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…
The first 7-day a week white pirate station in the Black Country was Power House Radio. They had been on since 7th February 1988 from Rowley Regis. At this point Craig Benson was running a car hire business that booked some advertising on PHR. It was through this connection that Craig Benson obtained his first…
In August 1979 two pirate stations started broadcasting. One was the short-lived Radio Active, while the other was someone relaying tapes of London’s Radio Jackie on 227 MW. A meeting was arranged, and in staggered the radio legend that is Steve Merrick, “wanting to sound like Radio Jackie”. That was met with some amusement by…
In May of 1988, there were rumours of new reggae, soul station starting in Leeds, but it wasn’t until June that the first tests took place for Rapid Radio. Regular broadcasts started in June 1988, on 105.8 FM. By August they had shifted down to 103.6, and in September were on 98.1. By this point…
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…
Radio Nova broadcast to Leicestershire in the early 1980s, borrowing their name and a few jingles from the famous Dublin station. They were based originally in Groby, Leicestershire and broadcast on FM. At the same time, Radio Veronica and Radio King were using on AM, with Veronica being based in Desford and King in Leicester…
Passion FM first appeared on 106.2FM across Bristol at the end of 1994. At first it catered greatly for Jungle, as well as Reggae and Soul. Over the first Christmas period, it featured an overnight marathon show from Easygroove who hadn’t been on radio since BAD Radio closed in 1989. This was a journey through…
Jive FM broadcast dance music from Huddersfield. If anyone has any more information on this station please contact The Pirate Archive. Downloads To save any item from this list then Right Click and ‘Save Target As…’ Audio Jive FM – 102 – Huddersfield – Rootless – Ragga – Date Unknown 47 mins Jive FM –…
Deep FM broadcast dance music from Wolverhampton. They were first heard in the early 00’s on 89.6, and were heard mostly at weekends. If anyone has any more information on this station please contact The Pirate Archive. Downloads To save any item from this list then Right Click and ‘Save Target As…’ Audio Deep…
Fusion FM first took to the airwaves in 2001, using a 2 Watt vfo rig from Matt James, aka J Bassline G, parent’s house in Brandhall/Oldbury. The signal was only good for around 3 miles, but could be heard 7-8 miles away on a good day. Fusion or Jay wasn’t heard on air for a…