alt Hacker NewsOff topic but how were pirate radios able to operate while people with sets would have vans going around and fining people for not having a TV license?
In the US sometimes you’d have pirate radio off the coast so as to avoid “jurisdiction” though I’m not sure how effective that was.
Replies
reticulates • today at 4:10 PM
I’m not sure if you’re joking or not but TV license detection vans are a joke, a scare tactic, a meme, they don’t exist. TV license “inspectors” just showed up at houses and asked if they were watching broadcast TV.
Pirate radio would broadcast from the top of buildings and did often get caught.
https://youtu.be/7hvF7mbNs50 a BBC documentary from 2004
98Windows • today at 4:09 PM
The transmitters would get seized often but the pirates would just buy more equipment and setup elsewhere
A lot of the infrastructure of pirates in the UK is intimately linked to the urban environment of high-rise residential tower blocks, which housed the studios (often in abandoned flats), with the height of the building providing excellent coverage for transmitter aerials which would be mounted on the roof.
The pirates got very advanced over the years, and one of the most important tactics was to separate the studio and the transmitter, using separate tower blocks for each connected via microwave linkup. It got to the point where they would have multiple transmitters available so that if the DTI (UK government body responsible for finding and prosectuing illegal radio transmissions) found the transmitter currently in use, they could then switch quickly to a different one and carry on broadcasting. There would be people monitoring the frequency to check that it hadn't been taken down, and once mobile phones were more common it made it quite easy to quickly abandon a transmitter or studio if necessary. The tactics of the DTI are actually quite fascinating in themselves, involving triangulation and all sorts of interesting gizmos.
If you're interested in learning more, the YouTube channel Ringway Manchester[1] has been documenting the techniques used over the years, and is an excellent channel for info on radio in general, especially with regards to the UK, including some brilliant interviews with the people involved in running the pirates, with stories of the crazy things they got up to in those days. There are also a couple of excellent documentaries from the 90s on the topic, one of which, specifically about Kool FM, is featured on this channel about Jungle & Drum n Bass Documentaries[2] (First Sight Pirate Radio).
[1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC67TJP9i84zbCi2h1aaSO6Q
[2] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfR5Ng7DuOjRYsVOOtgodPg