In what seems to be an international first, the University of Bedfordshire, in Luton, hosted a one-day land-based pirate radio conference last Saturday, 1st March.
Nearly 70 people attended, some with involvement in radio broadcasting dating back to the 1960s and others travelling from as far away as California, Greece, and Switzerland.
More than just a “talking shop”, this event included a wide range of sessions covering everything from the archiving of “pirate” recordings at the British Library, to the impact of such broadcasters on the evolution of legal broadcast radio services.
Some of the presentations explored well known stations, such as Radio Jackie, whilst others looked at unlicensed broadcasting overseas.
As well as the more than twenty presentations, there was also a range of archive publicity materials and photographs to view, and even some vintage pirate broadcasting equipment!
Clips from a previously unseen film about BLB (Bray Local Broadcasting), one of the first community radio services in Ireland, were also shown.
The event wrapped up with reminiscences from Nick Catford of Radio Jackie, who was then awarded the ‘Golden 807’ award for services to Pirate Broadcasting!
The event website remains available for presentation materials and films being added over the coming weeks. A publication of material from the conference is planned for later in the year.
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