‘Pirate will never stop; it’s cyclical. If you push people hard enough, they’ll find a mode of expression: A study of community & pirate radio in Scotland

Proceedings of ‏The 2nd World Conference on Research in Social Sciences

Year: 2021

DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/2nd.socialsciencesconf.2021.03.21

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‘Pirate will never stop; it’s cyclical. If you push people hard enough, they’ll find a mode of expression: A study of community & pirate radio in Scotland

Christina Klos

ABSTRACT: 

The historical and present context of community and pirate radio in Scotland makes the case that community and pirate radio act as citizens’ media, allowing Scottish voices a chance to actively participate in Scottish counter-narrative media representation.  The history examined in this research includes: the union of Great Britain and colonization of Scotland, as means to argue that Scottish cultural identity and narrative has been historically silenced; the history of the United Kingdom’s broadcasting legislation; and archival research into the history of the 1960’s pirate Radio Scotland.  I use two qualitative research strategies: (1) an ethnographic interview with a contemporary radio pirate Donald Stewart from Glasgow, Scotland and (2) a case study of Black Diamond Radio, a Scottish community radio station based in Midlothian.  Data has been collected from interviews, archives, newspapers, government documents, relevant web-pages, and published reports.  This research argues that when left out of the United Kingdom’s media broadcasting, Scottish identity becomes lost and replaced with that of a homogenized, commodified West or a fictitious version of their own; local radio gives Scottish citizens media control through Scotland’s newly legitimized community radio sector and the ever present illegal broadcasting of pirate radio. Both the Midlothian community and Glasgow youths restructured their identities together, not only by creating and sharing cultural artifacts within their communities, but also by creating a public space where community members can actively take part and participate in operations, conversations, and shared experiences- a fully Scottish narrative.

Keywords: Pirate Radio, Community Radio, Scottish Identity, Citizens’ Media.