Radio aerial, pirate radio station aerial

This damaged radio aerial was owned by Solar Radio, a music station, which began life as a pirate radio station in 1984, after their previous station, Horizon Radio, was forced off air. Originally broadcasting soul music, the station broadened its output to emerging hip-hop and electro music. The aerial was attached to the roof of a council tower block in Swiss Cottage in 1988, where it was connected to a VHF transmitter, putting out programmes sent via a link from a secret studio site elsewhere in London.

When the Department of Trade and Industry's Radio Interference Service raided a pirate radio station they would normally only take away the transmitter, as the aerials were too bulky. However, they would often try and break the aerials to prevent them being used again. In this case they twisted it rather more than was strictly necessary to put it out of use. This amused the station's engineer, which was why it was recovered.