Welcome to the Pirate Memories blog

This blog turns the clock back to the 1980s with recordings of shortwave pirate radio stations from Britain, Ireland and across Europe. There are also some clips from medium wave and FM stations from the London area, plus QSLs from many of the stations featured.

I have given it an update with a new template and embedded audio files in the posts to make it easier to click on and listen to the stations.

There's just over 100 stations featured with oldest recordings from the early 1980s at the beginning of this blog, working through to the late 80s.

Go to the 'Index of Stations' to see which stations are featured and when they were uploaded. The blog archive is near the bottom of the right hand column.

Alternatively, you can use the 'Labels' section. For instance, if you want to hear Irish stations from the 1980s, click on the Ireland label and it will bring up all the Irish stations featured on the blog.

Finally, you can simply scroll through to explore the pirate stations featured.

Happy listening!

Quick link to Pirate Memories audio files

Some of the station links don't want to open. 

Here is a quick link to the Pirate Memories audio on box.com:

https://app.box.com/s/qjdivk7ovk62sv4vt7qe

Pirates of the Airwaves podcast

Mark Wakely, founder of a land based pirate radio Facebook group, has been talking to some of the
people who were involved in the pirate radio world of the 70s and 80s.

In the episodes they look back on what is was like being involved in pirate radio at this time, remembering clambering on to the roofs of tower blocks to string up antennas and dodging raids from the authorities.

The first episode featured Pyers Easton, better known to listeners in London as Chris Miles. He ran the station London Music Radio (and a lesser known station called London Basin Broadcasting Company - clip HERE) and built many rigs for stations during the 80s.

Others interviewed include Nick Catford who tells the story of Radio Jackie - a trailblazing pirate that now broadcasts to South West London as a legal station; Steve Marshall who was involved in the pioneering London soul station Radio Invicta, worked on the Voice of Peace in the Mediterranean and on the Irish stations during the 80s.

If you're interested in the land based pirate scene then it is definitely worth of a listen to Mark's podcast. He is regularly adding new interviews to the series.

Visit the Pirates of the Airwaves podcast page at https://piratepod7080.transistor.fm 

There you can also find all the different ways to listen to the shows and subscribe so you don't miss future episodes.

His Facebook group is called Land Based Pirate Radio of the 70s and 80s and can be found here https://www.facebook.com/groups/373844343228644

Remembering the shortwave pirates of the 1990s

Over a period of a couple of months, a blogger called The 1990's Free Radio Listener has been looking back at the British shortwave pirates who entertained us during the 1990s.

His wrote about his memories of tuning in to stations like Live Wire Radio, Subterranean Sounds, Weekend Music Radio and many others.

There was also a look at how it compares to the shortwave free radio scene today with stations like Radio Merlin International and Radio Pamela still keeping the flag flying.

His post about WMR even brought a comment from the station operator Jack Russell who wrote: "Hey man, thats a very nice article to write about WMR. Don't discount anything for this year. Last year was an embarassment as far as broadcasting went. Not a single transmission for the 40th anniversary year. No sign of BRI either who also started in 1980, but at least FRSH made it happen with their own excellent broadcasts....It has all been a bit lacking in time over the last few years, with one thing or another, but still here, still listening, still missing being on the air on SW."

The 1990s Free Radio Listener is also keen to hear the memories from other listeners from that era who remember tuning in to these  and other stations.

The address is: https://ukshortwavefreeradiomemories.blogspot.com/ 

Sounds of 1980s London medium wave pirates

During the 1980s some pirate stations could be heard on medium wave. The most famous was Radio Jackie which was campaigning to receive a licence, although it took them until 2003 to receive that licence. Others were hobby pirates who popped up at the weekends. I've pulled together a collection of audio clips of some of them I heard from my location just outside London.

Some of these audio clips have already featured in my Pirate Memories blog, plus a few new ones I found on my tapes. The number in brackets is the time each station appears on the recording. The link at the end of the index will take you to the Mixcloud page where this recording is hosted.

Radio Jackie (0)
County Radio (2.11)
Radio Mi Amigo (2.55)
Radio Floss (5.13)
Radio Sovereign (8.27)
Southern Radio (9.46)
South East Sounds (10.07)
Three Boroughs Radio (16.20)

Total running time 17.36 mins



This is the link to my Mixcloud page: https://www.mixcloud.com/shortwave_listener/

Sounds of London's FM pirates from 1980s

Back in the 1980s I was living about 30 miles from London and would be tuning around to hear the
FM pirates from the capital. Maybe not a front row seat - more like two rows back. Some stations came in better than others. I've put together a compilation of audio clips from some of the stations I managed to hear.

If you want to discover or hear more about these stations there's quite a few websites looking back at that era. Two excellent ones are AMFM and The Pirate Archive

Some of these audio clips have already featured in my Pirate Memories blog, plus a few new ones I found on my tapes. The number in brackets is the time each station appears on the recording. The link at the end of the index will take you to the Mixcloud page where this recording is hosted.

City Sound (0.0)
Fresh FM (0.34)
Hits FM (3.49)
Horizon (6.37)
Invicta (7.46)
JFM (11.21)
KJazz (13.38)
London Basin Broadcasting Company (14.51)
London FM (17.50)
London Music Radio (18.22)
London Weekend Radio (19.13)
People's Choice (20.57)
Sina Radio (21.17)
Solar Radio (21.57)
Sunfire (25.17)
Telstar South (28.23)
Thameside Radio (29.13)
Time (32.05)
TKO (35.35)
Uptown Radio (37.45)
Radio Zodiac (40.37)

Running time 43.30 minutes




This is the link to my Mixcloud page: https://www.mixcloud.com/shortwave_listener/

More sounds of 1980s British shortwave pirates

I've put together another collection of audio clips from some of the British shortwave pirates you
could expect to hear on 48 or 41 metres during the early part of the 1980s. Enjoy the memories!

The number in brackets is the time each station appears on the recording. The link at the end of the index will take you to the Mixcloud page where this recording is hosted.

Radio Atlantis Shortwave (0.0)
Britain Radio Int (3.14)
Radio Cavendish (5.27)
Radio Falcon (8.32)
Radio Lynda (9.31)
Radio Orion (11.37)
Radio Pamela (15.14)
Spectrum World Broadcasting (16.13)
Starboard Sound (20.10)
Radio Stella (21.37)
UKR (22.19)
West European Free Radio (27.53)
Radio Woodstock (28.55)

Total run time: 33.09 minutes



This is the link to my Mixcloud page: https://www.mixcloud.com/shortwave_listener/

Sounds of 1980s British shortwave pirates

Tune around on a Sunday morning 40 years ago and you'll be struck by how many free radio stations
from the UK were around.

Unlike today, the 1980s saw many stations take to the airwaves on 48 and 41 metres. Some broadcast once a months, others more regularly. Many were slicky produced fast-moving shows which had an army of fans, often recorded in advance on to a cassette tape then broadcast from a remote location, to evade the GPO.

Here are some of the British stations I heard in the early 80s. Some of these audio clips have already featured in my Pirate Memories blog. The number in brackets is the time each station appears on the recording. The link at the end of the index will take you to the Mixcloud page where this recording is hosted.

Radio Apollo (0.0)
Atlanta Radio (0.48)
Radio Caroline Shortwave (3.10)
Radio Corsair (4.40)
Radio East Coast Commercial (7.45)
Empire Radio (11.42)
European Music Radio (13.17)
Radio Gemini (18.24)
Radio Impact (21.56)
Radio Krypton (29.51)
Skyport Radio (31.10)
Weekend Music Radio (32.57)
Radio Zodiac (34.53)

Total running time: 36.34 minutes

Vintage pirate radio magazines online

Cool AM has provided a link to pirate radio fanzines from the 70s & 80s which have been digitally scanned and turned into PDFs. These can be accessed via a Google Drive link.

Among titles featured are the Anoraks UK Weekly Report, Radio Argus News, Free Radio Waves, Pirate Connection, Wavelength and many more.

Back in the 1970s & 1980s, there was no internet so getting access to information about your favourite pirate radio stations was not easy.

Some pirate stations had DX shows, while there were free radio columns in DX clubs' monthly magazines. But enthusaists also published their own A4 typewritten fanzines with all the latest information that listeners could subscribe to.

These had all the latest news from shortwave, medium wave, Ireland and offshore. So if you want to wallow in some nostalgia why not take a look?

The link is
 http://radiocommunicationsmagazines.ml

Sounds of the 1980s Irish shortwave pirates

The 1980s was the heydey for pirate radio in Ireland as hundreds of stations took advantage of a loophole in the law and headed to the airwaves across the country. While most of the activity was on FM and medium wave, there was also plenty of activity on shortwave.

I've put together a collection of the Irish shortwave pirate stations I heard from my listening post in the south east of England during the 1980s.

Some of these audio clips have already featured in my Pirate Memories blog, while others are new short clips I came across going through my tapes again.

The number in brackets is the time each station appears on the recording. The link at the end of the index will take you to the Mixcloud page where this recording is hosted.

THE STATIONS

Capital Radio Int (0:0)
Radio Dublin (3:11)
Big D Radio (4:48)
East Coast Radio (5:16)
Boyneside Radio (6:52)
Radio Ireland Int (7:33)
Mi Amigo Radio Int (9:14)
Misty Mountain Radio (10:18)
North Dublin Community Radio (11:05)
Radio Drogheda (13:10)
Radio Rainbow Int (13:18)
Riverside Radio Int (18:50
Shamrock Radio (21:16)
Radio Skywave Int (22:20)
South Dublin Radio (25:17)
Skull & Bones Radio System (27:33)
South Coast Radio (30:32)
Suirside Radio (30:48)
WABC (31:11)
Radio Valleri (31:41)
Westside Radio (32:32)

Running time: 36:10



To hear many more recordings, interviews and other memorabilia from that era visit the Irish Pirate Radio Audio Archive at pirate.ie

Also for an A-Z of Irish pirate radio visit the DX Archive