Pirates of the Airwaves

In this new episode I'm talking to Arnold Lavine from 1970's station Radio Concord. We chat about how Concord started, and, how it went on to be the radical voice of the 1970's counterculture in London. We also talk about his excellent book, “Banned by the BBC”, and finally what he has been doing since the end of Radio Concord. 

This time we have been given permission by Lawrie Hallett to play out his other pirate documentary. You may remember episode 21 where he talked to some of the London Land Based Pirates of the early 80's. Well, this time he covers the offshore pirates up to 1984 and includes exclusive interviews with Ronan O'Rahilly, Tony Blackburn and John Peel about their time with the ships. 

This week we are again outside London. We're off to the south coast with Ian Harling from Radio Cavendish and South Coast Radio among  others. Here how they smuggled a FM transmitter from the Netherlands and another transmitter across to France for a one off broadcast back to the UK. Tales of cat and mouse antics with the authorities and once again Nick Catford pops up in the story. Great stuff from Ian.

This time I chat to Chris Cooper from Birmingham. He was one of the people behind Empire Radio, the short wave pirate, then went on to found the Birmingham FM pirate EST before going on to The Voice of Peace and Radio Caroline. He can now be heard regularly on Radio Seagull. He is a great story teller with a great memory of his pirate days. 

Something a little different this week. Lawrie Hallett has given us a documentary he made for LBC in 1984. It was never broadcast by them because of the lawyers, but you can hear it now as part of our podcast series.   

So, here we have the second part of my chat with Mark Dezzani, Martin Spencer and Lawrie Hallett. We get through plenty, including talking about the contribution of some well known (and some not so well known) pirates, where, when, why and how some broadcasts took place and plenty of stories about some near misses with the authorities. 

In the first part of this two part special, I get four old pirates in a studio and light the anorak touch paper and stand well back! In this four way conversation between Lawrie Hallett (Brian Marshall), Martin Spencer (Dave Lane), Mark Dezzani (Rodger Vosene) and me, Mark Wakely (Steve Justin). We talk about how we got into pirate radio and the first tentative steps into broadcasting and why we got involved in this illegal activity. There's plenty of radio talk and some insights into the beginnings of Radio Zodiac, Phoenix Radio and Alice's Restaurant. The second part of this epic will be out in two weeks.If you like the podcast and would like to support it then please buy me a coffee to help cover the recording and hosting costs, just follow the link, Thanks.  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/markwakelyW

This is the second part of my chat with Bob Lawrence. We talk about regulation in radio, the future of medium wave, Caroline's 648 licence, the end of LMR, his time on the Mi Amigo and plenty of other anorak stuff. 

In this episode you can hear the first half of my conversation with Bob Lawrence (Richard Thompson). We talk about his start in radio and his time as part of the original London Music Radio. We look at the trials and tribulations of being a LBP operator in the 1970's and the camaraderie between stations of the time.   

For this episode I talk to Lawrie Hallett, the poacher turned gamekeeper. He went from pirate radio operator to ofcom official via a whole load of radio related projects and played a major role in helping Radio Caroline gain their 648 AM licence. He is now spending much of his time helping train the next generation of radio broadcasters.

For this first episode of 2023 the tables have been turned on your host by Lawrie Hallett, and the subject of the podcast is me. I would like to point out that this was not my idea, it was Lawrie's, who incidentally is the guest on the next episode. He came up with the idea when I went to interview him at his place of work just before Christmas. As usual we talk about life in pirate radio and beyond, including how I got involved, why I blame the IRA for the loss of two transmitters and my biggest regret in radio.

In this episode I talk to Bear, the legendry rock "Gramophone Announcer" from Telstar One 235m, Alice's Restaurant and RFM, amongst others. He takes us through his radio journey from the 1960, listening to the offshore pirates to his desire to bring back a rock station in the Alice's mould.

This is the podcast where we talk to some of the people who helped shape the radio landscape of the UK back in the 1970's and 80's by fracturing the occasional law and becoming Land Based Radio Pirates. This episode we talk to Philip Bendall or Philip Day as some of you may have known him. He talks about his time at Radio Jackie and Radio Concord among others. He has shared transmission sites and studios with some of the major charters of the pirate radio scene at the time, so why not sit back and enjoy a little trip back to London of the 1970's.

This episode we talk to Tony Randall. He cut his pirate teeth with Radio Jackie and and went on to be involved with numerus stations and he had a few brushes with the authorities on the way.

Episode 11 finds us talking to Clair and Dave from London pirate, Rock FM. They came up with the idea of RFM in the pub, so it seems appropriate that we chat to them while they are having a Sunday lunchtime drink (hence all the pub noise). We hear about how they new nothing about LBP radio, not even listeners, and from this inauspicious start they went on to run London's premier rock pirate for five years. They even got a telling off from Radio Caroline.

Bert Bridges tell us how he got into pirate radio because of some builders from Cornwall while living in a bedsit in Ilford and being busted well after the broadcast. We also learn about his archive project for unlicenced radio stations starting in 1896.

In this episode I talk to Danny Goldman (Dipole) about his journey from East London FM pirate Radio Titanic to legal radio in Switzerland presenting his shows in German. The story takes in his time on RIP Radio, Radio Comsat, Phoenix Radio and Radio Shoestring, plus his brushes with the authorities, some funny, some not. If you want to get in touch email me at piratepod7080@gmail.com .

This time I'm chatting to Luke The Duke, one of the leading lights from North West London Rock'n'Roll pirate, Radio City. He also talks about his involvement with other stations including getting DBC on the air and the truth behind Keith Allen's Breakfast Pirate Radio. So sit back and enjoy.

This episode we are in conversation with Gary Drew. His love for soul music and pirate radio encouraged him and some friends to set up East London soul station Melody FM in the mid 1980's. We chat about this and what he has been doing since. We also talk a little about the current radio landscape.

In episode 6 we chat to Colin Noble, presenter from London rock radio station Alice's Restaurant. He tells us how he went from rock fan and listener to presenter on the station.

In this episode I chat with Ivor Herdson (Mark Ashton) from RFL 92FM, County Radio and Skyline Radio about how he got involved in pirate radio in the first place and how a surprise knock on the door dragged him back to full time radio.

Known to the listeners of Merseyside and the North West of England as Steve West, we hear about his time on Radio Jackie North, MAR and many other stations, he tells us about almost being blown off the top of a 22 story tower block, laughing at the GPO and accidentally almost setting fire to a flat with a transmitter power supply.

He was a listener, then helper, then presenter on London soul station Radio Invicta, after which he joined The Voice of Peace somewhere in the Mediterranean and then ended up in Ireland working on many of the pirates of the early 1980's. Known to the listeners of London, the middle east and Ireland ( and everyone else for that matter) as Steve Marshall. We chat about going up tower blocks at 14, Life on the peace ship, his working friendship with Tony Allen and life as a pirate in Ireland during the boom years.

In this episode I talk to Land-Based Pirate Radio legend and founder of Radio Jackie, Nick Catford, (or Michael Knight if you prefer). We chat about the early days, the raids, The Gotts court case, going 24 hours and the fall and rise of Radio Jackie.

In this first episode we hear from the man who was the transmitter engineer for many pirate radio stations in the 1970's and 80's. Pyers Easton was the technical wizard behind, LMR (1981), Kiss FM, Radio Horizon and LGR among others. He tells us how he got started in pirate radio and why he got out at the end.