10 March 1994
Norman McLeod
There's a young man called Eugene Perera who has now got a licence for a station called Faze FM in Manchester. I first met this gentleman only five years ago at a station with the same name operating in our area, er, without the benefit of a licence. I'm glad he didn't get caught. So is he.
Good luck, Eugene. I hope you make lots of money and continue to impress us with your sharp clothes sense. But will you remember your roots? When the pirate scene in Manchester starts chipping away at your audience by being more street- credible than you are, will you (a) give the best pirate DJ's a job (b) go even more mainstream for the family audience or (c) get on the 'phone to the DTI urging that these outlaws be busted?
I met some local pirates a few months ago and their first question was - what was my attitude to pirate radio? I said that responsible piracy (clean signal, suitable frequency) was a form of pressure on the authorities which strengthens the case for new stations, simpler licensing procedures, and low-cost opportunities for legal broadcasting.
Pirate broadcasting proves by demonstration a point which I have taken twenty years and two nervous breakdowns to get over: that you do not need to be Mr. Moneybags to start a broadcasting service, and that there are thousands of people waiting in any area who are totally unimpressed with what they get from radio at the moment, but can be fired with enthusiasm for something which is in tune with their musical and cultural needs, especially when they go well beyond Whitney Houston, Phil Collins, and all the other well- worn stuff that comes from the usual school of radio formatting. I would not encourage anyone to pirate: it's very difficult to do a good job of broadcasting when you're watching your back all the time, and the penalties are serious, including that nasty ban on working legally for five years after you get caught.
This is a perverse provision: intended as a deterrent to illegal broadcasting, it must have completely the opposite effect when it comes into force. Banning someone who is obviously daft about radio from pursuing their career legally leaves them with nothing to lose by continuing their pirate activities. And a five-year sentence seems a heavy penalty for a crime with no victim. Set against some of the things you could be fined 2000 for, starting a radio station seems positively benevolent.
Moreover:
(a) radio listening is not compulsory, and if the station has been properly engineered no-one will lose a service, but some people will gain one for a while...
(b) there should be more, many more opportunities for people to enter the profession of radio broadcasting with little experience or money behind them. Many people now with regular jobs in commercial radio cut their teeth on pirate stations of one sort or another, landbased or offshore. It ill becomes the radio Establishment to get sanctimonious about the law when their industry is riddled with people who have at one point or another broken it, some in quite spectacular fashion...
(c) When I ring up pirates and tell them if their signal is likely to cause problems - over-deviation or an unsuitable choice of frequency being the most common faults - most are very receptive to this sort of input, and would probably make responsible operators given the chance...
Any readers wishing to comment on what I have said are welcome to call me on 01 273 684 172 or send e-mail to normac@fastnet.co.uk
Copyright NJ McLeod 1995