licenced stations that started as pirates?

[stemenist]

Hello all,

I'm trying to make a list of current licenced stations in the UK that started off as pirate stations.

I've got Radio Caroline, Kiss FM, Capital Xtra, Solar Radio, Flex 101.4 FM, Rinse FM, Kool FM, Radio X, and London Greek Radio.

Are there any I'm missing?

Thanks

[teckniqs]

Jackie, Invicta, Choice, Select UK, Voice of Africa.

....Capital Xtra was never a pirate though unless you know something I don't??

I gather you mean London stations as I don't see the word London mentioned.
I know of a few others from out of London who also started as pirates.

[Persona Non Grata]

Capital Xtra was never a pirate though unless you know something I don't??

Maybe OP means Choice FM although IIRC they didn't have any (direct) pirate lineage either.

Sunrise radio were originally pirates too. As were (now defunct) WNK

Probably a few more outside London.

[Frequent Lee]

Fever FM Leeds
Akash Radio Leeds
Both Asian pirates in the 1990s

[oldtech]

Hello all,

I'm trying to make a list of current licenced stations in the UK that started off as pirate stations.

I've got Radio Caroline, Kiss FM, Capital Xtra, Solar Radio, Flex 101.4 FM, Rinse FM, Kool FM, Radio X, and London Greek Radio.

Point Blank, Centreforce, Radio Jackie, Sun Radio

Capital and X were never pirates

[teckniqs]

Yeah I didn't think Capital was but XFM was...
They're also on in Manchester on 97.7 as far as I remember

XFM.png

[radionortheast]

Think theres confusion when it comes to name Capital, very London centric, from a time problalby when there were commercial sounding pirates on am/fm, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_London wiki very interesting write up, needle time was not abolished until 1988, started in 1973 on mw, suffered interference from an offshore station. It didn’t become a national brand until 2011, it was never a pirate. Kenny Everett did dj on it, Chris Tarrant, also maybe partly to blame for launching the career up Tim Westwood. (bad news!) there is partly connection as Kenny did DJ on pirate radio.
Suppose thats why I always think of it as been very old, associated with London, Chris Tarrant, I saw it on an old program , they couldn’t think of a name, they couldn’t use galaxy, I don’t remember any dance on galaxy when I would flick onto during the day, so its a name change, capital is galaxy, very confusing.

[oldtech]

started in 1973 on mw, suffered interference from an offshore station.

Yes many of us were quite annoyed about Capital using 558kHz, even if it was only 500W from Lotts Road. Radio Veronica (NL) used that frequency at the time and Capital blocked it. There was a protest outside Euston Tower by Radio Veronica listeners.

For a while there was a market for "Super Loops", directional MW aerials which could null out Capital and enable reception of Veronica.

[Persona Non Grata]

There was a protest outside Euston Tower by Radio Veronica listeners.

TBF Capital didn't have much choice in the matter over what frequency to use. It was the IBA (or possibly even the Postmaster General or Home Office) who made these decisions. I can imagine the Irish community in London wouldn't have been happy either as RTE were (then) on the adjacent channel of 567 KHz (566 pre 1978). There were similar issues in the early 1990's with Spectrum Radio v's both Caroline and RTE.

In hindsight the initial batch of local stations (with the possible exception of LBC) should have been on FM only.

[duncanorak]

Both Capital and LBC's transmissions from Lots Rd on 417m (719kHz) and 539m (557kHz) were only ever going to be temporary. The intended site at Saffron Green in Barnet was late being commissioned due to planning delays.
Launching only on FM would have been a commercial disaster as the bulk of their target audience would have only had AM radios, having listened to the pirates and Radio 1 (AM only)

[oldtech]

There was a protest outside Euston Tower by Radio Veronica listeners.

TBF Capital didn't have much choice in the matter over what frequency to use. It was the IBA (or possibly even the Postmaster General or Home Office) who made these decisions. I can imagine the Irish community in London wouldn't have been happy either as RTE were (then) on the adjacent channel of 567 KHz (566 pre 1978). There were similar issues in the early 1990's with Spectrum Radio v's both Caroline and RTE.

In hindsight the initial batch of local stations (with the possible exception of LBC) should have been on FM only.

IBA and Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. See attached IBA letter.

[reverend]

Kane FM in Guildford were formerly pirates

[LeeCavanagh]

KFM in south Manchester was a pirate back in the mid 80s, later came back licensed in Stockport, then bought by signal, later became imagine, which moved their studio to where the old KFM studios used to be (back of strawberry studios),,infact there is also strawberry radio these days from the same location (I have no idea how many listeners they have on their stream and/or dab). Imagine did continue online for a while but the last time I checked the stream wasn’t working . There is also a KFM online stream

[teckniqs]

KFM in south Manchester was a pirate back in the mid 80s, later came back licensed in Stockport, then bought by signal, later became imagine, which moved their studio to where the old KFM studios used to be (back of strawberry studios),,infact there is also strawberry radio these days from the same location (I have no idea how many listeners they have on their stream and/or dab). Imagine did continue online for a while but the last time I checked the stream wasn’t working . There is also a KFM online stream

A complete sell-out now sold off to Greatest Shits Radio. As far as I recall Imagine took over High Peak Radio and was relayed through all their transmitters and not just on 104.9 from the tower block in Stockport but it's another which got sold off to add to the very long list.

[LeeCavanagh]

Indeed Imagine was owned by The Wireless Group

It’s a shame to lose stations to GHR, even with their long list of big names, boy do I hate commercials , i’m glad Pop Master is still on however

[teckniqs]

As you mentioned a couple of Manchester stations, I just thought I'd mention Unity 92.8 which as I'm sure you're already long well aware used to be a pirate. I remember hearing it on 106.0 in Summer 2004 playing pure DnB with a very good signal.

....Also I was told that Peace 90.1 was set up by the same guys who did MoreVibes Radio 90.2 (around 2008) but I don't know how true this is

[reverend]

I may be wrong here, but it is also my recollection that '103 The Eye' in Melton Mowbray (http://www.103theeye.co.uk/) were formerly pirates known as 'The Wireless Company' or TWC, the only reference to which I can find is on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@twcfmthewirelesscompany419). I remember hearing TWC on FM when I lived in Sheffield.