Pirate Radio Station Fined £10,000 & Cars Seized - Buzz FM Documentary Part 3 

Hey all first off...can I thank Lewis for reaching out to me to take part in this series of short films about my time on Buzz fm in Manchester. Lewis was actually chasing me for about 2yrs previously to us linking up to make these films and as pirate radio gets in the blood once you have been a part of the process...It made me a little sceptical about who this guy was making enquiries about our station. It seems funny to even say that now after meeting Lewis on many occasions since then...and it's clear to see to me that Lewis and the people who follow his channel have a real passion and dedication to the subjects of broadcasting. This is what convinced me to finally link up with Lewis and I can honestly say his passion for the stories is quite addictive. He will certainly be a friend for life. Some of the information I supplied was to the best of my memories...so I apologise in advance if there are any inaccuracies on my part...a long time has passed inbetween. I how that between us we have given an honest review and reflection of my time on Buzz fm in Manchester. And that's important to stress...as I did not run Buzz fm...i was only a small piece in a very big jigsaw. So much more could have been talked about...but I feel it's only right and proper if that's left to the boss man...Eric B. I spoke to Eric a few weeks ago while making these films and he has agreed to take part in a sit down interview...so leave it with us...and we will make that happen soon. I just hope for my part...I've given a basic insight into what was a fantastic and massive part of my life for over 10yrs. A few people have thanked me in the comments for saving the footage and the flyers and what not. This was actually a very conscious decision many years ago to record as many shows on cassette tapes and whatever footage we could record on video cameras when we had them. I always knew that one day...by it's nature of being a pirate radio station...that sometime in the future at some unknown point...all this would be a distant dream. If nothing else in the future...I always thought it would be an archive of times and events that eventually somebody may wish to look at. Seems like that time was now in Lewis' case. As Lewis said in his commentary...probably the worst time for loss of history...was when the DTI raided Eric's house in the early 2000s when Eric was away in London. We were very proud of the fact that Eric had been invited to London to take part in a documentary about Buzz fm with the BBC and been invited to BBC radio 1. Naturally...we were very proud of the fact and it was spoken about a few times on air. In hindsight...we probably baited the station directly to the DTI...as they raided us on the very same weekend. When the DTI came...they took EVERYTHING...fully taking advantage of the fact that Eric had been invited to London...and the house was empty. They even hired a van and emptied the entire contents of the back bedroom which housed over 5000 of Eric's vinyl record collection. According to the neighbours...they were literally hours at the house. During this raid they took many many photographs, video tapes and cameras...none of which we ever got back. Hours and hours of studio footage and live show footage lost forever. That hurt more than anything. They even took pictures of me out of the shed studio...where I'm tied to the chair live on air...when DJ Griff and DJ Boo hijacked my show and tied me up lol. Who knew the DTI had a kinky side ehh. A few people have also mentioned they admire the fact we kept on coming back on air after all the raids. Simple fact is...we had too. It was a music thing...and maybe more importantly looking back...it was a community thing. It was needed. Today we have Legacy Radio 24/7 and we have Unity Radio 24/7 legally...but back then...we didn't. I do understand that the films almost seem like we were raided constantly...and to a point...that is quite true but there were times like in the late 90s early 2000s and we ran for 18 months without them coming to the studio once and we only lost one transmitter during that same period. Other times we would be on for 6 weeks and they would take the transmitter but leave the studio well alone. The next time they might leave us 6 months or more...then raid both. It was very very random to say the least. More often than not though they would raid the transmitter as this was the one thing that took us off air in one swoop. It was also easier to leave the studio alone and cost less in resources and manpower to just remove the transmitter from the top of a block...without having to apply to a magistrate for a warrant to take the studio. In 2007 when Eric was fined £10,000 at court...NOBODY expected us to even attempt to return to the air...but still we came back...but ultimately...a £10,000 fine hanging over anybody's head is eventually going to take it to a point of no return. A judge was convinced it was a 'commercial enterprise' and I'm afraid there is not much more we could have done at that point in reality. 2yrs later...the dream was over. Anyway I'm just going on now...but...If you have any comments of questions...I'd be happy to answer them if I can. Thanks again Lewis for your dedication. Pirates...yes...criminals...well maybe...but only for the music. Snow 🖤

Just having had a weekly show on community FM for a few years was a buzz - I can imagine how much more of a buzz a show on pirate FM would have been. Thanks for your videos!

Superb work and I throughly enjoyed this series. Makes me wish I lived in Manchester around that time. Hats off to Snowman for the bits of footage he saved and really sad the DTI robbed the rest of it. It's clear Snow has real fond memories of this station and you can understand why. Must have been such an experience and high point of his life being part of it.

Thanks for this, always loved pirate radio. In an around London were so many to choose from. People doing it for the love of the music. How it should be. Love your channel

Went to bed for an early night, but saw part 1 of this documentary pop up in my recommendations, and now here I am having finished all three parts. Absolutely immense series. Thanks Lewis and Snow for documenting this iconic station’s history! Fascinating from start to finish.

Loved this series, cheers for the footage Lewis

Lewis, another phenomenal production. Outstanding research, great depth, visuals and more. Have to say you are one of my favorite creators on the platform- covering everything from modern radio to pirates, history and more. Thank you!

This was a cracking series of films. Thanks for the time and effort you put into making it.

Real shame those tower blocks are gone. All that history. At least some remain, and really nicely refurbished. Great that the aerials remain. Fantastic series. 👍

Great work Lewis. Although I have been into amateur radio/SWL since the early 80s, I never came across Buzz, however I remember visiting KFM temp studio in the early 80s. Keep up the good work

Superb again

This has been an excellent series. I wonder how many FM priates exist in the UK today.

Super Stuff Lewis cheers for this Video series

Have you ever talked about the pirate stations set up on ships and sea forts? And, how one of them led to foundation of a new country.

brilliant! 👍

Absolutely brilliant series! I'm hoping for and looking forward to the Eric B interview!

Another awesome video Lewis 👍

loving this series!

THANK YOU. a great watch love these videos;;

Great series Lewis I was involved in a radio regen project the man behind radio regen was phil korbel but the guy you really need to speak to is the wizard of the technical side mr Phil edmunds he set all the studios and transmitters up a real sound guy

My comment vanished for some reason not sure why? at 12:33 you have some footage noted as Hornchurch Court TX site. that is not from Buzz FM. But from Project FM 102.1 in Glasgow. The block is Rosemount Street, Roystonhill, Glasgow since demolished. The footage is still online search "SETTING UP PFM's LAST LOCATION" The station ran from 2006-2009 at various sites around Glasgow. Another TX site was the famous Tarfside oval in Glasgow also now demolished. The station was the first to use Microwave in Scotland and used towerblocks london style which is not the normal for stations in the north most running direct. If you are interested to know more about some Scottish pirate radio drop me a email. Keep up the good work!

Hoping Eric does the interview 🙏👍

Another great video Lewis My old tower block home of 36 years is also soon to be demolished after nearly 60 years of being used. Marc In Bletchley G6XEG

Fantastic work, well done. Really enjoyed this documentary, very well put together. I wonder if you have any information about my favourite pirate station, Dance FM 105.8 which ran out of Sheffield in 1993. I listened to it in Lincolnshire, and it seemed to only be on air Sundays, but it was a great station.

built in the '60's and already razed to the ground wow.

Madness, I used to text in all the time for shoutouts, and record most of the sets on cassette, even bought a high gain fm antenna just to pick up the weak signal when the transmitters were being moved from different high rises 😂 The best station to ever. The only other station I remember after buzz went off the air was when 106 tried to go legit and they did a test broadcast under the name mixology. That also had some banging tunes on its test night. Shame they all went and only unity exists through its ashes.

This series was killer, can't believe how few views it has gotten.

I remember Buzz coming on air, Eric had a show on Soulnation 104.6FM, then next thing he had Buzz broadcasting, originally right next to Soulnation on 104.3FM before moving to the 88.05/88.1FM, not sure whether this was because Ten Forty Six FM was not happy that they were so close or just a tactical decision made by Eric at the time. I had a show on Sting FM about 1996 before it went off air and it was no longer in the Seven Sisters but in a smaller block over looking the new bridge over the Mancunian Way. I was on a station called Northsoul107.9FM when Buzz got raided as I put the newspaper article on the studio wall, pretty sure that radio station was 1999/2000 and the DTI raided us about the March time and like Snowman said they took everything and got the owners record collection, any photos or adverts for shows but did leave any music posters that was not relevant to the station. No one was in the studio when it got raided and they just left a letter for us. DTI did similar to the Buzz raid when the raided Soulnation they planned it for the 2nd Birthday event at Liberty's Nightclub as they knew the studio may only have a couple of people in it. Manchester had so many good Pirate Stations back then from Frontline to Love NRG, I think we had 7 broadcasting at one point. Love NRG did make a comeback about a decade ago but was on air and online but short lived on air. Although there are a couple of legal community stations on air now, their signals are not great and I don't think they are as fresh as the pirates were back then.

Damn the raids are the savage part, taking all of that history and destroying it! Fair enough it would be considered evidence but come on... The photos and videos should have been released, it's not like they were part of the setup.

This brings back memories, i moved to old trafford in the early 90's and lived in pickford court. i got into reggae, ragga and jungle music. i used to listen to the wonderful frontline radio station and sting fm, and in 89 or was it 90 i listened to unity radio which was great too. i left old trafford and moved to urmston, all the dj's on frontline radio were fantastic. i wish i could remember all their names but sadly can't, i'm sure there was the ninja or was it ninja man and theres a few more but can't pronounce their names. would be great if someone could respond to my message with every dj's names on frontline, also when i used to listen to unity, i'm sure one of the dj's name was something like orine or oring. the names something like that but it was years and years ago. i remember going to Murrays music city in moss side and purchased reggae, ragga and jungle music, this video brings back great memories for sure. thank you for sharing this great video.....

What is the intro music?

Why is my post removed?

hello 1st comment yas