In 1979, some members of Celebration Radio wanted to break away and put a station on air with a broader appeal. This was to be Radio Floss, and the first test broadcast was made in September 1979 with the station opening on the 13th January 1980. They broadcast from North London on 1350 kHz, usually…
Centreforce Radio started life in May 1989 broadcasting from East London on 88.3 FM. The station was setup with the help of Andy Swallow and a few other people from Echo’s, which was a small night club in East London, by the Bow flyover. The club hosted a couple of nights such as Tony Wilson’s…
Fantasy FM started broadcasting from North London in August 1989 on 98.6 FM. They played Acid, Rave & Hardcore music, all of which was massive at the time, and was also dominating the mainstream music charts too, during the time Fantasy was on air. During the early part of 1990, Fantasy changed frequency to 98.1…
Horizon Radio was part of a new wave of pirate radio stations that took to the airwaves of the capital in the early 1980s. In the 70s, you would only hear pirates for a few hours on Sundays or bank holidays. Then, following a loop hole discovered in a Radio Jackie court case, a number…
The first station that this crowd put on the air was Radio 220, but in April 1979, they became Southern Radio. The station could be heard on Sundays across South East London on a number of frequencies before settling on 1413 kHz. They had a rock music format and also featured free radio news in…
There are few pirate stations as important or influential as Radio Invicta. They first played “Soul over London” in 1970, becoming the first soul pirate in Britain. They were pioneering in many other ways too. Where most pirates of the day broadcast on medium wave from fields, the soul boys at Invicta wanted the better…
In the summer of 1984 London pirate Horizon Radio suffered a revolt which led to 11 DJ’s, lead by Tony Monson, leaving to set up a new station. This station was Sound Of London Alternative Radio – Solar. Solar was first heard in late October 1984 on the old Horizon frequency of 102.5, with most…
In 1980, Stuart Russell and Peter Gilbert were running Radio Saturn on FM, medium wave and short wave. On 5th July 1980, this became South London Radio. Early broadcasts went out on a Saturday night on 92.5 and were low powered, until RFLs John Dawson got involved the following year, along with DJ Vaughn Smart…
By the late 1980s, the music on London’s Dance pirates was changing and, setting the template of what was to come, East London’s Sunrise FM launched in April 1988. They could be heard firstly at weekends on 88.75 FM, playing the usual diet of soul, funk, rare groove and a little reggae. Later, weekday evenings…
Solar Radio closed down on the 29th September 1985 in order to apply for the forthcoming community licences. Horizon and JFM had also gone by this point and a number of former Solar DJs had seen Kiss FM successfully emerge from the ashes of JFM. Not wanting to be left behind, they decided to launch their…