bradford community pirate radio 1989

[radionortheast]

I found this when I was searching for video that I was trying to find that had some Leeds pirates on it either has been removed or is buried some were. It has on it paradise city radio (PCR) they were saying they never moved studio. Apparently this was just before the time a new licenced station was about to come on air bradford community radio (BCR) I think this might of been sunrise radio i’d have to look at wikipedia, it is about the right time I mentioned in another thread sunrise had been on air since 1989. There was going to a lot of raids when the new station came on air, which wouldn’t good for anybody, one of them said they could withstand 10, 11 it was over. What the guy is saying think must some kind of regulator that no clear frequencies were available, kind of weird I imagine all frequencies above 105 were clear, pre classic fm too so there would of been even more, obviously would of kept dance music stations off the air too.

[Frequent Lee]

When I was on PCR from 1988 till 1992 we moved studio at least 2 or 3 times a year, the best one was at the bottom of Manchester Road in some maisonettes or next favourite was up Green Lane in Manningham in a rastamans flat who was called Reverend.

The PCR signal was booming back in the day we had a regular listener called Carol who lived in Gleadless Valley area of Sheffield. Flockton had a circle of regulars tuned in too. The late 80s pirate radio scene in West Yorkshire was wicked.

[pirateaddict]

Or8 Lee..I remember a carol cross from gleedless getting asked for signal reports on scr back int day..Some parts of gleedless is pretty high up!
A few years ago PCR were back on,on i think it was 107 . They sounded very nice just like scr sounded back in the 90's. Did they come back for one last hurrah?

[radionortheast]

Interesting that the sheffield stations could get into bradford and vice versa. I don’t know the topography of bradford, weather there were any towerblocks, flockton is not far from emley which has a good view over all of Leeds and Bradford, can pretty much see your house if its there. There were some stations on the same frequencies in Leeds and Sheffield which would cause problems, don't know what was going on there i'm pretty sure Sheffield stations could be heard in parts of Leeds, dream could reach Sheffield, with a strong enough transmitter it could be done, but from a mid victorian terrace not so much.

i do remember standing near a bedroom window, listening to the crackles of a lightening storm on my pocket radio signal quite good signal on 104.9, playing reagea, i always though it was peoples fm i only heard that weakly, what it was i’ll never know

[Frequent Lee]

Or8 Lee..I remember a carol cross from gleedless getting asked for signal reports on scr back int day..Some parts of gleedless is pretty high up!
A few years ago PCR were back on,on i think it was 107 . They sounded very nice just like scr sounded back in the 90's. Did they come back for one last hurrah?

It was Groove FM on 107 about 2015, it was ran by the old PCR DJ called Lamarge and it operated for about 18 months.

Yes it was Carol Cross who listened to Paradise back in the day.

[Frequent Lee]

I don’t know the topography of bradford, weather there were any towerblocks,

None of the pirates from Bradford ever used high-rise blocks, all were usually on houses in the higher areas like Allerton or Thornbury the majority of the time. A lot of the aerial mounts and poles are still dotted about.

This is a very old setup near Thornbury roundabout which was used by one of the 90s Asian pirates. It's the remains of a Stephen Moss slim jim and band 3 link receiver Yagi. Google street view has the goodies if you know where to look.

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[Matt]

I used to love PCR. I first picked them up in 1988 in Huddersfield and I was absolutely hooked. It was the first pirate I ever heard and it was PCR that gave me the bug. They used to run 24/7 with live DJs on 104.9. At first they ran "the Asian Scene" from (I think) 5-7 in the evening but then dropped this when APR was launched and then all the PCR shows were 3 hours: 6-9, 9-12 and so on, around the clock. It was a real mix of soul, hip-hop, house, reggae and more, as many stations at the time were. I think that after some breaks in transmission they came back weekend only for a while (maybe evenings as well? I can't remember. Not 24/7 though).

I remember listening to the guy you mentioned, Reverend, on PCR back in the day. I was a regular caller to many shows at the time and I've undoubtedly spoken to you at some point Frequent Lee. I think I have an idea who you might be and, if so, I've got at least a couple of clips of you recorded!

I didn't ever catch Groove in 2015, although I haven't lived in Yorkshire for many years now. However, on a couple of trips over I did catch a test transmission on 107.5 which was showing as PCR on the RDS. Then, one night when I was staying over I heard a live show by Lamaj (definitely live - I texted and got a shout out). It was amazing to hear him on the air again after all those years. That was the last I heard of it - it was gone by the next time I visited. This was sometime between 5 and 10 years ago - probably closer to 10, but difficult to say exactly when.

[radionortheast]

I do wonder what they’d pick up through that on fm, aload of hits stations, I do think its amazing how people keep the old aerials, new owners. I still see the old aerial on our house we left 5 years ago now. Sometimes tested low power not the best aerial in the world, could get a match using different lenghts of cable.

There was a station I could hear testing must of been 14 years ago, from bradford when I was in Leeds on 107. It was quite poor choice of frequency I could pick up on a weekend back at home with much breakthrough from trax fm. I think it was called groove later on others said it was boom, I recorded afew videos at the time to chronicle it, it was 2015 on those. I can also see club asia, passion radio, peoples fm, northern vibes and a ramadan rsl on 99.9

[Frequent Lee]

Any station in West Yorkshire (Leeds, Bradford & Huddersfield mostly) that were on the air between 2005 - 2015 were all at some point either engineered with assistance from me or I supplied the transmission equipment to them etc.

We all started to get absolutely smashed by Ofcom on a weekly basis towards the end of 2015 and it became too much risk with little rewards for me especially so as much as I love pirate radio I had to pack it in sadly or end up in prison as I had already clocked up 3 convictions in a 4 year period with Frequency. Only Peoples FM 104.5 in Leeds was brave enough to continue but they too also closed for good in 2021 due to pressure from Ofcom.

Fresh made the transition to the DAB side but the owner became seriously ill and had to recind his license for now. I tried to act on his behalf but the red tape made it a faff as he wasn't capable of signing the papers off to legally allow me to act on his behalf.

Yorkshire pirate radio scene is dead now.

There are plans in place for Frequency and Fresh FM to join up forces and relaunch on DAB across the Midlands and the North later this year.

[radionortheast]

wonder why they did that, seems so sad for peoples fm thats been on for so long, I don’t imagine it could go dab. radio frequency was a good stereo signal round leeds remember listening when it was playing songs, insomniac, my dad though it was me had some in car transmitter or some transmitter, had to tell him no. Listened on a car radio 90.4, could’nt get a signal were we were mod was high. I do remember the arguement about it on drum and bass forums, lot of people had been taken to the cleaners, the aerial on a phone mast, outside of the edit v documentery the only time i’d ever seen one in a picture that was not on a towerblock.

Did you know big vibes, used to hear this were you had a good view into leeds, remember it came on weekends. I remember phatt 100 testing, heard on another hill, it wasn’t long afterwards don’t know if it was through these forums it had been raided, think mike speed might be still around on these forums. It did seem like there was life out there when phatt was testing

I suppose I never really sat and listened to any pirates except for a long time in the past. I did like tuning about and seeing what was there what the signals were like, I do think there is something missing now, you don’t hear any community stations which sound like them, you don’t hear any that sound like dancehall pirates, don’t think theres any evidence of anyone been on any, find it hard to get on dab, the only thing left is online, if they still want to do it, what their doing now I don’t know.

[Frequent Lee]

Yeah I helped out with Big Vibes 101.4. It didn't last that long they got bummy about being caught so ended it and went back on Fresh FM then to Frequency.

[Frequent Lee]

I used to love PCR. I first picked them up in 1988 in Huddersfield and I was absolutely hooked. It was the first pirate I ever heard and it was PCR that gave me the bug. They used to run 24/7 with live DJs on 104.9. At first they ran "the Asian Scene" from (I think) 5-7 in the evening but then dropped this when APR was launched and then all the PCR shows were 3 hours: 6-9, 9-12 and so on, around the clock. It was a real mix of soul, hip-hop, house, reggae and more, as many stations at the time were. I think that after some breaks in transmission they came back weekend only for a while (maybe evenings as well? I can't remember. Not 24/7 though).



I remember listening to the guy you mentioned, Reverend, on PCR back in the day. I was a regular caller to many shows at the time and I've undoubtedly spoken to you at some point Frequent Lee. I think I have an idea who you might be and, if so, I've got at least a couple of clips of you recorded!

I didn't ever catch Groove in 2015, although I haven't lived in Yorkshire for many years now. However, on a couple of trips over I did catch a test transmission on 107.5 which was showing as PCR on the RDS. Then, one night when I was staying over I heard a live show by Lamaj (definitely live - I texted and got a shout out). It was amazing to hear him on the air again after all those years. That was the last I heard of it - it was gone by the next time I visited. This was sometime between 5 and 10 years ago - probably closer to 10, but difficult to say exactly when.

Best of times a had with PCR, I owe them forever for that bring in as a 16 year old kid from Leeds. My Sunday mid afternoon show were special times for me most definitely.

[Matt]

I used to love PCR. I first picked them up in 1988 in Huddersfield and I was absolutely hooked. It was the first pirate I ever heard and it was PCR that gave me the bug. They used to run 24/7 with live DJs on 104.9. At first they ran "the Asian Scene" from (I think) 5-7 in the evening but then dropped this when APR was launched and then all the PCR shows were 3 hours: 6-9, 9-12 and so on, around the clock. It was a real mix of soul, hip-hop, house, reggae and more, as many stations at the time were. I think that after some breaks in transmission they came back weekend only for a while (maybe evenings as well? I can't remember. Not 24/7 though).



I remember listening to the guy you mentioned, Reverend, on PCR back in the day. I was a regular caller to many shows at the time and I've undoubtedly spoken to you at some point Frequent Lee. I think I have an idea who you might be and, if so, I've got at least a couple of clips of you recorded!

I didn't ever catch Groove in 2015, although I haven't lived in Yorkshire for many years now. However, on a couple of trips over I did catch a test transmission on 107.5 which was showing as PCR on the RDS. Then, one night when I was staying over I heard a live show by Lamaj (definitely live - I texted and got a shout out). It was amazing to hear him on the air again after all those years. That was the last I heard of it - it was gone by the next time I visited. This was sometime between 5 and 10 years ago - probably closer to 10, but difficult to say exactly when.

Best of times a had with PCR, I owe them forever for that bring in as a 16 year old kid from Leeds. My Sunday mid afternoon show were special times for me most definitely.

I remember those shows, if you are who I think you are. I was into the hip hop that was on Radio 1, but hearing some proper hip hop on your show opened my eyes to what else was out there. I was 10 or 11 at the time. I've definitely got a tape somewhere of you giving me a shout out, as well a tape of you doing a test transmission for another stration in Leeds and some other bits. Good days.

[Frequent Lee]

I've definitely got a tape somewhere of you giving me a shout out, as well a tape of you doing a test transmission for another stration in Leeds and some other bits. Good days.

I'd love to hear any pirate recordings if you have anything to convert the tapes, or you could post to me and I'll digitise them and return them to you after.

Thank you for the kind words and I'm glad it served to purpose of why I did my radio shows to let people hear the music out there. Nice one!

[Matt]

I've definitely got a tape somewhere of you giving me a shout out, as well a tape of you doing a test transmission for another stration in Leeds and some other bits. Good days.

I'd love to hear any pirate recordings if you have anything to convert the tapes, or you could post to me and I'll digitise them and return them to you after.

Thank you for the kind words and I'm glad it served to purpose of why I did my radio shows to let people hear the music out there. Nice one!

Not a problem at all. Those were great shows.

I've still got a tape deck set up so no problem there. I'll see what I can find over the next couple of weeks. I didn't tend to tape full shows though, just the songs I liked but I always kept the DJ links in rather than editing them. I did tape a bit of the end of that test transmission though. I'll DM you with a few interesting bits when I get chance. Nice to be in touch with you!

[Frequent Lee]

I've definitely got a tape somewhere of you giving me a shout out, as well a tape of you doing a test transmission for another stration in Leeds and some other bits. Good days.

I'd love to hear any pirate recordings if you have anything to convert the tapes, or you could post to me and I'll digitise them and return them to you after.

Thank you for the kind words and I'm glad it served to purpose of why I did my radio shows to let people hear the music out there. Nice one!

Not a problem at all. Those were great shows.

I've still got a tape deck set up so no problem there. I'll see what I can find over the next couple of weeks. I didn't tend to tape full shows though, just the songs I liked but I always kept the DJ links in rather than editing them. I did tape a bit of the end of that test transmission though. I'll DM you with a few interesting bits when I get chance. Nice to be in touch with you!

Nice one Matt, look forward to hearing from you.