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London's Radio Pirates Changed Music. Then Came the Internet. (nytimes.com)
Earlier this month, The New York Times ran a story which looks at the ways a network of illegal radio stations changed British music, and wonders where young people are going to make culture now, now that the internet is killing off the pirate radio. An excerpt from the story: Ofcom, the British communications regulator, estimated there are now just 50 pirate stations in London, down from about 100 a decade ago, and hundreds in the 1990s, when stations were constantly starting up and shutting down. Ofcom considers this good news, because illegal broadcasters could interfere with radio frequencies used by emergency services and air traffic control, a spokesman said.
But pirate radio stations also offered public services, of a different sort: They gave immigrant communities programming in their native languages, ran charity drives and created the first radio specifically for black Britons. Pirate radio was also the site of some of Britain's most important musical innovations, introducing pop to the airwaves in the 1960s and incubating the major underground British music trends of recent decades, up to and including dubstep and grime: Dizzee Rascal, Wiley and Skepta all launched their careers on the pirates.
But pirate radio stations also offered public services, of a different sort: They gave immigrant communities programming in their native languages, ran charity drives and created the first radio specifically for black Britons. Pirate radio was also the site of some of Britain's most important musical innovations, introducing pop to the airwaves in the 1960s and incubating the major underground British music trends of recent decades, up to and including dubstep and grime: Dizzee Rascal, Wiley and Skepta all launched their careers on the pirates.
and wonders where young people are going to make culture now, now that the internet is killing off the pirate radio.
It has never been easier to promulgate "culture" (e.g. audio) that you make.
It has to be a $%^&load easier for more people to make music with today's tech and put it out on the internet than it was to do it with older tech and try to get it onto "pirate radio".
For example, the sole reason of this word being in the title, because it evokes modern usage of "piracy" as incredibly stupid but accepted word for "copyright violation".
Obviously, when you are using a radio frequency without paying for it, you are actually taking somebody's resource: nobody else can use this band in that area.
Modern copyright infringement does nothing of that sort.
Result: confusion, obfuscation, disinformation, propaganda.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
If this journalist wonders where "the young people will make culture" in the age of the internet, then this journalist is stupid and probably doesn't know how to internet very well.
So, they used the phrase "could interfere" with regards to emergency broadcasts. That sounds like excuse wording. At the very least it's unclear wording. Why not 'did' or 'sometimes' interfered?
We're at the tail end here. DID it interfere with critical infrastructure, or was that an excuse used to attack interference with purely commercial broadcasters?
I was an SWL (short wave listener) from the 1950s until about 1990 and I can't recall any "pirate" radio station that could possibly interfere with emergency services or air traffic control. Most "pirate" broadcasters operated on frequencies in the domestic AM and FM broadcast bands (where ordinary people could hear them) or, if on short wave, near the international broadcast bands (naturally) or on *clear channels* in the so-called Fixed Public bands (point-to-point press and commercial services, etc) or in the Maritime Mobile bands. None of the "pirate" stations wanted to interfere with anyone else because then they would suffer interference too. (Radio interference is a two-way street, you see.) I think the Ofcom statement is simply a regurgitation of some self-serving bureaucratic mythology.
What, the English don't like being overrun by foreigners? What, you say your own medicine tastes funny?
Years ago I happened to stumble upon stories about how some of these "pirate" stations took up residence in offshore military installations left over from World War II. I spent the better part of a day reading about ingenuity and innovation of those stations in particular. To my knowledge we never had anything comparable in the USA, which is a big shame; apparently after the Revolutionary War we ceded our revolutionary mindsets back to British citizens?
I don't think they would mind as much if the people doing the overrunning came bearing advanced knowledge and technology rather than an old book and ancient superstitions. I for one would gladly accept some expansionist alien overlords looking to enrich themselves while improving us.
Music is less culturally important than in the 90s in my opinion. That sounds silly, but bear with me.
The top 40/100/200 are far less important than before. MTV hardly shows any videos any more. Singles and album sales have been plummeting for a long time.
There are many competing distractions now - smartphones, hugely popular online games, latest-generation console and PC games, social media.
Live music has increased in importance, which is good. Recorded music has become very easy to access, but its perceived value has suffered.
Depends; does improving mean everybody benefits or only the "good" folks benefit? Those aliens might like to turn us into cattle.
Have you actually been to London? Yes, there are some non-English people there, but it's still mostly the natives.
Have you actually been to London?
Of course he's never been to London. He probably thinks driving to the next crappy flyover State is "travel".
None of those idiot A/C's who post nonsense about muslims have ever been anywhere. Why bother when you can stay at home and have Alex Jones and Fox News tell you what to think?
merp
So in other words people are distracted with other crap then spending time to listen to music.
Funnily enough the most viewed video ever is a Korean parody. So homogenous!
When is the last time you've gone on Baidu or Niconico? Oh? You don't speak other languages? Ok. Go learn. It's ok, that cultural appropriation meme is bunk.
Well, that's what it is. If you don't think that the consequence is important, than fair enough.
Will it affect the quality of music in the future? You bet.
As a kid I have many fond memories of sneaking a pocket radio with a cheap earphone out after bedtimes, just lying in bed listening to Radio Luxembourg fading in and out with the atmospheric changes. I would have loved to have been nearer to London so I could have gotten the legendary radio Caroline too, but Luxmebourg was it where I lived, take it or leave it. If you Americans want to know what I'm talking about, watch the movie "Pirate Radio/The Boat That Rocked".
It seems to me that the internet enables rather than prevents alternatives to the mainstream. Back then you needed a whole bunch of expensive infrastructure including a radio station and quite possibly a ship outside the 12 mile limit, now you just need a streaming website. In fact it seems the reverse problem exists. There are so many you can't find the wood for the trees.
most pirate stations have an online stream anyway - in fact some stations (like Flex FM IIRC) use the stream at source to send it to their uplink location, which beams using LNB's - so the uplink location needs internet and line of sight to a dish sneaked on to a high location, with the dish being connected to the trasmitter. it's always fascinated me how they hide the devices and score themselves a power outlet usually from a lift shaft. there has been efforts in the past to stream to mobile devices hidden and making use of cheap/unlimited internet plans.
there are however thousands of online pirate stations whose main issue is just marketting, it's easy enough to get away with - if you keep it super lightweight and do the programming/scheduling and whatnot from from and icecast server will run on practically any VPS. in our case we used AirTime (by sourcefabric) which is free oss, but it can cause CPU issues so a dedicated is recommended - the benefit is you can automate and schedule a lot of stuff, and put live segments in where needed, and your DJs can be in different locations. when they start their stream they go live on the end stream as per AirTime schedule.
it's just fun to do anyway and everyone should have a go, as you gain listeners you learn to make mirrors and backup systems, at the same time as giving local talent access to express themselves. but in fairness if you fudge your listener numbers or the type of group you are then the 2 licenses you need to use the music is only a few hundred quid a year.
BBC3's spoof documentary about an out-of-touch pirate radio station, People Just Do Nothing, is worth watching for an insight into this world. I think it is available on Netflix in most places.
I was putting out white label dance records in the early 90's, and all my airplay came from crackly AM pirate stations - good times!
I'm surprised the neither the article nor this discussion mentions the connection between pirate radio and drugs.
By the time I personally encountered pirate radio, in the 1990s, it was essentially run by drug gangs. The radio played music, to get listeners, and "advertised" to those listeners by promoting (also illegal, unlicensed) raves, which were a major distribution venue for the then-popular synthetic drugs, Acid and Ecstasy, and some less common synthetics. (Not pot).
At the turn of the millennium I was commercially involved in a government project to bring early wi-fi to a deprived council estate (US: federal housing project) as part of a regeneration exercise. The drug gangs aggressively defended their rooftop transmitters, and it required some negotiation to agree to share space: they were also concerned about radio interference!
It was these experiences that convinced me that the drugs trade is not a metaphor, it's the literal truth that it's a business like any other, with illegality being an (unpleasant, dangerous and damaging) detail of the trading environment not a fundamental category. Successful drug dealers become media barons and patrons of the arts, just like other business leaders.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=281jMxOvP5k