Just like the pirate stations, I don’t know how long this video will stay up, but this is a great documentary on London pirate stations of the 1980’s and 90’s. Kiss, Kool, Passion, Fire, used to listen to a lot of those (and remember the anger over Jazz FM). Not exactly the last pirates, there are many going strong, and getting global audiences online – although I do wonder where the new blood of radio will come from now…it’s far less obvious.
It’s not completely true that the airwaves were totally white in the 80’s – John Peel played a lot of reggae, house, jungle, techno and rave, and I remember Rankin Miss P late nights on Radio 1, but yeah, it was pretty staid out of that, especially during the day. Pirates were a breath of fresh air – jungle, rave, hardcore, dubstep, grime, UK and US hiphop, wouldn’t really have spread without the pirates going their first.
Thanks for Lee Spoons for the tip. And you can watch legit over at the BBC iPlayer (but where is the fun in that? Also you have to give the feds your details, something that pisses me off about iPlayer is they are requiring login even for radio-only apps now, even though radio isn’t covered by the TV license! Fuck off.)
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