FM Outside London

For discussion of all stations in the UK that are outside of London.
Casual
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Re: FM Outside London

Post by Casual » Sat Oct 12, 2019 7:09 pm

wazza wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 7:02 pm What worries me about this thread is a load of middle aged (or in some cases just plain old) men who think they know what "the kids" are into :lol:
My opinion is solely based on a 17 year old in my house/what I hear him/his mates listening to/what they tell me they're listening to over a period of a few years - Trust me, there's no hint of radio (FM or net) anywhere there! It's the online streaming methods stated above which they rely on for anything music related! When it comes to radio (especially FM) they ain't interested & it's referred to as something his grandad would have on in his car! (Smooth FM) This is exactly why nowadays you don't have kids running FM pirates, it's all big (or middle aged) men in there 30's/40's/50's with families who have been plying their trade in it from the 80's/90's. I was involved with pirate radio in London as a DJ for around 20 years from the late 90's & have seen exactly that trend with my own eyes over the years so I know what I'm saying here is fact.

Less of the middle aged too by the way! Mid-30's isn't quite there yet! You're probably older than I am! 😂

SOTS 87 7
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Re: FM Outside London

Post by SOTS 87 7 » Sat Oct 12, 2019 10:27 pm

Think yourself lucky, I'm older than all of you probably hahaha.
Mr Casual you are right, all my daughter does is either youtube or streaming, some of the crap she listens to...… well, as an OLD school DJ (and radio, 1980's) myself, each to their own I'd say.

whitenoisedb
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Re: FM Outside London

Post by whitenoisedb » Sun Oct 13, 2019 2:50 pm

Spot on Casual, couldn’t agree with you more. There’s so much rubbish on the dial with no thought given to programming other than keeping the music rolling. That’s just the pirates! Some 6 music shows are good, Angel I.O.W for a bit of novelty. I guess the hardest part nowadays is finding quality DJs who are willing to dig that bit deeper and put in the effort. I’m sounding like a grumpy old git now!

drumandbasshead010
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Re: FM Outside London

Post by drumandbasshead010 » Sun Oct 13, 2019 6:14 pm

From what I can tell here in Ireland, it's pop with most of the kids, me sticking out like a sore thumb with my house and drum & bass, and those who like techno usually confine it to the raves and maybe the car. The underground is still alive, although due to Ireland's restricted closing times the thriving scene, while resulting in club sell-outs, appears to exist in the woods and in farmer's sheds, as well as the odd abandoned building. Long live pirate radio, but it won't! As for DAB, while I applaud the new multiplex that recently came on over here, that isn't going to go anywhere with the kids either. At least with FM, they hear it in the car, they know what it is. My friends woul still know what the local radio stations are, not one of them would know what DAB is.

house-every-weekend
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Re: FM Outside London

Post by house-every-weekend » Sat Nov 09, 2019 4:21 pm

I've read this whole thread, and what a load of crap depressing comments from a load of middle aged people who are making up excuses for why they no longer do any pirate radio online or especially on FM because;
Nobody else is doing it, the kids don't listen anymore, people don't tune around anymore, there's too much noise on the band, your rig will get stolen, the BBC takes up half the band (they always have! - didn't stop pirates finding freqs), you will have to run a kilowatt even then you'll only make it to the end of the road....

I know and you know this is complete untrue horsecrap.

The truth is you are not motivated, you had your time, your interest is lacking, you probably don't even like todays music, you are too lazy, so you make a million excuses instead not to do it and pretend to yourself and on threads like this that nobody else is interested now or listening to tunes on FM to validate your lack of interest.

Putting a station on these days is far easier now than ever before with todays tech than it ever was in the 70's-00's. Mobile links, playout systems, automation, MP3 players instead of cassette tapes for Radio Jackie type site jobs. Good quality stable clean transmitters are far more readily available than in the old days. Decent orban/omnia style audio processing with just a cheap PC and software. RDS, stereo too, list goes on.... What you need are young, fit people to do sitework and enthusiasm that you lack. When you get to 35 and over for some reason people are not into climbing up blocks, towers and trees.

There are pirates on. Getting an audience. No pirates on - no audience, people will not tune around as nothing is there. And yes this thread needs comments from actual people not old people saying what people do these days or tune into or not...

Matt
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Re: FM Outside London

Post by Matt » Sun Nov 10, 2019 7:51 am

The middle-aged pirates of yesterday are not going to all of a sudden start putting their stations back on. And nor should they.

There is very little activity in Yorkshire, Merseyside and Greater Manchester. 25 years ago the band was absolutely buzzing with committed, professional setups and bedroom pirates alike. These guys from 25 years ago replaced the middle aged pirates that came before them. Now that the middle aged pirates of the mid to late 90s have all but gone, why is it that nobody replaced them? Where are the new generation? Those pirates that are on up here are mostly the few who have managed to stay on from back in the day. People's, Fresh etc. Why have a younger generation not replaced them this time? My conjecture is that FM is simply not relevant. If there was a way of reaching an audience and, let's face it, making money from that audience, it would be happening, just as it did before.

In the 90s, the only way to access much of the music that the pirates played was by finding these cool little independent stations. That was how most of these stations built an audience. That's simply not necessary now. Radio 1 got its act together for a start. Then came internet radio.

I can listen to house, dnb, reggae, hip hop, whatever, at any time of the day now. The new generation know this and for many, this has always been the case. That's why it wouldn't even cross their mind to get a station on FM.

Albert H
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Re: FM Outside London

Post by Albert H » Mon Nov 11, 2019 6:25 pm

Matt - you're mostly right. However, Radio 1 has NEVER been relevant because it's always been programmed by 50+ year-old producers who like to think they're "down with the kids" (an expression I heard recently in a BBC Club bar!).

More people are able to receive streaming stations in their cars - either by means of connecting their phones or through their car being interweb-equipped (my personal cars have been able to receive streaming stations via their own built-in mobile-phone-based modems for the last 8 years).

It's easy to set up an internet-based station, entirely without the hassle of rigs up blocks, OFCOM interference, or the knife-wielding thugs that we had to sort out the last time I went up a London block (they came of much the worst, by the way).

It's more difficult to set up a good-sounding internet station. People still forget that there's 168 hours to fill each week, and endless repeats just don't cut it! The quality (or lack of it) of current music will go a long way to deciding whether a station gets an audience or not.

A friend of mine runs an Oldies station (for oldies like me!) and was astonished when his hosting provider said that their servers were being overloaded with listeners! He started with a 1000 concurrent listener package, and shot past that number after just a couple of weeks of starting up the station. The hosting provider is regretting their "unlimited listeners" offer! His programme formula is simple - nothing more recent than about 1988, and nothing from "Greatest Hits" compilations, so that the more obscure tracks from well-known albums get played. No blathering DJs - just minimal back announcements, and occasional station Idents. 1 minute of advertising per hour, and the occasional "sponsored" show. It's actually worth listening to.....
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Albert H
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Re: FM Outside London

Post by Albert H » Mon Nov 11, 2019 6:31 pm

house-every-weekend - you're right about the availability of good quality transmitters these days. However, the noise floor has risen significantly in recent years, making the inter-station noise worse. Getting rigs up on high sites is also becoming more difficult as councils secure their tower blocks better, and getting power to a tree site is frequently difficult!

There's also the problem of digital radios - listeners used to stumble across the pirates while tuning manually between stations. They don't do that any more - they just have a couple of stations pre-programmed into memories.
"Why is my rig humming?"
"Because it doesn't know the words!"
;)

Polecat
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Re: RE: Re: FM Outside London

Post by Polecat » Mon Dec 30, 2019 10:28 am


Albert H wrote: If you want to run a web streaming station, the software's easily available, and you can get "unlimited connections" at reasonable bandwidth for $30 - 40 per month.
Albert, I'd be interested to know the bitrate on this unlimited listeners offer. Also how do the stations you refer to go about attracting listeners?

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Polecat
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Albert H
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Re: FM Outside London

Post by Albert H » Thu Jan 02, 2020 3:54 am

Look at Radioflo.co.uk or Museter.com for "unlimited" deals at reasonable prices. Most companies are offering 192 kb/s data rates for MP3 which is certainly acceptable but not the greatest. There's little point in broadcasting at greater data rates than that though, when the majority of your listeners will be listening on crappy earbuds plugged into a mobile phone!

There are lots of radio station directories out there - there's another thread on this site about just that.
"Why is my rig humming?"
"Because it doesn't know the words!"
;)

Polecat
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Re: FM Outside London

Post by Polecat » Thu Jan 02, 2020 6:43 am

Thanks Albert, much appreciated.

That's a good deal though, as you say, 192 isn't great for music sound quality.

To my ears FM sounds far superior to 192. I've seen claims that it's 720 bitrate equivalent. Is that true?



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Polecat
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Albert H
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Re: FM Outside London

Post by Albert H » Fri Jan 03, 2020 3:03 pm

192, properly done, is very close to FM quality. Many legal stations distribute to their transmitters at 192!

Incidentally - the software you need to stream is "Darkice" and "Darksnow" to control and configure it. These are free Linux applications and can be run on a Raspberry Pi with a Sound Card under Raspbian. I use the "Audio Injector" cards for my encoder boxes, and have a cut-down Raspbian to run the software.
"Why is my rig humming?"
"Because it doesn't know the words!"
;)

Polecat
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Re: FM Outside London

Post by Polecat » Fri Jan 03, 2020 7:22 pm

I didn't know that. And thanks for the hardware/software tips. Appreciated!

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