KFM Radio

KFM was an unlicensed radio station based in , Greater Manchester, United Kingdom.

KFM originally broadcast on 94.2 MHz FM from a studio on Middle Hillgate, Stockport with the transmitter and aerial at in Marple from November 1983 to February 1985. Its name on the business board was Mersey Valley Electronics. KFM was functional by 1984 with a day-time line-up including DJ's 'Jumpin' Johnny Owen, Dave Starr, Pete Wilde, Simon Richards, Pete Smith, Big Al Rockwell, Pete Best, 'Dodgy' Kevin Webb, Steve Maltby, Rob Charles and Stevie 'Megamix' King (with Wilf the Weatherman), Roger Taylor and Captain Flint. The station was raided by the authorities several times, but was soon back on air each time.

Although a pirate radio station, KFM broadcast test transmissions for a number of weeks prior to going live and was featured more than once on Granada Television's "Granada Reports" news programme. The original transmissions were in mono only but they rapidly moved to stereo output.

The station was created by Alastair Bates and Charles Turner, who both also presented weekend shows. Charles Turner had been involved in an unlicensed pirate radio station in the 1970s (Radio Aquarius), and Alastair Bates and Ian Walsh in the early 1980s in a Manchester station called RFM. Charles Turner used a frequency synthesiser transmitter of his own design and a stereo encoder designed by Trevor Brooks (published in Wireless World in the early 1980s). Phil Platt sang on the early KFM jingles which were written by Charles Turner with the input of Phil and Steve Ridgeway. Other jingles were produced by AlphaSound.

The first broadcasts were test transmissions from pub car parks and the tops of local hills such as Werneth Low and Lantern Wood near Bowstonegate Farm in Higher Disley. Transmissions from Middle Hillgate and came much later; the earliest broadcasts preceded 1983. The first broadcasts were transmitted from a radio mast at Bowstonegate Farm in Lyme Park. They were initially 2 hours long, pre-recorded at Ride Music Studio's and other secret locations on to a Revox B77 reel-to-reel tape recorder, then transferred to the boot of a car which was then parked at a pub car park near Disley. The broadcast of only two hours at a time made it difficult for government departments to trace the transmitter.

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