Pirate Radio in The United Kingdom - Political Pirate Radio Stations

Political Pirate Radio Stations

The first political radio station was Radio Free Scotland, which broadcast on the sound channels of BBC television after closedown to promote the cause of Scottish Independence. At the time, the BBC forbade the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru to broadcast. In the 1970s, Radio Enoch, named after Enoch Powell, was set up by people on the right wing of the Conservative and Unionist Party to help re-elect a conservative government. Although Radio Enoch had vowed to return if a Labour administration was re-elected, it failed to do so after Tony Blair was elected in 1997. Other political radio broadcasters are Interference FM, set up by a collective to broadcast on the J18 demonstrations in 1999. Another political pirate was the Miners pirate radio station dubbed Radio Arthur by the media, which operated in the Nottinghamshire area during the 1984/1985 miners strike; downloads of some of its programmes are available on www.g0mrf.com. This station transmitted over the top of Radio Trent on both mediumwave using 3500 watts and VHF using 800 watts or more. Mentioned in a House of Lords debate in Hansard as Radio Scargill, it was stated that it had been actively pursued and closed down by the authorities, however this was incorrect and the people involved were never caught. Other recordings of Radio Arthur are on the Pirate Archive website.