I'm right with you on all of that, Sound. The world's changed. Kids dont listen to radio in the same way, there's nothing to encourage them to be inqusitive, everything has to be spoon fed so they're not going to go looking for your pirate or discover it by accident as there's no search engine for the FM bandSoundFm wrote:I may be wrong but I feel (certainly for me) the dynamics have changed.
Sure, they might find "broadcasters" on the internet on youTube or whatever, but that's not what motivated the likes of Bert Williams. We were interested in music and electronics, and liked a challenge and perhaps some mild peril. That in itself is an increasingly unlikely set of conditions for today's kids. What motivated me was being able to match the big boys technically on all fronts with gear I'd built myself, and perhaps say something on air that you wouldn't get away with on the BBC. Having any kind of feedback from your audience at all was a bonus. And luckily in the early 80s when I started contributing to stations and messing around building my own kit, there was a massive audience for pirate radio.
Interesting that you remember Bert saying there was no future in pirate radio in the 80's and then promptly carrying on for another 20 years! He knew he had to take advantage of the audience while there was one, but like many of us he also had the radio gene to such an extent that it wasn't something he could just give up. Like you say, that aspect of it doesn't get any easier when you've got houses and families to pay for. As for the audience, I think those days are almost gone, certainly outside of London.
Missed it. It's been a long time. Gutted!
