PowerJamPower FM kicked off around the end of 1993 on 103.95FM (complete with a little sprog signal further up the dial). The initial tests featured Mixmaster M playing oldskool Hip Hop from 5 years previous when pirate radio had its first big wave in Bristol, followed by a brief “Goodnight, we’ll be on air properly very soon”.

When programmes commenced it was probably the best sounding pirate Bristol had ever had at that point, with compression / limiting and stereo transmission; the first black music station to use stereo since the demise of FTP some 5 years previously.

The jingles were professionally put together, but still homebrew. Some of the DJs had a very professional presentation style too, although this was frowned upon by the station management and the offending DJs eventually moved on.

DJs such as Paz, Martin Starr, JNR and Uno, Mixmaster M and Rawmaster D were putting on some very good shows and all seemed to be going very well. Unfortunately, the signal level dropped over the coming weeks so people on the outskirts of Bristol were less able to hear the station clearly. Power FM became a popular listen in the city with its nice bass heavy audio, although occasionally distorted.

They started to try and persuade the authorities to give them a license by closing down and getting an RSL. They called their legal station ‘Powerjam’. By this point, another station had appeared in the same vein as Power, further up the dial – Passion FM. Passion took over Power’s frequency whilst it was off-air. Eventually the two stations merged into ‘Dance FM’ around 1996 but Passion reappeared on 106.2 by 1999 and Dance FM disappeared eventually.

Downloads

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Artwork

Power Jam Flyer 1
Power Jam Flyer 2

Audio

Power FM – 103.95 – DJ Die, DJ Suv with MC Riggadig – 1993 62 mins
Power FM – 103.95 – DJ Paz – 14-1-94 93 mins
Power FM – 103.95 – JNR & Uno – Early 1994 94 mins
Power FM – 103.95 – Dessi Rankin – Aug 1994 46 mins