Kool FM Classic Shows
This is pirate radio the way a lot of us actually remember it: tune the dial, catch Kool through the hiss, hear a dubplate you’ve never heard before, wait for the shout-outs and hope somebody had a blank tape in the deck.
Not polished radio. Proper pirate radio.
Thirteen surviving Rave Archive UK recordings from 1994 to 1997 catch Kool while jungle and drum & bass were still moving at ridiculous speed.
Kool was never just a place to hear tunes. It was where new tunes got tested, MCs built their names, DJs turned up with fresh dubplates and listeners found out what was happening before the weekend.
These shows keep all that in. You hear the DJs, the MCs, the rough edges, the station feel and the combinations that made pirate radio different from a normal mix tape.
From SL and Ron with Moose, Five-O and Navigator in 1994 through to Mampi Swift with Skibadee and the late-97 crews, you can hear jungle becoming drum & bass without somebody tidying the story up afterwards.
Kool FM on the dial
Play them through the site player.
