About this Kane FM story
As we approach a decade of legal broadcasting, we caught up with the founder of Kane FM. Nomis was raised in Guildford and started collecting records in the late 80s after listening to pirate radio. ‘LWR, Fantasy FM and Smart Boys were playing different styles and it was refreshing from what most people were listening to’ said Nomis. A few years later he got introduced to someone who had built a transmitter. ‘My mate Red 5 had turntables and a guy called Stewart had built a rig. We loved having a platform to share our tastes with others in the community’. Doing pirate back in the day was a necessity as the system thought our music was too radical’
After a while Kane FM invested in a more powerful rig and started reaching out to more people. ‘It was 1992 and the raves were coming on strong. Our friends ran and played on sound systems, it was an amazing time’. The criminal justice bill came out in 94 and pushed everyone into the clubs.‘That’s when things turned sour in my opinion, some people saw it as a way to make money, which was miles away from the original movement; all we wanted to do was party‘.
In 2004 the decision was made to chase a community radio license. We ran a 28-day trial (RSL) to demonstrate to Ofcom that Kane wanted to go down the legal licensed route. ‘The only way to achieve our goals within the wider community was to go the legal route’
The 28-day trial went well but it took a further 7 years to get the license for community radio station.
Nomis now deals with the legal side of operations.‘Radio has been part of my life for 30 years and It has taken 10-years to build links in the community to make the project sustainable. However, through our love and passion were able to make it work’.
‘We have over the last 10 years of legal broadcasting exceeded our original aims and objectives and are planning to carry on for another 5-years. I would like to thank everyone (including all our partners) who have contributed and supported the project from the early pirate days to present. We have just submitted an application to Ofcom to extend our license to 2026 - Keep on, keeping it on’ nomis.