s.

[@ronnierocket1819]

yes dutch am activity. in the evenings. 16,11khz up wards.

[@fabiomuzzi7047]

I can't believe that some pirate stations are on the air since more than 10 years and have not been taken down.

[@AutisticFloppa]

i mean they arent doing anything wrong and if they livestreamed it or did it online only it would be legal

[@fabiomuzzi7047]

@AutisticFloppa You see, the issue with radio is that frequencies are usually assigned by the government, and they are a finite resource. I'm not against free radio stations, but usually the law is A LOT against them.

[@scottstrails9369]

More great stuff,takes me back forty years in Liverpool when we used to try and get a signal from pirate station Radio Merseywaves that used to have cool tunes running with some controversial talk topics,thanks again.

[@mutezone]

Its great you covered this, as I was thinking recently of a video you did some time ago about pirate radio stations still using the "old" methods of tower blocks for their studios & cable routing through pipes & risers to the roof where the transmitted are placed. Pirate radio still serves a purpose for those in the community that still don't have internet, whether landline or even on mobile phones. It will keep going for some time & will not end abruptly. Btw, some of the stations you got can be received outside London on a good day, I know because I received them here in the south part of Hampshire a while back. Those are 87.5 Live UK, 91.6 Mega, 93.8 Vibes FM, 95.5 On Top FM. Listening to London pirates always takes me back when I first discovered them in the 90s & they were all playing drumnbass & jungle.

[@simontay4851]

Whats the point of multiple stations playing the same DnB, Jungle crap. One is enough. Why no real music stations.

[@mutezone]

@@simontay4851 Because they were playing music that legal stations stayed away from at the time. It was only some years later like Kiss FM in 1994 & BBC Radio 1 in 1997 that they then decided to play drumnbass but they were late to the party. It was the same as the Radio Caroline days in the 60s, they played music that the BBC would not play over the air either. Also having lots of pirates on the dial was really entertaining as they each had their own presentation style. I preferred the scene back in the 90s because they sounded a lot more like pirates than they do now.

[@merlin5476]

@@mutezone The late great John Peel used to play some drum & bass or jungle or mad techno from denmark on radio 2. A lot of pirate stations do unfortunately play the same stuff nowadays & it can get a little bit repetitive

[@jaycrucialofficial]

Love a pirate, 106.5 used to be Force FM back in the day, I grew up East London way and was hooked on pirates back then. I now play for a licensed radio station which is fun 😊

[@jaymitchell9694]

I quote "out to Matt Emulsion on this one".

[@Skunkola]

Used to love the pirate staions when I drove about East London (Leytonstone) a decade ago. House/Dance around 98.00FM. Always good vibes.

[@shodan2958]

6130khz on the shortwave band seems to be pirate radio and the only one I can pick up locally where I live in the UK. Based in the Netherlands from what I gather and is an interesting listen, make sure you have your music identifier app ready mind because it does play some bangers without announcing what the song name is. Someone still living the shortwave radio dream and I can't really fault them for it.

[@nigehomer9744]

Radio Europe isn't a pirate. It is legal and licenced.

[@indridcold8433]

Locally, Saskatchewan, Canada, 220Mhz to 222Mhz, 158Mhz to 159.995Mhz, 148Mhz to 149.995Mhz, 66Mhz to 70Mhz, 29.7Mhz to 30Mhz, 27.41Mhz to 27.99Mhz, and 25.555Mhz to 26.955Mhz are all full of radio pirates. The CRCT does not care. Most of them are Americans below 30Mhz. Most of them are Canadian 66Mhz and up. It appears the American FCC does not care either.

[@shodan2958]

@@nigehomer9744 Ah maybe not then, there's just little information on the internet about the station.

[@telebubba5527]

@@shodan2958 Search just '6130khz'. They also seem to transmit as Radio Jong Europa. But that might be only heard in the Netherlands, as it's on MW. They transmit with a license on 6130khz from Alphen aan de Rijn.

[@kaitlyn__L]

I love how many of them are DnB! And I’m also not surprised 😅

[@paulpalinkas]

First, thanks for additional pirate radio content, I always enjoy hearing about it. There's historically been so little FM pirate activity in the US. It's so odd to see FM stations on both even and odd-decimal frequencies. In North America, all FM stations are on odd-decimal frequencies, with 200 kHz spacing (i.e. 94.1) Doesn't the UK's 100 kHz channel spacing complicate matters in terms of interference, or is there some sort of rhyme & reason for it?

[@jouniko]

In Finland the stations located near each other seem to have at least 300 kHz separation. In Helsinki 89.7, 90.0 and 90.3 are used. I think the 100 kHz spacing is more efficient, the total power gets distributed more evenly across the band, and there's no need to have 400 kHz separation in the same city. Maybe more splatter in some cases, but less of that co-channel whine and maybe less random capturing in mobile listening, hope I got the terms right.

[@CoCham]

Thanks!

[@Fr.FintanStack]

My last experience of it was 106FM from Salford in the early 2000s. It was written on a keep left bollard outside the Renault garage on Trinity Way

[@RingwayManchester]

I was speaking with Greens from 106 a couple of weeks ago

[@fosterkennel649]

Many years ago, we were Sausalito radio 98 at the gate FM. The mouse that roared. KMUD came up on Saturday night out of the houseboat community..blessings

[@SoulDamnFunky]

Yes very much a big part of my life

[@slendermanRblx]

With the death of the AM band in the UK. How come you don't hear of pirates spreading out onto the MW band as opposed to crowding up the already congested FM band? I took a holiday to the Costa Del Sol in Spain in a hotel near Malaga and I was amazed at the sheer number of FM stations my little portable multi-band receiver could pick up. I don't know which were licensed or pirate though.

[@ArnieDXer]

Radio Rock Revolution pops up occasionally on 1233 kHz... but that's about it AFAIK... definitely hoping for more 🙂

[@radioweebdx7680]

The AM band was very busy when I was in Ibiza. Also caught Radio Algeria in English in the afternoon. About 800 miles away.

[@JoshColletta]

Lots of FM pirates here in the U.S. Particularly in New York and Miami, and Boston to some degree as well. The FCC had a big crackdown effort in the mid-2000's, but when you take one station down, two more pop up. My grandmother who lives in North Miami used to have no problems listening to her favorite station -- a 100,000-watt transmitter on a 470-foot tower -- located in Boynton Beach, about 40 miles away. But by the late 90's, the interference from pirates made it impossible. The LICENSED stations on the dial have already been packed in as tightly as they can be -- and, frankly, tighter than they SHOULD be -- in the major metro areas across the country, so when anyone decides to fire up an unlicensed transmitter in those areas, it's going to cause interference to SOMEONE.

[@nooneinpart]

None (that I have found) here in the suburbs of the SF Bay Area. The college stations are interesting but there’s only like 4 of them here. KZSU’s (Stanford University) website has a mention of interference from a pirate station playing “ahem, pretty bad music.” That piqued my curiosity, but I couldn’t find information about it anywhere else. Either they’ve ceased operations or I’m located too far away.

[@JoshColletta]

@@nooneinpart Yeah, it's interesting how specific the popularity of pirate radio is from region to region. Like I said, growing up in Miami, it was all over the place. But I now live in Michigan, and I've traveled all over the Midwest for work. In the past 20 years or so, I can't say that I've heard anything that I haven't been able to identify. Even in Chicago, which... of all places, you'd think there'd be some pirate radio going on there. I know there has been in the past. Maybe it's just been so low-powered that I haven't come across it in the areas I've visited, but I haven't heard of anyone filing any complaints or any FBI raids for pirate broadcasts over there lately. But not even in Detroit, either. Or Indy. Or Cleveland. And I'm unimpressed with Cleveland's LEGAL stations. If any market in this part of the country could genuinely use a few pirate stations to shake things up, it's Cleveland 😆

[@LesNouvelle-Angleterreur]

I'm CURIOUS now on what Boston pirate radio sounds like.

[@normanhill535]

Thank you, great video. We have an interesting on Washington DC FM radio. My favourite stations are 94.7, 89.3, 96.7, 97.1, 88,5, 103.5 and 90.9 FM. Interesting MW station on 1420 khz, like your BBC Radio 2. Last, BBC World Service is on 88,5 FM for a few hours per day, plus CBC Canada. Wishing you all the best in life in the future. And good listening.

[@tdxownyou]

Frederick here. Even though we get some West Virginia radio stations here, music stations here are pure garbage. I am pretty sure it’s the same everywhere else in America. It’s why I stick with SiriusXM. WTOP-FM is probably the only terrestrial radio station I listen to because up to the minutes local news traffic and weather

[@BobBobBob2042]

Good memories, you'd always pick stations up in the car leaving Maine Road after a match driving through Moss Side, wonder if any still exist round there? I'll always remember one of the presenters asking for their stolen bike back, as I guess it was a close community.

[@snowmanbuzzfm]

Non at the moment Paul

[@djkraze5018]

I remember back when universally controlled web tuners first started out, there was a radio near London Heathrow airport, I can remember getting just as many pirates as legal stations. It would make the radio here in the states far more interesting if the same were true here. For the last 2 years, I noticed a strange little station near me that would run computer generated voices counting out yearly top 100 charts (the 50's thru the 70's) and episodes of American Top 40 from the early 70's, usually 1973. The scedule was so random, it was hard to tell when they would be on the air or not. This ended 3 weeks ago and I actually miss it as it was better music than most of the legit stations. Hope to see you return soon 104.5, if not R.I.P. You are missed. This morning, I picked up a pirate station in western Cromwell Connecticut broadcasting on 87.9, it was only percievable in areas where adjacent WESU 88.1 in Middletown did not splash the channel. The mono signal's content was what seemed like two teens or 20 somethings talking about random stuff without fear of dropping a few F-Bombs here and there. I thought for a bit that it might have been an in-car relay for a portable music device, but the signal strength was much higher than one of those and definitly from a stationary source. I found this unusual as there is usually a Spanish music pirate in Stereo with no announcers at all on this frequency.

[@WithTwoFlakes]

Wow, this took me back many years and brought back some long lost happy memories. In the 1970's I was at Salford University doing an Electronic Engineering degree. The three Manchester based Uni's (Salford, UMIST and Manchester) would take it in turns to run a pirate station - Radio Rag - for RAG Week. My 1st year there, it was Salford's turn. One of the other guys on my course had helped run a Pirate station in East Anglia, had the knowledge and so headed the team. We built a medium wave valve transmitter in the weeks leading up to RAG week. Hand winding coils on empty toilet roll tubes, connecting half a dozen or so 100W electric lightbulbs to the output - tune it till they shone the brightest. We reckoned it put out about 500W of power. Our aerial was a few hundred feet of thin copper strung between two of the accomodation blocks at the ( now demolished ) Oaklands Road Halls of Residence. The most hands on practical stuff I learned all year and it was from this guy, not from my course. He had half a dozen (illegal) walkie talkies for me and my Security team of spotters to use. From his other pirate contacts, he'd got a list of vehicle license plates of unmarked cars and vans that the authorities used to hunt pirates. I recall a few cold evenings with a pair of binoculars and a walkie talkie watching the approach road to the Halls. For safety, we would pre-record our shows on C-90 cassettes and leave the gear unattended. We would start our broadcast at a set time, put time checks in the tape (It's Sunday evening and it just coming up to 6:30pm...) and anyone listening would assume it was live. No-one ever noticed we'd have " ...a slight technical hitch listeners, but we're back " every 45mins as we ran back to the gear and flipped the tape over. It was so much fun that we continued running the station the rest of the academic year, we named the station Radio Sunshine. Through friends of friends, we heard that we were picked up one Sunday in Helsinki. I guess the conditions must've been just right that night. I never got a chance to do it again. That Summer, I transferred to a Computer Science course at North Staffs Poly which was more my thing as it turned out. Happy Days...

[@bhoogvliet]

In the netherlands there is a pirate station on the ether at least every. Most of them are located in farming regions or rural areas. These stations typical play song unknown to most people

[@Isochest]

We hear medium wave Pirates from the Netherlands a lot around 1650khz playing folk style music

[@bhoogvliet]

@@Isochest yeah some have very powerfull equipement sometimes even reaching france or englans coast.

[@Isochest]

@@bhoogvliet There's a Greek guy who makes power amplifiers and modules mostly ham HF and VHF and he offers an 800 watt module suitable for a Medium Wave AM transmitter

[@ravingdavid69]

I was thinking about this the other day thanks for sharing be good to see more on the old pirates and there equipment set ups they did

[@Teknofobe]

There's a city/town not far from Glasgow airport. Where it's still doing its thing. 🎵🎶🔈📲🔊☢️ PS: Thanks again for your hard graft. In getting this content out there.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Paisley or Clydebank? :)

[@Teknofobe]

@@kaitlyn__L Paisley.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@Teknofobe awesome 👍

[@Teknofobe]

@@kaitlyn__L a pleasure.

[@hbdz99]

108.9 FM is great for Pirates but the signal doesn’t really travel further than Brentford. I can get it in isleworth sometimes

[@bingbong7316]

88.2 Rude FM, refained drum'n'bass in North London.

[@Chris558576]

Ive not heard much here in Kent for years but sometimes hear stuff coming from London. I'm in a good location for FM & to be honest there isnt much in the way of free channels now.

[@ainteasybeingwheezy]

Base FM is back on air on 100.8 in Manchester it's quite a strong signal but obviously being relayed from somewhere down south

[@circattle]

reception is a bit iffy when I visit Manc, but sounds great when I find the best spot for the radio - Base seem to be using a slant polarisation, which is interesting.

[@ainteasybeingwheezy]

@@circattle where I am there isn't any problem with signal strength

[@RowanHawkins]

A few years back a station was running light jazz north of Rochester, NY, using the call sign of a Tennesee station. Was fairly low footprint but i could never tell if they were rebroadcasting the official station or not. Never saw any published action against them, but they lasted less than a year.

[@jackedlynx3610]

Rochesterian here, i believe i heard the same thing.

[@isettech]

Cheap FM transmitters are abundant online out of China. It is much simpler now as long as you are someplace remote without much commercial stations in the area. Trying it in metropolitan areas is a little harder. Most common "Pirate" radio station now is transmitters used for Christmas Light animations. Legal power devices would rarely reach from the house to the street, so most opt for not quite so legal power levels to get clean sound to at least 1/2 block.

[@InsideOfMyOwnMind]

We have a couple of unused channels on the FM broadcast band in my town, most notably 88.5. As you drive through town you may hear upwards of a dozen low (micro) power stations giving it their all. I do analog stereo, digital and radio data (artist and song) and cover a few residential blocks. I play about everything you can think of but try to keep it in genre time blocks. No hardware, only open source software and a HackRF-One box.

[@nicc5122]

As I have commented before the lack of diversity due to just having to choose between BBC, Bauer or Global makes broadcast radio extremely boring in the UK. Pirates are a breath of fresh air away from formula broadcast formats, It's all about the presenter names, who were never innovative in their broadcasting, they are just 'celebrities' until some murk in their past gets them thrown off air, with shows driven by nameless techops, amid the mindless chat. I appreciate true independent broadcasting, even if the quaility or technical standards aren't that great, because it is different. I too on a trip to London took a receiver and recorder and scanned the FM band, so I appreciate your efforts Lewis.

[@Thefreakyfreek]

D&b opening. YEAA

[@mumfnah]

Pulse, Kool, Ruud, Ruude Awakening, Eruption, and Weekend Rush, were locked on daily and still treasure my tapes Cheers for this little selection 👌

[@Mr_Spliffy]

Great to see the scene is strong as its ever been.

[@HighWealder]

I remember first hearing Radio Jackie back in 1969 after a friend mentioned them.

[@GeneSavage]

Feels like there might be more pirates than legal stations! 😀

[@JimGriffOne]

My opinion: I like FM pirates; I dislike Ofcom's (and greedy corporations') control over the FM band. Would be nice to have more options on FM radio aside from BBC, Local, and "Umbrella Corporation" stations playing the same things at the same time. The pirates are giving people the music they want to hear and broadening the musical flavours.

[@simontay4851]

"The pirates are giving people the music they want to hear and broadening the musical flavours." No they aren't. Most of them are just playing the same DnB, Dance, Jungle, etc sh!te. One DnB station is enough. I want a rock/pop station playing real music. There must be lots of independent musicians in greater london that want to promote their music..

[@telebubba5527]

I've turned to internet radio. There are 10s of thousands radio stations and music streams from all over the world and a good bunch without any advertising and chatter. Normal radio is completely dead for me. Haven't hardly listened to it for more than 20 years. Only very occasionally.

[@hawks9142]

​@@telebubba5527why are you so anti radio? It doesn't effect you and I've seen this same comment multiple times now.

[@bytesabre]

I’m from Kane FM in Guildford, we’re working on that

[@djjc9782]

i love pirate......... however, the fact you can put a station online and that MOST people can stream on a phone, and ofcom wont bother u AT ALL, means itll be a dying trend...

[@jon-paulgrainger1303]

Loved pirate radio in the early 2000s. DnB, garage etc. South west of London. 87.5Fm UKs Finest it was called.

[@rogfusionkid]

There's more than that in London, I drive there fairly often, the dial is often rammed with stations, almost on top of each other.

[@myriaddsystems]

Good! I'm glad!

[@GaryMcKinnonUFO]

My mates ran one in the rave days, shouts going out all weekend :)

[@morgana3918]

Nice video! I have to wonder how some of these stations can operate for years without getting direction found by authorities. Also, what model radio is that?

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

Great video, Lewis...👍

[@scratchdog2216]

'Community Oriented Free Radio' has a much nicer ring to it. I'm not too far from Boston I'll have to tune around next time.

[@davidsradioroom9678]

I have heard about the London pirates. There have been radio pirates there for dozens of years. How come they stay on the air for so long. Aren't the authorities able to bust them?

[@curlysue3620]

Game of cat and mouse. You need to look up some old footage. ❤✌🏼🙏🏼

[@DJTKarlsson]

theres golden 15-20 year old documentaries about it. worth looking into!

[@greystripe3737]

underground bass had some dirty nasty tunes and im all about it

[@andrewdolinskiatcarpathian]

Sunday night radio in the late 1970’s in West London was all about the pirates, especially Thamside Radio and Uptown Radio. 👍😎

[@CuriouserArchive]

Wow, I'm shocked there are so many of these in London! Here in Houston, I can only recall ever encountering 2 pirate radio stations myself. One was a very short-lived station on 87.7 which aired a far-right/conspiracy-laiden talk radio format featuring Alex Jones. I don't think it was ever reported who was behind this. The other was "Joe FM" on 87.9, which aired a classic hits format. This station was run by a man named Joe Donalson and had a ridiculously long, convoluted, and disputed backstory. See the KJIB-LP Wikipedia article, which refers to a TV station that was long-since silent by the time "Joe FM" began in the 2010s, yet was used by Joe in various ways to claim legitimacy of his station. He also ran a pirate analog TV station that claimed to be a legitimate broadcast of the similarly-silent station KVDO-LP in the 2010s. Joe is still around in the world of Houston radio. Estrella Media owns the AM radio station KEYH, which went silent in 2020 after the company lost their lease on the tower site. Joe stepped in, with Estrella's permission (presumably in an attempt to keep the license alive without having to do anything), and set up a rinkydink 100W AM transmitter and a longwire antenna which broadcasts a classic hits format on 850 AM. It's a very poor setup with terrible range, yet the FCC has granted Special Temporary Authority for it, as well as multiple extensions, so it seems to be legal.

[@ghostcat5303]

I used to DJ on a pirate in Manchester around 2001-2003, 106fm. Was the most fun I've ever had in my life.

[@RingwayManchester]

Which station mate

[@Electronics-Rocks]

How good a quality / bandwidth is the signal? What power range? Do they transmit stereo? Are they live or prerecorded? As curious do they just use a cheap transmitter setup or more complicated professional setup? What about other UK cities?

[@RingwayManchester]

All stations vary to moss of those questions. Some are fantastic quality, others not so good. Some use hundreds of watts, some less. Most transmit stereo and lots transmit rds. Many use a mix of live and prerecord

[@Electronics-Rocks]

Very interesting reply @@RingwayManchester surprised that many have stereo & RDS but technology is so much cheaper now!

[@RingwayManchester]

Some of them are prepared to splash out. I know people who have spent thousands on equipment

[@dandarkness_]

Most use RDS, pirates never really used to be in Stereo. Mono would give a better signal longer distance. The quality of FM is always better than a lot of stations that use low bitrates on dab and online. But then you get the hiss. But the hiss is nostalgic like the crackles on a record.

[@Radiokillaz]

Long live pirate radio 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

[@rallyburnzsimracing8571]

Thanks for upload Great to know that pirate radio still going strong

[@PK5Dloks]

I'm pretty sure I've got recordings of Vibes FM from around 2010 /11 time from my time working in central London. Not sure if it's still the same group, but amazing that the name has persisted for so many years. I miss those days of vibing to all the different genres whilst on a building site lol.

[@AndreasLindholm]

A really interesting book on pirate radio is Dan Hancox Inner city pressure

[@RandomRetr0]

Interesting that after all these years London still has a large D&B subculture

[@rvierra7235]

Back in the early 80's, there were a few pirate stations on the dial (FM) in Southern California.

[@jhonsiders6077]

We are having a lot of fun with ours we keep the power down ( we have 150 watts if we want to use it ) act professionally do not use foul language nor do we play any rap or any other music with the F bomb dropping we preview any new dance mixes and edit any thing that might bring the FCC to our door we do local news and the farm price reports during the day you would think your listening to a legit station. We have a good clean signal of FM stereo. And a low power AM unit too . The reason people like us as any other pirate station is the format is better and we have a burn phone as a request line you get to talk to a DJ like back in the day when we were kids. We play a mix of rock. And real country from years ago at night is when we get into our grove of dance tech and electronica have only had one SAD ham that threatened to turn us in but one of the younger DJs fathers was with us at the parade with our music box a old like biker looked at him and said you will only do it once ! Well that was all of it LOL. The Sheriff knows about us and will send us any alerts for public safety announcements. Been into this for close to ten years wish we could get. A LPFM license and be legit we have everything except a EBS auto link. That is like 4K $. We do have a weather alert receiver we are really local radio out here in the country . Some thing the big 3 lack !

[@Kyrokotei]

Pirates actually be better than National Commercial Stations fr

[@3v068]

I love that y'all have dnb and reggae pirates there. It makes me wish we had at least a couple of pirates in my area. I'm a bedroom DJ and I want to get an electronic station on the air here.

[@mattlong4102]

Where do you live?

[@O1Richard]

I wish we still had pirate radio in South Yorkshire, the tower blocks in Sheffield used to broadcast some quality radio stations in the 1990’s

[@RichardDzien]

These random pirate radio stations are always interesting to find when driving about London. They often have far more interesting music than anything the BBC and whoever else put out. Did they still have the fast rotating messages on the RDS?

[@ryank5tar]

Another BANGER!

[@ZGryphon]

This video made me feel very old, mostly because I don't know what a single one of those musical genres is, except maybe techno. :)

[@RescueRabbit999]

What about Birmingham and Manchester?

[@wisteela]

Absolutely fantastic. I'm amazed how many there is.

[@DissociatedWomenIncorporated]

What I’m taking away from this is that there needs to be a pirate station broadcasting video game soundtracks, especially from the chiptune era.

[@mattlong4102]

BRilliAnt! Make it so.

[@circattle]

What is the make / model of radio you used for the bandscan? It's too dark to identify it.

[@RingwayManchester]

Icom I’d-52

[@delmare1]

We have 2 FM Pirates here in Folkestone in Kent. They are irregular broadcasts and both have been running on and off for some years. One us Atomic FM and plays pop/rock music. Whilst the other called Power FM mainly plays recordings of old offshore stations broadcasts. Not only is FM Pirate activity still going, so to is Shortwave Pirate radio. Stations such as Superclan radio from the Netherlands, and the long running Weekend Music Radio from Scotland amongst others can be heard between 6200 khz and 6300 khz. Some pirates even use 6900 to 700 khz band. And if you use the websdr twente from the Netherlands, you can hear many Dutch Pirates in the 1600 to 1700 khz band most Weekend evenings. Si it seems Pirate Radio is very much alive even in these days of Internet radio.

[@StefCoders]

I can receive all of them, some new Turkish ones but not many now. Divine and Reggae.

[@soobash]

Thanks for another thought provoking video. Looking at the present technological capabilities of the media landscape, my first reaction was 'surely pirate radio is dead'. But this video proves otherwise. I have a few theories for this. First ,this is a localised phenomenon due to the ghettoised nature of ethnic groups in London, so it makes sense to have a location specific broadcast station which can be reached by the targeted audience. Second, this is a publicity outlet to guide people to their content elsewhere. Third, this is legacy technology to reach the targeted audience which have not switched to online content. Most mobile phones sold in Europe don't have inbuilt FM receivers ( some do if they are meant for eastern European countries as well and/or older people). So the primary source of FM station is via the internet for those who don't have a dedicated FM receiver.

[@totallypixelated]

Was your scan done at the weekend? It tends to be much busier on a Friday and Saturday night with stations broadcasting.

[@kjchaifisch]

I kinda consider myself a grey area pirate, not licensed (yet) but I've always wanted to transmit my own radio broadcasts, and occasionally I'll take a bit out of the ISM bands for some local SSTV fun.

[@barrieshepherd7694]

I'm impressed you knew the names of the muic genres, I would not have a clue.😂

[@jayheywood9635]

loved it

[@Patwlive]

bought my transmitter a few months back idk how many people listen but I enjoy it 25w

[@Thanson199415]

Hell yeah, that's nice. You were probably going out 20 plus miles of range

[@djk2509]

I'm surprised you didn't pick up vision 88.4FM maybe they don't reach there but also around cheshunt and to London liverpool street station areas north London there's 88.2fm rude that is or was still going just weeks ago God I wish I took footage of it on It didn't seem to cover very far but it was on.

[@smiankith]

Big up infrared! Represent!

[@DeejvilleTV]

The scene seems to be much more alive in London than it is up here in the Midlands. Pretty much nothing left on the FM from Birmingham/Wolverhampton ends anymore. I remember when the band was littered with amazing stations. Lots of stations have gone online only which is a shame.

[@stevemumbling7720]

Do these stations that have been around for years move the transmitters around to avoid detection or have the DTI given up and just let them get on with it?

[@nottjohn9418]

One of the things I miss about London is the variety of radio stations.

[@BLX187]

Kool Fm still around! impressive