The first black music station in Europe

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

In 1981, Rita Marley’s brother Leroy Anderson aka Lepke launched the Dread Broadcasting Corporation (DBC), Europe’s first dedicated black music station. Frustrated by the lack of airtime for reggae music in the UK, Lepke setup a mast in his back garden and began to broadcast to a small area of West London every Sunday afternoon. DBC soon expanded to cover all styles of black music and with its unmistakable logo featuring a dread with headphones and a spliff became a trailblazer for the future of black British radio in the UK. Neil Meads speaks to former DBC station manager Michael Williams about the early days of the station, and DJ Carmella Jervier explains how inspiring it was to finally hear black female DJs on the radio. (Photo: Dread Broadcasting Corporation. Credit: BBC)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to this witness history podcast from the BBC World Service, with me Neil Meads.
0:10.3	Today I'm taking you back to London in 1981 and the launch of a pirate radio station
0:15.5	called DBC, or the Dread Broadcasting Corporation.
0:19.0	So good evening everyone and once again welcome to the sound of DBC.
0:24.4	The Dread Broadcasting Corporation is the first black owned and controlled station in Europe.
0:30.0	England needs a black station, Europe needs a black station.
0:33.9	It's the same music every day, the same chat and the same jokes.
0:38.4	Kamala Jervier is a 22-year-old social worker in London.
0:42.0	To her DBC sounds like nothing she's ever heard before.
0:45.3	In the 80s it felt like it was Medallion DJs, typical shirt open,
0:50.0	Medallion, very male, very white.
0:52.8	It's just really kind of boring basically and I remember thinking what a real black radio station
0:59.0	playing reggae music in London and I thought wow I've got to get on that station.
1:05.1	Kamala gets her break on the station, but more on that later, first to Lecky,
1:09.7	the man behind the Dread Broadcasting Corporation.
1:13.2	Real name Lee Roy Anderson, he's the younger brother of Rita Marley, wife of reggae legend Bob.
1:19.6	In the late 1970s, Lecky spends a couple of years in New York,
1:23.9	a city where black music radio is booming.
1:26.8	On his return to London, the lack of musical choice is stark,
1:30.8	particularly when it comes to reggae, as his friend Michael Williams explains.
1:35.3	The sole intention at the start of DBC was to set up a platform for reggae music in London,
1:41.0	but it then broadened out into being a black music station.
	...

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