25 Years of digital mainstream music and pirate programs sounding like crap!

Is this something to commemorate, really? Radio Survivor did, [www.radiosurvivor.com] Pirate stations have certainly taken advantage of the convenience of using .MP3 audio since about 1997. Which leads me to ask this, what pirate station was the first to try using .MP3 audio, and when? One way that you've noticed was when pirate relays stopped being 45min and 30min in lengths, or 1/2 the time of one cassette tape side. I still remember the September 1990 Radio Wolf Int. mentioning that the brief dead-air pause was them flipping over the tape. Ahhhhhhhh, memories....