Tottenham, Wood Green and Edmonton Journal

Haringey pirate stations taken off the air by the raids were Bizim 104.2 FM; Heat 96.6 FM; Jiggy FM; SLR 97.7 FM; Touch 94.0 FM; Unidentified Station 102.6 FM; Xtreme 101.7 FM.
I remember HeatFM, (i thought they were based in Edmonton, XtremeFM..Damn!, dey weren't too bad......
BlessFm 106.7..(not mentioned)I Haven't heard from dem in a while.(I know they were based on an well-known north LDN estate)
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TEN pirate radio transmitters were removed last week from buildings in Haringey in a series of raids by council and police officers.

Haringey Council officers and broadcasting regulator Ofcom spent months planning the week-long, joint Operation Twilight to take illegal radio stations off the air in the borough.

Councillor Nilgun Canver, cabinet member for enforcement and safer communities, said: "Pirate radio installations seriously damage our properties when they break locks and doors into stairwells to access the roofs of council flats from where they broadcast.

"Once there they often have lots of people making noise and damaging the roofs. It's also not unusual for pirate radio to be linked to criminal groups who put pressure on residents to not complain about the masts and the broadcasts.

Damage

"They often attract an unsavoury gang of hangers on who intimidate residents and use stairwells for anti-social purposes. We fully support this campaign to stop pirate radio and our enforcement team is keen to continue working with Ofcom to sort out this problem."

Illegal broadcasters can cause interference to safety-of-life services, such as the fire brigade and air traffic control, as well as licensed broadcasters, denying listeners their choice of music and news, the council said.

Illegal stations cause significant damage to rooftops, resulting in expensive repair bills at public expense.

Robert Thelen-Bartholomew, Ofcom director of field operations, said: "Ofcom takes swift and firm action to remove these illegal stations from the air.

"We work closely with local authorities to ensure that this problem is tackled at source for the benefit of the community.

Main problem is that they talk too much, can't be having people deal with community issues on the air waves, the best way to tackle the problem is to drag down every positive pirate station there is leaving the kids in the area with nothing to do but, ''intimidate residents and use stairwells for anti-social purposes''.

Can't stand hypocrisy.

The youth ain't going around intimidating nobody, nothing. This is bullshit. The council barely lifts a finger to help it's residents and physically maintain the borough anyway, but they're worried about a few locks being broken?

Cut the branches off a tree, they'll only grow again. Beast and Harin-GAY council can't stop us......

"... Many are starting to question the purpose of ‘pirate’ stations failing to support home grown artists or serve any political or community empowerment agenda. Many station managers revealed their primary motivation was to make money by promoting dances ..."

Source: Ofcom leads police and council assault on radio stations

Might as well print the whole article:

Several unlicensed radio stations were taken off air following a joint series of raids organised by Ofcom, various councils and London’s Police force.

Media regulator Ofcom working in partnership with the London Boroughs of Hackney, Haringey, Tower Hamlets and Islington, as well as the Metropolitan Police force, carried out enforcement assaults on twenty broadcasters in these areas.

Ofcom is responsible for keeping radio spectrum free for commercial and government use by raiding the studios, seizing and disconnecting transmitters and aerials of unlicensed radio stations. Ofcom estimates that there are over 150 unlicensed stations operating in the UK, with half of those broadcasting across London and the South East. In an operation that ran from 6 to 16 February 2008, there were three arrests, one studio raid, the removal of 22 transmitters and over twenty letters sent to local night clubs that have advertised events on the stations. The regulator claims that they “work closely with local authorities to ensure that this problem is tackled at source for the benefit of the community."

Councillor Terry Stacy, Islington Council's Executive Member for Housing and Communities, sought to make political mileage out of the raids by exaggerating the impact of the issue, he claimed: "Pirate radio stations are a menace and we are pleased to support this crackdown…. Sometimes these stations are linked to drug-dealing and serious crime, which we will not tolerate.”

Providing a service for underserved communites

Whilst many within the African community deny the racist associations with criminality, with the existence of stations with progressive programming such as Colourful, Galaxy, Voice of Africa and Genesis many are starting to question the purpose of these other ‘pirate’ stations which are failing to support home grown artists or serve any political or community empowerment agenda.

Last year there was much debate about the poor state of community radio in the UK, with many proactive presenters choosing to come off air rather than contribute to the dumbing down and socio-political disempowerment of their own community. Many station managers revealed their primary motivation was to make money by promoting dances and rejected calls for them to act more responsibly.

The stations targeted by the Ofcom operation include Attitude 107.4 FM (Hackney), Bizim 104.2 FM (Haringay), Conshus 106.9 FM (Tower Hamlets), Heat 96.6 FM (Haringey), Jiggy FM (Haringey), Kasapa 104.0 FM (Hackney), Kool 94.6 FM (Tower Hamlets), Live 101.5 FM (Tower Hamlets), Millennium Supreme 99.8 FM (Tower Hamlets), Origin 95.2 FM (Islington), Rude 88.2 FM (Islington), Shine 87.9 FM (Tower Hamlets), SLR 97.7 FM (Haringey), Takeover 107.7 FM (Hackney), Touch 94.0 FM (Haringey), True 100.2 FM (Hackney), Unidentified Station 102.6 FM (Haringey), Xtreme 101.7 FM (Haringey)

Despite their lack of wider community service programming, the majority of presenters on these stations broadcast a youth orientated service to provide an outlet for underground and ‘homegrown’ African British artists not adequately supported by commercial and public service stations like BBC 1Xtra and Choice FM. Many of the others cater for an audience seeking ‘classic’ entertainment from music genres no longer broadcast by licensed stations.

These stations are simply representing there community, unlike many of the current commercial stations.

This issue was discussed on Kate Melandri and Eddie Nestors show, and many people who rang in were totally in support of pirate stations.

One DJ from a pirate station rang in and basiically said that they have much stronger links with the local community, and play a much wwider variety of music, unlike commercial stations which stick to a template.

Agree some of the stations are slack but the majority of them are harmless, people looking to promote their rave or service without being charged the earth for it, they have done and still do a lot for the entertainment industry in this country and deserve recognition for it. Something thats noticeable in this country is a lack of representation on Tv and in the media in general, when I say representation I mean youngish role models hosting shows or being backed to make programs, instead of dragging down pirate stations and complaining about ''hoodies'' lurking around on stairwells smoking weed they could support the initiative and host stations in youth centers (if there are any left) or promote programs where they can learn more about radio DJ'ing and so on.

Without pirate stations the british entertainment industry wouldn't be worth squat everything from Dub to Jungle, Garage, Drum and Bass, Grime and Hip Hop (like it or not) has been promoted through pirate stations before making it mainstream and being aired on regular stations literally every other genre has forced its way through the underground to the point where a lot of people involved in the UK entertainment industry think they're more interested in suppressing anything that we come out with than doing anything to support it now its to the point where people are realizing what impact and contribution we have made to British culture and are capitalizing on it for themselves without the support of the mainstream, So Solid being one example, there are loads of would be household names that deserve recognition but haven't been supported at all people like Skibba D have been doing raves for YEARS, Carl tough enough brown, the list goes on the majority of Jungle artists have been forgotten no love there, that was a genre that would have done well on a worldwide basis but it fizzled out due to a lack of support as expected.

Suppression. Its blatant they're holding us back culturally, they don't want us to make an impact in the way the A.A's have done in the states, end up with leech merchants crawling all over the place white uni kids starting companies where InI can't afford to, Asians making ''street wear'' etc etc. If I could I'd start a proper Black Music Distribution company (B.M.D) and use it to support them out there business wise as well as practically we've got untapped talent here in the UK even if they have too much to say to be on air, its just so damed expensive to get by in this place (babylon in general) literally strangles the scene. Youths are getting wise though it has to be said. .

(Plz don't ask how or why I got involved in the music/entertainment industry.)

An alternative view:

1. first question apart from a view exception, where is the evidence that Pirate station are innit for the community... Lets be honest its a money ting and in some ways the WHOLE pirate ting that flourished in my generation has been taken over my Ego looking to make money, or EGO's looking to self promote.... If i hear of another Birthday bash, which nothing but a vehicle to mek money off the community i will scream....


2. Every comments that the Goverment should free up things or license Stations that play our music...but the fact is that did happen years back and we got KISS, and Choice and other station that has long since hit the wall... and to be honest all that happens is that white people hijack it and turn back into the mainstream crap that we rebelled against in the first place... So no thank you no more Government intervention...THANK YOU!!!

Not on a, ''they should help'' tip, was pointing out the hypocrisy involved, evil hoodies starting radio stations and yet a lack of proper representation in the media, thats what pirate stations are all about, having a voice.

Cultural censorship otherwise.