stop me if I'm wrong, but...
...wasn't pirate radio in the UK responsible for introducing a lot of music that normally wouldn't have been heard -- at least on the BBC?
I come from a service family (USA), and circa 1969-70, when I was about 12 or 13, our family was stationed in Heidelberg, and I had tons of fun sitting up late at night and flipping up and down the dial looking for pirate radio stations playing all kinds of European and American "underground" rock'n'roll. Mind you, this is just one guy's opinion, but UK/European pirate radio actually performed a valuable service for all us kids in search of new and interesting music that outfits like Sudwestfunk or the BBC or Armed Forces Radio were really slow to pick up on. I remember hearing Johnny Winter and Iron Butterfly on pirate stations months before they turned up on the AFN. At least where I was -- the former West Germany -- radio was fun back then, not just because of the number of stations from all those countries so close together, but because of all those "pirates".
I don't know what the situation is with "community radio" on your side of the Pond, but here in the Colonies, the foot-dragging and piss-fighting over LPFM has been going on for nigh on a decade. It always seems as if licensing for LPFM community stations is just around the corner, but there's always some hitch with the FCC or the NAB. Basically, it seems the FCC would be more than glad to start licensing local LPFM stations, but the NAB is always having hissy fits about it cutting into advertising revenues -- and, as much as I think they're greedy scum, I can sort of see the NAB's position. Look at it this way... let's say your town has two radio stations, Station A and Station B. Station A is your standard-issue corporate-run station which broadcasts Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, paltry "news" broadcasts with little or no coverage of local issues, as many commercials as they can cram in, and the same goddamn' forty songs every goddamn' day. Station B is locally-owned and operated, commercial-free and community-supported, broadcasts a range of opinions from people who aren't Glenn Beck, serious news coverage paying attention to local issues, and just about any kind of music you like from DJs -- often people you know from the neighborhood -- who bring in their own personal collections of records and bootleg tapes to play on the air. Which station would YOU listen to?
This is basically the role that the LPFM broadcasters in the US want to fill, and which they're already filling, only as "pirates". This is why, instead of "pirate radio", I prefer to call it "peoples' radio".
Arrr, matey.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
