Paul Atkison
Well you all have the late great Eric Haydock (Rick Dane) to blame for my involvement in free radio. Although I never met the man it was listening to his voice on the radio as a young child that sparked my interest in pirate radio. I'd spend literally all day listening to Radio Atlantis, sending in letters (in my very best hand writing) and even being rewarded with a couple of studio recordings of Rick and Steve Bishop. I used to also listen to the other big stations back then - North Coast Radio, Merseywaves and SCR to name just a few. I experimented with building my own TX - lets say it was not really very good but it did reach the end of the road albeit being more nomadic than the Littlest Hobo! I also listened to some of the FM pirates - TCR, Choice FM, Kiss FM and Zee 100 to name but a few back then.
Then girls became more interesting to a hormonal youngster than radio until one day whilst bored studying I turned on the radio and tuned around. Bang! There was the big signal of CFM on 107.6 and only a slightly smaller signal of Radio Tarkwa on 105.8. I quickly became hooked again. I listened more and rediscovered Concept Radio on 106.7 with the legendary Jim Lowe and Tim Webb. Again i began calling into the shows and soon Jim and Mark Richards from Tarkwa took me under their wing. I acquired a new stable TX and started my own (part time station) Skyline 107 in the mid 1990s and also did a regular 5-7pm Sunday slot on Radio Tarkwa until their raid.
After another long sabbatical its the time to return to the air. Free Radio is something that is in your blood in my opinion. Some people don't get "it". I look at it this way - why would you want to listen to syndicated stations with a play list of 20 songs and with more adverts than music? Radio is about choice. MAR is truly the listeners station. Thats why I'm here.
