Today is World Radio Day, a holiday put on by the eponymous organization dedicated to celebrating all things AM/FM. We live in a world inundated with triple-HD TVs the size of an entire wall, and it’s easy to forget — even if you listen to one of those morning blather shows on your commute — that the radio is still one of the main methods of disseminating information worldwide, all thanks to the fact that it’s a cheap, flexible medium.That thrift is key in the developing world, where basic hand-crank radios can help unite isolated locales. It also helps when you’ve had enough of the programming that’s out there. Before the Internet, pirate radio was the de facto method of broadcasting one’s own voice. All told, it’s not particularly cost-intensive to pick up a transmitter, break onto a roof, and install an antenna that can blast your jams and commentary out into the airwaves, and that’s a big reason pirate culture still persists in London today.The UK’s pirates started way back in the 60s, when they actually resembled pirates: Early broadcasters took over abandoned postwar military sea forts to build their own fortresses of illegal rock and roll, where they were known to fight off attacks (and welcome groupies, of course).Landlubbers got in on the action too, with the harsh soundtrack of UK’s fading industrial cities being sent through the airwaves from hidden, soundproofed studio, through infrared transmitters to stashed aerials, all while broadcasters constantly dance in a game of cat and mouse with police.The official line from Ofcom, the UK government agency in charge of the airwaves, is that pirate radio endangers lives by knocking legitimate (and emergency info-carrying) broadcasts off the air. But pirate radio frequencies simply can't interfere with professional radio stations; they're only augmenting the spectrum with music and talk that listeners can't find anywhere else.This video, put together a couple years ago by our pals at VICE, documents the fly-by-night culture as it slowly gives way to the Internet, which has opened up the entire concept of pirate radio to limitless — and legal — possibilities. Still, there’s a certain nostalgia about pirate broadcasting that’s rooted in the effort it takes to get oneself on the airwaves for anyone scrolling the dials — not just someone who’s found a link online — to pick up. It’s tough to tell how long pirate radio will actually survive, but my guess is that as long as radios are turned on, there will be pirates looking to interrupt your regularly scheduled broadcast.
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