awolfm.com

Welcome to AWOL FM

AWOL was part radio show, part rave, part zoo that broadcast overnight on Friday & Saturday nights on BCR from 1993-1995.

AWOL later led to CREDO, which ran on the same station (by then called Citybeat) from 2000-2004. Now in 2024, AWOL FM is born - a 24/7 radio station of AWOL and CREDO mixes, guest mixes, and anything else that excites us! Click the play button on the left to listen, or listen (and watch, when available) at www.mixcloud.com/live/awolfm

AWOL was the brainchild of BCR drivetime DJ Phil West who, after begging for over a year, finally got permission to use the 1-5am graveyard shift on a Sunday night/Monday morning to play house, trance and techno. It was so successful - even in those unlikely hours - that soon he was given Saturday night 2-6am and Sunday night 10pm-1am instead. At this point he started bringing turntables into the studio and inviting the cream of Northern Ireland DJs to come play live - the rest, as they say, is history.

AWOL still holds the record for the highest local radio audience figures ever recorded in the 4-5am timeslot and with good reason. The show captured the exuberant buzz of the time - a buzz never equalled before or since - all thanks to the fantastic bunch of loonies who turned up at silly o'clock to play the music they loved to an audience who was gagging for it.

The show was as notorious as it was huge but the claims of the Sunday morning religious presenter - who regularly complained of 'funny smells' when she arrived each week - were never substantiated, officer, and we'll not even mention the odd wide-eyed pilgrim wandering round the car park, lost...

So, please enjoy listening to AWOL FM, where you'll hear live mixes which were recorded off air. Some mixes were obviously planned perfection, others were obviously 5am 'efforts' at the end of a long night. All have a place in history!

Visit our Facebook group AWOL FM for intel and chat, and don't forget its sister group The AWOL Experience, where you'll find many tunes from back in the day and maybe even a few newer ones. Welcome!

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