Radio Free London (RFL) is at the moment the only pirate radio station running an ex-tended service every first and third Sunday of the month, on 3945 and 6400 in parallel. Normally transmissions start in the early Saturday evening and end Sunday evening. The transmitting equipment runs fully auto-matically, the programme will be repeated every 4 hours, while the third outlet on 6275 kHz is used for paid relays.

The RFL roots go back till 1968, when Radio Free London in August first came on the air, on the first anniversary of the closure of Brit-ain's offshore stations. Till early 1969 the Radio Free London transmissions could be heart on FM every weekend. After a break, interrupted only by a few transmissions, RFL once more entered the airwaves for London with regular weekend programmes in March 1973 and found a sudden end in November 1974, when the station got busted and four members of the staff were caught. A second phase of broadcasting started in late 1978 lasted for more than 5 years without major problems. Also RFL used during the last years of this phase the rooftops of South London's high-rise tower blocks for covering whole London, a transmitting side which was and still is quite popular among London's FM pirates. After more and more legalised sta-tions entered the airwaves it seemed that the need for a pirate station with a special rock format became less and so R.F.L faded slowly away, a last high power transmission was aired from Mottingham, Kent over the Christmas days 1992.

Surprisingly in March 1995 low powered transmissions as RFL could be heard once more on a regular base in London. The new staff mixed of some "old" and a lot of new presenters and sup-porters made within months the decision to continue on shortwave due to a lack of re-sponse on the FM transmissions.

The following interview with Andy Walker (AW) and Terry Phillips (TP) was made on January 5th 1997 at Andy's house in London.

"Let's start with some historical questions, how did you become involved with Free Radio?"

TP: Well I am old enough to remember the pirates in 1964 and that's when I fell in love with Free Radio.

"Mainly on shortwave or on FM?"

TP: No, mediumwave, from ships! Offshore radio from the 60’s. Caroline, London....

AW: Bloody boys, honestly!

"Yes, offshore, I can remember, hi! Andy, how did you become involved?"

AW: By listening, how most people did and then I contacted a London land-based station called Radio Kaleidoscope and ended up being one of this side crew on a Sunday watching out for the authorities who wanted to come and take the transmitter away. That was it

"When did you meet each other?"

TP: Oh, what did I do? I think I met you in 1987?

AW: Yes, '87. We had an FM station on the air, you was listening and rang us up, we then ended up in the studio.

TP: In the pub first!

AW: Oh yes, you can't repress the pub, where I was working doing discos there. By the way, he used to work for the DTI at this time!

TP: For a legal station!

"If you have to compare the Free Radio stations from the 70’s with the stations from nowadays, what has changed in your opinion?"

TP: Not as professional. I think this also is reflected in the listener's post, you don't get as much in the postline now as you did then. In the 70’s you got 50-60 letters per broadcast.

"Is this mainly because of lazy listeners, a loss of interest in Free Radio, or are there too many FM stations?"

TP: Yes, there is too much choice.

"Do you see any differences in Pirate Radio and Free Radio, or is it just another description for the same?"

AW: Pirate radio is just a term for expressing that you are broadcasting in an illegal way a free format, and free means that you can express your own opinion whatever it might be over the free airwaves. This is what Free Radio is all about, without any government restriction.

"Do you see any opportunity to get an offshore station once more back on the airwaves or is it history and the columns and articles printed in the mags are only nostalgia?"

AW: As long as somebody is got the pose to do it, then it is not history. Somebody had to win the money to put out to, or should have the opportunity actually to put a ship out there and find a crew that has got the goods out there and do it, then yes. Until that time comes, we want to know if the UK 1990 Broadcasting Act is valid or not. Nobody has tested it out! So until that time comes around no one will ever know. That is the way I look at it. The only other thing is if a ship was to go out there, what would they programme because everything else is being programmed on legal radio anyway and frequencies are becoming scarce. So I really do not know the answer to this question. As long as somebody got the nerve to do it and can find the crew to do it, then yes. I can't say why not. The UK definitely needs an offshore station because radio in this country is so blend and crap, it is unbelievable.

"But what is the advantage of an offshore station a land-based pirate cannot pro-vide?"

AW: None, apart from non-stop-music, which you get and most land-based stations play anyway...

TP: ...I am not sure. We have had this talk-ings at pubs a few times if we won the national lottery and we won 10 million pounds, we have a ship out there within six months, but apart from that I tell you I would do it. We would like to do it, but we have no money. So if anybody has got the money who is listening (or reading this interview!), contact us!

"Ok, let's go over to a new aspect of Free Radio. Has the Internet changed Free Radio, and if so, in which way?"

AW: Yes, definitely. For example when we had the first reception report from America when we eventually were on the way to switch the transmitter off, but then we sat in the pub and read the letter from America, which I printed out. So yes, most definitively. And I became more Euro-friendly over the last few months since I have been on the Internet and I do not hate Germans, Swiss and French as much as I used to!!!!

"Now to some questions mainly concerning RFL. How was the listener's feedback since you have been started your shortwave service?"

TP: Very, very good. I think the first broadcast we've put out we've got about twenty letters. We came on totally unannounced and it was a botched aerial between two trees on a hill, not far away from where I live. Myself and Eric May went up there with the battery rig and just put out the preceding week's FM service and that run on shortwave and we got about twenty letters for that.

AW: And the aerial was inefficient!

TP: Yes, 6285 we were on at this time, and we just gone great guns ever since, I mean we have got bags and bags of letters, Chris has not seen yet!

"Thank you very much! But I think the problem on shortwave at all is that mainly DXers are listening, and DXers are only interested in the QSL card. So how many people are writing just for the QSL card and how many to support RFL by their letters?"

AW: Quite a few. We are mainly get the DXed hungry people, that means people who are writing just once for a QSL card and never write again. They should have their bullocks cut off!!!

TP: Twice!

AW: Twice, and might have to eat them as well.

"If you have to put them in per cent? How many are writing only for the QSL card? So far I met some other interviews and people said that it is in their opinion 50 to 60 per cent writing mainly for the QSL-card."

AW: No, I would say it is less now. I mean we got a lot mail from the UK. People just generally write in and support us with just a letter. They do not have to have a reply or anything, they are just writing a letter to thank us for being on and that they have enjoyed the programme. Unfortunately there are a lot of older people out there listening and they are listening to us because we are older people and playing older music. So the younger radio stations are playing the modern music are not getting any mail of the listener from the majority of the older audience from the UK.

"That means the majority of listeners are older people?"

AW, TP: They listen to us, yes.

"OK, but do you have an idea how many listeners there are, because a lot of people never write although they are listening?"

AW: A lot of people never write. I have telephone calls from people who never ever have written. They got my telephone number and they ring me even now, but they have never written in. So yes, I would say that there is a big, a very big percentage. I know for fact that out there in shortwave land about five years ago there were a lot of listeners. I am not talking in hundreds, I am talking in thousands of people listening to my Free Radio show on WNKR back in the old days. I know this for fact because the nearest thing we have ever got to a poll of shortwave listeners was when the Ross Revenge was in Dover and the crew opened up a premium service telephone line and I was given information about it on a Saturday afternoon and so I plugged the telephone line constantly through out my Free Radio show on Sunday. That week that telephone line received 525 calls. Now, if you work out the average the BBC worked out that one in ten people respond then that brings 5200 listeners. Now works out worthwhile running three, which meant we had an audience of between 15 000 and 15 200 listeners. That is the only real survey that has been done for shortwave listeners.

"Your future plans concerning RFL?"

AW: Unless we get raided we go just go...

TP:... bigger and bigger!

AW: Hopefully extending to the Saturdays in the future, do not know when yet.

TP: No, not yet. Could come, with matter of presenter really, we need more voices to fill the space.

AW: Yes, there is a couple of people to do on a join us anyway, but at the moment we are limited for space. So you might say a Saturday service, you might say a difference service on 3 MHz suppose to 6 MHz, there might be a difference service. We are not sure yet.

TP: Plus the bank holidays. We do specials on bank holidays weekends, on Easter, or in August. Bank holidays is one to watch or to listen out for.

"And finally some wishes to the other Free Radio stations in Europe, as you said that they are not as professional anymore as they maybe have been in the 70’s."

AW: What gets me it is the Dutch QSO stations. They are very powerful transmitters, but the programmes are absolutely boring. You cannot call them a programme. Like you explained to me they are more interested in the technical side of things. And their transmitters splash terrible, it is just rubbish radio. I do not know what it is to not switch off and forget it, I mean they are not really contributing anything to Free Radio. Also stations could come on longer, we are the only station that has got more airtime on air than any other radio station, nobody else is doing this, I cannot understand why. If you gonna run a Free Radio station, do it properly. Come on for a longer length of time, two or three hours, so you are providing a pan-European Free Radio service. That is what we wanna do, and that’s what we are doing at the moment.

TP: But I think you have to remember – do not switch on until you checked the frequency because very often they come out on the top of other stations. So tune your radio in first, if it is clear come on! If it isn't stay off and find another spot! That is what we have to do.