Kool FMKool FM

The first Kool FM broadcast went out on 28 November 1991 from Banister House in Hackney — Eastman and Smurf working out of Smurf's brother's bedroom, with the transmitter sited on a roof over Clapton Square nearby. Smurf left in 1998, and Eastman and Susie G kept 94.6 running for thirty-one years, adding an online signal as Kool London in the 2000s without ever giving up the pirate frequency. Eastman's last show was New Year's Eve 2022, and Rinse took the station on that January.

He put it plainly on the way out: the platform needed youthfulness and energy, “which I ain't got no more.” Rinse inherited the lineage intact, along with the Jungle Fever rave brand — Devious D still holds a crossover show, Metalheadz has a slot, and a good deal of the newer end was not born when Banister House first went on air. Both founders stayed on to advise.