Growth Pains

TV stardom, pirate violence

The changes resulted in a big growth in sales, helped also by the increasing profile of pirate radio in the press and the campaigns for licensing more stations. I found myself spending a growing amount of time dealing with journalists and even recorded a couple of TV interviews.

The first was for LWT's The London Programme, which at the time of my initial involvement was 'a sympathetic look at the world of pirate radio', but by the time of transmission had changed focus to being an expose of pirate radio payola. Lawrence Hallett — in his capacity as a 'reformed pirate' — and myself recorded pieces one evening in the specially rented top floor of a restaurant beside the Thames. Our job over, we were then turfed out while the TV crew and some of the more famous of Kiss FM's DJs sat down to an expensive private dinner.

In the end my piece was cut as I wasn't willing to dish any dirt on camera — and I'm rather glad it was given the angle the broadcast programme took. Oddly enough, Kiss FM was the one station that didn't come off badly in the programme, put forward as an example of the kind of station it would be good to licence, unlike the other 'corrupt' pirate broadcasters.

The second appearance was on BBC 2's Asian Eye programme, as part of a feature on the unlicensed Asian stations broadcasting from Southall. With the somewhat lower budget than ITV, I was interviewed in a TV shop in the high street and then had to do walk shots in the street carrying a copy of the magazine, trying not to get too embarrassed by all the school kids looking on from a nearby bus shelter. It was a good segment though, put together by people with far more professionalism and far less cynicism than my previous TV experience.

Newspaper headlines on pirate radio violence

The London Programme did get one part right though — pirate radio was becoming more violent. Transmitters were increasingly being taken not by the DTI but by other stations. Two jocks from Starpoint were threatened when a DJ from LWR took their rig. When I reported that on the Infoline, the person they named went on to leave death threats against me on the phoneline, which continued over the months to come.

Another time when I was round at a well-known engineer's house, the then boss of one of the leading pirates turned up with his posse and a couple of rigs rather obviously taken from elsewhere that he wanted the engineer to get working. At one time it seemed like everyone was getting in on the act and there were even tales of unscrupulous DTI operatives selling transmitters back to stations rather than handing them in. The DTI's job was becoming harder though too, and what had started out as a fun pastime had now become a serious business for many, and one that they were willing to defend.

Next >>>