Rinse FM

Early years

Rinse FM was founded as a pirate radio station in 1994 by a group of 16-year-olds including DJ Geeneus and DJ Slimzee. 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 played predominantly jungle music with a particular focus on MCs, a direction which set Rinse apart from competing stations. The first broadcast was made at Ingram House in Tower Hamlets, London. At the time the broadcasts were being made out of 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. This continued to a lesser extent all throughout the 16 years during which Rinse was a pirate radio station.

Kool FM 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 became really popular, thanks to the darker sound that it brought with it from its jungle days. Into the early 2000s, the station became critical for emergence and development of the genres grime and dubstep. The station was managed during this time by Uncle Dugs.

In 2005 Ofcom disconnected a Rinse FM radio transmitter and Dean Fullman, known on air as DJ Slimzee, received an ASBO, believed to be the first of its kind, banning him from every rooftop in the borough of Tower Hamlets.

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. The station's owner DJ Geeneus at the time said that: "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 given a community FM broadcast license by Ofcom in June 2010 for frequency 106.8 FM. 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 Units. These are units for persistent truants and people with special educational needs.

Influence

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."

The station has been described as London's biggest pirate radio station and "without doubt the world's leading grime station."

Radio 1 DJ John Peel recommended the station in 2004, stating that:

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 released "Katy on a Mission" with the label in 2010. Currently signed acts include P Money, Katy B, Novelist, Roska and Royal T. DJs who have released mix albums for Rinse Recordings include Skream, Skepta, Kode9 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's chart-topping single "My Love" in 2014.

List Of Rinse Mix Albums

Internet radio

Rinse began broadcasting on the internet in 2006. Once broadcast, all shows get uploaded to the website as podcasts.

Rinse France

In early 2014, a sister radio station Rinse France was opened in Paris.

Financials

Current assets of Rinse FM rose from 2012's £8,092 to £101,667 in 2013.