You may think they're a bunch of amateurs...
Smart, hi-tech and inclusive, pirate stations are paving the way for the future of radio
- The Observer,
- Sunday November 2 2008
Who to listen to on a Saturday night, now that Russell Brand has been pulled off, so to speak? Well, there's Westwood on Radio 1 - always crazily upbeat - or, on 1Xtra, the equally hyper Target. But if you're up for a real frug on your rug, a proper party in your Punto, then you've got to tune into the pirates.
I live in Brixton, south London, where the FM dial has long been a-bristle with excellent pirate stations. Arriving in London 20 years ago, I tuned into Kiss and Centreforce; later, Defection and Girls FM were my hands-aloft-ankles-akimbo chosen listening. Now, favourites include Point Blank (quality house music, not too much chat), Rinse FM (dubstep/grime/broken beats, cool as you like), Lightning FM (black music from soul to bashment, with bonus gospel messages) and DejaVu (bassline/broken/the new urban funky house). Though I'm actually quite happy just flicking through the dial to see what pops up: at the weekend you can choose from well over 60 thoroughly unofficial broadcasters, all spitting out music, shout-outs and chat with infectious energy and mega musical knowledge. You hear tracks on pirate stations months before they hit the national stations. And how could you resist those adverts? 'Sponsored by Hercules, the drink that gives you the power! (No caps or sportswear; this is a ticket-only event).'
London, obviously, has the most pirates, but every major city in Britain fizzes with unofficial broadcasters, such as Buzz FM in Manchester. How a pirate station works is this: the DJ's set is beamed out from the studio to local listeners via a transmitting aerial (usually in a high spot), using microwaves and/or radio waves. Though the popular image of a pirate DJ is of a teenager in his bedroom, spinning tracks and spitting rhymes, the better pirates are no amateur affair. For a start, they never position their transmitter in the same place as their studio, so that if Ofcom locates and removes either, it's only seized half of the equipment needed for broadcast. Transmitters are more easily tracked down, so many pirates use at least two: then if one gets destroyed, another can take up the slack.
Because, lest we forget, pirates are illegal. Unlicensed broadcasting is a criminal offence, with a maximum sentence of two years; and if you're convicted, you're barred from working on a legal station for five years. So people have become very canny about where they locate their transmitters. Mr X, who runs a long-established pirate station, explained the latest trickery to me. You know the shaft in the centre of a tower block, that runs from the roof to the ground, for access to air-conditioning, gas pipes etc? You go to the roof, attach a wire to your transmitter and drop it 30 feet down into the shaft. There's a metal plate also attached, above the transmitter. Once positioned, the plate flips snugly into place so that when an Ofcom inspector looks down the shaft all that can be seen is the metal plate, not the transmitter beneath.
Mr X also outlined the rules of successful (meaning long-lasting) pirate broadcasting. They're surprisingly conservative. First: don't swear. If your DJs curse, or if they bring up potentially explosive issues like race or religion, Ofcom will be on your case faster than you can say 'I hate effing purple Scientologists'. Second: don't let your signal bleed into other stations' wavelengths. The authorities often trot out the old cliché about pirates, that they interfere with police radio frequencies or air traffic control. Actually, the cleverer ones don't; neither do they slip into legal stations' wavelengths. It's the under-experienced, over-enthusiastic broadcaster that does that, and they're quickly silenced. Third: broadcast within recommended sound limitations.
The better pirates pride themselves on being as professional as the legals, with top-notch equipment and production: indeed, several DJs from national stations play out on them, using assumed names. Still, even the established stations run the risk of being raided and closed down (for instance, when I tuned into Point Blank last week, it wasn't on). I spoke to Ofcom's Peter Davies and he assured me that 'we absolutely don't tacitly allow some pirates stations to broadcast and not others. Pirate broadcasting remains illegal'. Still, he acknowledged that the most recent Ofcom research (2007) shows that 25 per cent of the entire London radio audience tunes into pirates (40 per cent of the black audience) and that 'they clearly offer something that listeners can't get elsewhere'.
So why doesn't Ofcom allow some of the more popular stations to become legal? Kiss and Choice FM both started off as pirates and are now two of London's most listened-to broadcasters. Some stations, such as Rinse FM, are reputed to be working towards legal status. I spoke to one of their DJs, however, and he wasn't sure whether legality would be a good thing. He likes the immediacy of pirate broadcasting. 'On Rinse I can play what I like,' he said. 'And you get feedback straight away, via MSN or text. If I play a track that people like, I can pull it back (play it again) right away.'
Pirates are unlikely to go away because they give listeners - and those who work on them - something that legal stations never can. Everyone involved in a pirate feels like they're close to and representing a scene. So much so that DJs pay to play (around £10 an hour) and those who run the stations often have regular jobs as well. It's a labour of love rather than a job. And for the listener, as well as the tunes you get an energy and excitement that well-paid, fat-bottomed professional presenters can never give you.
One final point: the Ofcom report revealed that 'those who listen to illegal broadcasts express little or no desire to acquire a DAB receiver'. Which, for me, means that DAB is unlikely ever to take off. If you subscribe to the idea that people who use technology (rather than those who make it) are the ones who predict the future, then DAB is dead before it's even arrived.
DAB has two big problems. The first is the sound: not as good as FM. The second is that car radios are still not digital. Perhaps new cars will come with digital radios... but it's already too late. The future of radio is the internet: the pirates have moved online in a big way. All the biggest stations have live web feeds. Combine this with mobile phone internet access and you can use your phone to tune into a London pirate when you're in, say, Glasgow. Then simply plug your mobile into your car radio, and away you go. Pirate stations instantly move from being local to national and even worldwide. And DAB seems even less relevant...
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