RADIO OZ - 215m / 96MHz

     A lesser known station operated around the west of Edinburgh, initially on medium wave and laterally on FM called Radio Oz.

This station ran for around 18 months from mid 1975. The station was started by two young guys who had been inspired by other locally operating pirates and who wished to run their own alternative vision of free radio, loosely based on the Australian and London “Oz Magazine” of late sixties and earlier seventies. The “Wizard of Oz” and “Perkin Warbeck” both employed in the electronics industry had been building a small transistorised medium wave transmitter for use by the station. They reached out and contacted another local station operator “Smiler” who was operating a small very low powered FM station UKE Radio on 99.9 MHz weekday evenings. “Smiler”, joined up with these new entrants to bring Radio Oz to air with pre recorded “alternative” programming late night Fridays and Sunday afternoons on 215 metres. Initial power was around 10 watts but increasing to 50 watts with a valve based transmitter purchased later in 1976 from a London based operator.

The station operated fairly consistently, suffering two “visits” by the Post Office Radio Services Radio Investigation Department. This second visit resulted in forfeiture of equipment and a £100 fine for “Smiler” as the transmitter operator. Some months later a 15 watt FM transmitter was obtained and late night Friday broadcasts re commenced on 96 MHz FM, initially from home sites then from open fields. The station eventually faded away, two of the operators later joining the new Radio Telstar International, which had commenced live Sunday afternoon broadcasts on 227 metres medium wave.

Thanks go to Mark Snow for supplying us with the information on Radio Oz, along with the newspaper report below.