Pirate radio

danemac

to all,

anyone out there know why no more pirate radio stations are been set up any more,
is it because its easier to be cracked down on them or what

some of the best stations are pirate radio

John R

Just something else that can be blamed on illegal file sharing I suppose:D

projectmayhem

the odtr gave out a warning to all pirate stations in dublin requesting them to shut down or to be shut down with force. most of them shut down, and phantomfm went and got a temp license (now expired) and as far as i know one or two of the others are seeking licenses.

BrianD

The vast majority of pirate stations in the past were aimed at the dance music scene. This scene is now dead and has become the mainstream so a dance music pirate would probably offer little more than what FM104 or Spin are offering.

The ComReg activities have made it difficult for pirates to operate and stations like Phantom who wanted to offer a decent service to their listeners have no interest in runnning around the city being chased by ComReg. At the end of the day, ComReg will win. Also many of the frequencies that pirates could use are being used by licenced stations.

danemac

ok

i dare anyone to set up a radio station with me,

any takers

Executive Steve

Originally posted by BrianD
The vast majority of pirate stations in the past were aimed at the dance music scene. This scene is now dead and has become the mainstream so a dance music pirate would probably offer little more than what FM104 or Spin are offering.

RUBBISH. the real reason is that because spin fm spent so much money on their "specialist" licence they need to protect their investment by keeping any competition off the air. anyone who listened to power fm back in the day will know that to compare them with the sh1te that gets played on the likes of spin or fm104 or 2fm [or even on any of the other "dance" pirates!] is a pointless excercise... the fact o the matter is, apart from radio na life, there is not a single place to hear genuinely innovative fresh music on the irish airwaves anymore. the montrose policy of only playing music that twelve year olds have spent their pocket money on within the last five years effectively keeps demand for anything more challenging at all all time low, while the "aging hot press reader" focus of the likes of today fm, forcefeeding us the sound of spotty teenagers mistreating bits of dead tree in a homage to the 1970's, is effectively killing off any chance for a wide variety of music to be heard in a truly public access environment.



you go to ANY other country in europe and the public radio stations see it as part of their public service remit to actually give people what they havent heard before... fair enough, noone expects a commercial radio station to give a toss about education, but in the absence of anything even approaching a clue about public sercvice broadcasting the pirates like power fm [now only online sadly] are about the only way you'll get to hear something new... check out the golden mavericks setlist for his last show on power fm, he posted it on this very board last week, can you imagine any legal station playing that? no you cant. WE NEED PIRATES.

projectmayhem

Originally posted by danemac
ok

i dare anyone to set up a radio station with me,

any takers

as long as i don't have to pay for anything i'm game, and of course no dance music

lol

Von Irish

Yeah Power fm is Wickeed.

But seriously who listens to any licensed Irish stations. Look at radio 1 in the UK for example, can you imagine 2fm having a show like John Peel's. He plays things ranging from the most underground electro/techno to rock and stuff like that. 2fm actually had a decent show when John Power was around. I thought 626 was good, just before you go out and when you come in(or from 9'oclock on wards), but since that finished 2fm is a joke.

Two Words: Larry Gogan

(Oh Yeah, but his "Just a Minute Quiz" is quality):rolleyes:

darkmaster2

Freakfm 105.2 is broadcasting 24/7 in Cork City with alternative/metal/rock

www.freakfm.com

:ninja:

mike65

Its not the same but if you have broadband just head over to shoutcast or live365...right now I'm listening to
Ultragroove live which plays 60s-70s funk/jazz/rock stuff that 2FM does'nt knows exisits. Right now they're playing the Sesame Street theme as a funky work out!

Mike.

Seanie M

Originally posted by danemac
ok

i dare anyone to set up a radio station with me,

any takers

I'm curious and interested... what have you in mind by the way?

Seanie.

Doctor J

A few years ago a mate an I were going to set up a pirate radio station that would only play the first 8 Black Sabbath albums looped. We just couldn't get the technology together at the time (lack of fincances). I'd love to do it, only Sabbath, all the time, just in case you find yourself needing to hear some at any given time in the Dublin area.

Civilian_Target

Freak FM sounds cool. I like BBC Radio 6, it's the BBC's alternative station, and while I'll freely admit they play a lot of ****e (alternative hip-hop or alt. funt anyone??) they also play some damn good stuff you wouldn't hear on most stations. Just the other day, they played 21st Century Schitzoid Man, a track I haven't heard played anywhere outside my own home, ever!

mike65

Originally posted by Civilian_Target
Just the other day, they played 21st Century Schitzoid Man, a track I haven't heard played anywhere outside my own home, ever!

I've heard that track (and taped it) on either Here Comes the Night Today FM with Donal Dineen or on Radio Caroline can't remember which!

Mike.

jmc

Good to read peoples thoughts on all things radi-oh. Power is available online at the moment.

Through a partnership with Windows Media we're now one of their featured stations along with 1Xtra, 6 Music, Ministry of Sound, Virgin and a couple more.

We are looking at the possibilites for Digital radio at the moment. It means we can exist in our current format and reach a wider audience without having to change the station format to suit commerical concerns to the extent that it bears no resemblance to the original station, idea and music that binds it together (if you know what I mean).

A most recent show playlist follows below (from Simon Milligan tonight, 9 to 11pm GMT).

Btw Lackluster is on tomorrow morning (Friday) with Keith Downey between 10am and noon.

Talk soon

Thanks,
J


'the same difference' thursday 9 till 11 pm
with simon milligan
24 / 06 / 04:

norman connors: dark of light.
brian browne trio: uncle albert.
les mccann: the price you got to pay to be free.
ray barreto: el nuevo barretto.
max roach: equipoise.
dave holland quintet: the dragon.
h.i.m.n.l: for her souly, slowly, solely.
karl berger: all kinds of time.
rice and beans: swap acid.
tes: even odds.
roberta flack: gone away.*
charles lloyd quartet:
autumn sequence.
miles davis: theme.
heat sensor feat m sayyid: gravy.
lootpack: i come real with this.
jack dejohnette: picture one.
roberta flack: reverend lee. *
norman connors: butterfly dreams.
seven star: inhuman.
dstyle: mr arrogant.
elmo hope trio: something for kenny.
eero koivistoinen music society: hot c.
deep puddle dynamics: the scarecrow speaks.
curtis mayfield: stone junkie / pusher man.

* featured l.p roberta flack chapter two.

thanks for listening.

www.PowerFM.org
www.windowsmedia.com/Mediaguide/gbRadio

Drag00n79

Hpw much would a transmitter etc cost to set up a very small station?

Hoof Hearted

You can get a 35Watt transmitter for about 300 euro from Veronica FM in England, a stereo encoder for 50. Antenna with 4dB gain about 70. High quality antenna cable 30. The 4dB gain roughly doubles the power to 70Watt which should have a range of about 10 miles if up on a hill. i.e. It would be clearly heard all over Dublin city if you're above 200feet. Buy a used laptop, put on it your entire music collection and install winamp and free winamp plugins that do cross fading(SQR) and sound compressor/limiter (Stereo Tool) Then you can automate the station. It will sound as if someone is there full time, one song will fade over the other at the correct precise moment. The Stereo Tool does the equivalent of a 10,000 euro Optimod multiband compressor and also filters out 19kHz stereo pilot tone interference, so you can play from the softest to the loudest music with lots of of high frequency content and it will come out sounding as good as the most professional station. This tool can also widen the stereo image and correct for phase differences between the left and right channels. You might get the whole setup on the air for less than 500 euro. If you get solar cells and a rechargable batteries. You can place the whole set up in a remote location on a mountain in a "hidden sealed plastic box burried" Put the antenna in a tree and make the antenna look like a branch (think plastic christmas tree parts) face the solar cells south at 50deg angle so the batteries charge during the day and with a simple timer plug have the station come on only at night for how much time the NiCd or NiMh batteries last. Use lower wattage transmitter for longer "on" time. If you are up 2000 feet you don't need high watts. If you put a directional antenna towards Dublin which you can make from 1/4" or 1/2" copper pipe you can increase the ERP (effective radiated power) substantially. If you stack dipoles vertically (easier on a tree) you get a colliner array which increases the effective power in all directions towards the horizon. Each dipole must be fed in phase(i.e same length of cable after being split to each dipole antenna) You will need 3 splitters for 4 dipoles Camouflage the solar cells and have them low to the ground. You can set the software to start automatically when the laptop boots up. The solar cells and batteries will of course add to the costs accordingly.

lordgoat

Excellent work all round folks, just make sure you don't say you'll be playing illegaly downloaded albums on your station or you may find the thread locked... I particularly love this thread!

Wertz

[cm]tyranny wrote:

RUBBISH. the real reason is that because spin fm spent so much money on their "specialist" licence they need to protect their investment by keeping any competition off the air. anyone who listened to power fm back in the day will know that to compare them with the sh1te that gets played on the likes of spin or fm104 or 2fm [or even on any of the other "dance" pirates!] is a pointless excercise... the fact o the matter is, apart from radio na life, there is not a single place to hear genuinely innovative fresh music on the irish airwaves anymore. the montrose policy of only playing music that twelve year olds have spent their pocket money on within the last five years effectively keeps demand for anything more challenging at all all time low, while the "aging hot press reader" focus of the likes of today fm, forcefeeding us the sound of spotty teenagers mistreating bits of dead tree in a homage to the 1970's, is effectively killing off any chance for a wide variety of music to be heard in a truly public access environment.



you go to ANY other country in europe and the public radio stations see it as part of their public service remit to actually give people what they havent heard before... fair enough, noone expects a commercial radio station to give a toss about education, but in the absence of anything even approaching a clue about public sercvice broadcasting the pirates like power fm [now only online sadly] are about the only way you'll get to hear something new... check out the golden mavericks setlist for his last show on power fm, he posted it on this very board last week, can you imagine any legal station playing that? no you cant. WE NEED PIRATES.

Hear here. Couldn't have put it better myself.
Spin doing dance music? When? On the sorry occasion that I've tuned in it's been chart crap with some RnB, mainstream hiphop and kiddie trance thrown in...don't even get me started on 2FM or TodayFM.

We used to have a lot of pirate stuff up our way (the border provided a semi-safe haven for a while), but after some local pirate interfered with the ATC radio at Belfast city airport the UK and Irish authorities moved to shut them down...it was never much good, but it was something other than the godawful sh*te that was playing on the mainstream stations.
If it wasn't for BBC Radio 1 I'd be living in a world devoid of musical innovation (even their daytime output).