For years, Ireland's top-rated radio station--Power FM--was a pirate. It ran out of a tiny room above a shockingly ramshackle furniture reupholstery shop on some small street in Dublin. It would routinely win one of Ireland's leading papers' annual reader's poll for best radio station. It was totally illegal, but until I think a year or two ago, the government turned a blind eye. I don't know what's happened over there since, but it was a very cool thing. I was lucky enough to get to play a four hour set on it one night three years ago, as a guest DJ, tag-teaming with Don Rosco. It was from midnight til 4. The show was co-hosted by Rosco and Rohan, both luminaries in Dublin's drum and bass community, and co-owners of Ireland's leading dnb label, Bassbin (which has been, incidentally, releasing some of the most vital and interesting drum and bass of the last couple of years).

Anyone who paid attention to the proliferation of drum and bass in England in the early 90s will remember how pirate radio was right at the center of that movement. Many a fan got hooked through those broadcasts. You could tune in and listen to any number of pioneering DJs and MCs who to the last kept it 'ardkore. No commercials, no polished programming, no bullshit: just exactly what you the listener wanted to hear.