Clampdown: the last days of pirate radio?

Many of Dublin’s pirate radio stations have been forced off the air by action taken by the national communication regulators, ComReg.

Mountain sites from which Jazz FM, Freedom FM, Ministry FM, Chill FM, Kiss FM, The Vibe and Hot FM broadcast, were raided by a team from ComReg, accompanied by the Gardai and the ESB, throughout Tuesday May 20 and Wednesday 21. Transmitters and other broadcast equipment were confiscated from the sites, and many other stations, including Phantom FM, Choice FM, XFM and Sun FM chose to go off air as a precautionary measure.

“We’ve been off the air since then (Tuesday May 21),” says Ger Roe, Phantom FM, “but we have recommenced our web stream. Initially our web stream was shut down because it was fed from our FM transmitter. We’ve reconfigured it now, and are broadcasting a full schedule on the web. We held a staff meeting last week and the whole team have agreed to hold it together on the internet, and in the meantime we’ll see what we can do about pushing the authorities for a license.

“We made a decision that we’re not prepared to get involved in cat and mouse games. We could go back on the air, but if there’s further action taken against us, we’d be down to a reduced service operating from separate locations and all that messing about.

“We’ll maintain the quality of our service on the web,” he continues, “and the next priority is to get it back on FM in circumstances that will allow us to carry on – and getting a license is the only way of doing that. As a pirate station, we’ve probably reached the peak of what we can do; the next stage is to go legitimate, and we haven’t reached that yet.”

Readers may recall that Phantom FM have twice had their applications for special interest licenses in Dublin turned down.

Sources close to Jazz FM have stated that although their long-term future is uncertain, the station will definitely be off the air for at least a month. Aside from Kiss FM, who resumed transmission on May 28, none of the other pirates has gone back on the air at the time of going to press.

“It’ll finish a lot of the smaller stations who wouldn’t be in a position to get back on air easily,” says Pete Reed of Phantom FM. “I would imagine that some of the bigger dance stations might have the cash in the bank to spend five to ten thousand euro on equipment, but that would only be very few. We certainly wouldn’t be able to.”

A press release was issued by ComReg on March 18 2003 which outlined the commission’s plans to prosecute all those found “in possession of unauthorised radio equipment” as part of their crackdown on pirate radio. This indicates a hardening of the official attitude when contrasted with the fact that, last July, Gardai returned Phantom FM’s stolen transmitter on the understanding that it would not be used for pirate broadcasting.

“Our enforcement team are operational throughout the country on an ongoing basis,” says ComReg spokesperson, Orla O’Donnell. “The stations would actually be on a list, so we’d deal with whichever station was next on that list. Since ComReg was set up in 1997, there has been an enforcement team whose main role would be to close down illegal pirate radio stations or anybody who hasn’t received a license from the BCI.”

How many other stations has it closed down?

“I couldn’t reveal that. But if any of the stations go back on air, the exact same thing would happen again. They would eventually come up on a list and they will be raided again.”

When asked whether or not the raids were related to the poor listenership figures of licensed stations Dublin’s Country and Newstalk 106, ComReg replied that it was not for them to comment on such matters as all they were concerned about was the legality of radio operations. However, a spokesperson did say that they were “not reacting to a complaint”. In addition, while ComReg maintain that all pirate broadcasts are illegal, they suggest that those which gain revenue through advertising are more at risk since “they’re illegally taking in revenue and illegally taking in listenership from other radio stations.

“Each one of these radio stations would have received a warning from us, absolutely,” adds O’Donnell. “They would’ve received an official letter and a phone call. All of them know that they’re acting illegally and they know that at some stage we’re on the way.”

However, Phantom FM’s Pete Reed says he has no recollection of receiving such a letter. Similarly, sources close to Jazz FM maintain that they didn’t receive any formal communication either.

It has been widely suggested in music industry circles that the closing of the pirate stations and the subsequent availability of FM frequencies would result in the allocation of more radio licenses for the Dublin area. Although this has not been confirmed or denied by ComReg or the BCI, both parties are currently in consultation to ascertain the viability of such a move.

“The purpose of any extra licenses would be to add greater diversity to the stations that are already on air,” says BCI Chief Executive Officer, Michael O’Keeffe. “Special interest licenses would be included in that. The BCI is required to undertake an expressions-of-interest phase before beginning a new licensing process.”

According to a BCI spokesperson, special interest stations would most likely cover areas such as rock, jazz, world music and techno.