There are number of stations that will pop up out of blue after being inactive for awhile, WJFK is one that springs to mind. Solid Rock Radio turned up after years of being off the air last year. Some stations have two or three different ops using the same station name. I did Radio Al Fansome, but so did two other guys that I know of, there may have been more. A lot of stations use id's that are infectious and work like a ladder conspiracy. There's a Ramones song called, "Do You Remember Rock n' Roll Radio" that ends with a 60's era sounding Boss DJ announcing, "This is Rock And Roll Radio. Stay Tuned For More Rock And Roll", it sounds so slick and it's so easy to lift, I've heard several stations using it. I know I did. I don't know who the others were, and by putting this in a public forum there's a decent chance some wannbe or existing pirate will read this and do it again?
Pirate radio is all about having fun from the op's viewpoint. Some heathen might put his studio back together and "Whammo!" the Voice of The Epileptic Catfish is back on the air. It's tough to say who is active and who isn't, they could also be using revolving station names and transmitters. I always had a minimum of three stations going at any one time, one primary station, a secondary one, and one that I used every few months for special things. Most ops I knew had several stations going at once, we sure joked about it a lot. I think the late George Zeller wrote ,"There are 30 to 40 pirate stations and 4 transmitters." which was very close to the truth.
That may help and it may not, but it's a guide to the op's side of things and why stations pop up and disappear. One major reason stations go silent is these folks have lives. Things come up that are more serious than playing radio. It may be long term, or they might be back in a short amount of time, you just don't know.
At the moment I'm wondering if Bud Bigly is doing ok? He was on the air regularly for a few months and he's been MIA for a few weeks. If anyone knows anything PM me.