Radio Nemesis was the first serious pirate station to hit the air with my involvement.

An earlier project the previous year, NRG - later to be re-named KTR (or Kool Town Radio) fell through due to being unable to get hold of a transmitter. But in December 1986, a 35W transmitter was purchased - found through an advert in the Anoraks UK Weekly Report - from an anorak in Worksop.

Test transmissions started in May 1987, and in late June 1987 full transmissions started from a hill overlooking Clowne (Hickenwood Lane). A 35W transmitter, antenna, large pole, car battery and tape deck were taken up there each Sunday afternoon, and broadcasts took place from just before 2pm to just after 4pm. The signal covered a wide area and was heard from Worksop to Chesterfield, and further.

Programmes were recorded in a very primitive way - a record deck and microphone were wired up to a ghetto blaster (no mixer!) and the music and speech were recorded onto a tape, which was paused at the end of each record.
Even so, reasonable sounding programmes were produced. A number of spoof ads were also broadcast on Nemesis.

The first 2 DJs were Richard "Force Twelve" Gale (myself) and Ian "Hott" Walters (my brother). As time went on, 2 more DJs joined - JR  (a local soul DJ) was regularly heard, and Micky Dee (a local anorak more famous under another name) made a special programme which was broadcast on the final broadcast in late September 1997.

The station's fame (or should that be infamy) spread far and wide. Bradford's Radio Veronica often mentioned the station, and even broadcast a spoof of the Nemesis promo. Veronica also produced 2 jingles which were broadcast on Nemesis.

Behind the scenes, things didn't always run smoothly. 2 weird local characters were often "stalking" the house where the studio (and TX gear, while off-air) were housed, and on one occasion are thought to have sabotaged the car battery - leading to Nemesis missing a broadcast, the Sunday before the final broadcast.
Also, the frequency would vary between 105 and 106 FM - leading to, on one afternoon, a case of interference to a mobile 2-way radio system. On discovering this, the frequency was hurriedly adjusted.

On the other hand, others in the local area did seem to like the station. I was surprised, one Sunday afternoon in August, to see 2 anoraks walking towards the TX site - one wearing an LWR (London) T-shirt. Both, it seems, were regular listeners to Nemesis. (Please note: these were not the two "weird local characters" mentioned beforehand).
And one Sunday afternoon, a van drove up Hickenwood Lane; but it was not until after the final closedown that we were to find out why

At the end of September, Nemesis closed down because both operators were moving away to go to college.
Radio Veronica (Bradford) said that they were "very sorry to hear of the passing of Radio Nemesis", and mentioned that Nemesis planned to return in about 5 years. "We'll all have pirate TV by then" said Stephen of Veronica (I wish !)
Stephen also mentioned that Nemesis had been tracked down - "not by the DTI, but by" an anorak in a van. Said anorak had, allegedly, pointed out that - if the DTI had found Nemesis - we would have had no escape from the narrow country lane which we were broadcasting from.

As luck would have it, both Richard "Force Twelve" Gale and Ian "Hott" Walters" did return to the air within 5 years - but using different names, on different stations (both local and in Birmingham), and with immeasurably better studio equipment.

And I stayed involved with pirate radio, on and off, for another 10 years before the DTI finally caught up with me on Starforce FM. .

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