As you know, I scan the olde worlde ‘anorak’ discussion boards and fora as well as those used by the folks involved in today’s thriving and exciting pirate radio scene. I guess I’m like a traveller on a futuristic high speed machine who occasionally affectionately glances over at clapped out steam engines.
Well, among the many mad things I’ve picked up from the ancients in-between their racist rants and bullying bickerings, is not just how they are completely blind to the highly active ‘tower-block’ pirate radio activity of today, but also how they are bonded by a common belief that radio’s way forward is only from a ship broadcasting on AM (Medium Wave) from the North Sea. They are excitedly convinced that, should such an event occur, Navy gunboats would head out to shoot it dead faster than Bin Laden.
In truth, was somebody stupid enough to waste a couple of Million Pounds buying and kitting out a new radioship nobody would notice. Nobody would care.
Now then. Decades ago, radioships broadcast on AM rather than FM for two good reasons. Technically, broadcasting on FM from a ship at sea doesn’t get a signal too far in land limiting coverage to a few coastal areas. Also, back in those days most music radio listening was via AM, with FM still being a bit of a novelty. FM only really took off in the decades that followed the demise of offshore broadcasting.
There is a national music station still broadcasting on AM, Absolute Radio, and there are a couple of regional music radio stations such as Gold and Magic. All of the AM music radio stations are losing listeners by the droves, none are gaining listeners. Absolute has to concentrate on its London-wide FM and its digital services in order to survive. It’s AM service delivers virtually no listeners for the huge cost and outlay it is stuck with. It needs to be on FM nationally if it is to survive for more than the next few years.
FM is the place where people listen to music radio. That is why any ‘pirate’ transmissions have to be on FM in order to be where the potential audience already are. The modern day pirates know this. It’s why they covet the tower-blocks which are nicely high in the air and ideal for radiating an excellent FM signal across town.
In other words, there is no point in broadcasting on AM if you want an audience to find you. Yet, as we’ve already discussed, broadcasting on FM from a ship at sea is relatively pointless because of technical limitations. It’s at sea-level, and can’t get the height needed to compete with a tower-block.
The conclusion can only be that were somebody stupid enough to put a pirate radio ship to sea, that the Government wouldn’t bother with it as nobody would be listening.
As it is, Ofcom rarely raids FM pirates anyway, despite them having huge audiences, so why would they be sending gunboats after an AM radio pirate ship that nobody knew was there? It doesn’t make any logical sense, but it is one of the bizarre oddities that the anoraks of the old order seem to chant as a ritualistic belief.
So, sadly for the nostalgia trip, offshore radio from a ship can never happen. Even in the 1980s it only happened by taking rich gullible people’s money and burning it. Even then the offshore pirates weren’t self-supporting or capable of generating a viable income, so there’s even less of a chance today.
However, there’s a mental block inside the heads of the anorak old worlders that won’t let them see any of this reality. Their ears stop hearing and their eyes glaze over and pretty soon they can see ships on the horizon. I guess it’s no different to some poor old fella stuck in a home thinking his nurse is his long dead wife.
If somebody wants to speak freely unto the people then the tower-blocks and FM are the only way. Having said that, it’s pretty hard to get the public to tune about these days, so even that is probably time limited.
The other problem is that nobody in the audience really cares passionately about radio any more.
England's England 
As usual, you are spot on. Absolute is up for sale by owners The Times of India. The station is losing a ton of money, and the little used and expensive to run AM is dragging it down.
The current campaign by the Carolinists to get an AM licence is hugely flawed. I can only think it makes those involved feel important.
Ofcom will only offer licences after open advertising and competitive applications are judged.
The AM listener pool is empty.
AM is plonky and expensive to run, with no fidelity and unstable propagation products.
Anoraks are not a “market” that anyone wishes to reach or sell to.
The people involved will fall out with eachother in the soonest time.
The people involved will fall out w
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I honestly believe the preset frequency button did more to kill pirate radio than any number of raids ………
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Christopher England defeats his own logic yet again!
Offcom/the government wouldn't bother raiding a new offshore radio sation….therefore a new offshore station won't happen? What kind of tortuous logic is that?
2. Think back to the greatest music of 1964-1974. Beatles? Stones? Whatever. Chances are you heard it on A.M. Did that make you hate the music?
Did that put you off buying the record?
Radio was NEVER intended to be your 'Hi-Fi' or stereo system. That's why you have a HI-Fi or stereo system – which ISN'T your radio!
Only the severely mentally impaired would get confused between the shop-window promoting the music( i.e. radio) and the final quality audio system you decide to listen to your purchased record,CD,Mp3 on! ( e.g.your living room stereo system)
3. A.M. radio didn't lose listeners because it is A.M…..it lost listeners because the remaining stations using it are utter CRAP! This was not the case with offshore radio. Twenty million listeners had to be conveniently ignored by H.M. Government to even introduce the Marine Offences Act.
For 'anonymous' who thinks A.M. is 'plomky', you are obviously unaware of wide bandwidth A.M. which is virtually indistinguishable from F.m. quality. Try to understand that governments who like to control populations do not like said populations listening to broadcasts from 'unnapproved sources' ( 'Foreign' has always been tantamount to 'pirate' for the likes of the BBc and UK government.
Well, guess what…ain't that lucky…Fm is only local and all the sheep will get is what Big Brother feeds them. How convenient.
The Uk enjoyed the best music and best radio that will ever be back in the 60s. It has so far taken todays ' Yoof' at least the last 25 years to understand that technology is NOT creativity.
Wonder when the penny will drop?
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above posted by rni1970
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Hi 'rni1970',
Here's a few things to help you out.
1) 'Offcom' actually call themselves Ofcom.
2) The logic is that nobody, as in the consumers, nobody (well, apart from sad anoraks) will listen to an AM only signal these days for music. The consumers make this choice because they are better served elsewhere, via streaming services, their own iPods or music via FM, etc. This is why those few AM music stations that still exist make great play of their other services, or reduce costs down to a bare minimum by leaving a playout computer burbling away and paying out virtually nothing to produce their programming.
The logic that appears to confuse you is this: FM music radio piracy has a massive following, a listenership even conservatively acknowledged by Ofcom, and yet it is mainly allowed to broadcast uninterrupted.
AM music radio piracy is very unlikely to generate much of an audience, and so is less likely to be of interest for silencing than FM music radio piracy.
A ship at sea will never be able to generate the numbers of consumers on AM that a single urban pirate can on FM, and so therefore in terms of ability to cause unrest or influence the masses, the FM pirates win hands down. And yet, Ofcom leaves them mainly unhindered. So, why would they bother with a ship that nobody's listening to when they aren't bothered with an FM pirate that loads of people are listening to?
Finally, the reason why a ship won't happen is nothing to do with whether or not it might be raided. It is to do with the fact that it won't be able to build an audience to deliver to its advertisers.
3 You show excitement for music being played on AM some 50 years ago. People have moved on. There is very exciting new music available via loads of mediums (media), including Youtube because music is sold as an audio-visual product these days, and 'radio' is one of the least important 'shop windows', and where it is relevant, the overwhelming majority of people opt for FM radio, not AM. That's what they do. No good shouting at me as if I've made them do that, or being angry because things change is it?! There are reasons why people moved on from wax cylinders y'know!
4) Some of the most exciting and innovative pirate radio is on the air right now. It knocks the spots off the self-indulgent crap that was broadcast by the offshore stations of the 1960s.
However, just as your father hated the offshore stations in the 1960s and slagged them off, along with the yoof music of the day, you have become your father 50 years later, and are doing exactly the same thing about today's pirate radio and today's music. Move over granddad!
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Ofcon/Oncom, in and outcom…You're going to pick out my typos? Sheesh!
'Uninterrupted' is not a word I would use to classify weekend FM pirates. By definition, if they're on the air sporadically or at weekends they can hardly be classified as providing 'uninterrupted' service.(If you know of any FM pirate which is currently on air broadcasting 24/7 without any 'hassle' from Ofcom, I'd be interested to listen in so I can check it out).
Again, following my point about the technical nature of FM, these stations, 'pirates' though they may be are essentially 'local' radio…and I would hazard an intuitive guess that their appeal is also 'local' – i.e. not representative of the majority listening tastes. That's fine – no problem with that..there will always be space (not officially of course – and technically most definitely not…at least according to Ofcom!) for another local station catering to something outside mainstream 'Borg' radio's offerings.
The popularity of Laser in the early mid-80s totally disproves your theory that AM broadcasting for music is a doomed medium. In fact Laser's popularity (combined with a cowardly inability on the part of existing licensed stations to accept the challenge of healthy competition ) actually led to its own demise. I'm not aware of any AM licensed station that even attempted to successfully emulate Laser's format – had there been, we might not be discussing the 'failure' of AM music radio.
My father (far from 'slagging off ' as you put it)loved the offshore stations! I believe that maybe this was one of the key factors in the success of offshore radio…it crossed divides and had a kind of universal appeal to all age groups.
I'm perfectly happy to accept your view that we've 'moved on' since then ( or at least…we've 'moved'..not quite so sure about the 'on').
If there's something actually missing in radio today (personal opinion) I have the feeling it may be durability/longevity…in the sense that the survival of a radio station will not only be determined by economic factors, but by the 'durability of appeal' of the music it plays. Diversity of musical taste (like all freedoms) is a great thing. However, there comes a point when a listening population is so 'fractured' in its listening tastes that only something like the FM pirates you mention begins to make sense…i.e it becomes impossible to imagine any 'national radio station' which could viably please all.
It's my belief that this state of affairs exists (and has existed for at least the last 10 years) in the uk, partly as a result of the proliferation of new media platforms that you mention. There is ,for want of a better word, a general 'confusion' as to what constitutes radio!
Historically, when this point is reached, the public often start 'looking back'…in an effort to find their footing.
Maybe Grandad knew a thing or two sfter all!
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1) Today there are at least 30 – 40 mainly London-wide 24/7 full-time operations. I don't know of any part time operations, which is not to say there aren't any, but you seem to be stuck in the 1980s view of what landbased pirate radio has to offer. In the 2010s however, pirates aren't part-time operations. Most stations are left hassle-free apart from maybe once a month, sometimes more frequently, sometimes less, when Ofcom take the main transmitter. Sometimes its studio raids, but most of the time they can't raid the studios because, legally, the stations are internet only stations that someone else without the station's permission has decided to broadcast across London.
2) You cite Laser as somehow being relevant to the 2010s. You are talking about 30 years ago and an era when most music radio listening was on AM (Radio 1 hadn't even made it to FM yet), when all radio stations were limited by the Musicians Union in the amount of needletime they had, so of course anybody coming along and playing 90 minutes worth of songs over and over is guaranteed to build an audience. People had no other choices to access or easily share music. There was no internet, no mp3s, no easy distribution of audio. CDs and CD players were a brand new idea that had only been out a year or so, were highly expensive and weren't portable. So, you are comparing 30 years ago with today and trying to indicate that it is in some way the same or in some way relevant. It isn't. People have moved on. What worked in the 1980s because of the lack of advancement of choice certainly wouldn't work in the 2010s. Completely different rules apply.
3) The offshore stations catered for the yoof generation of the day by playing yoof music. Yes there were a couple of stations catering for old people, but in the vast majority of cases people over the age of 35 would think that what was being played on the main offshore stations wasn't for them and would hate it, or at the very least, not chose it. Pop music was for the younger generations, so in the vast majority of cases only young people listened to the offshore stations. It's hype, an over-active imagination and propaganda from the era that says anything differently.
4) There isn't a need for a single 'national radio station' that pleases everybody. Why should there be? That kind of mentality is why in the 1960s there was just the Light Programme. Nobody wants to go back to that era! People have freedom of choice and can pick and choose their music delivery system. It doesn't have to involve radio. If it involves radio, then they pick from the selection available the one that is playing what they want to hear. As soon as something comes on they don't want to hear they are now in control and flip to somewhere else. The dark and evil days of having no choice, no control, and having to sit through ego and other musical crap waiting and hoping for something they want to hear have long left us. That freedom of choice is a very good thing, and something we should never go back from.
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Christopher – I will tell you that you are wrong and I am a qualified radio Amateur G7HMJ and “Anonymous” is indeed correct.
An AM signal in fact any radio signal will travel faster over water than it does over land with the sea acting as one huge plate of a capacitor in a resonant circuit.
The high bandwidth AM to which 'Anonymous' is referring is actually what we amateurs call DSB or 'Double Sideband' Every signal with a carrier apart from the S3V mode will occupy a lower and upper sideband from the centre frequency.
These sidebands will usually be Carrier + or – the bandwidth up and down to get the USB and LSB frequencies.
If your AM carrier is say 558KHz and your TOTAL BANDWIDTH is 16KHz then your transmissions without any sideband filtering will be receivable on 558KHz + 8KHz and 558KHz – 8KHz or 564KHz and 550KHz respectively.
I suspect that this is what Anonymous might be referring too as is as good quality as most FM signals although it is NOT stereo.
Stereo takes one channel, modulates it with a pilot tone then adds it to the other channel before transmission – The subsonic pilot tone is used operate the stereo decoder in an FM set usually with an IF frequency of about 10.7MHz AM uses an IF frequency of 455 – 465KHz totally different.
AM did not die through technicalities Anonymous it died because the content was shite and Government protestations that it interfered with the emergency services because of the harmonics and them generally wanting control of the populous.
This was later proved to be bollocks by a mathematician. Why on earth do you think that CB originally on 27MHZ AM were suddenly legalized in the UK on 27MHZ FM – Approximately 10 metres.
Guess what on FM it tanked nobody really uses it now – it was fun when it was illegal and we all had 25ft masts on the garage roof shoving a few hundred watts out.
AM if used properly is still a very good medium all over the US there are huge AM shortwave stations using huge valve beam tetrode transmitters of several hundred KW.
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