LWR (London Weekend Radio) was first heard in 1983, broadcasting on 92.5 at weekends (obviously!). In their early days they were more of a traditional rock and pop station, rather than the soul and dance station they became later on. Having said that, it was the first place you could hear Tim Westwood’s rap show.…
Alice’s Restaurant are named after the song and album by singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie, and played rock music to London at the weekend. They were first heard in 1981, but many of their members have been rockin’ the airwaves on various stations since the 1960’s. Once described as a “rock giant” in national newspaper columns, Alice’s…
In the late 1970s, there was a station called Phoenix Radio, that broadcast progressive and alternative rock on 214m to East London and Essex. That station closed in September 1980 and most of the people involved went on to start Alices Restaurant (although later on, Alice would split into 2 stations and the Phoenix name…
Radio City operated on Sundays from 12 – 4pm between 1978 and 1985, and was the UK’s only 1950’s Rock and Roll Radio Station. There were a few radio stations in London at the time, but Radio City was very different. It was rockin’, playing only the best of 1950’s Rock and Roll, Rockabilly, Blues…
In late 1988, a number of commercial stations in the UK started to run separate services on AM and FM. Most started new oldies stations on AM, but once again it was a pirate who had done it first. In this case over 5 years earlier! Radio Sovereign was the UK’s first ‘Golden Oldies’ station…
Freeze FM was born in the summer 1999. They could be heard on 92.7 FM and broadcast from somewhere in West London…. They quickly grew to be one of the largest underground radio stations in London and won three awards for Best Pirate Radio Station. Freeze was also the first Garage station to go 24/7…
Chris Philips and Ben West were both interested in starting a pirate station. Following some involvement in other projects, they decided to join forces, and so on 1 December 1985 Starpoint FM was born on 88.6 FM. Originally broadcasting once a week on Sundays, demand quickly prompted the addition of an entire weekend broadcast. The…
Brian Anthony was a DJ on Radio Jackie and became involved in their FM service, Jackie FM. However, by the time regular broadcasts started in late 1980 the name had been shortened to JFM and all links with Jackie were gone. Many people just presumed the initials stood for Jazz Funk Music, because that’s what…
Skyline Radio broadcast to Southeast London and in 1982 could be heard on Wednesday nights on 90.2 FM. Later, they were another station to exploit the loophole that was discovered in the early 80s, that is that the authorities could not confiscate any transmitting equipment without a court order. They started broadcasting 7 days a…
In the mid 1980s Dave Fuller and Claire Mansfield used to jam CB channels playing rock music. They later decided it would make more sense to start a proper radio station, which would become RFM. The first tests took place on 14th August 1986 on 89.7 FM, and continued regularly after that. Early broadcasts were…