A message from Uncle Dugs.

Uncle Dugs just posted this on Facebook. I thought it was worth preserving here...

Pirate radio has been one of the must important things in my life through the last 20+ years..
As a youngster I religiously listened to stations like pulse, innocence, chillin etc then weekend rush and kool fm started to dominate my dial,, by 1992 Kool had started to take over my radio and slowly accelerated away from the others.. By the time 1993 came along Kool was the only station that I really listened to, I did listen to the odd show on other statins but from 92/93-97 Kool was the king station in my world..
I started playing on pirate radio on 7th jan '95,, the station was called conflict fm,, from this day onwards pirate radio became more important to me than ever before.. For many many years I didn't get bookings,, tbh I never really looked for them as all I wanted to do was play on the radio.. My aim and goal was to one day get a show on Kool fm,,, I didn't wanna be on radio 1 or kiss I wanted to be on Kool,, that what it meant to me,,, rather than be on the uk's biggest legal radio station I would have chosen Kool over radio 1 had both come knocking (which they didn't haha)
Anyway,, through the next 20 years of my life radio has looked after me through hard times and been there to help me celebrate the good times.. It's kept me relevant as a DJ when promoters didn't care about me and kept me motivated in times when I felt close to giving it all up..
I joined Rinse in 1999 and ended up managing the station for 6 years as well as playing on it,, these were great times,, hard work but great times.. I watched all sorts of talent break through and was in the thick of some ground breaking musical movements that helped change the countries musical trends and fashions.. I won't bore you with all the individual names of people I worked with through these times but it was some of the biggest musical talents of that generation and it was such a privilege to watch and be a small part of it all..
My time at rinse came to an end in dec 2005,, I joined Kool in jan 06 and this was really when my career as a DJ stepped up a level.. Being on Kool was a dream come true, working with my musical heroes was like being given a proper kick up the are to make something of myself as a DJ instead of just playing radio with no real sense if direction..
I played on Kool from jan 06 to the start of 2011,, these 5 years taught me so much,, these were really the times that gave me the platform to be the DJ I always wanted to be.. I met and worked with all the greats that I aspired to be like as a youngster learning my trade.. Radio did all this for me...
I left Kool in 2011 to join rinse shortly after they were granted a London license,, since then shit has gone crazy for me.. ‪#‎RCFF‬ has changed my life and rinse fm the station that has been such a big part of my life for years now has become a super power in the world of radio.. It's mad that beyond being a DJ I get asked to address audiences on the importance of pirate radio and stuff like that as well as being asked to do many things outside of just playing my music.. It's a massive honour to be regarded as an ambassador of radio alongside people like Gordon Mac etc,, it's more than I ever dreamed of,, my mind as a youngster only stretched as far as the usual DJ stuff,, parties, raves and the like,, now things are so crazy honestly,, I flipping love it and am so blessed to do what I do for a job...
I just wanna big up pirate radio and everyone involved in it through the years for helping me to achieve the goals I have and for always being a massive part if my life like I said above through good and bad times in my life.. I've congratulated new arrivals, birthdays and weddings as well as doing memorial shows and more,, it's all been a massive chunk of what's got me to where I am now and I'll never forget that....
God bless radio,, more important to the evolution of this scene than so many people will ever realise....

Fem FM @ M-Shed, Saturday 8th March - 3 til 5pm

In 1992, over 200 women made history in Bristol by setting up the UK's first women's radio station - Fem FM. Bristol Record Office has digitised the original broadcast tapes, now available for research as part of the Fem FM archive of recordings, photographs and other material.
On International Women's Day, M Shed will mark the launch of the archive by hosting a panel discussion about women's achievements in radio over the past two decades. Is the climate better for women broadcasters in 2014?
The event is open to anyone interested in the media and how to get more women's voices on air. Guest panellists (all originally involved in Fem FM) will include:

• Sue Clark, Sony award-winning radio producer
• DJ Ritu, DJ and world music guru who has broadcast with BBC London and the World Service
• Ali Grant, chair of Bristol community station BCFM
• Jacqui Wilson, manager of the internet station Passion Radio Bristol
• Erin Riley, Senior BBC Producer

Chair: Caroline Mitchell, Senior Lecturer in Radio at the University of Sunderland and one of the founders of Fem FM.
Free admission. Please reserve your place by emailing bro@bristol.gov.uk or phoning 0117 922 4224 (Tuesday to Friday, 9.30am to 4.30pm)

Listen online: audio documentary about Fem FM



Here is something that may not be in the archive, a recording of their test broadcasts..

Fem 101 FM - Test Broadcast Music - March 1992 by Bristol Radio Recordings on Mixcloud

And here's a 20 min clip from Lady G.

Fem FM 101 March 1992 - Lady G - Hardcore by Bristol Radio Recordings on Mixcloud

Sub Love sets from Galaxy Radio 1992 / 1993

I've now uploaded all the Sub Love sets I have from early 90s Galaxy Radio, which was on 97.2 FM taken over from FTP and not yet 101 FM.

Here is the link for the whole playlist...

http://www.mixcloud.com/bristolpirates/playlists/galaxy-radio-sub-love-sets/

Unfortunately, Mixcloud don't do a player for playlists. Here is one of my favorite sets though...

Galaxy Radio - Sub Love - DJ Die & MC Rigadig 1992 Set 1 by Bristol Radio Recordings on Mixcloud

Tristan B Nov / Dec 1988

So, I'm posting some old stuff that's been here before but disappeared long ago. Here's a couple of recordings of the first Tristan B shows I ever heard on Radio Bristol. The first is from MW as I didn't have an FM aerial at the time, the second from FM. Only a few weeks before I discovered that pirate radio existed in Bristol....

BBC Radio Bristol 95.5 FM - Tristan B - Nov/Dec 1988 by Bristol Radio Recordings on Mixcloud

Tristan B 1989 - Interview with KRS ONE

In 1989, BDP released their 3rd album - Ghetto Music. The tour to promote that album had a date in Bristol and Tristan B managed to get KRS ONE into Radio Bristol for an interview. He only just made the end of the show but stayed for a full interview afterwards. This interview was broadcast the following week...

BBC Radio Bristol - Tristan B interviews KRS ONE - 1989 by Bristol Radio Recordings on Mixcloud

More SW Recordings

Radio Carmen - Recorded on Lansdown nr. Bath, 1/3/2014

SW - Radio Carmen - 6820kHz - 01 03 2014 by Bristolpirates on Mixcloud

Radio Pioneer - Recorded on Lansdown nr. Bath, 1/3/2014

SW - Radio Pioneer - 6745kHz - 01 03 2014 by Bristolpirates on Mixcloud

Yesterday's view over Bath from Lansdown, bit better than my last attempts, still not perfect....

Hanglider!

Feb 2014 Update & Shortwave Listenening

Despite there being some activity in Bristol, I can't comment on it. However, there is some outside of Bristol but still in the West I can talk about.

Rage FM tested another transmitter outside of Taunton in the last week. No idea how it went, but it was in a high location and should have covered Chard and areas close to it.

I recently got a report of a signal on 87.5MHz one Saturday afternoon near Junction 18 of the M4, where you can look across Bristol to the Black Mountains. The station was playing classic AOR music, and the listener who reported it could only listen for a few minutes.

Shortwave - So, very little to listen to in Bristol, unless you start listening to Shortwave and Medium Wave pirates. It's not easy to get any results with all the interference indoors. Still, I've recently managed to find the spot in the house that allows the best reception possible on SW for my set up - the bathroom! I don't get great results, but I can at least hear some stations even if they are not listenable for long. The main problem is fading, which on the Tecsun is made worse by it's automatic level control. If the signal drops below a certain level, the Tecsun drops the audio level sharply. You'll hear that in the recordings.

Shortwave pirates come on in droves on the weekends, and it almost spoils the experience. There are pirates from the UK, Europe and America to hear. I can't say I've heard and American one on the Tecsun as yet. The best way to listen if you don't have a SW radio is via the online Twente University SDR tuner at http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/, which has reasonable reception of many pirates. None of them stick to a particular frequency much. Some come on for an hour, some come on all weekend. Most play rock / pop, some Dutch stations play the usual traditional music, there is the odd dance track in there, and there's even a station that just plays Tango music! Lately I've been regularly hearing Bogusman (or Different / Indifferent Radio) quite strong, but very fluttery which on the Tecsun is horrible to listen to, and also Radio Pink Panther weaker but for long periods.

Today I caught quite a few stations, and I thought I'd try out a new toy - a Zoom H2n recorder. It seems to do what every other recorder I try does, generates it's own signals which interfere with FM recording. If I do what I intend to do and go different places to record airchecks, that will be annoying unless I can find a way to cut the amount of interference down. It's much better with an external aerial plugged into the Tecsun, so that could be the answer. It does seem free of this problem on MW and SW though, so I managed to get some decent-ish recordings for SW pirates.

You may wonder why I bother trying - The signals are terrible, I don't like most of the music a great deal (I can listen to it, no problem, it's just not 100% my thing), and I've got to sit in the bathroom to hear any of this at all. I guess it's just that radio thing - you've got to try hard to hear anything out of the ordinary, it's not just there at your fingertips on YouTube, it's a challenge and I get a little buzz from it.

Radio Focus International seems UK based. Not a great signal here, lots of fade, but it's not bad compared to if I try and listen in another part of the house.  38 mins, two clips here....

SW - Focus International - 6285kHz - 28 02 2014 by Bristolpirates on Mixcloud

Here's probably the best SW pirate signal I've ever had on the Tecsun. Radio Bluwe Reiger. They only played a few tracks after I started recording, and then switched off. The station was ID'd by Irish Paul's radioblog

SW - Radio Bluwe Reiger - 6240kHz - 28022014 by Bristolpirates on Mixcloud