It used to be the only way i’d hear about pirates other than listening to the radio. It was a small column about pirate radio, i’ve been trying to see if there might be away to read it online some were, it did have some stuff about stations on fm. Think the author was mentioned on another forum a while ago, my dad would get these magazines others like everyday practical electronics, a lot of the time they weren't that interesting, apart from the adverts for fm bugs.

There was this story about a station been allowed to stay on air for experimental reasons, about the same time there was a station in Leeds on every evening, I suspected this was the station, on 101.9 had a very good signal. Its so long ago i’m not sure, also read another story about a station it was called abc it had been raided the wall clock had been taken, don’t know why they’d take that. I had I look at the pirate archive there was a station called that in Leeds but it was too early, it would been mid-late 90’s era, i’m guessing it must of been some were else. The 101.9 station was mentioned on an early website, don’t know the name of it, it had very good stereo I know that, it said it carried asian programming.

There was another story, i’m pretty sure about this one, it was rsl that got fined for using 180w instead the 10w, (1998?) I do remember this on 106.8, this signal would of been as strong as dream fm. I could hear both on my pocket radio in the back of our car going down near the kilburn white horse, I do remember hearing 106.8 alot on day trips, bhangra type music, quite surprised were I could pick it up, over at Harrogate, Knaresborough. It was interesting too, I didn’t know the power a towerblock pirate would use, then you have a figure, I knew thats what they use.

Worth having a look if you can find it on here, they've got tons of old mags archived

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/

Achim has that In This Week series of old pirate memories.

https://www.achimbrueckner.de/freeradio/php/wordpress/

jvok wrote: ↑Thu Jan 23, 2025 4:28 pm Worth having a look if you can find it on here, they've got tons of old mags archived

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/

wow thanks for that, the column is called off the record, the name of the columists was andy

I did find this, someone had deliberately been broadcasting over the top of an rsl and medway fm was fined for upping their power, these were in july 1998, jan 1999 additions.
i’ve not found the other things I was looking for maybe there were else were in it, there was radio active and everyday practical wireless, it seems bit like a needle in a haystack.

The colum would only appear every few months, alot of the time it seemed shortwave centric, he did seem obsess sometimes over the station in the channel tunnel. I do remember the artcle on captain cooke, unusual full page spread, he did look like you’d expect a pirate to look like. I did think its mad people did dx tv, big crts, alot of the stuff went over my head the projects modes.

Theres other stuff too like an actual teleswitch meter, 162khz has been kept going in France, also remember the raid on hope fm,, when they interrupted the last broadcast ris, random advice someone who couldn receive rsls pirates in the car not at home, there were actual things to receive on fm was nice, a vertical was needed, kind of like an early web forum, girls fm been received long distance, discussions on what frequencies could be used for.

There were several underground "zines" dedecated to pirate radio but the SWM articles were the only place (pre-internet) in the UK one could read about them in a (somewhat) "mainstream" publication.

IIRC they were threatened with prosecution at one point for publishing frequencies of pirate stations although which law a prosecution could be brought under (at least in the case of land based stations) is fairly unclear.

it was called abc it had been raided the wall clock had been taken, don’t know why they’d take that.

There have been instances of studio furniture been taken during raids.

I did think its mad people did dx tv

Some folk still do although it's more difficult now that it's all mostly digital and UHF and the availablity of thousands of channels on satellite (and the internet) has killed a lot of the novelty of being able to get foreign stations

I occasionally dabbled with Band 1 DXing myself back in the day.

They did seem to make a thing of someone getting into trouble for listening to a pirate, i’m sure it can’t of just been listening, must of had some of other connection, it did seem odd to me. This back when you could listen to stuff on scanners, that was illegal too..maybe sometimes people get caught, with their hand in the till, it was illegal to publish the frequencies of pirates too, definitely think there were some publications that got into trouble over this. There was one in a book I read about not so long a, got the phone line disconnected I could be wrong, maybe safer having a magazine about other stuff.

I don’t agree with the tone the off the record colum took later on, it was saying all pirates were set up brats, the brat youth bridgade, it was abit too judgey to me, you didn’t get much information about pirates rsls, it someone giving their opinion. I do have fond memories of the mid 2000's the music i'd download then, some of could be bratty.

Persona Non Grata wrote: ↑Mon Feb 03, 2025 9:56 amThere were several underground "zines" dedecated to pirate radio...

I remember 'Anoraks UK' which was printed in Blackpool and towards the end of its life had several pages on the London scene as well as a good rundown of what was happening in the rest of the country. Also 'TX Magazine' had lots of articles on the pirate scene. Both were back in the late 80s/early 90s.

Anoraks UK' s weekly report kinda falls into the 'zine category in that it was only available by mail order and obviously produced on a photocopier (rather than a proper printing press).

That said in the last couple of years of it's existence it did adopt a more "professional" look than most of its rivals with some use of computers (pretty cutting edge stuff in the 1980's) it's sudden demise left a pretty big hole in the market which wasn't really filled until that internet thing came along.

IIRC one or two of the London based entertainment magazines dabbled with a pirate radio column. I remember someone telling me that the Netherlands was the only place in Europe where dedicated free radio magazines were sold in regular newsagents although the closest I ever saw to such a thing when I was over there was the "Veronica" TV listings guide (Then again maybe I missed them through only having a few words of the language ?)

Re: studio clocks, furniture and other random items being seized during raids.

While raids on 1980's Irish pirates were rare some unusual items were prone to seizure.

At Kiss FM (Foley Street, Dublin) they were apparently instructed to take "everything plugged in" so they took an electric heater along with all the gear in the main studio. The production studio was left untouched though as someone unplugged all the gear before the raiding party got to it.

At Boyneside (Drogheda) they took every cassette tape in the place (Under Irish law their legal basis for doing so was extremely questionable) and for some reason cut every audio lead in the place (even when they could have just been unplugged). The courts later ordered all the gear returned (presumably less the amputated audio cables).

there is an advert for anoraks uk address for blackpool on the test transmission of kiss 103.7 from monaghan Monaghan town we are Kiss K I S S, couldn’t resist

A few Irish commercial stations used to run occasional adverts for Anoraks UK and/or their Irish based rivals back in the 1980's.

As far as I know money never changed hands for these ads it was all "free plugs".

I recall Off the record column in SWL mag or similar, I had a few Anoraks UK fanzines and 3-4 Radio Todays and quite a few AM FM's. I always remember the "Malcolm what are you doing in your bedroom" head line with a man twisting some wires and radio receiver. Good memories there.

If I recall i remember reading the off the record about 1990 or 1991 times. I stood and read it in WHSmith and only occasionally bought it. Filled with scanner ads, Bearcats / Discone antennas and the like.

Alot of those things the AOR ones looked as though they could do something interesting, probably couldn’t do much, the ones with hf, seemed to command a high price, sucker people into paying a really high price for it. The adverts for fm bugs in another magazine seemed alot more interesting, alot cheaper something you could do something with, they had a detective on the advert too.

Off The Record was written originally by Andy Cardier, who was Martin Kayne on Radio Caroline & Radio North Sea International. Oskar took over a little later.

Other fanzine style magazines around at the time covering Shortwave & Medium wave pirates were Pirate Connection from Sweden, Anorak Magazine & Pirate Chat from the UK.

There was another occasional publication by Anthony Page, the name of which escapes me. Anthony ran Radio Ability, a station that claimed to be the first station for people with disabilities. It was relayed by Radio Atlantis & possibly Radio Merlin/BIRS.