Here you'll find an edited selection of airchecks from many of the pirates operating in London during the eighties. There's a mixture of the big names that blasted out all over the capital, some of the smaller community operations, a few famous DJs early in their careers and some radio that's just plain weird. You'll need Windows Media Player to listen to them.
1979-1982
RFL, Telstar One, South London Radio, Radio Eric International, Radio Invicta, Radio Weird, Radio Telstar South, Horizon Radio, Chris Stewart, Greg Adams, Phil Thomas, Steve Chandler, Kid Johnson.
1983
Thameside Radio, South London Radio, Radio Invicta, London Weekend Radio, Radio Zodiac, Phoenix Radio, Radio Alpha, London Music Radio, Cityside Radio, Steve Walsh, George Power, Jerry Peters, Paul James, John Scott, Aleks Wright, Nicky Dene, Vince Cent.
1984
JFM, LWR, Breakfast Pirate Radio, Radio Jackie, Skyline Radio, Radio Shoestring, Horizon Radio, Alice's Restaurant, Hard Rock Cafe, Phoenix Radio, Radio Sovereign, Radio Telstar, Brian Anthony, Keith Allen, Jerry Floyd, Les Adams, Mark Ashton, Johnny Heyward, Chris Stewart, Caesar the Geezer, Crispian St John.
1985
LWR, Horizon Radio, Radio Free London, Solar Radio, Thames Music Radio, Kjazz, Radio Activity, Tim Westwood, Chris Stewart, Kenny Myers, Chris Philips, Ben West.
1986
Kiss FM, Starpoint FM, Fame FM, TKO.
1987
Kiss FM, Starpoint FM, TKO, Hits FM.
1988
Time FM, London Greek Radio, LWR, Starpoint FM, Kiss FM, RFM, Sky Radio, Sunrise FM, WLIB, Groove FM, Studio FM, TKO, CD93, Hits FM, Radio Jennifer, London Rock, Passion Radio, RJR, Rock to Rock, Lisa I'Anson, Dave Gregory, Maxi Jazz, Gordon Mac, Will Smith, Galliano, Chris England, Jez Nelson, Chris Philips, Wilber Wilberforce, Dean Savonne, Nick Power, Trevor Nelson, The Wing Commander.
Fantasy FM, Sunrise FM, Lightning Radio, LWR, Rave FM, Inner City Radio, Eurojam, Powerjam, Q102, RJR, Star Radio, Station FM, Stomp FM, Base FM, Middlesex Music Radio, Anton, Bad Boy West, Steve Brown.
I'm on the look-out for more tapes to extend what's available here there's some glaring holes in my collection unfortunately, due mostly to what stations I was able to pick up at the time. If you can help then please get in touch at amfm@amfm.org.uk. I also hope that one day I'll be able to put together a CD that collects together some of the best from this incredibly creative period of pirate radio.
Most of these recordings were sourced off cassette from off-air recordings made at the time and then digitally cleaned up. While this has helped a lot, some extracts unfortunately still sound rather dodgy.