# Pirate radio in Bristol



## bristolradio (Apr 23, 2009)

Hello, this is my first post. I've joined up just for the Bristol forum really, it's nice to have something else besides HijackBristol.

Now, I realise it's a really niche subject to talk about, but this site is in favor of pirate radio, yes?  Can I pick your brains then?  I'm not going to advertise things straight up but I am trying to hunt down old recordings of pirate radio stations originating in Bristol for a dedicated website which archives pirate radio recordings.  If you have any tapes or mp3s of tapes that you or your friends have ripped, I'd love to hear them.  I have quite a few of my own recordings (you can find a few out there on the net already) but there are large gaps in my collection.

I'm trying to build up an online history on that site of as many of the Bristol pirate stations as I can so that there is something on the net to remember them by, so if any of you have been involved in pirate radio in Bristol in the past, then I'd also like to hear any information you have.

I have read a past thread on here about BS1 Radio, and that's one station that I could never receive properly in my area so I never managed to record any.  If you have any mp3s or tapes of this station, I'd love to get hold of them.

I get the feeling some of you would know about the "Radio Interference" broadcasts some years back and I'd like to find out more about them.

Any lists of pirate stations from areas outside of Bristol but in the South West over the decades would be nice too.  I know there is currently one in Newquay which has been around for a few years.

Finally, there has been some pirate activity recently on 100.6 FM and there may well be some again. There will also be some tonight at about 7pm til 8.30pm on 105 FM so I'm told, so listen out


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## DaveCinzano (Apr 23, 2009)

I have some tapes of Fantasy 106.7 (iirc), c.1997. That was the techno/house one when it was all DnB and roots and that around here. 

In terms of Interference, are you talking about the one from 1998 onwards (Bristol from 1999 I believe)? The political/conscious station? If so I may be able to help.

I think I may also have an article or similar regarding Bristol pirates of the past. I shall see if I can find it.


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## bristolradio (Apr 23, 2009)

Dave, I've been after some more Fantasy stuff.  As far as I knew, it was only around for a couple of weeks on 107FM.  Is it alright to post links to mp3s here?  I have a tape of Logix and Semtex playing DnB uploaded on Rapidshare.  Do you have the means to rip the tapes to mp3?

Storm FM was the only other big station to do the pure dance thing really, run by Passion as a side project.

Re Interference - Yeah that's the one.  It came on once or twice for demonstrations, there was some graffiti sprayed on Stokes Croft, but I could never hear it where I live near Bradley Stoke.  I do well to get any of the pirates really!


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## DaveCinzano (Apr 23, 2009)

Ah yes - not 106.7, Fantasy was 107, ten seventy...  It's coming back to me now!

Yes, it was a shame Fantasy didn't last longer, it had crystal clear transmission (where I was anyway), and great music. Jamie Anderson did a lovely tech-house show.

I shall return to this later, in a bit of a rush at the moment.


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## bristolradio (Apr 23, 2009)

Cool, cheers.


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## DaveCinzano (Apr 23, 2009)

Hmmm... Can't find the tapes, guess they are lying in a box somewhere. I think I have them as MP3s somewhere too though.


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## DaveCinzano (Apr 23, 2009)

Here's an article about Interference from _Squall_, which is broadly accurate and makes mention of the Bristol end of things:



> ACTIVE ON THE AIRWAVES
> 
> Airto Coral catches up with Interference FM, the pirate politico's.
> 
> ...



NB: 'Chris Winton' was the name of the main foe of pirates at the time.


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## DaveCinzano (Apr 23, 2009)

Right, I've found 5 Fantasy MP3s from 1997 (2.5 tapes), and a couple of (Bristol) IFM cassettes. Can't find the original Bristol Interference one though. And sadly no original (London) Interference ones - J18, Mayday, N30, Free The Spirit etc. Will sort through them for you later.


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## bristolradio (Apr 23, 2009)

Dave, you're a star!  Thanks for this.

105FM didn't happen tonight, maybe next week, I'll have to find out what happened.


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## BlackArab (Apr 24, 2009)

I've done a few shows on pirates here but unfortunately have nothing on tape. If you're looking for stuff can I suggest tracking down DJs Wylie and MixMaster M who have been involved in pirates in central Bristol for years. 

Good luck!

ps bizarrely as I type this the girl next to me is googling for pictures of pirates, spooky!!!


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## DaveCinzano (Apr 24, 2009)

Wylie is great - very funny chap. Last I heard he was working as an actor on _Doctor Who_...  

It did get somewhat confusing in the early 00s when both him and the _other_ Mr Wiley were both making 2 step garage type stuff, though I think his stuff predated Roll Deep (definitely) and PAUG Cartel (maybe).

Ragga FM was a pretty tiptop station, though its name did seem shamelessly to misrepresent what was played. 'Might have' had some troubles with the Radiocommunications Agency. 

Still remember Mike pounding his burger van sound system on St. Mark's Road one Easton Community Festival, long after everyone else had gone home, a real soldier


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## BlackArab (Apr 24, 2009)

DaveCinzano said:


> Wylie is great - very funny chap. Last I heard he was working as an actor on _Doctor Who_...
> 
> It did get somewhat confusing in the early 00s when both him and the _other_ Mr Wiley were both making 2 step garage type stuff, though I think his stuff predated Roll Deep (definitely) and PAUG Cartel (maybe).
> 
> ...



Ragga FM! that was one of the ones I played on. We had some fun on there, always funny not knowing if anyone was listening and doing anything to get that damn phone to ring. You're right about Wylie the man deserves recognition for his services to the Bristol scene.

It's a shame that people like him go unrecognized by the majority.


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## Sunspots (Apr 24, 2009)

Squall said:
			
		

> Teletext March 1 1998......pirate radio activists make unexpected appearance on airwaves....... According to The Times newspaper two days later, the Countryside Alliance had sold 50,000 ear-piece radios to pro-hunting demonstrators gathering for the Countryside March. After paying £2.50 each they were expecting to listen to a day of fox hunting tales on the temporarily licenced March FM.
> 
> There were angry ripples across the sea of barbour jackets, however, when a clandestine team of pirate radioteers calling themselves Interference FM made their first appearance on the airwaves. Climbing onto a tower block near Hyde Park, five members of the guerilla team crystal-locked their powerful transmitter onto 87.7FM and out-broadcast the hunters with a repeated message: "This is Hunt Saboteurs Broadcasting Association broadcasting to the nation's bigots. Get orf my land."
> 
> £125,000 worth of ear-piece radios locked to the 87.7 FM frequency were binned as a result.


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## DaveCinzano (Apr 24, 2009)

For a man who has been involved in things at all levels so much, like you say he is (like others) something of an invisible man when it comes to the accepted 'wisdom' on Bristol music. I suspect the fact that he is nice and not some stereotype contributes to this 

So what sort of stuff were you playing then, Black Arab, on Ragga and elsewhere?

Some Bristol stations that come to mind: Passion, Dance, Powerjam (there was a Bristol Powerjam wasn't there?), Kute (or was that an RSL?), Pukar...


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## BlackArab (Apr 24, 2009)

DaveCinzano said:


> For a man who has been involved in things at all levels so much, like you say he is (like others) something of an invisible man when it comes to the accepted 'wisdom' on Bristol music. I suspect the fact that he is nice and not some stereotype contributes to this
> 
> So what sort of stuff were you playing then, Black Arab, on Ragga and elsewhere?
> 
> Some Bristol stations that come to mind: Passion, Dance, Powerjam (there was a Bristol Powerjam wasn't there?), Kute (or was that an RSL?), Pukar...



Still playing every now and then. That show was mainly Old school Hip-Hop, 70/80s classics etc I did a world/jazz/broken beat show a couple of years ago when I was at Bristol Uni on their radio station BURST. I'm hoping in the future to get back into online broadcasting or just producing a podcast show as I still miss it. 

I've never been a technical genius on the decks but do pride myself on my ability to move butts.


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## DaveCinzano (Apr 24, 2009)

Ah yes, Burst - they had some very good shows. I particularly liked Francophilia, dedicated to French hip hop and hosted by presenters with bad French accents 

Let us know if and when you get an online show or podcast up and running!


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## bristolradio (Apr 24, 2009)

Yeah, I intend to talk to Wile-up as soon as I can.  I know he started SLR / Magnum in 1990 alongside a guy called Iroy who was from the London SLR / Ragga FM AFAIK.  Wiley is on Ujima on Saturday evenings now.

Powerjam was Power FM's RSL.  Power FM and Passion merged in about 1998 to become Dance FM and then split again.  What's interesting here is that it basically resulted in Power FM becoming Passion and Passion becoming Dance FM, from what I can tell.  I'll have to talk with Mixmaster M on lots of stuff at some point.

I suppose it would be ok to post the link to the site now...

http://www.thepiratearchive.net/

Use the Stations button at the top to get to a list of stations it has information about.  The Bristol bit is at the bottom.  Steve kindly allowed me to join in there and put my own Bristol bits up, the site was mainly set up for Midlands pirates.

I might as well post my list of Bristol stations...



> Radio 103.5 - 103.5 - Sept 1986 - Jan 1988
> 
> BAD Radio - Bristol Amalgamated DJs - 105.2 / 106.5 /106.95 FM - summer 1987 - March 1989
> 
> ...


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## bristolradio (Apr 24, 2009)

Oh, if anybody can correct any information on the site, or add more the list, please do


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## Ground Elder (Apr 24, 2009)

I think I might have a ropey old cassette of Queen Bee and a Nyabinghi show from SPEC around 1990. It will be well buried, so bear with me...


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## bristolradio (Apr 25, 2009)

Ground Elder said:


> I think I might have a ropey old cassette of Queen Bee and a Nyabinghi show from SPEC around 1990. It will be well buried, so bear with me...



Thanks, hope you can find it


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## danfb (Apr 30, 2009)

wow thats some project! im going to try hard to come up with some tapes for you mr bristolradio, know i have a few tucked away i will try to dig them out for you tomorrow


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## bristolradio (Apr 30, 2009)

Thanks danfb.  Yeah, it is quite a big project!  The guys who do the midlands stuff know a few people and so it's a tiny bit easier for them.  Still, it's amazing what they've managed to get together.

Another thing that some of you might know about - SYT (Savage Yet Tender) on 104.4FM in about 1988 and then again in 1991, was quite alternative and linked to a few activists I think.  Although I've got some responses from a couple of people who say they were involved, they've never got back to me again.  Some of their jingles (produced by a 'Marcus Valentine') are on irational.org - http://www.irational.org/marcus/music/ .  I did manage to get a nice article together about EMI radio though - http://www.thepiratearchive.net/emi.html - before the guy who ran it stopped replying to my emails.  It's quite difficult to get people to talk.


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## bristolradio (Jun 8, 2009)

*Massive update to Pirate Archive Bristol...*

The Bristol section of the site has been updated this week with the addition of two new stations pages and several other pages updated.

A new page has been added for Interference FM > http://www.thepiratearchive.net/interferencefm.html < and also for Fantasy FM > http://www.thepiratearchive.net/fantasy_bristol.html < the later of which has the normal station info and audio for download.

Updates this week are to the FTP radio page > http://www.thepiratearchive.net/ftp.html < which has had three new magazine articles added and the FPR page > http://www.thepiratearchive.net/fpr.html < which has had two new recordings added to it. The Bristol Stations list has also been updated this week with the addition of a couple of stations.

Hold tight for a BAD Radio page on it's way...


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## shadybristol (Sep 24, 2011)

FPR RADIO - BRISTOL gunna broadcast for one sunday soon 12pm - 12am on the frequency of 100.7MHz after being busted 20 years ago. so not all good things come to a end.


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## ddraig (Sep 24, 2011)

good luck to them


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## ska invita (Sep 25, 2011)

a bit confused - are there any stations up and running at the mo? any with net streams?


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