Thursday, September 18, 2014

Somerset pirate station vows to return

thisisthewestcountry.co.uk, 17 September 2014 

The bosses of a pirate radio station in Taunton (Somerset) say they’ll be back despite being shut down for the second time in five months.

A spokesman for the industry watchdog (Ofcom) said the raid on Rage FM on Friday morning was part of an inquiry into “radio interference”. A Rage representative said he was incensed by the early morning operation.

He said: “Their (Ofcom) tactics are turning desperate. “Their activities woke many residents – just to seize an FM transmitter rig and aerial from a tree. Their claims of interference to emergency services radios and anti-social behaviour are generalised to say the least and no such evidence exists in our case.”

Read full story at: http://www.thisisthewestcountry.co.uk/news/11478639._Pirate_radio__Rage_FM_taken_off_air_in_Taunton_again/

(via Mike Terry, BDXC-UK Yahoo group)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Rage provide a wide variety of music, above and beyond the drum and bass and dubstep associated with urban FM pirates. There's punk rock, metal, ambient, techno and other genres. It's a well run and competent station, and there have been no other reports of this alleged radio "interference". Ofcom are probably blustering. However, Rage have broadcast some political rants off the internet, so much so that the station was dubbed "Rant FM" by some free radio forum users. There's a good tradition of political pirate radio in this country (with the Scottish Referendum, it's worth noting that the SNP way back in the fifties used to broadcast illegally as Radio Free Scotland / Radio Alba). The only thing about political pirate radio, especially from the radical left perspective, is that the authorities take a very dim view of it. It MIGHT explain why Rage has been raided again.