FM Outside London

[radionortheast]

More people would listen to a online stream than a fm frequency

if you established a station on fm and estabished it online, knew groups of people,
you have to be very good at social media, as an introverted person and not been very good at this internet stuff i’m not going to get anywhere, it would jingles music put togeather throught mixcloud, if noone knows about you. While there might be noone listening on fm either, at least I get some enjoyment out of it. You can’t go putting jingles throught the transmitter or upping the power...yes it can't be a proper radio station, as other radio stations in my area would no doubt complain.

[peterogerspirate]

More people would listen to a online stream than a fm frequency

if you established a station on fm and estabished it online, knew groups of people,
you have to be very good at social media, as an introverted person and not been very good at this internet stuff i’m not going to get anywhere, it would jingles music put togeather throught mixcloud, if noone knows about you. While there might be noone listening on fm either, at least I get some enjoyment out of it. You can’t go putting jingles throught the transmitter or upping the power...yes it can't be a proper radio station, as other radio stations in my area would no doubt complain.

Maybe this shows the lack of a decent radio app for discovering new streams and stations

[Casual]

So what's going on with radio activity in the other cities in the UK? Are stations like Distinct (was a pretty good listen at times), Kriss, Hot & Sting still on in Birmingham? Are stations like Fresh & Passion still on in Huddersfield? (It's been well documented what happened with Frequency in Leeds). Is there anything going on in Manchester? Has Brighton only got Codesouth? Are things still on in Southampton/Portsmouth? (Lush, Faze, UK Bass)

Are there any stations/places I haven't mentioned?

[wazza]

Hot, Sting and Kriss still on in the west mids and consistent as ever. Skyline back on in Wolverhampton but low power.

Distinct have been back on since Christmas. There's also a station called BCMR which plays back to back pop music with no presenters, bit odd really but it's been going for years now.

That's about it for the midlands really, the odd thing pops up now and again elsewhere but nothing to write home about.

Oh, and I hear some of the shows on Sting mentioning Fresh FM in Leeds - sounds like they link up a lot. On that basis I assume they're still on air but haven't been to Leeds to verify that

[pirateaddict]

OK wazza. Yes fresh is still on air on low power though from what radionortheast said.. Peoples fm in Leeds used to rebroadcast sting fm not long ago.. Nowt in Sheffield tbh apart from 106.8. 9 107.which seems to play nowt but John peel sessions from around 2000's, bit boring for me I'd rather hear John peel sessions from 86 onwards but that ain't gonna happen

[Casual]

Nice one guys

[thewisepranker]

Has Brighton only got Codesouth?

Unfortunately.

[TimB]

"You're right - it's easy to fire up a couple of Watts into an aerial on your rooftop and play radio to a half dozen of your mates in the neighbourhood, but that's not real radio."

its not a bad start though , right?

what surprises me is the total lack of any activity in manchester

[Effemm]

Cambridge too. Uni city all over with nothing on FM since Fenz was around. Wasted

[bristolpirates]

what surprises me is the total lack of any activity in manchester

Is Irie gone now?

[midlandsradio]

Birmingham/West Midlands is seeing a few on air at the moment.

87.9 Citybeats
89.7 BCMR (Weekends Only)
92.0 Hot FM
94.2 Skyline (Very low power but on 24/7)
94.4 Sting
99.7 Distinct FM

The highest count we've had here in a few years.

[teckniqs]

Birmingham/West Midlands is seeing a few on air at the moment.

87.9 Citybeats
89.7 BCMR (Weekends Only)
92.0 Hot FM
94.2 Skyline (Very low power but on 24/7)
94.4 Sting
99.7 Distinct FM

The highest count we've had here in a few years.

Just seen the Sutton Coldfield receiver is back on Globaltuners and on this Thursday morning at 9am I'm receiving 92.0(weak), 94.4 (quite strong) and 95.1(weak).

[Steambod]

I feel alot of people here have accepted defeat

They have. When you have the brain-dead idiots stealing rigs off blocks, the BBC still spreading their national outlets across half the band, and OFCOM licencing every little remaining hole in the Band, FM is turning into the proverbial dead duck!

You're right - it's easy to fire up a couple of Watts into an aerial on your rooftop and play radio to a half dozen of your mates in the neighbourhood, but that's not real radio.

Radio is being rapidly destroyed by boring corporate stations (Global and Bauer stations are largely a waste of bandwidth) and by a complacent BBC peopled by politically correct lefty clowns with nothing coherent to say. Radio has largely become something to have on in the background while you're doing the hoovering!

Depressing, isn't it?

Used to be I'd scan through the band while pootling up the M5/M6 past Bristol or Brum but most of the time there was nothing there or what there was had crap audio/signal. Now I mainly hook the phone up to the car, play any random selection of the zillion tracks on it or if the data signal is good enough tune in one of the internet stations. At work or home it's a net station. Unfortunately listening 48m Sunday mornings have gone by the board with the demands of the other stuff I do.
As for the BBC, every station sounds just like the other, not surprising as the whole lot is run from a couple of servers in Brum and somewhere else with the various outlets just adding the voices!

The question is, what do people want from radio? Local news? Travel? (about the only thing I listen to local radio for) Granny's jam recipe? If I want music I've thousands of stations on t'interwebs with every style you can think of. Background hoovering music? yeah there's a station for that What's your audience? Kids? Most are glued to their phones so more likely to be listening to a net station even if they can be assed to plug in their headphones to use the fm radio function.

Yes, it's depressing. Back in the 80s we were all shouting that we wanted more choice in radio. Well, we've got it, just not the way we thought.

[drumandbasshead010]

I feel alot of people here have accepted defeat

They have. When you have the brain-dead idiots stealing rigs off blocks, the BBC still spreading their national outlets across half the band, and OFCOM licencing every little remaining hole in the Band, FM is turning into the proverbial dead duck!

You're right - it's easy to fire up a couple of Watts into an aerial on your rooftop and play radio to a half dozen of your mates in the neighbourhood, but that's not real radio.

Radio is being rapidly destroyed by boring corporate stations (Global and Bauer stations are largely a waste of bandwidth) and by a complacent BBC peopled by politically correct lefty clowns with nothing coherent to say. Radio has largely become something to have on in the background while you're doing the hoovering!

Depressing, isn't it?

Used to be I'd scan through the band while pootling up the M5/M6 past Bristol or Brum but most of the time there was nothing there or what there was had crap audio/signal. Now I mainly hook the phone up to the car, play any random selection of the zillion tracks on it or if the data signal is good enough tune in one of the internet stations. At work or home it's a net station. Unfortunately listening 48m Sunday mornings have gone by the board with the demands of the other stuff I do.
As for the BBC, every station sounds just like the other, not surprising as the whole lot is run from a couple of servers in Brum and somewhere else with the various outlets just adding the voices!

The question is, what do people want from radio? Local news? Travel? (about the only thing I listen to local radio for) Granny's jam recipe? If I want music I've thousands of stations on t'interwebs with every style you can think of. Background hoovering music? yeah there's a station for that What's your audience? Kids? Most are glued to their phones so more likely to be listening to a net station even if they can be assed to plug in their headphones to use the fm radio function.

Yes, it's depressing. Back in the 80s we were all shouting that we wanted more choice in radio. Well, we've got it, just not the way we thought.

Oh trust me, the 'kids' are not listening to net stations, not technically. They're streaming, they're listening to playlists and that. There's very few kids out there listening to an actual webstream.

[Casual]

⬆⬆⬆⬆Exactly what he said! Kids really aren't bothered with radio (FM or net) in this day & age! They all stream their music via playlists/specific searches on YouTube/Spotify/Deezer/equivalents of these.

I'm in my mid 30's & with the general stagnation in quality of pirate radio these days I actually find myself relying on streaming services for music more & more as I can listen to what I want when I want. Net radio barely gets a look in (unless I have Talksport/5 Live on for the football) & due to my location out in the sticks an FM radio would just be an ornament in my house & I haven't owned one for at least 3-4 years.

[FMEnjoyer]

People used to listen collectively to a station, now streaming a play list is about the individual since the shift to choose
every track you hear or a playlist. This loss of connection is in part loss of being part of something. It kind of sums up where the digital world has left people.

I am surprised Radionecks has not got its own station with a bit of everything on it. You have an instant listener base ready to go as well.

Neck FM ?

[wazza]

What worries me about this thread is a load of middle aged (or in some cases just plain old) men who think they know what "the kids" are into

[drumandbasshead010]

People used to listen collectively to a station, now streaming a play list is about the individual since the shift to choose
every track you hear or a playlist. This loss of connection is in part loss of being part of something. It kind of sums up where the digital world has left people.

I am surprised Radionecks has not got its own station with a bit of everything on it. You have an instant listener base ready to go as well.

Neck FM ?

Neck FM 106 point fuckin 4! All over London City trust me bruv, London's big willy, hold tight the Xtreme cru every fuckin time.

[drumandbasshead010]

What worries me about this thread is a load of middle aged (or in some cases just plain old) men who think they know what "the kids" are into

I actually see it from an entirely different perspective. I mostly use the net myself and I'm one of the exception of 'the kids' in that I listen to actual webstreams or watch bedroom DJ's do their thing on Facebook. I like Internet radio, I have a fascination with pirates. Call the guys on this thread what you will, they were part of something a lot bigger, collectively, which in a lot of ways shaped the radio stations we have today. A lot of them were part of something that meant more because it was new, unique at one point. You go online and you can get any track/mix/worthwhile stream you want, long as it's public...meh, then again, there's groups for that stuff as well!

[Matt]

What worries me about this thread is a load of middle aged (or in some cases just plain old) men who think they know what "the kids" are into

My original point wasn't to do with the nature of what the "kids" listen to, whether it be streaming services, YouTube playlist or curated, presented live radio stations. It was more to do with the method of delivery. The idea that's it's worth the expense, effort and risk of FM appears to me to be becoming outdated. The idea that you could just fire up a transmitter and, with no web stream, expect any sort of real response or listener loyalty, seems crazy. You genuinely could do this in the past. FM, for niche interest stations (which arguably many/most of the music based pirates outside of London for the past 35 years have been) seems no longer a sensible or efficient way to be heard.