[78-L] RadioRe: This Will Make Radio Even MORE Dead

[Michael Biel]

Michael Biel wrote:

> Another thing to remember about UK radio is that one of the main reasons
> the pirate and continental radio stations were formed was not only to
> satiate the British teens' hunger for rock music, but because the needle
> time on the Beeb and even emerging ILR stations were controlled by the
> huge influence of EMI, Decca, and Pye, which did not allow much air time
> for independent labels.

From: "Kristjan Saag" <saag at telia.com>
>> Your timeline is a bit confused here, I'm afraid.
The independent local radio stations in Britain didn't start until the 
1970's, when the pirates were already dead and gone (except for Radio 
Caroline they all closed down in august 1967).<<

Actually it was unclear that I was separating it into two time periods.
In the late 60s BBC Radio One and Radio London was the fake
"replacement" for the pirates, and being the Beeb it was still under the
influence of the majors.  And afterwards in the 80s when the ILRs
arrived, they too were not only under the influence of the majors, they
were required to program in the something-for-everybody mode which
limited rock music programming to only a few hours a day.  I was
surprised how stodgy the ILRs I heard in 1983 were until I brought my
class to one and we were told of the programming restrictions they had
to agree to.  


>>The real problem was Radio Luxemburg, the landbased station which broadcast 
to all of Europe in different languages, and whose English speaking pop 
broadcasts on 208 meters (1440 kHz) were targeted at the UK but heard
and 
enjoyed all over Europe. It was this commercial "alternative", Radio 
Luxemburg, who failed to pick up the sounds of the new labels, because
their 
airtime was paid for by...you guessed it: EMI, Decca and Pye. And the 
station's profile, as such, was, well into the mid 1960's, a mixture of
new 
music and easy listening stuff, combined with Bingo, Christian teachings
and 
other odd advertising, which didn't suit the younger audiences at all.
The 
pirates were, with few exceptions, all focused on the latest releases of
pop 
music and offered far more opportunities for the dj's to plug tunes of
their 
personal liking. That was a huge difference to the heavily structured 
formats of the BBC and Radio Luxemburg.<<

You're right.  I should have separated my listing of the pirates and
continental stations, and put the two opposing sides as the pirates vs.
the Beeb and continentals.  But after the ship based pirates were put
out of business, a group of low-power neighborhood pirates started
operating in the cities.  In 1983 I attended a public meeting concerning
the renewal of Capitol Radio's ILR charter.  Sir Richard Attenborough, a
partial owner of the station, sat right in front of me. Next to me
turned out to be the operator of one of the pirate stations!!!  During
the Q&A he stood up and identified himself (and those on the dais seemed
to already know who he was) and asked some questions and made some
statements showing he was a rival applicant to the charter!  After the
meeting I had him sit down with my students and explain how he could be
operating out in the open.  His studio location was public knowledge,
they held street dances, had a request phone line, did call-in shows,
etc.  He explained the loop-hole in the law (later closed about ten
years later) that made ONLY the transmitter itself illegal.  They moved
it around every once in a while and built new ones to replace any that
got discovered.  They only had to be careful never to be found at the
location of an operating transmitter.  By this time the programming of
these neighborhood pirate stations was usually not rock 'n' roll but
were ethnic oriented towards the ethnic character of the local
neighborhood.  This is something that the Beeb and even the ILRs could
never really fulfill.

At the same time was what I was told was an experiment in France in
1983.  When I arrived in Paris for a weekend after spending 3 weeks in
London I was astonished to find over 100 different FM stations audible
in Paris!  (I have a tape of a band-scan I made then.) I was told these
were temporarily licensed neighborhood stations which were competing to
get permanent licenses.  

Right now here in New York City is a HUGE pirate station at 87.9
broadcasting in Russian, and another one at 87.7 or so broadcasting in
Spanish.  The Russian one takes out full page ads in the Russian
newspapers and magazines.  I don't know how they keep going after
several years.  I guess that even the FCC won't mess with the Russian
Mafia.  

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com