Archiving pirate radio station Kool FM

Long-time Kool London listener here.

The acquisition by Rinse was a real shock. I'd spent years listening to a proper pirate station over the internet (I was too far from the actual transmitters in London) and being part of a chatroom…and it was all taken away without warning. From memory, it really upset me. This station and its ethos was such a part of my life for so long, and it just…went away.

As I understand it, Rinse cherry-picked the Kool London DJs they wanted to continue, and a notable number of the remaining talent went on to form / join Underground Bass[1], get a stream online[2], and get on with things. A lot of the behind-the-scenes folks also went to UB, and the DIY spirit lives on.

I recognise around 10 of the current Rinse Kool roster from the Kool London era, and around 20 of the current Underground Bass roster are from the Kool London era.

[1] https://www.undergroundbass.uk

[2] https://listen.undergroundbass.com:8804/stream

I came from Northern England, and could get 5 or maybe 7 pirate stations on a good day from my room - only 1 or 2 of which would be my sort of music. In 1999 I moved to London, and bought a really really good (1970s) radio receiver, and couldn't believe the number (and quality) of pirate stations - every bit of the spectrum seemed to be covered. I had a mini-disk player, and used to record some of my favourite shows - but years later sold the player and labelled all the disks as 'blank'.

It felt such an exciting time to hear about new tracks, artists and club nights all across London - but then again I was 20 and had the time and money to go out.

Awesome. I think this is the radio browser pointer: https://www.radio-browser.info/history/973c30a5-a178-4daf-89...

It's a funny quirk of history and circumstance that I'll always associate the station bumper or a DJ's intro with certain songs that I taped off the radio on the 80s and 90s. Similarly, I've heard from friends that they have associated skips, scratches, pops and static with certain songs based on their medium of choice back in the day.

Off 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.