Rinse FM is a London-based community radio station, licensed for "young people living and/or working within the central, east and south London areas". It plays garage, grime, dubstep, house, jungle, UK funky and other dance music genres popular in the United Kingdom. The station was founded in 1994 and operated as a pirate radio station 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 grime artists Dizzee Rascal and Wiley and later provided a home for dubstep DJs such as Skream, Kode9, and DJ Oneman. DJ Geeneus is the station's head. History Early years Founded by DJ Geeneus and DJ Slimzee, 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 jungle 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, London. This continued to a lesser extent 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 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 grime and dubstep., 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 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 [i.e. between the frequencies of] Kiss FM and Classic FM. In April 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