Alice's Restaurant Rock Radio

"The beginning is in the past, the middle is now, the end is in the future".

London rock radio history.

We're a group of rock music and radio enthusiasts, living in London, England.

Like any music enthusiast, we love to listen to our radios to hear our music, but in the country that spawned so many of the world's finest rock bands, where can any rock music be heard on the radio?

We've always thought it unfair and undemocratic that there are so many radio stations all playing more or less the same type of pop music for the same type of audience. Okay there are allegedly some small differences - probably the adverts, but I'm sure you know exactly what we mean. Many stations carry the same programming. Choice FM in London has two fm frequencies which carry virtually the same programming - as does Virgin Radio on its am and fm slots. Then there's the 'Gold' stations. The Radio Authority - now Ofcom, [an unelected body that decides what radio stations are 'fit to broadcast'] is supposed to licence stations which "broaden listener choice", so how on earth can 'simulcasting' or duplicating the same programming on different frequencies comply with this 'prime directive'? Whatever happened to INDEPENDENT LOCAL Radio - ILR? It's no longer independent [as most stations are owned by a few large radio companies/firms of accountants], and has never been local! You can only listen to one station at a time, so where's the logic behind so many carbon copy pop 40 radio stations, all carrying the same programming? No wonder 'presenters' rather than dj's [forget the music it's so awful] are promoted, they're the only difference between the bland identical programming, and even then only just! Stations which are supposed to specialise in a particular format all sound the same, recent examples are Virgin, Heart and Magic in London. In a land of 60 million individuals, and a supposedly multicultural society, where is the culture of the rock enthusiast represented? This is a farcical approach, and yet what does The Radio Authority/Ofcom do about it? Nothing - except licence more bland pop stations..... It's actually quite sinister. We've all heard about the 'thought police' of repressive countries banning certain types of music in wartime - yet allowing others to be heard. But hang on a minute - isn't this what's happening here - in the [ahem] 'land of hope and glory, mother of the FREE'? We have an unelected group of people deciding what type of radio the British public gets to hear - and as we all know they mostly licence pop 40 stations and little else.

Can you imagine a high street full of sweet shops? It wouldn't work would it? Each shop would have very few customers as the same things could be obtained from any of the shops. With so many pop stations a similar situation happens; each new station is practically the same as the others, and merely steals listeners from existing stations. As more and more stations come on air all doing the same thing, they can only each end up with fewer and fewer listeners..... Does this seem a well thought out plan to you, or would it be better to have stations offering different programming and music for different audiences?

It's enough to make you go and operate a pirate radio station!!

Since the emergence of 'progressive rock', many ordinary people have done quite a lot for rock radio here in the London area - on numerous land based pirate stations which have kept the dream of real rock radio alive. Over the years, these stations were staffed by gallant bands of normally law abiding people, who risked fines, very real physical danger on the roofs of high rise tower blocks, and confiscation of equipment and their own personal record collections, simply because they wanted to do their bit for their music and their culture.

"New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common". -- John Locke [1632-1704]

In the late 60's - after a few years of occasional broadcasts, one of the first landbased pirate radio stations - if not the first, was Telstar 1 regularly heard on 1440kHz, or 208 metres in the old money. Underground / progressive rock station Radio UK, operated by Nr. 6 medium wave transmitter builder extraordinaire, followed soon after, and eventually the two stations merged. Telstar 1 or T1 as it became known, made occasional broadcasts throughout the 70's, and had a concentrated run in the late 70's on 1277/8kHz. Compared to the run-of-the-mill pop pirates of the day, T1 had a huge and loyal audience who were glad - and sometimes absolutely gobsmacked, to at last, be able to enjoy the simple pleasure of hearing their music on their radios for a change!! It's interesting to note that pop pirates of the time got an average of 5 phone calls per week, whereas T1 playing 'an unpopular format that nobody listened to anymore' [or so we were told by some of the pop pirates], received 60 - 80 calls each week, and don't forget this was at the height of the punk era. August bank holiday 1978 with a near vertical antenna up the side of a tower block, and running just a few watts due to transmitter earthing problems, we were as strong as Caroline's 50kW in Southend and received a colossal 186 calls in a few hours! Not bad for a Sunday pirate playing a supposedly unpopular format!

Sadly CB & then 'ham' radio lured us away from rock radio for a few years, but it wasn't long before we were back flying the flag for rock music radio.

Circa 1982, John Shakespeare's Radio Amanda broadcast on 214m am [via the sturdy T1 transmitter] to north London for over two years at weekends, until it finally got raided. Another 80's rock pirate was Renegade, which offered a southern rock format to north London for a short time on am. Radio Andromeda, yet another am project - operated by Ian Strange, was on the air from Hertfordshire for a year or so in the mid 80's. Andromeda was the 'Radio 3' of rock stations, playing many advanced progressive tracks. It closed when a loophole in the law which prohibited the authorities from confiscating equipment on the spot was sealed. Heavy Metal Radio, was a small fm pirate on the air from Harlow in Essex. RFM took to the air in the late 80's - on fm, and had quite a few staff changes. Grant's Rock City Radio, was an Easter & Christmas 'holiday' fm rock station around 1990, and Rock 106 ran for a few years from '93 until the mid 1990's.

Some of these stations were funded via 'rock discos', where all monies raised, were ploughed back into the station kitty. Sadly, some rock pirate radio people who are well aware of this trend seem to have conveniently forgotten this, and operate well established rock discos, not for the common good as before, but to line their own pockets.

Perhaps the most well known rock station and one of the longest lived pirates, was Alice's Restaurant - who could forget a name like that? Founded by Dave Lane, and kept afloat by 'the team', Alices was described as a "rock giant" in newspaper columns, and you can still see the famous Alice's skull n' crossed guitars logo on remarkably hardy T-shirts today.

Ultimately though, pirate radio is a localised, sporadic, off the air more than on, short term fix for a decades old problem.

Pirate radio isn't the solution - going legal is!

Although isolated rock programs still exist, these slots are all too easily removed by program controllers to make way for more pop music, phone ins or sport. Rock enthusiasts get worse treatment than ethnic minorities, who have an increasing number of their stations playing their music and culture to listen to. Indeed, let's face it, rock has been 'ethnically cleansed' from radio, and what little there has been has existed late at night when most are in the pub, out and about or asleep in bed. The treatment rock music gets is frankly an insult to a great art form, and the millions who love it around the world. This is an outrageous and unacceptable situation, considering this is the country regarded by many as the birthplace of 'album rock' music. We have wall to wall bland pop stations playing well known, well worn boring tedious commercial pop singles that everybody's heard a zillion times, two national classical stations, plus 'Black', Asian, Greek, Turkish - there's even a Christian station! Visitors from north America are shocked when they learn that there are no rock stations on the air here, and with all the radio channels we have on long, medium & short wave, fm, cable, satellite and DAB, there's not one decent rock station where discerning rock enthusiasts can appreciate and enjoy their music and culture. In these times of equal rights and a multicultural society, it seems that many people's culture is swept to one side - yet rock music is the 'classic' music of the late twentieth century - and beyond!

The few rock music programs which have existed on pop stations may seem okay, but they merely act as a 'token' by broadcasters, who reluctantly carry them and as we know, use any excuse to replace them with pop, ethnic or sport programs, as if there wasn't enough of that on tv and radio already. Even the grandfather of British rock radio, Alan Fluff Freeman "Not 'arf mate", had his popular Friday Rock Show on Virgin axed after 18 months in 1997. Incidentally, while all of the other 10pm start shows on Virgin lasted for 4 hours, Fluff's Friday Rock Show was limited to just 2 hours...

In the mid 1990's, I spread my net far and wide in order to find people who still wanted to get a REAL rock radio station on air. I even contacted the 'names' most people identify with as being rock dj's or personalities. Sadly, few were interested. At Alice's meetings, a couple of people obtained contact details of high profile 'names', with the ulterior motive of getting their project on the air rather than Alice's, and Rock Radio Network which became Total Rock, eventually appeared [shame about the audio guys].

At this time others were out to throw a spanner in the works of Alice's, notably a team of people called Radio Argos, a tiddly low powered Sunday afternoon pirate radio outfit, who were supposedly rock radio enthusiasts! Despite attending meetings, the lengths these 'rock fans' were prepared to go to in order to stop a legal rock station getting on air involved nuiscance phone calls at 5-6am, the threat of a 'sproggy' transmitter playing old Alice's programs placed near to the Radio Authority's [now Ofcom] HQ, and even included a fabricated smear story which was supposedly linked to the Alice's name, in the hope that we'd use another name. In fact this bizarre episode was [apparently] something to do between squabbling rival factions of Radio Argos - if it ever happened at all.

Other people pleaded poverty when asked to contribute towards funds, then were able to find money for new cars, and expensive festival tickets. You [literally] just can't get the staff! However, as we seem to have been championing the cause for rock radio for many years, we feel it's our mission in life to see this project through to fruition.

To all the sad time wasters we've had the misfortune to meet over the years - and you know who you are, we'd like to say;

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem!"

United we stand, divided we'll all grumble about the radio until our dying day.....