70's

[thepostieles]

the first landbased stations i used to pickup was phoenix radio from the manchester area, bout 75, but it was very weak, also radio free manchester on around 94fm, used to give out brown street address in manchester, then after that rjn on 217, which gradually put out better signal as time went by, then mar came along, first heard andy davis in 1980 with paul cigar jay!

[Terry Hawkins]

Hi postie Les.
So your very first pirates heard were both Manchester based ones!
Must admit Phoenix Radio from Manchester around 1975 is a new one on me. I wonder does anyone have any further details on this. I've heard of Radio Free Manchester, but did not hear them live on air. Apparently during the early to mid 70's there was also a Radio Aquarius from Manchester, there are some recordings of this on the Merseypirates site. There is also a very good web site regarding Radio Aquarius at; http://www.freewebs.com/g1hbe/index.htm
This site also has a page devoted to Andromeda Independent Radio. It's a good site, well worth a look!
Finally since we're talking Manchester based pirates just now, did you ever hear Radio Rag. Here is a web site devoted to them; http://www.duncanwheelhouse.com/radiorag/index.html

The only pirates I've ever heard from out that way were KFM, more towards the Stockport area I think and Radio Caroline North run by Matt Black (ex-MAR).

[thepostieles]

was matt blacks rni from manchester way?i know it caused interferrance with mar when they split

[Gary Phillips]

Hi Les. No I think RNI, Radio North Independent was in the same towerblock as the original MAR. That'll be one of the Moreton towerblocks. If not the excact same towerblock it would've been in a near adjacent one. Maybe someone can correct me or provide more accurate information

[Steve Martin]

I think you are probably correct. Elenore also came from there and there was some very bad interference at one stage, so much so that Elenore broadcast 00:00-10:00 and MAR broadcast 10:00-00:00 at weekends, until Elenore eventually changed to Mon-Fri, which I thought was a much better idea, It was impossible to listen to both MAR & Elenore at weekends. Elenore & Alpine filled a gap in the market during weekdays, those really were the good old days of pirate radio!

[Steve West]

Matt Black's RCN was definitely in the moreton flats directly over the road from MAR using a TX that had supposedly been lost in a raid. I know coz I was on that station!

[Gary Phillips]

Hi again Steve.
I know at one time Radio Caroline North was on from Moreton as I remember their powerful signal, but it was for quite some time also operating from the Manchester area. When on from Manchester the signal was very weak in Liverpool and for decent reception I needed to use my medium wave loop antenna

[Andy]

Hello Chaps - I've just joined up after receiving a very nice e-mail from Gary.
I was one of the poor sods who went out every Sunday to put Manchester's Radio Aquarius on. Cripes.
Re the references to 'Phoenix Radio' - After Aquarius went belly-up in 1975, I briefly ran a MW station called 'Radio Phoenix' on MW. Could this be it? I can't remember the wavelength now, it may have been 220m. I've got some old jingles stashed somewhere....=0)

Andy.

[Gary Phillips]

Hi Andy, thanks for joining the Merseypirates forum.

Les is our member who remembers Phoenix Radio back in about 1975, so perhaps when he gets back from his holiday, he might remember and get back to us on what frequency he used to pick it up on.

Oh and if you find those old Phoenix jingles we'd love to hear them, we're all total anoraks here

cheers
Gary