Pirate Radio in The United Kingdom - 1970s and 1980s

1970s and 1980s

The 1967 Marine Broadcasting Offences Act officially outlawed offshore stations, but unlicensed radio continued, moving from ships and sea-based platforms to urban areas in the latter part of the 1960s (they were already illegal under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949). During this period, home-made medium wave/'am' transmitters were often constructed inside cheap, expendable biscuit tins.

The main method employed by most medium-wave or short-wave pirate stations during the 1960s and 70s involved programming played back on cassette recorders (often powered by a car battery), with a long wire antenna slung up between two trees. Around this time, VHF/FM transmitters were being built by more adventurous builders. A surge in pirate radio occurred when cheap portable transmitters became available and by the mid 1980s a 50 watt radio transmitter could be obtained for around £200, or could be built for less. The operation of a pirate radio station required a good quality cassette recorder, a transmitter and a high roof, with tower blocks providing the ideal transmission site for pirate radio stations. A 40 watt transmitter broadcasting from the roof of a fifteen storey tower block could reach a forty mile radius. Radio shows were often pre-recorded at home, with the pirate radio station operators setting up temporary transmitters on the roof of tower blocks.

The 1970s and 1980s saw a wave of landbased pirate radio, broadcasting mostly in big cities. These included community-focused local stations such as Sunshine Radio in Shropshire and Radio Jackie in south west London. In London pirate stations emerged that, for the first time in UK radio broadcasting, focused on particular music genres such as Radio Invicta 92.4fm Europe's first soul station started in 1970. Kiss FM (dance), Solar Radio (soul) Alice's Restaurant Rock Radio & Radio Floss (rock).

Pirate radio met with increasing opposition, especially from the authorities in the form of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) Radio Regulatory Division (and later the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) after it became responsible for radio regulation) which had claimed since the late 1960s that pirate radio caused interference to licensed broadcasters and could interfere with frequencies used by emergency services. Nonetheless the growth of pirate radio in the 1980s was so rapid that at one point pirate radio operators outnumbered legal broadcasters. Pirate stations such as Radio Invicta, JFM, and London Weekend Radio continued to gain popularity and increasingly operated openly. Pirate radio targeted music communities ignored by mainstream broadcasting, such as reggae, hip hop, jazz, rhythm and blues. Stations like London Greek Radio, which broadcast to the Greek and Greek Cypriot community, also catered to ethnic minorities.