Well Radiohead, I’ve finally been shutdown by ACMA. All you RF nerds will be happy I’m sure. But I had a great time and just wanted to duck my head in here to let you know that your chatter about the station has been an unending source of entertainment whilst on the shitter over the years. Monitoring you and the rest of you mob gave me great direction as to when to turn off for a bit and give it a rest at times. Cheers. I hope you enjoyed as much as I did. So funny, I feel like I know you and DXnerd , RFburns and the rest of the boys in the discussions that have grown over the years.
Anyway nice to finally be able to show my head around here after so long.
Keep up the good work boys!
Lots of love,
89.3 Trojan FM
7 Likes
I thought they had retrenched most of their Field Officers?- amazed they actually caught you. They have DF gear in their car so they should have been able to drive straight to you.
Don’t be surprised if you end up with a Summons though if you made any admissions, which you probably did by surrendering your Tx. If they issued you a Warning Notice you may be off the hook.
Pirate radio is pretty old school now anyway - web streaming doesn’t require a licence, so no regulators but you will need to pay APRA if you play music.
I just use VLC on my mobile if I want radio nowadays - DAB+ in the car is the only real radio I use.
2 Likes
I’m a bit of an RF nerd but I wouldn’t say I’m happy. In fact the reason for returning to this forum after several years (and having to create a new account because my original no longer worked/existed) was about my discovery of Whiz FM. I just happened to tune in the right place, and it didn’t take me long to pinpoint the location. I never mentioned where it was to anyone.
As for the “line up of rubbish”, sure seems that way. Three CHR stations nowadays where it wouldn’t be a fluke to hear at least two of them playing the same song at the same time, not to mention a post I made a while ago about how tracks in the airplay chart linger for nearly twice as long as they did 10 years ago.
I’ll always have a soft spot for radio, but unfortunately in a world where people are so easily offended, and traditional media discounting the power of the internet until it was too late, it’s next to impossible to see its best years ever making a comeback. All the best.
1 Like
After my experience at SWRFM I have gone back to music streaming. They finally got to me with the inability to listen. I have given up on doing anything in radio these days as it appears any licensed group is just out to be woke, its just not worth it.
1 Like
In a way I find this very strange (although I do agree that it’s true) since society has become a lot me impatient and keen to have everything on demand. You’d think that would lead to people getting bored of music quicker and demanding a faster rotation of new music.
Then again, maybe that’s exactly what has happened and radio just hasn’t kept up.
It could just be that so much music these days arguably has a much lower burn factor than what it did 10 years ago. In other words, songs aren’t as grating after a few listens as what they used to be. Maybe songwriters and producers have honed their craft to the extent that when a song is released its ‘best before’ date is twice, sometimes three times that of a song ten years ago.
Take, for example, the song ‘Messy’. It’s not just a ‘pop’ song. Sure when you first hear it you might be singing along to its catchy melodic charm as a little pop ditty, and enjoy it as a ‘fresh hit’. But after a while the soulful angst of the vocal delivery starts to take over, and you realise it has a bit more of an edge to it. Then months later you hear it and you finally ‘click’ with the lyrics, you connect with the story, the ‘grit’ of the song.
I would contend the same thing happened with ‘heatwaves’ for many radio listeners.
In another thread I am often commenting on another track I use as an example of this phenomenon. Slam! play this track up to 10 times a day despite the fact it is four years old? How come? The reason is it has one of the lowest burn factors of any song I have ever come across.
And yes. You’d think so. And yet it would seem that music producers have been able to come up with music that actually lasts longer.
Well. That’s my contention anyway 
Oh. And how does this all relate to Pirate radio?
Well Australia has no idea of real pirate radio. Not like us Kiwis. The argument is often that Australians have always been well served by their licensed options, hence no need for pirates. That’s absolute rubbish.
Most Australians lack a sense of adventure. That’s why we don’t have a history of pirate radio in this country. The few Australians who do have a sense of adventure have to go overseas for such a thrill (for example, Nick Bennett went and did pirate radio in Israel).
I’d suggest that the few pirate radio stations that we’ve seen in this country have been run by people not born here. Australians lack the pirate spirit.
I get the feeling their reasoning is, they know they can’t compete with the likes of Spotify, so rather than trying to compete with more variety, they give the listeners “what they want” sooner rather than later, aware listeners have a lot more options these days.
I think this link has been posted here before:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~yellowbeard/
Yellowbeard wrote the book on Pirate Radio but his site hasn’t been updated in a long time so he may be deceased.
I imagine the Kiwi’s would have seen the same issues as the Irish in years gone by as they had a similar regulatory regime running once.
1 Like
I’ve managed to catch the 3MP retransmission in Mildura live. It seems quite strong on the eastern end of town, and appears in the autosearch list of the work car. The giveaway that it’s a potential pirate is the fact it’s not in stereo and doesn’t have RDS.
Edit: Also not in the ACMA database
2 Likes
I knew it would be a pirate! This just confirms it! Cheers! 
1 Like
At least the callsign matches
3MP = Mildura Pirate!
7 Likes
It’s interesting to note that despite receiving it on the east end of town, the TEF didn’t pick it up at all, as though it wasn’t even there. This was at the exact same time too.
It also wasn’t there when I left work, nothing at all on 90.1
3 Likes
(You don’t have to reveal exact directions but) have you tried pinpointing it with the Yagi?
The yagi is already pointed in that general direction, but if it wasnt I wouldn’t have been able to turn it as it’s mounted too high up for me to reach
3 Likes
Its back on the airwaves this morning. Was nice listening in on the way to work for a change 
If only you could also export the mild Mornington Peninsula weather to Mildura…though I think bayside is also getting this heat somewhat.
2 Likes
There seems to be a pirate station on air in Sydney on 89.5 playing classic hits type music.
Edit: Gone now. Perhaps just someone’s BT FM transmitter.
Edit 2: Back again.
2 Likes
Should I Stay Or Should I Go?
It’s worth monitoring 89.5 in Sydney in case someone hoists the Jolly Roger.
3 Likes
89.5 seems to be the frequency of choice for pirates in Sydney. Has there ever been one on 90.7, also similarly unoccupied.
2 Likes