 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(September 2009) |
Radio City was a British pirate radio station broadcasting from Shivering Sands Army Fort, one of the abandoned Second World War Maunsell Sea Forts in the Thames Estuary. [1]
In 1964, following the launch of Radio Caroline, Screaming Lord Sutch said he would start his own station. On 27 May Radio Sutch began broadcasting on 194 metres (announced as 197), 1542 kHz, from the south tower of Shivering Sands. It was a low-powered, low-budget operation.
The transmitter, from a Handley Page Halifax bomber, was powered with a cascade of car batteries, a scaffold pole with a skull-and-crossbones flag as an antenna. [2] By September 1964 Sutch had become tired of it and sold it to his friend and unofficial (unpaid) [3] [ page needed ] manager Reginald Calvert for a reported £5,000. [4] Calvert bought new equipment and expanded the station into other towers, renaming it Radio City. One of the original seven towers had been destroyed when a ship collided with it, leaving the northernmost tower isolated. The remaining five were connected by catwalks in an irregular star shape. Calvert's team repaired the catwalks and refurbished the facilities and living quarters. New studios were built, a more powerful transmitter installed, and the station experimented with new antenna configurations and frequencies (290 metres / 1034 kHz and eventually 299 metres/ 1003 kHz). Initially antenna wires were strung around the periphery of the towers. This was unsuccessful due to poor insulation. Later a vertical mast was erected on the central tower, supported by guy wires on three of the surrounding towers, and the station adopted the nickname "your tower of power". Although output never exceeded 2 kW, the efficiency of the antenna combined with its location over water (a reflector of radio waves) gave it the coverage of a more powerful land-based station, and Radio City claimed a power of 10 kW for the purpose of attracting advertisers.
One of the early DJ's on Radio City was Tom Edwards.
The studio equipment was standard albeit low-budget, comprising a pair (later three) of Garrard turntables, an AKG D12 microphone (the same model used by both Radio Caroline ships, Radio London and Radio 270), domestic tape decks and a basic custom mixer. A US navy transmitter General Electric TCJ-7 (nicknamed "Big Bertha") replaced the bomber transmitter. Most stations played jingles and commercials from cartridges but City used reel-to-reel. In addition to the usual music programmes, subsidised by Dutch and American evangelical shows, City had the only comedy show on pirate radio – The Auntie Mabel Hour, recordings of DJs acting comic sketches and parodying contemporary songs. Some material seems to have been stolen from The Goon Show and Round the Horne . At Christmas 1966 the show featured a parody of Alice in Wonderland and included the DJs singing new comic lyrics to instrumental versions of popular songs.
Another novelty was The Anti-City Show, which invited listeners to send letters and reel-to-reel tapes of complaint about the station. It became a forum for complaints about anything that annoyed. Occasionally, "You've Got Your Troubles" by The Fortunes was broadcast as a signal to land-based associates of a problem, such as a supply shortage.
The Port of London authority had placed wind and tide gauges on the isolated north tower and complained that City's signal interfered with their radio link to the mainland, potentially placing shipping at risk. Interference with official communications was a commonly cited reason for pirates to be banned but Radio City was to provide a more compelling reason for their closure.
In September 1965, merger talks began between City and Radio Caroline South. A transmitter was delivered to the fort, intended to be used by Caroline when it left its ship. The transmitter proved to be unsuitable and indeed, unusable. [3] [ page needed ] The merger collapsed, but the transmitter was never collected. Calvert then talked to Radio London about a merger, in a venture called UKGM (United Kingdom Good Music).
In the early morning of 20 June 1966, a business associate of Calvert, retired Major Oliver Smedley (who claimed ownership of the transmitter), sent men to take possession of Shivering Sands with the intent of holding it for ransom. The next evening, Calvert visited Smedley's home and, in an alleged scuffle between him and a 3rd party, was shot by Smedley. [5] Smedley was charged with murder but cleared on grounds of self-defence. Following Reg's death a number of consistences about the trial were revealed, plus the fact that Dorothy Calvert (Reg's widow) had been the subject of a D notice, preventing any of the many interviews she had given from being printed or broadcast. [3] [ page needed ]
The killing spurred the government to shut offshore stations, passing the Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967. However prior to this legislation, it was established that the fort, within British waters following a reinterpretation of the rules regarding territorial waters, was now covered by existing legislation. On 8 February 1967, at midnight the station closed with the playing of the national anthem.
The 1975 rock music film Slade in Flame , starring Slade, includes a scene in which the fictional rock band Flame visit Radio City for an interview, only to be airlifted to safety when shots are fired at the fort from a ship. It is later implied that the attack was staged by the band's unscrupulous manager to drum up publicity. The fictional attack was inspired by the actual 1966 boarding party; some news footage of the actual boarding is seen on a fictional television news report.
Exterior shots of the visit were filmed on and around Shivering Sands, with actor/musicians climbing the ladders used by Radio City DJs. For the airlift a helicopter landed on the roof of one towers. It was not big enough to carry all the actors, so they had to enter on one side of the aircraft and exit out of shot on the other. The film crew hung a Radio City banner on one towers, bigger and more professionally made than the crudely painted sign used by the station.
In one respect the film was not authentic: the fort has no antenna. The original Radio City mast had been dismantled in 1967. It was not possible to build a replica because of its size, and special effects techniques were not up to replicating it. Interior scenes were filmed on a stage. The interior dimensions of the tower are authentic, but the studio appears more professionally equipped. In particular, the fictional studio contains cartridge machines which Radio City never used. The Radio City DJ was played by Tommy Vance, who was on Radio Caroline in the 1960s.
In real life interviews on pirate stations would have been taped on land rather than exposing musicians to hazardous and expensive sea crossings.
An episode of Patrick McGoohan's "Danger Man" (known in the U.S. as "Secret Agent Man"), "The Not-So-Jolly Roger", was filmed on Red Sands Fort in early 1966 when "Radio 390" was broadcasting (shut down a year later). The episode was broadcast on 4 July that year.
Screaming Lord Sutch was an English musician and perennial parliamentary candidate.
The Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967, shortened to Marine Broadcasting Offences Act or Marine Offences Act, became law in the United Kingdom at midnight on Monday 14 August 1967. It was subsequently amended by the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006 and the Broadcasting Act 1990. Its purpose was to extend the powers of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1949, beyond the territorial land area and territorial waters of the UK to cover airspace and external bodies of water.
Radio London, also known as Big L and Wonderful Radio London, was a top 40 offshore commercial station that operated from 23 December 1964 to 14 August 1967, from a ship anchored in the North Sea, three and a half miles (5.6 km) off Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, England.
Pirate radio exists in most countries in Europe.
The Maunsell Forts are towers built in the Thames and Mersey estuaries during the Second World War to help defend the United Kingdom. They were operated as army and navy forts, and named for their designer, Guy Maunsell. The forts were decommissioned during the late 1950s and later used for other activities including pirate radio broadcasting. One of the forts is managed by the unrecognised Principality of Sealand; boats visit the remaining forts occasionally, and a consortium named Project Redsands is planning to conserve the fort situated at Red Sands. The aesthetic attraction of the Maunsell forts has been considered to be associated with the aesthetics of decay, transience and nostalgia.
Pirate radio in Ireland has had a long history, with hundreds of pirate radio stations having operated within the country.
Radio Atlanta was an offshore commercial station that operated briefly from 12 May 1964 to 2 July 1964 from a ship anchored in the North Sea, three and a half miles off Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, England. The radio broadcasting vessel was owned, at that time, by Gordon McLendon and Clint Murchison of Dallas, Texas, and leased to a British company for day-to-day operations. It was named after Atlanta, Texas,
Pearce Reginald Hartley Calvert was an English artist manager, born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England.
Major William Oliver Smedley was an English businessman involved in classical liberal politics and pirate radio.
Swinging Radio England ("SRE") was a top 40 offshore commercial station billed as the "World's Most Powerful" that operated from 3 May 1966 to 13 November 1966 from a ship in the North Sea, four and a half miles off Frinton-on-Sea, Essex, England. While the station was dubbed a pirate radio station, its operation took place within the law and its offices were in the West End of London. Its representation was by a company formed earlier in the year to represent in Europe the ABC radio and television stations of the United States.
Laser 558 was an offshore pirate radio station launched in May 1984 using disc jockeys from the US. It broadcast from the Panama-registered ship MV Communicator in international waters in the North Sea. Within months the station had a large audience, due to its strong signal and continuous music, mixing current records with oldies. However, insufficient advertising starved the station off the air in late 1985. In 1986 an attempt was made to return as Laser Hot Hits, but the same problems arose.
Radio Veronica was an offshore radio station that began broadcasting in 1960, and broadcast offshore for over fourteen years. It was set up by independent radio, TV and household electrical retailers in the Netherlands to stimulate the sales of radio receivers by providing an alternative to the Netherlands state-licensed stations in Hilversum.
Radio 390 (1965–1967) was a pirate radio station on Red Sands Fort,, a former Maunsell Fort on the Red Sands sandbar.
Voice of Peace was an offshore radio station that broadcast in the Middle East for 20 years from the former Dutch cargo vessel MV Peace, anchored off the Israeli coast in the Eastern Mediterranean. Founded by Abie Nathan and the New York-based Peace Ship Foundation, the station broadcast almost continuously between 19 May 1973 and November 1993. The station was relaunched but solely as an online station in August 2009. A second online channel called The Voice of Peace Classics was added in 2014.
MV Ross Revenge is a radio ship, the home of Radio Caroline, as well as having supported Radio Monique and various religious broadcasters. Funded by the Icelandic government, she was constructed in Bremerhaven in 1960 and served as an Icelandic commercial trawler until 1963 when she was sold to the Ross Group fleet, notably taking part in the Cod Wars of the 1970s. Following her decommissioning, she was purchased by Radio Caroline and outfitted as a radio ship, complete with 300-foot (91 m) antenna mast and 50 kW transmitter. Her broadcasts began on 20 August 1983; her final pirate broadcast took place in November 1990. She ran aground on the Goodwin Sands in November 1991, bringing the era of offshore pirate radio in Europe to an end. She was, however, salvaged, and is now maintained by the Caroline Support Group, a group of supporters and enthusiasts.
Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Alan Crawford initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly. Unlicensed by any government for most of its early life, it was a pirate radio station that never became illegal as such due to operating outside any national jurisdiction, although after the Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967 it became illegal for a British subject to associate with it.
Radio Atlantis was a Belgian-owned offshore pirate radio station, which operated in 1973 and 1974 from the coast of The Netherlands and Belgium. The station began broadcasting from the Radio Caroline ship MV Mi Amigo on 15 July 1973. The station was owned by Belgian businessman Adriaan van Landschoot who ran a chain of companies all named Carnaby:
Shivering Sands Army Fort [U7] was a Maunsell army fort built near the Thames estuary for anti-aircraft defence. It is made up of several once interconnected towers north of Herne Bay and is 14.8 km from the nearest land. They can be viewed from Shoeburyness East Beach on clear days. The Shivering Sands fort was the last of the Thames estuary forts to be constructed, and was grounded between 18 September and 13 December 1943.
This is a list of events from British radio in 1966.
This is a list of events from British radio in 1964.