Rewind '87

The events on and off London's airwaves in 1987

January

DBC returns to the air... Greek Radio For London is formed after a split at LGR... The DTI use a crane to remove stations' transmitting aerials, hitting Kiss FM, LWR, TKO, LGR, GRFL and also raiding DLR, Studio 1, Twilight, RFM, CDR, Quest FM and RJR... Three LWR DJs are fined a total of £1400... A raid on JBC is filmed for TV... A JBC DJ is fined £185... More raids at the end of the month...

February

Further tests from the non-starter Hits FM, promising 24 hours of Hot Hits for London... Girls FM makes preparations to take to the air... Kiss FM leaves the air for several weeks after the departure of their engineer... Clockwork Wireless begins regular weekly transmissions... New Arabic, Greek and Turkish stations... Another set of heavy raids at the start of the month, with small stations badly hit...

March

Fame FM returns — but not for long... TKO finally begin live programmes... Sky Radio launches as a Black community station for South London... Traffic Jam takes to the air with its heavy reggae... A Starpoint DJ is caught changing the programme tapes at their transmitter site... Internal problems at Kiss with DJs reported to be unhappy at having to pay to do shows to keep the station on the air...

April

A good month for new stations... A new Anarchist station, Radio Interference, begins broadcasting... London Town FM, made up of mostly ex-Skyline jocks, takes to the air with pop for South London... Faze1 launches... Horizon '87 launches... Radio Shoestring returns... Heavy raids first Sunday in April, with 10 stations taken off the air and the DTI removing more aerial masts with their new toy...

May

Heaviest raids to have ever hit pirates in London, with numerous raids at numerous stations... Launches for Caliber FM and Melody FM... Bank Holiday special from Not Alice's Restaurant... 2 Starpoint DJs fined £300 and £850... Laser's boat is hijacked by the boss of Monique... Someone slashes the tyres on the DTI's car whilst they are raiding LWR... LWR suffer a series of heavy raids continuing into June...

June

Faze1 claim they are having their transmitters stolen by TKO — who deny it and say it's just the DTI... For the 3rd month running, the DTI are out with the crane on the first Sunday of the month... Fresh FM, a split from Time Radio, launches... Hard times for the Greeks who seem to be all raided within hours of returning... WLFM with pop for Middlesex and Asian Community Radio with Asian music for the East End launch...

July

Much quieter at the start of July as the DTI crew head off to annoy Liverpool pirates instead... City Radio, a split from RJR, takes to the air... Followed shortly after by WNK: Wicked, Neutral and Kicking... London Greek Radio, after being raided once a week for months have their office raided by the DTI... A few raids at the end of the month — including LGR again... Horizon '87 returns after several weeks absence...

August

Thefts of equipment by person or persons unknown at LWR, Faze1 and WNK... It's 2 all in a football match between Quest FM and the Police... Rumours of the DTI not raiding some stations without large Police back-up... Raiders FM rises from the ashes of London Town FM. London Asian Radio hits the air briefly... Girls FM returns... Arab Radio London launches... Special broadcast by Flashback '87...

September

Horizon '87 change their name to Chicago '87... Mainline FM launches for a short series of broadcasts... Solar start a spell of not managing to complete a broadcast with DTI raids and thefts of their transmitters... Split at RFM over 'musical differences'... Hits FM launches with a Saturday oldies service... Touch FM begins testing... A few raids, including small Middlesex station Radio Badger...

October

Soul FM launches... Radio Duck returns... Radio Free London returns... Kjazz returns... Starpoint returns... JBC is forced to move from its long-standing frequency of 104.7 when Radio One begins test transmissions... Massive storms cause damage at several stations, including Capital and LBC... Kjazz is taken off the air one Sunday by an LWR DJ, caught red handed... 2nd birthday for Kiss FM...

November

Solar suffers problems from a high power station Roots FM, who claim to be starting a new reggae service on 93FM... New trainees join the DTI... They raid an advertiser on one pirate station looking for illegal transmission equipment... Touch FM begin live programmes... Radio London is threatened with closure... News Music Radio launches... Trax FM returns... Greek Radio for London closes...

December

Passion FM, a split from Quest, launches... Raids begin to increase once more... Studios of several stations are hit... LWR is busted 4 times in one week... First weekend raids for three months... New Asian station Sangra Radio launches... Caroline's 300ft aerial collapses taking them off the air — but does anyone notice?... Xmas extensions from Kiss FM, Kjazz, RFM, Studio FM, Melody FM and more.