The Speakers

In the early 1980s, Dr. Richard Barbrook was involved with pirate and community radio broadcasting, including helping to set up the multi-lingual Spectrum Radio station in London. Having worked on media regulation within the EU at a research institute at the University of Westminster, much of his material was published in his 1995 book, Media Freedom: the contradictions of communcations in the age of modernity.

... started Surrey Electronics, researching, designing and manufacturing audio, quality control and transmission products for TV and radio broadcasters in the UK and overseas.

He resisted pressure from Ronan O'Rahilly to take up life on the Mi Amigo but helped Radio Jackie, devised the first stereo pirate, London Stereo, then gave stereo coders to soul station Radio Invicta. 

From 1988 he operated Radiofax on short wave from the Republic of Ireland, carrying science, media and technology news, followed by engineering and editing a website attracting one million visitors a year for the now licensed Radio Jackie.

...  is a pioneer of landbased pirate radio in the UK. As a teenager he had a dream to bring local commercial radio to his home area of South West London. He launched Radio Jackie in 1969 from friend's houses. Following systematic raids, he developed an effective method of broadcasting from open air locations. In the early 1980s, Radio Jackie, still a pirate, broadcast 24 hours a day but was finally closed down by the Home Office in 1984. Radio Jackie obtained a licence to broadcast to South West London in 1993, the culmination of a 34 year struggle. Nick Catford finally succeeded in everything that he set out to achieve.

... is a Professor and Head of the Journalism Department at the Institute of Journalism and Social Communication, University of Warmia and Mazury, Poland.  Her research interests centre on radio and community media. She is an author of the book Pirate Waves. Polish Private Radio Broadcasting in the Period of Transformation 1989–1995 [2022]. 

 ...  was involved in various unlicensed radio stations in and around NE London in the late 70s and early 80s.  These included Radio Titanic, RIP, Comsat, Phoenix and Shoestring - not forgetting Whipps Cross Hospital Radio as a bit of a diversion between 1982 & 1988!  Moving to Switzerland soon after, between 1992 & 1997 he worked on Swiss local radio (Radio Rheintal, Radio Gonzen, Radio Ri) part-time, presenting a weekly chart show, initially in English, then in German.

Ryan Harnell is a Doctoral Researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London. His work explores the an-architecture of social movements, with a focus on collective radio. He is a member of the Centre for Global Media and Democracy, and keeps a blog at rharnell.wordpress.com.

... is a seasoned professional in the field of community and independent commercial radio across the UK, offering advice in technical, licensing, and operational matters. He is also the founder and leader of the largest independent radio site operations company in the UK. Samuel’s passion for radio began during a two-week student exchange to Puente de Vallecas in the mid-90s, where he was introduced to the workings of a family-run pirate radio station.

His career has since seen him involved in a variety of projects, including being part of the team who secured the commercial license for Rugby FM, establishing a UNESCO community radio station in Burkina Faso, running the UK's longest Covid-19 RSL service and supporting numerous radio initiatives across the UK. Samuel's current focus includes a project in Leicester aimed at fostering racial integration in an area plagued by high rates of racial hate crime.

... cut her broadcasting teeth co-founding London's rock radio station Rock-FM in the mid-80's.  A prominent and vocal campaigner for a dedicated legal UK rock station, Claire worked on several community radio campaigns before re-joining Raiders Broadcast, an early adopter of internet broadcasting, as Programme Controller.  She presents two shows on Raiders, including the Nightcap at 11pm showcasing contemporary indie. 

... back in 1979, Mark was a founder member of Bray Local Broadcasting, in County Wicklow, Ireland.  Going on to run the Dublin-based Post-Production Company, HighWire, he recently directed the film 'Every Kinda People - BLB Remembered’, that tells the inside story of the radio station, which, ahead of its time, was set up to promote community radio in Bray....

... is a lecturer in media production at Southampton Solent University.  

Before 2015 he spent 25 years in the media, including local and regional newspaper reporting, feature writing, print production, and radio presentation. He specialises in teaching audio production.

Dr Joy Whiteis a Senior Lecturer in Applied Social Sciences at the University of Bedfordshire and the author of Terraformed: Young Black Lives in the Inner City. Her latest book Like Lockdown Never Happened: Music and Culture During Covid analyses how Black music and culture framed how we passed the time in the pandemic. Her previous work includes Urban Music and Entrepreneurship: Beats, Rhymes and Young People’s Enterprise, one of the first books to foreground the socio-economic significance of grime music. Recent publications include Growing up under the influence: A sonic genealogy of Grime, and (with Jonathan Ilan) Ethnographer Soundclash: A UK rap and grime story.