Live Streams:	High (96k)				On Demand:	RSL Programmes	Post RSL Shows	Online Exclusive Shows	Band Demos
	No Player..?						History		Shop...

	The History of Radio Freedom Radio Freedom got its name from the South African station that had been the voice of the ANC during the apartheid years. Carl G in Derby decided we should use that name. Radio in the early 1980s was dominated by the BBC, in Derby and its surrounding area Radio Trent 96.2 FM broadcasting from Nottingham also had a big presence. The political climate of the time was right wing, Margaret Thatcher had come to power, there was an atmosphere of descent in the country. In October 1981 a group of friends from the Alvaston area of Derby got together to build a high power medium wave transmitter. This was a huge undertaking, since none of the components needed were readily available. It took 3 months to build the transmitter; most of the bits came from old ham radio equipment and Anchor Surplus in Eastwood. At that time Anchor had a number of short-wave transmitters in the yard outside to dismantle. A contact managed to pilfer two V1505 valves which, whilst used mostly in audio power amplifiers, were capable of working up to 2MHz. A crystal for 1.242 MHz was ground by hand using Ajax surface cleaner. Clive B managed this project; he designed the rig and delegated the building of each stage to the members of the group. The power supplies were big, transformers capable of delivering 3000 Volts at one and a half amps were needed. These were borrowed from our good friends at the MoD. By Christmas 1981 the rig was built and test transmissions began from a house on Brackens Lane, Alvaston. This property was converted into a radio station with an on air studio and a huge 45ft inverted 'L' antenna for medium wave. The garden was dug up and silver coated banded copper was buried under the aerial. The field strength was immense and RF feedback was a big problem in the studio. The transmitter ran 1200 Watts out, and was one of the most powerful land based pirate stations in the country. The station's presenters were members of the group who had built the rig, programs were poor and amateurish but the music was excellent. At the time Radio Freedom had a distinctly rock based sound. In May 1982 Fred Ward was seen near the transmitter site, he worked for the Home Office and was trying to pinpoint the site for a possible raid, transmissions were halted until a new home could be found. The Rockhouse Years After a long break Radio Freedom moved to The Rockhouse nightclub on Babington Lane in Derby, a big city centre location with plenty of room. In July 1985 The medium wave transmitter was installed on the second floor in the old toilets & a quart wave-length antenna was erected above the nightclub. The building was a 1930s steel framed construction, in order to make the antenna radiate and to reduce the risk of RF feedback and burns it was decided that the buildings steel frame would form part of the earthing system. The floor was taken up and the main girder supporting the first floor was drilled and cleaned to allow a thick braided strap to be bolted on. This was then connected to the transmitter, there was also 400ft of copper cable going right round the walls of the top floor to act as a counter poise to the aerial. A studio was built on the 2nd floor close to the transmitter, broadcasting began during the autumn of 1985 initially transmitting on Sundays. The Rockhouse proved to be the perfect home for the station, there were plenty of good presenters with their music coming up through the club. In early January 1986 Radio Freedom was raided by the DTI, fortunately the transmitter had been removed following a tip off. Papers and a running order were found on the studio floor, but no one gave statements or spoke to the DTI. This was close, the DTI almost had enough to make a case. Other radio equipment had been seized but was returned six months later. Radio Freedom carried on with occasional broadcasts on bank holidays and at Christmas. In 1989 the station attempted its most ambitious project to date. Due to the divergence of rock into indie the station decided to have two services, rock on medium wave and indie on FM. The indie service came from a house on Mill Hill Lane, whilst the rock service remained at The Rockhouse. Whilst Tip Toe Tony was live on air the DTI tried and failed to raid the club, they got onto the roof but could not get into the studio. Tip Toe Tony escaped. Following the attempted raid the medium wave transmitter was removed and the FM service was moved to Chaddesden. Programmes now had to be pre-recorded and played out on TOA multi deck tape players, type BA-400. Each DJ had their own studio and recorded onto standard C120 cassettes. The station carried on with regular broadcasts on Sundays from various sites around Derby. The 1990s had arrived This was the station's heyday, the nightclub was doing huge business, the club had the biggest student night in the city and the best DJs. Radio one were still doing the Simon Bates and Steve Wright thing. Radio Freedom had Steve Wrong in the afternoon, Mark Lesley was his name and he was anti Thatcher, the station took on a hard-core political attitude especially during the poll tax era. Steve Wrong was slick confident and professional and played exactly what students wanted to hear. The Manchester scene has started; bands like Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and The Cure were big. With a host of young DJs from the nightclub the station was getting a good name for itself. In 1994 the DTI were determined to stop the station broadcasting. Under the supervision of John Watt they raided twice in one week, this action became known as snipsmus, only station staff knew what snipsmus was all about. This time the DTI got a transmitter but it was unmanned, luckily. The war of attrition began. War had been declared, action was taken to fight back, a batch of PMR radios were bought and converted, several TOA play out systems were purchased and a new aerial design that was cheap and easy to make was deployed. A new site in Nottingham was also opened, this carried a repeat of the previous Sunday's Derby programmes. The service lasted 6 weeks before it was raided by the DTI. In response to this raid the station moved the Nottingham service to Hucknall where the signal was beamed in, it carried anti government & DTI propaganda and music. The Nottingham station was wrapped up, but transmissions continued in Derby, we had company with fellow station Star FM in the city so it felt safer. Change was in the air, the new broadcasting bill promised licenses for the pirate stations. It was prudent at this time to close down Radio Freedom before someone got a conviction, an application was made for an RSL (Restricted Service Licence). Coming soon... The RSL Years.

	Live Streams:	High (96k)	Low (24k)			On Demand:	RSL Programmes	Post RSL Shows	Online Exclusive Shows	Band Demos
	No Player..?							Shop...