Rinse FM is a

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

-based

community radio station Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popular ...

, licensed for "young people living and/or working within the central, east and south London areas". It plays

garage A garage is a covered structure built for the purpose of parking, storing, protecting, maintaining, and/or repairing vehicles. Specific applications include: *Garage (residential), a building or part of a building for storing one or more vehicle ...

grime Grime may refer to: * Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust * Grime (music genre), a genre of music * ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity * ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game * "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Woo ...

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken be ...

, house,

jungle A jungle is land covered with dense forest and tangled vegetation, usually in tropical climates. Application of the term has varied greatly during the past recent century. Etymology The word ''jungle'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''ja� ...

UK funky UK funky (sometimes known as UKF or funky) is a genre of electronic dance music born in United Kingdom that is heavily influenced by Soca, soulful house, tribal house, UK garage, broken beat and grime. Typically, UK funky blends beats, bas ...

and other

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded danc ...

genres popular in the United Kingdom. The station was founded in 1994 and operated as a

pirate radio station Pirate radio or a pirate radio station is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are received—especially ...

until it was awarded a broadcast licence in June 2010. Rinse FM has been described as London's biggest pirate radio station. It provided first exposure to

artists

Dizzee Rascal Dylan Kwabena Mills (born 18 September 1984), better known by his stage name Dizzee Rascal, is a British MC and rapper. A pioneer of grime music, his work has also incorporated elements of UK garage, bassline, British hip hop, and R&B. D ...

and

Wiley Wiley may refer to: Locations * Wiley, Colorado, a U.S. town * Wiley, Pleasants County, West Virginia, U.S. * Wiley-Kaserne, a district of the city of Neu-Ulm, Germany People * Wiley (musician), British grime MC, rapper, and producer * Wiley Mil ...

and later provided a home for dubstep DJs such as

Skream Oliver Dene Jones (born 1 June 1986), known as Skream, is an English electronic music producer based in Croydon. Skream was an early and influential exponent of the dubstep genre. After producing several singles, he released his first full-len ...

Kode9 Steve Goodman, known as Kode9 (born 1973) is a Scottish electronic music artist, DJ, and founder of the Hyperdub record label. He was one of the founding members of the early dubstep scene with his late collaborator The Spaceape. He has releas ...

, and

DJ Oneman Steven Bishop (born 1986), known professionally as Oneman, is a DJ and producer from Streatham, London. His background is in pirate radio and he is a regular DJ on Rinse FM. Oneman's DJ sets typically blend dubstep, hip hop, grime, UK funky an ...

. DJ Geeneus is the station's head.

History

Early years

Founded by DJ Geeneus and

DJ Slimzee Dean Fullman (born 20 June 1978), best known by his stage name DJ Slimzee, is an English DJ who currently hosts a show on Rinse FM, returning from his previous show on NTS. He is best known for his show on pirate radio station Rinse FM in the e ...

, Rinse FM's first broadcast was in September 1994. For a three-year period in the early days of the station the Rinse studio was hosted in DJ Slimzee's house. In its early years the station mainly played

with a particular focus on MCs, a direction which set Rinse apart from competing stations. At the time the station broadcast from secret, makeshift locations such as kitchens and bedrooms belonging to friends and DJs, constantly moving between these locations to avoid getting shut down by authorities. Its first broadcast was made from Ingram House in

Tower Hamlets The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is a London borough covering much of the traditional East End. It was formed in 1965 from the merger of the former metropolitan boroughs of Stepney, Poplar, and Bethnal Green. 'Tower Hamlets' was originally ...

, London. This continued to a lesser extent throughout the 16 years during which Rinse was a pirate radio station.

Kool FM Kool London, also known as Kool FM, is a former London pirate radio station that now broadcasts as an internet radio station, playing jungle, drum and bass, and old skool. Kool is generally regarded as being instrumental in the development ...

was the leading pirate radio station within the jungle scene, and it wasn't until Rinse changed its focus to the emerging garage scene around 1998–1999 that it gained a substantial following, thanks to the darker sound that it brought from its jungle days. Into the early 2000s, the station became critical for emergence and development of the genres

and

., and was managed during this time by DJ Uncle Dugs. Rinse broadcast on the frequency of 100.3/100.4FM for the majority of its unlicensed years on air. Radio 1 DJ

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

recommended the station in 2004, stating that: :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 .e. between the frequencies of

Kiss FM Kiss FM, Kiss Radio or variants may refer to: Asia-Oceania * Various Kiss FM-branded stations in the Philippines ** 95.1 Kiss FM, Lucena, Quezon ** 102.3 Kiss FM, Tagbilaran, Bohol * Kiss92 FM, Singapore * KISS 969, Sri Lanka * Kiss Radio Taiwan ...

and Classic FM. In April 2005

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

disconnected a Rinse FM radio transmitter and Dean Fullman, known on air as

, received an

ASBO An anti-social behaviour order (ASBO ) is a civil order made in Great Britain against a person who had been shown, on the balance of evidence, to have engaged in anti-social behaviour. The orders were introduced by Prime Minister Tony Blair i ...

, believed to be the first of its kind, banning him from every rooftop in the borough of

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. At the time, the station's owner DJ Geeneus said: "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 awarded a community FM broadcast licence by Ofcom in June 2010 for frequency 106.8 FM. It commenced broadcasting legally on 7 February 2011. The station is presently managed by Sarah Lockhart. 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 Unit In the UK, a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) (previously known as Pupil Re-integration Unit by some Local Education Authorities) is an alternative education provision which is specifically organised to provide education for children who are not able to ...

s. These are units for persistent truants and people with

special educational needs Special educational needs (SEN), also known as special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in the United Kingdom refers to the education of children who require different education provision to the mainstream system. Definition The definiti ...

DJs and presenters

DJs and presenters to have appeared on Rinse include: * Alexander Nut * Anti Social (Jay 5ive,

Silkie The Silkie (also known as the Silky or Chinese silk chicken) is a breed of chicken named for its atypically fluffy plumage, which is said to feel like silk and satin. The breed has several other unusual qualities, such as black skin and bones, ...

Kromestar Rajpal Singh Kalsi, better known as Kromestar, is a British Sikh dubstep and grime record producer from South London South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the boroughs, in whol ...

) * Artwork *

Benga Benga may refer to: Ethnonym * Benga people, an indigenous ethnic group of Equatorial Guinea * Benga language, spoke by the Benga people * Benga music, a genre of music originating in Kenya Places Romania * ''Benga'', the old name of Mo ...

* Ben UFO *

Boy Better Know Boy Better Know, often abbreviated as BBK, is a British grime collective and record label. The collective was founded in North London in 2005 as an independent record label by brothers Jamie and Joseph Adenuga, better known as Jme, and Skepta. ...

Caspa CASPA or the Centralized Application Service for Physician Assistants is an application service for graduate-level PA programs. Similar to the Common Application used by some undergraduate institutions and the American Medical College Applicatio ...

dBridge dBridge, also known as Velvit (born Darren White), is an English drum and bass record producer whose career began during the genre's conception in the early 1990s.IMO Records"dBridge Biography", ''IMO Records'', 17 October 2011. Retrieved 27 Oc ...

* DJ Chef *

DJ Distance Distance (born Greg Sanders) is a British dubstep producer and DJ. He also founded the record label Chestplate, whose sonic direction followed his style, fusing metal influences with dubstep templates. Distance's involvement in Mary Anne Hobbs ...

Fabio Fabio is a given name descended from Latin '' Fabius'' and very popular in Italy and Latin America (due to Italian migration). Its English equivalent is Fabian. The name is written without an accent in Italian and Spanish, but is usually accented ...

& Grooverider * DJ Flight * DJ Geeneus *

DJ Hatcha Terry Leonard, better known as DJ Hatcha or simply Hatcha, is a South London producer and DJ notable for his seminal work in the musical genre dubstep. He is divorced from defected DJ Sam Divine. He had a regular show on the prominent pirate ra ...

DJ Ron A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile ...

DJ Spoony DJ Spoony (born Johnathan Joseph; 25 June 1970) is a British DJ and radio presenter. He is a member of the UK garage production trio, the Dreem Teem. Early career Dj Spoony was born in Hackney, East London to British West Indian parents. His ...

* DJ Shax *

DJ Zinc Benjamin Pettit (born 12 March 1972), better known as DJ Zinc, is a British DJ and record producer. Zinc first became known for 1995's "Super Sharp Shooter", a hip hop/jungle fusion, notably one of the pioneering jump-up anthems of its time. ...

* Elijah And Skilliam (Butterz) * Funk Butcher * Hessle Audio * Icicle * Jyoty * Josey Rebelle * Kismet *

Loefah Peter Livingston (born 8 September 1980), known professionally as Loefah, is one of the pioneering founders of dubstep most notable for his releases on one of the genre's founding labels, DMZ. Loefah started off collaborating with the Digital Mysti ...

Logan Sama Logan Sama is an English Grime DJ from Brentwood, Essex. He has appeared regularly throughout his career on radio stations Rinse, Kiss 100 and BBC Radio 1. He also currently runs the record labels Adamantium Music, Earth616 and KeepinItGrim ...

* Marcus Nasty * Mark Radford *

Newham Generals Newham Generals are a grime duo from East London, currently consisting of MCs D Double E and Footsie. They are best known for their singles "Frontline", "Hard" and "Like It Or Not" as well as their live performances. The group was founded i ...

* N Type * Norwood Soul Patrol *

Oneman Steven Bishop (born 1986), known professionally as Oneman, is a DJ and producer from Streatham, London. His background is in pirate radio and he is a regular DJ on Rinse FM. Oneman's DJ sets typically blend dubstep, hip hop, grime, UK funky an ...

* Paleface * Pangaea * Pay As U Go * Pearson Sound *

Plastician Chris Reed (born 30 October 1982), also known as Plastician (formerly Plasticman), is an electronic musician from Thornton Heath in the London Borough of Croydon. History Plastician, real name Chris Reed is a DJ from Croydon in South London. H ...

P Money Paris Moore-Williams (born 8 April 1989), better known by his stage name P Money, is a British grime MC, rapper and songwriter from New Cross, South East London, who is also active in the drum and bass scene. He is best known for his live pe ...

* Roska *

Royal-T Mark Taylor, professionally known as Royal-T, is a British UK garage, bassline and grime DJ and music producer from Southampton. He is signed to Butterz and Rinse Recordings. Taylor was spotted in 2010 by Butterz label founders Elijah and Ski ...

Scratcha DVA Scratcha DVA also known as DJ Scratcha, DVA i; Emotions'', Scratchclart and DVA is a British electronic musician, producer and DJ often associated with DVA Music, Hyperdub and Rinse FM. His debut album, ''Pretty Ugly'' (2012) and second album, ...

* Skepta *

* SK Vibemaker * Supa D * Spyro *

The Clairvoyants The Clairvoyants (Thommy Ten and Amélie van Tass) are an Austrian magician and mentalist duo. The two of them have been performing together since 2011. They finished runner-up to Grace VanderWaal on America's Got Talent (season 11), season 11 o ...

Stamina MC Stamina MC is a stage name of drum & bass MC and vocalist Linden Reeves. Stamina MC used both rapping and vocalizing. Biography His earliest experiences of MCing were on pirate radio in 1996; first Pressure FM (inactive), then on to currently a ...

* Uncle Dugs *

* Youngsta

Rinse Recordings

The station first released music under the Rinse Recordings imprint in 2003. Currently, the label releases albums and singles from a roster of signed artists as well as mix CDs from DJs associated with the station. The label first saw chart success when

Katy B Kathleen Anne Brien (born 8 May 1989), better known as Katy B, is an English singer and songwriter. She released her debut studio album, '' On a Mission'', in 2011, which spawned two top five hits, "Katy on a Mission" and " Lights On". In 2014 ...

released "

Katy on a Mission "Katy on a Mission" is a song performed by British recording artist Katy B. It was released by Rinse accompanied by a B-side titled "Louder" as her debut single and lead single from her debut album, '' On a Mission'', on 22 August 2010. The so ...

" on the label in 2010. Currently signed acts include

, Katy B,

Novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

, Roska and

. DJs who have released mix albums for Rinse Recordings include

, Skepta,

and Elijah and Skilliam. With the release of the 23rd mix CD (mixed by Richy Ahmed), Rinse has stated that it broadens the concept to include non-residents of the station. The label went on to release Katy B's chart-topping album '' Little Red'' and

Route 94 The following highways are numbered 94: International * European route E94 Australia * List of road routes in Western Australia#94, National Route 94 in Western Australia * Burley Griffin Way (New South Wales) * Dohertys Road (Victoria) (New ...

's chart-topping single " My Love" in 2014.

Discography

Mix/compilation albums

* Rinse 01 - Geeneus (2007) * Rinse 02 -

(2007) * Rinse 03 - Supa D (2008) * Rinse 04 - Skepta (2008) * Rinse 05 - Paleface (2008) * Rinse 06 -

(2008) * Rinse 07 - Spyro (2009) * Rinse 08 - Alexander Nut (2009) * Rinse 09 - N Type (2009) * Rinse 10 - Marcus Nasty (2009) * Rinse 11 -

(2010) * Rinse 12 - Kismet (2010) * Rinse 13 - ''no release'' * Rinse 14 - Youngsta (2011) * Rinse 15 - Roska (2011) * Rinse 16 - Ben UFO (2011) * Rinse 17 - Elijah And Skilliam (2011) * Rinse 18 - Mark Radford (2012) * Rinse 19 - Icicle (2012) * Rinse 20 - Uncle Dugs (2012) * Rinse 21 - T.Williams (2012) * Rinse 22 -

(2013) * Rinse 23 - Richy Ahmed (2013) * Various - "Dubstep Drama - OST" (2007) * Various - "I Love Dubstep" (2008) * Various - "I Love Funky" (2010) * Various - "I Love Grime" (2012)

Artists singles/albums

* Geeneus - "Volumes 1" (2008) * Roska - "Roska" (2010) / "Roska 2" (2012) *

- "On A Mission" / "Lights On" (2010) *

- "Presents Royal-T" (2012) * Faze Miyake - Faze Miyake (2015)

Internet radio

Rinse began streaming its shows online in 2006. All shows are available both on the website and

SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...

. Rinse has maintained a station on

Dash Radio Dash Radio is a digital radio broadcasting platform with over 80 radio stations. These stations are curated by DJs, radio personalities, musicians, etc. The platform includes partner stations curated by Snoop Dogg, Kylie Jenner, Lil Wayne, Tech N9 ...

since 2016.

Rinse France

In February 2014, Rinse launched Rinse France based in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Legacy

The station has been described as London's biggest pirate radio station and "without doubt the world's leading grime station." 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." Rinse celebrated its 20th birthday in 2014.

References

External links

*
Rinse FranceRinse
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rinse Fm Dance radio stations Former pirate radio stations Radio stations in London Radio stations established in 1994 Community radio stations in the United Kingdom Pirate radio stations in the United Kingdom Grime music UK garage