Rinse FM

Rinse FM

Broadcast area	inner London
Frequency	106.8
Format	Grime / Dubstep / UK garage / funky / drum and bass
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	rinse.fm

Rinse FM is a London-based community radio station, licensed for "young people living and/or working within the central, east and south London areas.". The station plays grime, dubstep, UK garage, funky, drum and bass and other genres.

The station was founded in 1994 and operated as pirate radio station until it was given a community FM broadcast license in June 2010. Rinse FM was described as London's biggest pirate radio station and provided first exposure to Dizzee Rascal and Wiley and later provided a home for dubstep DJs like Skream, Kode9, and Plastician. DJ Geeneus is the station's head.

Influence

Writing for Fact Magazine in 2007, Simon Hampson stated: "Without Rinse, Grime and Dubstep would be very different: indeed, it’s fair to say that they might not even exist at all."

The station has been described as London's biggest pirate radio station and "without doubt the world's leading grime station."

John Peel recommended the station in 2004:

When I'm in London I listen to the pirates as much as I can. There's a station I like called Rinse FM, which is somewhere in the area banded by Kiss FM and Classic FM.

Pirate broadcasting

The station was founded in 1994 and operated as pirate radio station until it was given a FM broadcast license in June 2010. In its early years the station played predominantly jungle music and its programming has included many underground dance genres over time. As a pirate radio station it broadcast from secret locations in East London for 16 years. In the 10 years before it obtained a licence the station was central to the emergence of grime and dubstep. Dizzee Rascal, Wiley, Roll Deep, Tinchy Stryder and Skream played on Rinse FM during the early days of their career.

In 2005 Ofcom disconnected a Rinse FM radio transmitter and the station's DJ Slimzee received an ASBO, believed to be the first of its kind, banning him from every rooftop in the borough of Tower Hamlets.

Internet radio

Rinse began broadcasting on the internet in 2006, and also has a podcast.

FM licence

As of August 2007 the station was seeking a legal FM licence. Rinse FM created a petition which received hundreds of supporters within less than a week, including some from countries other than the UK. The station's owner DJ Geeneus at the time said that: "We don't want to be legal to play stupid adverts and make loads of money from advertising. We want to be legal to say: look at our scene, look at what we're doing. We're a business, we're not criminals. We're supplying something that no one else is supplying, and we're professional."

Rinse FM was given a community FM broadcast license by Ofcom in June 2010 for frequency 106.8 FM.

As part of its community broadcasting remit, Rinse FM is engaged in training young people in broadcasting skills who are considered marginalised, even working with children who are in Pupil Referral Units. These are units for persistent truants and people with special educational needs.

See also

• Grime
• Dubstep
• Funky

External links

• Official website
• Rinse FM on Twitter
• Matt Mason, Pirate Radio documentary, London and UK
• Pirate kings