<div dir="ltr">My concern is: why did this take an FoI request to discover? Surely Ofcom should be shouting about their work here?<br><div><br></div><div>Investigations I made a few years ago after a presentation from Ofcom on pirate radio at TechCon - <a href="http://james.cridland.net/blog/techcon-a-look-back/">http://james.cridland.net/blog/techcon-a-look-back/</a> - point to an awful lot of spin by Ofcom:</div><div><br></div><div>"Then the man who is in charge of closing pirate radio stations down, Jim McNally from Ofcom. McNally – who sounded like an ex-policeman – spent all his time telling us why pirate radio was all linked with drugs and crime, and why they were all very nasty people. As far as I was concerned, he completely misread the audience; many of whom saw much of pirate radio as simply a nuisance who transmitted over their own properly licenced stations, and wanted to know when Ofcom might take action against them. Yet, we heard nothing about Ofcom’s attempts to close these stations down: indeed, he didn’t mention one single successful closure or any statistics there at all. Instead, we heard a story about London City Airport being “20 minutes from closure” because of a pirate radio service. The story dates from 2005, and – while apparently on the CAA’s behalf – only appears online in connection with Ofcom’s attempt to brand all pirate radio stations as uninterested in music, involved with drugs and crime, and affecting public safety. There is no independent reporting of this incident, far less anything to back up the “20 minutes” claim. If it was so shocking, why on earth wasn’t it covered by any news outlet? I’m afraid I saw this entire session as a spin exercise, light on facts and covering up Ofcom’s clear incompetence in actually closing any of these services down. I’d be delighted to be corrected by Ofcom, and actually hear some evidence of the authority protecting its licensees."<br></div><div><br></div><div>It's interesting that nobody from Ofcom bothered to correct me. Because if they really are closing 200 pirate stations a year, they've something to shout about.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">On Tue, Jul 7, 2015 at 10:03 AM Mark Davis <<a href="mailto:MarkD@in2beats.com">MarkD@in2beats.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<div>I don't think they can actually do anything even if they do manage to find the studio , most pirates these days call themselves ______.net etc they never mention the frequency and always refer to themselves as streaming world wide and never say if someone
is listening via fm or Internet ,and they link via the Internet , so I suppose gathering evidence on them from there broadcasts is very hard , unless they catch them on a tower block .</div>
<div>Please correct me if I'm wrong </div></div><div bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
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<div>Mark Davis
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-------- Original message --------<br>
From: Tony Bailey <<a href="mailto:ravensound@pilgrimsound.co.uk" target="_blank">ravensound@pilgrimsound.co.uk</a>> <br>
Date: 07/07/2015 08:36 (GMT+00:00) <br>
To: <a href="mailto:cma-l@mailman.commedia.org.uk" target="_blank">cma-l@mailman.commedia.org.uk</a> <br>
Subject: Re: [cma-l] Four hundred pirate radio setups shut down in London in just two years
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<div>This is full of interesting bits:<br>
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"It's a big problem, especially in London," he said. "There are about 70 active stations in the London area. In the whole of the UK we've got something like just over 100.<br>
"From the enquiries we've carried out, this problem doesn't exist in New York or Rome or Paris - it's a London phenomenon."<br>
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Maybe because in Rome and Paris the FM band is planned for the city - not the surrounding countryside as it is in London?<br>
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Tony Bailey<br>
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On 06/07/15 18:08, Ian Hickling wrote:<br>
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<div dir="ltr">"........internet radio and the introduction of community broadcasting licences have taken away some of the incentive for pirates to broadcast........"?
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<div>Sorry - on which planet is this?<br>
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<div><b>Ian Hickling</b><br>
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From: <a href="mailto:cma-l@commedia.org.uk" target="_blank">cma-l@commedia.org.uk</a><br>
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2015 11:40:18 +0100<br>
To: <a href="mailto:cma-l@commedia.org.uk" target="_blank">cma-l@commedia.org.uk</a><br>
Subject: [cma-l] Four hundred pirate radio setups shut down in London in just two years<br>
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<div><span>Regulators have raided nearly 400 suspected pirate radio setups in London over the last two years, the
<a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/four-hundred-pirate-radio-stations-shut-down-in-london-in-just-two-years-10362974.html" target="_blank">
Standard</a> can reveal.<br>
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Figures released by Ofcom in response to a Freedom of Information request show nearly a quarter of the raids took place in Haringey, north London, while 90 resulted in equipment being seized.<br>
Lambeth, south London, was the next biggest offender, with more than 50 raids on suspected pirates between April 2013 and March this year.<br>
The communications regulator says internet radio and the introduction of community broadcasting licences have taken away some of the incentive for pirates to broadcast.<br>
But pirate stations remain a problem because they can interfere with vital comms channels used by the emergency services.<br>
"It's not about raising revenue," Clive Corrie, Ofcom's head of spectrum enforcement, told the Standard. "It's about protecting the spectrum from harmful interference.<br>
"Last year Ofcom received 53 complaints of interference to aviation services - ground-to-air radio location and radio navigation systems."<br>
Of the 53 complaints, 48 related to the London area.<br>
Mr Corrie added the problem was largely confined to the capital, though the reason for this has experts at something of a loss.<br>
"It's a big problem, especially in London," he said. "There are about 70 active stations in the London area. In the whole of the UK we've got something like just over 100.<br>
"From the enquiries we've carried out, this problem doesn't exist in New York or Rome or Paris - it's a London phenomenon."<br>
The true figures are likely to be even higher - councils don't have to tell Ofcom when they raid pirate radio setups.<br>
Hackney Council revealed last month it had dismantled 29 masts and transmitters being used by pirate broadcasters in 12 months - only five of which are recorded in the FOI disclosure given to the Standard.<br>
Aviation doesn't use the same bandwidth as FM radio but because the home-made transmitters are typically a dozen times stronger than community radio equipment - sometimes up to 300 Watts - and are often poorly installed, they can inadvertently take over higher
frequencies.<br>
Corrie added pirates typically chose tower blocks on high ground, and often hide equipment in lift shafts and air vents - not just to stop authorities from getting to it, but also to protect it from other pirate groups. "It's a bit of a Wild West situation,"
he said.<br>
Among the council raids in Hackney this year was one on the Summit Estate, Upper Clapton.<br>
Hackney's housing chief Cllr Philip Glanville said: "Surprisingly, this type of activity is still quite common, and can have an impact on the lives of our residents."<br>
Three years ago, the Army inadvertently raided an illegal dance music station in north-east London.<br>
Soldiers stumbled upon a group of "young men" broadcasting from Highfield Towers in Collier Row as they set up surveillance equipment ahead of the Olympics.<br>
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Source: <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/four-hundred-pirate-radio-stations-shut-down-in-london-in-just-two-years-10362974.html" target="_blank">
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/four-hundred-pirate-radio-stations-shut-down-in-london-in-just-two-years-10362974.html</a><br>
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