does anyone know of any pirate radio stations in sheffield ?

I used to broadcast FM stereo to my back garden, but that is a summertime only activity. Scan the dial around empire road on a sunny evening you might just be able to tune in.

you can always try tuning in to http://tori.screaminghost.com:8010/listen.pls for an unusual mix.

According to your location on my autoroute, you live in a lake mr moderator.

While we're on pirate radio...

anyone know what became of sheffield community radio (SCR) that used to broadcast in the 1990s? That was a top station.

Where have all the decent pirates gone?

They've all boarded their pirate ships and sailed away in to the wild blue yonder :lol:

Not really any pirate stuff anymore...

It used to be fun....

I was on asian sound radio in the '90s..

We used to have a flat opposite SCR. We used to get busted and the gear would get confiscated.

Ahhh, those were t'days lad.

Originally posted by sheffieldfox
According to your location on my autoroute, you live in a lake mr moderator.

Streetmap.co.uk shows it to be the middle of a wood!

Its all about online radio stations now isnt it?

We had a station a few years back. Southernscummybast**dFM it was called. All was going well until some evil taxi drowned us out!
:mad:

Whatever happened to fantasy fm it was tops.

what would be the concequences of broadcasting pirate radio in sheffield if you were caught by the police?

would you be proscecuted even if you wernt making any profit?

From what i gather they destroy your transmitter, and if are feeling particularly evil confiscate your sound system.

I know someone who used to run one from the now blown up tower blocks in Norfolk Park. They got raided once or twice and all that happened is they threw the transmitter out the window!! So off air till you went down Radio Shack and got a new one.

Apprently it isnt hard to track the source of radio signal (by triangulation) but the coppers dont bother unless a) someone complains or b) you're interfering with the emergency services wavelengths, as they usually have better things to do.

I remember Fantasy FM an all. Nice bit of DnB as i recall.

Now that I'm getting all nostalgic....

Foulmouth FM, Dance FM, Fantasy FM, SCR..anyone remember any more???

Originally posted by Saifa


Apprently it isnt hard to track the source of radio signal (by triangulation) but the coppers dont bother unless a) someone complains or b) you're interfering with the emergency services wavelengths, as they usually have better things to do.



It's the Radio Authority who track folks down - they'll involve the police to make arrests and such but the RA Officers do have Statutory Rights of Entry.

In principle if an unlicensed transmission affects any licensed operation then they can be called in to track them down.

Given some of the crap signals generated by pirates I'm not surprised they get reported. :) Level control was obviously never explained to most wannabe DJs.

BTW, I believe that under the Wireless Telegraphy Act it's still an offence to publicise Pirate stations..... :)

Joe

Originally posted by Saifa
[B]While we're on pirate radio...

anyone know what became of sheffield community radio (SCR) that used to broadcast in the 1990s? That was a top station.


I think it was a 'term time' student project.....

Originally posted by Draggletail
I think it was a 'term time' student project.....
NO... If my memories of the time are correct the transmitter and stuff was sold to the guys who ran fantasy, which in turn became hardcore fm for a while and then became joy fm.. dont know what the guy who ran joy did with it though

there is another thread on pirate radio on the history and ex-pats section.I used to listen to scr,and foulmouth.

Originally posted by honeyplanet
NO... If my memories of the time are correct the transmitter and stuff was sold to the guys who ran fantasy, which in turn became hardcore fm for a while and then became joy fm.. dont know what the guy who ran joy did with it though
Yeh, you're right right. My memory :blush: The student project was Forge FM....?
SCR Radio = house/ techno in the days of Warp Records, LFO Tricky Disco?
(Probably mis remembered those names, too. I was 'there' but it was not my 'best' time) :D

Now that my memory is kick started - wasn't there a second Sheffield pirate station? Seem to remember there was two, one got closed down quick, the other survived (ish)

Wasn't one of them broadcast from Burngreave/Pitsmoor?
Sorry, I ramble. Beer. Hic

Yes but I cant remember the name, they got busted for blanking out the emergency sevices. it had somthing to do with the guys who used to run area 51 records on the gallery.. if the name comes to me...was it rise fm?

The two stations were up against each other for a while. It was about the time occasions had the happy hardcore night around 94/95. there was a lot of bad feeling between the two...

God SCR - that brings back some memories - i think i have a tape somewhere still with it on playing a house mix of Beethoven's 5th symphony.

True back in the day bleep classics used to listen all the time.

I know the guy who ran a pirate out of Rotherham area called Ocean Sound back in late 80's but that was more of a "commercially" sounding station.

Mind you he didnt do too badly out if it, now works on two of Germany's biggest radio stations.

Originally posted by JoeP

BTW, I believe that under the Wireless Telegraphy Act it's still an offence to publicise Pirate stations..... :)


That's Correct Joe, Ofcom took over duties performed by the RA in 2003, '03 stats are available here

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/radiocomms/ifi/enforcement/pstats/prosecution_stats#content

As far as I know police provide entry to a site suspected of emmitting radio transmissions which interefere with registered users ie ambulance/fire/prison and Ofcom field enforcement actually sieze the kit. I wonder how arsed police are about enforcing this now they have migrated to the tetra system? :)

in london, generally the way they get away with it, is in one of two ways.

firstly, broadcast away from the TX, using a wireless networking setup (TX on top of flats, broadcast "centre" elsewhere)

or some employ/use "doormen" at the bottom of the flats, who simply phone upstairs on sight of the DTI, giving enough warning to stash the stuff in neighbouring flats etc.

a good site showing the pros and cons of it all is that of Dimension FM, a Telford pirate station which broadcast for 4 years...

http://www.dfmpromotions.com/radio/

generally, your pretty safe unless you decide to broadcast to Sheffield on 97.5 . Not a good idea ;)

Originally posted by Saifa
While we're on pirate radio...

anyone know what became of sheffield community radio (SCR) that used to broadcast in the 1990s? That was a top station.

Where have all the decent pirates gone?

I’ve posted about SCR before on another thread. SCR used to remote broadcast from Norfolk Parks flats (as did other pirate stations). The SCR transmitter was naff and used to interfere with a large put of the VHF spectrum including the emergency services.

Check thissite...you may find it interesting.

http://www.laughingpoliceman.com/pirate.htm

unrelated - as it's legal and licensed. my father is a radio ham and broadcasts from his loft. his neigbour must have the electric opener on his garage door tuned to the same frequency as it goes up and down when he transmits :)

I'm amazed none of the pro-estbalishment / right wingers who inhabit this forum have been posting saying about how morally wrong pirates are.

Look what happened to the graff thread....

Not that I'm complaining like :thumbsup:

Have a look at
http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html

Or have I missed the point?

Tee-Hee

Originally posted by commuter
unrelated - as it's legal and licensed. my father is a radio ham and broadcasts from his loft. his neigbour must have the electric opener on his garage door tuned to the same frequency as it goes up and down when he transmits :)

Your dads not doing anything wrong...it’s the device on the garage that’s not shielded properly.

.- .-. / -.-

To whoever was asking....

Forge FM spun out of the Uni in the early 1990s - basically it became more open to non-students, as while it was student radio non-students (naturally!!) couldn't participate.

I got involved in 93, I think, and stayed on until Forge folded at the end of the decade. I was mainly involved on technical stuff, but also did some presenting, administration, aerial rigging, blagging, etc.

We were always legal - spending a couple of grand a year on licenses also meant that we were always looking for ways to raise money!

Joe

Originally posted by Saifa
I'm amazed none of the pro-estbalishment / right wingers who inhabit this forum have been posting saying about how morally wrong pirates are.

Look what happened to the graff thread....

Not that I'm complaining like :thumbsup:

My main objection to pirate radio stemmed from :

a. Having legitimate services (and stations with which I was working legally) being interfered with by bloody awful signals. The technical abilities in many pirate stations were quite abysmal.

b. The crap taste in music broadcast.

c. The fact that we were expected to find several grand a year for giving the community the opportunity to participate in radio whilst pirates got away with it for free. :)

d. Oh...and whether you like it or not it IS illegal.

I hope this isn't going to go in to a 'freedom of speech' debate because the freedom that most pirates seemed to want was freedom to broadcast the same music they and their mates would normally play to each other every evening in their rooms or listen to in clubs! :)

Joe

the more pirate radio stations in Sheffield the bestter. A slong as they don't interfere with the emergency services I have no issues with them. The legal local radio stations are that bad (Radio Sheffield :gag: :gag: , Hallam :gag: and the others aren't any better) that if they are drowned out it would do us all a favour.

Originally posted by Saifa
While we're on pirate radio...

anyone know what became of sheffield community radio (SCR) that used to broadcast in the 1990s? That was a top station.

Where have all the decent pirates gone? i was on SCR for 5 years 90-95, i knew most of the dj's and management,it got to a stage where the management went into other buisnesses so it just got faded out of operation,at one piont there was probably too many pirates,but scr was the most profesional,...it had always been a pirate even tho some djs went into legal radio like sweet-g for instance,he went onto radio sheffield.
dont know what happend to all the equiptment but i do know at one point fantasy fm was in the same flat as scr(keninghall mount)norfolk park. so it was probaly given or sold to them.

Originally posted by robbie
the more pirate radio stations in Sheffield the bestter. A slong as they don't interfere with the emergency services I have no issues with them. The legal local radio stations are that bad (Radio Sheffield :gag: :gag: , Hallam :gag: and the others aren't any better) that if they are drowned out it would do us all a favour.

It would be nice if we had a system like that in Italy, where certain parts of the spectrum at the top of the VHF band are 'open' to anyone to broadcast in.

Apart from the emergency services, a poorly set up transmitter can interfere with legal broadcasters and other folks who've paid good licence fee to use the radio spectrum.

If they're using enough power, and broadcasting form the top of a block of flats, they'd also probably interfere with local TV / radio reception as well.

Joe

Originally posted by JoeP
It would be nice if we had a system like that in Italy, where certain parts of the spectrum at the top of the VHF band are 'open' to anyone to broadcast in.

Apart from the emergency services, a poorly set up transmitter can interfere with legal broadcasters and other folks who've paid good licence fee to use the radio spectrum.

If they're using enough power, and broadcasting form the top of a block of flats, they'd also probably interfere with local TV / radio reception as well.

Joe you seem to think people who ran the pirates where all stupid,they new just as much as any one could,if the broadcast levels where too high it would be cut out by a limiter or it would just be turned down.
it was the amount of pirates at the time that created inteference....not sloppy setting up.
if you were into specialised music that is what the pirates were for.

you used to get one as you travelled down Owler Lane - just for about 400 yards or so - used to break in over radio Hallam...

not heard it recently...

does anyone know the maximum legal broadcast length as in mile radius?

it wouldnt actually, but there we go.

Pirate radio does a lot of good and a lot of bad. personally I'm all for it as long as it doesn't interfere with other services.

Kiss 100 in London started out as a pirate after the Radio Authority said 100 wasnt a viable frequency... now its legal (and not as good)

Originally posted by superchrome
does anyone know the maximum legal broadcast length as in mile radius?

Maximum allowable range without a licence? 0 inches.

Range of signal depends a lot on local conditions - here in sheffield, propagation is not very good. In East Anglia, a 5w transmitter would give you a reasonable signal at 5 maybe even 10 miles.

I am not a right winger, far from it, far far from it, far far far from it. But the reality is, like down loading, if you support pirate stations then the cost of the product you listen to will go up. Look at the bootlegs to understand why. And how that guy opposite Burger King on Waingate gets away with it I will never know.

I undersatnd that the circle of bootlegged tapes, Cds, Games etc. are big business supporting, and upholding drug imports, prostitution etc.

Look into what you buy and download, locally, nationally, internationally and from e-bay. You may be a very small cog in the global drug and illegal immigrant scene

how does unlicenced music broadcast relate to downloading music?

It's not the station operators, or anyone else, makes any money at all - so its hard to see how it funds drug imports, as if they needed funding.

Originally posted by BoppinBruce
I am not a right winger, far from it, far far from it, far far far from it. But the reality is, like down loading, if you support pirate stations then the cost of the product you listen to will go up. Look at the bootlegs to understand why. And how that guy opposite Burger King on Waingate gets away with it I will never know.

I undersatnd that the circle of bootlegged tapes, Cds, Games etc. are big business supporting, and upholding drug imports, prostitution etc.

Look into what you buy and download, locally, nationally, internationally and from e-bay. You may be a very small cog in the global drug and illegal immigrant scene

:confused: really :confused:

:hihi: :hihi: :hihi:

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
Maximum allowable range without a licence? 0 inches.

Range of signal depends a lot on local conditions - here in sheffield, propagation is not very good. In East Anglia, a 5w transmitter would give you a reasonable signal at 5 maybe even 10 miles. what you talkin about it cant be "zero" its about half a mile or somthing...not nessaseraly pirate radio but any sourse?:??

-------------

When I was a first year undergraduate in Sorby Hall in 1998/99 there used to be a pirate radio station that played some happy hardcore. I can't remember the name of it though. There was also a station around 106 or 107 FM that played DnB. :)

****** to the law, anyone want to start a pirate station in Sheffield?

sorry why do they call it pirate???:huh:

phoneboy from hallam fm is running a pirate radio station called pirate peet, the site for it is www.piratepeet.tk , you can listen to it on a radio channel squatter on 178657.22 BHWs, he is playing songs without a license!

Eeeee... them were the days!!!

:cool:

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?p=834285#post834285

Been interested in this for a while. Theres no decent radio in Sheffield (Apart from 1 or 2 shows on Sheffield Live). Would be great havin a pirate playin decent music. I think the reason they have all but stopped now is because of the whole internet radio thing. Its now free, easy to set up and legal so people just generally don't bother. Its annoying because I basically only listen to music from the early 90s (Jungle &Hardcore mainly) but I was born in 91 so I missed all the good music and all the pirates!!

p.s. Nowadays wouldn't there be some sort of restriction on who can buy FM broadcasting equipment? Plus even if there wasn't where would you go about getting it? Surely there aren't any sort of shops about?

(Oh yeh I know this thread is stupidly old).

Yes but I cant remember the name, they got busted for blanking out the emergency sevices. it had somthing to do with the guys who used to run area 51 records on the gallery.. if the name comes to me...was it rise fm?


I went on Pitch FM for a bit that might be the one you mean. Jackmaster Jay used to run Area 39 Recs on the gallery. It was a laugh, the flat had graffiti on the walls spliff ends and empty cans everywhere. Used to be good tho when people phoned in for requests or shout outs n stuff.

Yes but I cant remember the name, they got busted for blanking out the emergency sevices. it had somthing to do with the guys who used to run area 51 records on the gallery.. if the name comes to me...was it rise fm?

And there goes the reason that illegal radio transmitters are such. :)

I have to admit using illegal CB many years ago so I'm not blame free but it's still wrong.

I miss those pirate radio station's from the 90's. As a massive house, trance, hardcore fan the music was great. On another note I drove down Brocco Bank towards Hunters bar yesterday afternoon at about 1700 hrs. I had Radio 1 playing in the car on 99.5 fm and about halfway down the road the signal was interupted by some other music. I thought it might by someone's iPod fm transmitter in a car nearby so I just retuned the car radio. It reminded me of the pirate radio days.

Never saw this old thread. I grew up listening to SCR. Used to be quite professionally run and was great in the early 90's with all the WARP stuff - Asterix and Space. And even before that with Funkmaster General (Winston Hazel) and DJ Mink.

I think what happened was, as music scenes evolved it got fragmented and some of the people involved in SCR, which subsequently concentrated more on Reggae, Soul and Hip Hop, set up Fantasy FM for all the house, techno, hardcore and jungle then some other people started the similar Hardcore FM. SCR also had competition in the Reggae/Soul market with Mighty FM and later Fresh FM. It was ace before Classic FM came along - with Mighty FM on 100.7, Hardcore FM on 101.1, SCR on 101.5 and Fantasy FM on 101.9. All spaced out 0.4 Mhz and all responsibly run.

There were others in later years, such as Pitch FM, Joy FM, Foulmouth FM but the best and shortest lived was Groove FM, which eventually ran as a licensed station for a 28 day RSL. That was really well presented and had ace flyers designed by The Designers Republic.

Anyway, it seems to have gone unnoticed that pirate radio has made a comeback in Sheffield recently, with Bounce FM on 88.0. I think this station was on a few years ago but hadn't been heard for a while.

Many of the leftfield musical styles that the heyday pirates provided are now thankfully given airtime legally by Sheffield Live! 93.2 but those days in the 90's were in great.

[QUOTE=ajp79;4968034]Never saw this old thread. I grew up listening to SCR. Used to be quite professionally run and was great in the early 90's with all the WARP stuff - Asterix and Space.

:hihi: asterix and space can remember them along with easy d and rythm and reality,can't think what esay d's mc was called but this has been a good thread made me think back to when i was about 14!! can even remember carl cox playing on there aswell!!

[QUOTE=ajp79;4968034]asterix and space can remember them along with easy d and rythm and reality,can't think what esay d's mc was called
MC Rush!!

Yeah Rhythm & Reality's AM Time show was great. I've got loads of old tapes of SCR, Fantasy FM etc at my parents house. Must dig them out sometime.

[QUOTE=animal2477;4968123]
MC Rush!!

Yeah Rhythm & Reality's AM Time show was great. I've got loads of old tapes of SCR, Fantasy FM etc at my parents house. Must dig them out sometime.

yeah was talkin to some old school friends last night and 1st thing that was said was mc rush lol,my mate says he's got loads of there old stuff aswell,think he's gone diggin todat for them!!

Sorry to dig up an old thread...Just stumbled across it while on google.

I was one of those naughty pirates back in the day.
I started as a dj on fantasy fm when i was a boy of 16 years old.
I quickly got in with the then management of the station in order to learn the technology behind pirate radio.
In later years I went on to run a few stations across sheffield with others who shared a similar lifestyle and philosophy.

I remember waking up on those cold nolfolk park mornings and the radio
was the first thing on my mind.By midday i would be dangling from a 15th floor balcony climbing onto the roofs to put up the antenna that was lost to the dti the night before.

I always loved pirates as they played music that was not over commercialized
and in a way this led to a a sort of anarchist philosophy that continued for about 10 years of my life.This and a feeling of community that was obtained
was dare I say a kind of "buzz".But part of this buzz involved breaking the law,which although in an ideal world we would have had the upperhand in the moral argument,we were still criminals in the eyes of the law.

Of course,with age and children came perspective.
This combined with constant dti [now ofcom] busts,Loss of the valuable
nolfolk park tower blocks,and the fast growth of the internet potential for
pirates led to me leaving it behind.

Reading back through this thread I see the old argument that pirates somehow effected emergency services equipment.
This was one of the many myths put forward by legal entitys be they
commercial or student.
Now all though some stations chose to use equipment that "bled" over the
fm spectrum over a small area of the city,Most used quality equipment
that used the correct filtering to avoid this.
scr,fantasy,joy,dance and others all used the same manufacturer of radio equipment in bradford.
This equipment was of very high quality and though much cheaper than the legal alternative,performed just as well if not better.

I decided after leaving fm radio behind that i would go into online radio and tv
first as a pirate but eventially as a legal entity,which spanned 8 stations,2 tv stations and served the whole world not just my home town.
From this i went into the development of applications for online broadcasters
including the largest known as shoutcast.
Eventially this too came to an end,as other opportunities came along that took me away from radio all together.

So to answer the question "where did the sheffield pirates go?"
We got old,some fat,some died,some just grew up,some got real jobs,some like me continued the philosophy and some went off to other countries.
We were assimilated into society just like every other person is eventially.

Peace J..:D

Whatever happened to fantasy fm it was tops.

The guy that used to run that now works at Reflex Records in town.

The guy that used to run that now works at Reflex Records in town.

Martin was just a DJ on it.
But without martin and rob there, fantasy would not have been so popular
they were the flagship dj team.
In those days they were the nicest guys you could meet.

Martin was just a DJ on it.
But without martin and rob there, fantasy would not have been so popular
they were the flagship dj team.
In those days they were the nicest guys you could meet.

Oh right, sorry I thought he ran it. I was only 12 when it was on the air. That station was one of the first things that made me want to be a DJ.

Oh right, sorry I thought he ran it. I was only 12 when it was on the air. That station was one of the first things that made me want to be a DJ.

Yes it was the reason I wanted to be a dj too ;)

Martin did go onto run "dance fm" with the guys from fantasy and scr though if my memory serves me correctly :)

Yes it was the reason I wanted to be a dj too ;)

Martin did go onto run "dance fm" with the guys from fantasy and scr though if my memory serves me correctly :)

Do you have a regular gig somewhere then? Most of the big DJ's started out on pirate stations apparently.

Dance FM - I can't say I remember that, but then like I say it was in my early teenage years so other issues may have distorted my memory somewhat!

Does anybody happen to have any old recording of Pirate Radio station JOY FM 105.8 around 1996 time? I'm searching for radio recordings of the dj Matt Hardwick (before he went to becoming a Gatecrasher resident) . He used to do a slot every Saturday. I'm really hoping that someone in Sheffield may have recorded some :)

there used to be one called millennium FM used to listen to it round about 2000/2001 think it was only on on a Saturday an Sunday though and if i remember rightly these were sum of the DJ's Mr T the barber from park hill legs diamond and Dougie fresh i think was his name he was the DJ from club europa which was next to Berlins. and there was 2 young lads what used to play niche music.
was a good station all RNB an reggae and a bit of other stuff shame it went away.

Any idea about JOY FM 105.8 ?