Dave Wilson
The Long Story Cut Short!
One night in 1981 when I was 13 years old, by chance I heard a couple of minutes of Andy Davis closing down Radio Veronica FM. I tuned in the next week and then started listening to lots of other medium wave pirate stations. I was a keen listener and tracked some of these stations down to their transmitter sites. I then decided to send demo tapes to a few of them. I was accepted to do some shows for Steve Bishop’s “Radio Veronica AM” in 1982.
I then joined Rodger Dee’s “Radio Nemesis International” in 1982/3 and then joined Tom Lodge’s “Station M” in 1982/3.
In 1983 Rodger Dee and I took over the running of “Station M” and ran it together from mid-1983 to mid-1984, using Rodger’s self-built 120 watt medium wave transmitter. We had some great times on that radio station, broadcasting from high rise flats in Moreton and the Ford Estate, from my parents’ house in Moreton, Rodger’s flat in Seacombe and my friend’s house in Poulton. We used to get a great listener response, and I have a vivid memory of once getting 30 phone calls in 30 minutes on a day when 10 medium wave pirates were booming out all over Wirral, Liverpool and beyond.
In 1986 I ran my own station Radio Suburbia using a 120 watt medium wave transmitter which Rodger Dee built for me. Transmission sites were a high rise flat in Moreton, my parents’ house in Moreton, and a flat in Overchurch, Upton.
In the late 1980’s into 1990 I ran a small FM station called “Q98” and as well as broadcasting from the usual locations I also did some hilltop broadcasts purely for the fun of it, seeing how far
the signal could travel with 15 watts of power from various sites really interested me. I only went on air a couple of hours a week with this station.
In the 1990’s I was a presenter on “BBMS – Britain’s Better Music Station” on short wave for a number of years. This was a professional sounding station (apart from me) that covered Europe on the 48 metre band using a high power transmitter from Ireland.
In 2007 I was in contact with Andy Davis, and he told me he was going to be a DJ on a new incarnation of Merseyland Alternative Radio which Bert Williams and Steve West were bringing back on FM. I contacted Steve and he invited me to join the station. I was on MAR
from Easter 2007 until 2010, when we were on 105 FM and 1386 AM Medium Wave.
I took a very long break from radio but have now started doing the 2pm-4pm slot on MAR on Saturdays. Nothing now can compare with the fun we had, the friendships we made and the camaraderie we built on pirate radio in the 1980’s, but I am enjoying being back presenting online all the same.