Im off on my travels to Swindon in a few weeks and was thinking is there anything worth tuning round the dial for?

Not a sausage, the last station I ever heard of from Swindon was Blaze FM 87.6/87.8 which went off about 15 years ago, it came from the massive block in the town centre above the shopping centre and had connections with Silk City FM in Birmingham.

There was also a lower powered station around the same time from Melksham but that ended after an Ofcom raid.

.....And nothing since then.

The last time I could receive a station in Swindon was when the raw innocence 87.5 was on about 3 or 4 years ago I used to go there at the time around that area

famefm wrote: ↑Fri Jul 09, 2021 1:42 pm The last time I could receive a station in Swindon was when the raw innocence 87.5 was on about 3 or 4 years ago I used to go there at the time around that area

Raw Innocence didn't start until early 2019 when the old owner of Raw left and merged with iFM. You are usually very good with how long ago things happened but not this time.

....But yes they had reports from Swindon.

Yes you are right I went that way to Wales at the time and I remember now when I was visiting the Swindon area 4 years ago it was just as the mega powerull 87.5 raw from west London was in its final day's make that 5 years ago as it was early 2017 when livefmuk uk pushed their way onto 87.5 as the west London Raw started having more and more problems staying on air

Yeah that makes more sense.

...Swindon is only 35 miles away from when Raw Innocence used that hilltop site on very high ground so it's not too surprising it was reaching over to there.

Back in the UK's Finest days when they used to put considerably more power up that same site the signal was covering most of south England and reaching the Midlands. (I also heard it faint on high ground near Manchester in 2008!)

Its a shame nothing is on, used to hear from some people I know that some stations used to reach into Swindon but didnt actually broadcast from there, not recently anyway. I must be from a generation where pirate was a thing but people now days probably wouldn't have a clue or even tune around.

Is there still any stations in Bristol now was some back in the day roni size started on pirate there

Twista UK wrote: ↑Sat Jul 10, 2021 2:52 pm Is there still any stations in Bristol now was some back in the day roni size started on pirate there

Nothing I know of in Bristol apart from a test tx for NTR a few years ago now. Frenzy in Gloucstershire pops up now and again. Rage fm in Somerset still on, just taking short break from fm to sort a new freq - due to a community station coming on air close to 100.6fm.

Back in the day Blaze used to get out well from Swindon. They also had a room in the back of The Brunel Rooms nightclub. You know the one with the revolving bar!

tokingmenace wrote: ↑Sun Jul 11, 2021 1:24 pm

Twista UK wrote: ↑Sat Jul 10, 2021 2:52 pm Is there still any stations in Bristol now was some back in the day roni size started on pirate there

Nothing I know of in Bristol apart from a test tx for NTR a few years ago now. Frenzy in Gloucstershire pops up now and again. Rage fm in Somerset still on, just taking short break from fm to sort a new freq - due to a community station coming on air close to 100.6fm.

Back in the day Blaze used to get out well from Swindon. They also had a room in the back of The Brunel Rooms nightclub. You know the one with the revolving bar!

You beat me to it, yeah as far as I know there's not been anything from Bristol in many years apart from a 'christmas lights radio' which comes on 108.0 using low power every christmas time broadcasting all the usual christmas songs from some mad nutty house covered in christmas lights.

....Yeah I have heard of Frenzy I think it's low down on the band maybe 87.6 but from what I heard it only covers the local area.

And yes a new station has been alocated and is now broadcasting on 100.5 across Somerset which puts a very strong signal towards Rage FM's location which confined their signal to only be able to reach their own town before being completely wiped out by this new thing. But they stayed on for a good 2 months after it was launched and the 100.5/6 was a right mess with them both on.

....And yes you're right Blaze were putting out a massive signal on 87.6 back in around 2004/05, I remember picking it up on my old Sony walkman radio on the train from Newbury all the way to just before you come into the city of Bath.

The Bristol Ofcom were very hot on pirates across the south west and I think after losing several transmitters and a then their studio Blaze FM came to an abrupt end.

Twista UK wrote: ↑Sat Jul 10, 2021 2:52 pm Is there still any stations in Bristol now was some back in the day roni size started on pirate there

He didn't start it, in fact he had trouble keeping his show on it, but first time I heard Roni was on Raw FM 101 in mid 1993 (before Galaxy got their Mendip rig on 101 in 94, and invited Roni and Krust to do an hour a week). They kicked him off after a while because it was mainly a soul/reggae station and people moaned that they couldn't hear reggae for two hours out of an entire evening. Yeah, I'm still bitter about that I'm also bitter about when Roni and Krust got kicked off of Galaxy later on.

Well..... not long got back from Swindon, Calne, Chippenham, Lyneham (did a lil tour visiting family) and there was absolutely sod all on! had a scan around in the car and on my phone and there wasnt even a sniff of a far off fuzzy pirate at all.

Nah i wasnt saying he started a pirate i am saying he started djing on pirate that is how he started it was on radio

as said on the other thread but its just no point more people prob listen on Mixcloud or Soundcloud these days and prob best running on low power if you are on so its not noticed to much.