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PCRL (People's Community Radio Line) Radio 103.5 has been broadcasting to the Birmingham area since the early 1980's, and is reputed to have had an effect in calming down the Handsworth riots of the early 1980s.
I know very little about the station's early history, as I first heard PCRL in the autumn of 1987 (when I moved to Birmingham, to study at college there). My first impressions were of a professional, well-run station with good audio and transmission quality, and I was impressed with the mix of black music played; reggae, soul, funk, calypso, dance oldies, from current chart hits to oldies and specialist music. They broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so I spent most of my time listening to them.
The music was not the only thing that made PCRL special. They had regular phone-ins about issues relating to the community (in 1995 they had a phone-in about the threat from the BNP and National Front, and promoted the Anti-Nazi League). Their breakfast shows were exciting and filled with humour, and on Saturday mornings they had a kids' programme ("Saturday Show") in which the DJ would read out kids' stories.
As well as broadcasting, PCRL and their DJs would also hold parties - notably at the Hummingbird niight club - to celebrate the station's birthdays, etc.
They also had a shop at 151 Dudley Road, where you could get all sorts of station merchandise; T-shirts, pens, keyrings, rulers, stickers. There was even a record released on the PCRL Records label; Skibbu "The One I Adore".
All in all, they did a brilliant job of serving the black community of the West Midlands, and got quite a lot of white fans (like myself) as well.
Unfortunately, not everyone was so impressed by PCRL. They suffered several bad DTI raids; on 12/11/1987, a raid on their studio, transmitter and at a backup studio at 151 Dudley Road, cleared the station out. Yet, thanks to their hard work and loyal supporters, they were back on air that evening.
In early 1988, the station operator was taken to court by the DTI. I went to see the court case, at Birmingham Magistrates Court. and so did hundreds of PCRL supporters. After a long trial, Cecil was found Not Guilty on all charges.
Yet the raids were to continue, occasionally with one transmitter confiscated each day. But PCRL kept returning, against all odds, to serve - in the words of a PCRL DJ - "an otherwise forgotten community".
Possibly understandable considering the size of PCRL and the number of years it has dominated the Birmingham airwaves, the station has not been without its internal difficulties; in late 1987, a number of DJs left PCRL to form the rival Enterprize FM 90.9.
In January 1989, PCRL left the air to apply for an IBA community radio licence. When this licence was awarded to Buzz FM, PCRL's supporters - myself included - were less than happy. PCRL returned to the air that summer, and remained on-air intil the early 2000's.
Hopefully, one day in the future, PCRL will one day return with a licence to broadcast legally.
Whatever happens, PCRL will always have a special place in my memory. They have certainly done more for the Birmingham pirate radio scene than many of the fly-by-night cowboys (of which I knew a few!) put together could ever have done. And, to my knowledge, they're still on-air. Long may they continue to broadcast.
PCRL tribute website, with station history, programme schedule, DJ profiles, etc. Please note: due to the high graphics content, it may take ages to load.