Pirate radio stations are winning ethnic minority listeners from legitimate broadcasters because their programmes are in languages other than English, Ofcom research has found.

Almost a quarter of pirate listeners in Greater London, where illegal stations are the most prevalent, tune in because they prefer to listen to shows broadcast in African or Eastern European languages.

Some non-English-speaking stations investigated by Ofcom, the regulator, have Ghanaian and Nigerian presenters, and a Polish-speaking station recently has begun broadcasting in London. Some of the stations are English-speaking but provide news bulletins on stories from countries such as Jamaica for expatriates.

There are no legal radio stations that broadcast exclusively in foreign languages in Britain. Pirate radio is most popular in the London boroughs of Hackney, Haringey and Lambeth and almost half of the pirates’ listeners are black.

The study will come as a blow to the BBC and commercial radio, which have invested heavily in targeting urban listeners with stations such as the BBC’s 1Xtra and the former pirate station Kiss 100, now owned by Emap.

BBC and commercial stations in Greater London have lost 16 per cent of their audience to underground rivals. A quarter of listeners believe that pirate stations play “better music” — the main motivator for listening. The stations mainly play a mix of hip-hop, house, drum and bass, UK garage and reggae.

Pirate radio listeners said that they also preferred them to mainstream radio because they are more community- focused and “offer something different”. Many, such as

Deja Vu 92.3, the biggest pirate station in London, and Lightning 90.8, are well-established and have their own websites and advertising sponsors.

Ofcom admitted that it was effectively powerless to stop pirate radio under present legislation and said that the battle to close them was “ongoing”.

Ministers and commercial broadcasters will meet the regulator next week to plan a new enforcement strategy.

Ofcom describes pirate radio as a “serious problem” because the FM wavelengths that the stations use interfere with emergency services signals and legal broadcasts from stations that hold licences.

On air

London pirate stations

–– Afrique FM

–– Deja Vu

–– Flashback

–– Galaxy FM

–– Hot 97 UK

–– Kasapa FM

–– Lightning FM

–– Naija

–– Powerjam

–– Rinse FM

Station FM

Touch FM

Vibes FM

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