Pirates on the line

Tired of playing hide-and-seek with the law,
radio pirates are taking to the Net.
DJ Eezee E of London's pioneering pirate
station interFACE sounds off about
the online underground.

interFACE was originally an FM pirate station. What caused you to move
the operation exclusively online?
We got really excited about the possibility the new technology offered
us. Also, we were seriously fed up with playing cat and mouse for so
many years with the government that was trying to close us down. They
were confiscating transmitters almost on a weekly basis.

Is it still pirate radio when it's on the Internet?
We are a legal business here in the U. K., even though in general it's
not legal to broadcast music that isn't your own on the Net. Also,
because we broadcast in mono, at low quality, we are seen as
distributing unreproducible music, so we've been left alone. The
government has its hands full closing down servers and Web sites where
you can download any track at any quality.

Otherwise it's exactly the same as running any pirate station on the
FM dial- mainly playing the music we want without anyone telling the
DJ's what their set lists should be. And there are no advertisements.
Also, I think online radio is actually more underground, on a worldwide
scale, than an FM station is when it's broadcasting to a city like
London. Some of the audience here is familiar with these styles of
music, compared to someone tuning in from the other side of the planet.

How many people does it take to do an average interFACE broadcast on the
Web?
Three, a DJ to play if it's a live show, another person to keep an eye
on the equipment and, because it's non-stop, a techie at the back to
make sure the server
and connections stay running. But in the future, with the right
equipment, you could run it into a one-man show.

How many people listen to the average interFACE show?
We have an average of 10,000 to 12,000 simultaneous listeners, with
peaks of up to 16,000 and growing rapidly. It's hard to talk about peak
periods because time is completely irrelevant on the Net, with all the
time zones around the planet.

How would you rate the state of pirate radio on the Net?
Pretty small. I don't really know of any other stations on the Net
coming out of a pirate FM station background, but I see it growing as
more DJ's get interested in the medium. Still, most of the
underground-music audience, especially here in the U. K. and Europe,
hasn't gotten onto the Net yet.

Are you concerned about the technology gap? I mean, isn't the FM dial a
much more accessible way to reach a wide audience?
Yes, but FM is a local thing. Now we're talking to the entire world.
Even when radio first came out it took a while for poor people to get
hold of it and grow into it.

What's next for interFACE?
On the Net we can go in any direction we choose, but our main goal is to
get more outside broadcasts up, from clubs, parties, events and
festivals. We're hoping to organize virtual raves and events world-wide
and build up a massive network of people who love music. And of course,
plan a great global millennium rave all linked up to the Net.

- John Turner

interFACE: http://interface.pirate-radio.co.uk