Underdog: The Andy Swallow Story

From hooliganism and violence through to the ecstasy and the rise of rave culture, Andy Swallow, co-founder of West Ham's ICF and later Centreforce 883, opens up about his life for the very first time.

Lorraine Cœur d'Acier, une radio dans la ville

Pirates of the Airwaves

In 1966 a group of determined young men defied the New Zealand government and launched a pirate radio station aboard a ship in the Hauraki Gulf.

Jolly Roger

"Jolly Roger" could mean Roger Schawinski. But by definition, a "Jolly Roger" is the classic black pirate flag with skull and crossbones. This documentary tells the unvarnished story of the Swiss radio pirates who emerged in the 1970s. The focus is on Radio 24 in its wild years, when Schawinski's team broadcast from Italy, with the strongest FM station in the world at the time, straight down from Pizzo Groppera, 130 kilometers all the way to the Zurich area. Supported by numerous original documents from private filmmakers and from the SRG archives, the viewer relives the absurd radio war between David and Goliath that lasted almost four years, 24 years after this war between the radio pirates and the state power began on November 13, 1979. The many known and unknown fighters, who rallied behind their Radio Winkelried Schawinski in 1979 to help usher Switzerland into a new media age, remember the good and bad times, the demonstrations and the numerous threatened and actual closures.

40 Watts from Nowhere

Frustrated by commercial radio in the ’90s, a music-loving legal secretary builds one from scratch and runs it out of her LA apartment.

The Last Pirates: Britain's Rebel DJs

Rapper Rodney P. presents the story of Britain's second wave of pirate radio DJs. In the 1980s a new generation of pirate radio stations appeared broadcasting from London tower blocks.

8 Bar – The Evolution of Grime

They called it young black kids’ punk rock - a genre that radio stations wouldn’t play and records that labels refused to sell. But grime would not be stopped. With machine-gun lyrics that shred the eardrums and syncopated electronics that pound the chest like a sledgehammer, grime was a product of social unrest, urban culture and disenfranchised youth colliding in early 2000s UK. It didn’t just rouse a grassroots audience, however. Today, grime is surging in popularity all over the globe and widely influencing the music charts. This is the story of the genre’s roots.

Let Our Voices Be Heard Too

A loving portrait of a pirate radio stations, which is run by the rural population with plenty of passion and talent in the face of opposition from the authorities.

Tik van de meule

Pirate radio stations are unprecedentedly popular, even in the age of the internet and Spotify. What does this music say about identity, about our desire for stability in a changing world?

Space Hackers

The '60s. Achille and Giovanni Judica-Cordiglia, two amateur radio enthusiasts, listened to sound from space with home-built equipment in their hometown of Turin. But one night, they recorded something quite different from the usual static that would change their lives forever...

Låten från båten

Piratensender Powerplay

Tommy and Mike operate a famous pirate radio station, Germany's most listened-to radio station. The police and the operators of the Bavarian Broadcast Company try to stop their illegal broadcast.

The Boat That Rocked

When a group of rebellious deejays decides to defy the ban on government-censored music, they take to the seas to broadcast music and mayhem to millions of adoring fans.

On the Air Live with Captain Midnight

A suburban teen starts a pirate radio station in the back of his van and becomes a cult hero.

Young Soul Rebels

Two disc jockeys have a friend's murder to solve in the fringe-group melting pot of 1977 London.

One Hundred Steps

Peppino Impastato is a quick-witted lad growing up in 1970s Sicily. Despite hailing from a family with Mafia ties and living just one hundred steps from the house of local boss Tano Badalamenti, Peppino decides to expose the Mafia by using a pirate radio station to broadcast his political pronouncements in the form of ironic humour.

Pump Up the Volume

Mark Hunter, a lonely high school student, uses his shortwave radio to moonlight as the popular pirate DJ "Hard Harry." When his show gets blamed for a teen committing suicide, the students clash with high school faculty and the authorities.

American Graffiti

A couple of high school graduates spend one final night cruising the strip with their buddies before they go off to college.

The Witching Hour

At the stroke of midnight, pirate radio host Devlin Deeds taunts the airwaves with tethering stories of murder, madness, and the macabre in small town New England.

Radio Pirates

It's 1965 and rock music is shaking up the world but not in Auckland, New Zealand. One man's determination will challenge, inspire and lead a bunch of rebel deejay's into an un-chartered political nightmare. A boat called the Tiri will be their freedom, broadcasting from international waters to avoid prosecution. Based on a true story, a bold bid to free the airwaves and bring rock n' roll to the people.