Raidfile

The latest action against the pirates

Network 21 Busted

Network 21's first raid came at 9.30PM on Saturday March 14th, when they had a transmitter confiscated from a site on a South London rooftop. "As it was the first time we quickly reacted by opening a few bottles of champagne', they told TX. It was lucky they had some around — but then it was just a few hours from Network 21's first anniversary...

However, Network 21 say that the are deeply worried that this raid should happen so soon after the publication of the Green Paper, with its plans for a major expansion in radio broadcasting in the UK. The raid was also on the weekend that the station began its AIDS campaign, which they hoped would show that a pirate can behave responsibly towards the community.

Network 21 have now set up a legal fund to explore the possibility or legal action against the Department of Trade and Industry and / or the British Government.

The head of another pirate station told TX "Quite simply, I think they're over-reacting. The DTI aren't going to care about such things. They just want to keep the airwaves free from pirates".

Records and Tapes

In the last Raidfile we reported that the House of Lords was about to decide whether records and tapes could be confiscated in a raid. The actual ruling was supposed to take place on Wednesday 18 March, but despite our enquiries we haven't been able to find out if the ruling took place, and if it did what the result was. With a bit of luck, we should get the answers to these questions to you for the next issue of TX.

Waiting For The Right Time

Normally when the DTI raid a station's unmanned remote transmitter site, they simply pick up the rig and leave. Or that used to be the case... Recently they have taken to waiting around, often for quite a number of hours, in the hope that someone will turn up from the station to find out what's happened. Already there have been several close shaves and one success or the DTI — further news of which will no doubt appear in a future Court Report. For now, though, station staff are having to be even more careful than they are already.

LGR Bust Rally

London Greek Radio have been hit particularly hard recently by the raiding crews. Within a short time of switching on a new transmitter, the DTI come round and switch it off again and take it away. In recent weeks, they've lost equipment practically every other day, though this is always rapidly replaced.

The reason for singling out LGR is unknown — other stations at the time were being left alone. LGR has always maintained high technical standards and the DTI officially say that interference to other users of the radio spectrum is the only reason for a station to be moved to the top of this list for raids.

But It's In The Papers

One of the newest pirate community stations is RJR, which broadcasts to the Tottenham area from around the Broadwater Farm Estate area. The station aims to forge links with the community through the common language of music, and provide community information for listeners in the area.

Unfortunately, the DTI don't see it that way and have already raided the station several times -though with a back up of a large number of Police standing by in case of any trouble. RJR has had good relations with the Police from the start, some of whom in the area admit, off the record, that they listen to the station.

It was therefore saddening for RJR that a recent front-page splash in the Sunday Express accused the station of helping to start the riots on the Estate. This wasn't even the slightest bit possible as RJR weren't in existence at the time of the riots! The station has always acted responsibly on the air, and it's a shame that after all their effort they should have been accused like this.