The Jim Lowe Editorial 2000 Those Sheep Again ! (18/10/00) Hello. I sent an article on 1/10/00 quoting  Kevin Roger's comment of "They all follow each other like sheep" in relation to the way pirate stations seem to switch on when the other stations are on. The same scenario existed in the 1980's when I was on Merseywaves.The station manager Paul Henderson (or Paul Horrendous as he was know as due to his crap DJ,ing) used to say, "We'll be all right this week. SCR (Storeton Community Radio) is on." Then when I went to Central, they regarded Merseywaves as the 'Shepherd ' station and used to say the same thing. Julie FM was exactly the same. Then in the 1990's NCR (North Coast Radio) became the shepherds, and were later superseded by CFM, then Lazer, and now Sound FM. Maybe the sheep should be more independent and develop ideas of their own, especially the Collins & Brown species, (usually identified by their fat, docile appearance). In 15 years, nothing has changed. What do you think ?  The Sheep Scenario Of Free Radio On Merseyside 1/10/00 Well, This week (1/10/00)has seen another good weekend for pirate radio apart from Central's deliberately distorted modulation, obviously intended to cause localized splatter to Lazer's signal. Why does everyone have to switch on every Sunday ? It is totally impractical nowadays with very few clear frequencies on FM. There are 7 days in the week and it would be a lot better if people had something to tune to in the week. A good time to go on is from 9 -  12 midnight when often there is very little to tune into on the radio. The problem is, to quote Kevin Rogers, "They all follow each other like sheep". What do you think ??  The Jim Lowe Editorial. (21 June 2000) Frequency Limitations The Radio Authority is to fill up the FM with incremental stations between 106 and 107 Mhz. Also more RSL's are appearing at the bottom of the band on 87.7 etc. In the future, low power licenses will be allocated on frequencies which national radio networks use in other areas, which will sometimes limit the signal of the RSL to it's own area only. The plan is to eventually shift the national networks to Digital Radio (DAB) which will probably be re-launched again. At the moment Digital Radio is on a temporary frequency af about 200 Mhz. but will eventually be moved to a UHF frequency. It will not be worth buying a receiver till then. Unlike Sky Digital customers, we won't be issued with free upgrades when analogue radio is eventually phased out. Will this mean the FM will just have low power stations leaving more room for pirate activity ? Sky Digital has an excellent choice of radio channels as well as specialist music channels which can be subscribed to for about 60-00 Pounds a year. Not Bad ! There is also a web site which lists Sky Digital channels: Sky Digital EPG Independent Local Radio seems to be at an all time low with the former Gold stations being renamed 'Magic' and featuring more syndicated programming and mainstream play listing. They have lost their local identity. There seems to be less local input than ever since they were all 'cloned'. Radio 2, however has improved with the addition of 2 more former Radio 1 presenters. Steve Wright in the afternoon (just like in the 80's) and Janice Long at midnight. Tony Blackburn also does a soul show on Jazz FM Saturday at 1600 to 2000.