Thameside Radio Revisited

Alex reports on the first Thameside Radio Circle Line picnic. He also meets Thameside listener Vanessa Newman. There are lots of complimentary letters even one from America. The Birdman has Marks (Marx?) in the studio demonstrating his award winning scream. He also tells us that the July 29th Evening News (a one time competitor to the Evening Standard) had an article about Thameside Radio . Listeners include: Paul Dancer. Susan Baker. Roger Vosene. Len Galbraith. Tommy Reisley. Ashcombe School. Park High School. Rupert Bailey. Susan Baker. Martin Baker. Arlene Philips. Mandy Squires. John Firth. Karen Hardy. Dermot Scanlon. Robert Bly. The Southall punks. Andrew du Pre

Bob was meant to be on holiday touring southern Europe and North Africa but as his P reg orange Triumph Spitfire was stolen in Spain so he is back after just 1 week. It wasn’t insured either. (The car was found by the Spanish police a few weeks later). Alex who was was standing in for Bob is going to hosting the first Thameside Radio Circle Line Picnic at 2pm next Friday. It’s in a no smoking carriage (remember those). Listeners have to wear a hat, daffodil or something Thameside and bring sandwiches to swap and a bottle. Songs include Sue Wilkinson's “You’ve got to be a hustler if you want to get on” – one of my favourite records that no-one else remembers. You can see it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0HHQ7s2R3w. Banana Split by Lio is the listeners most popular new release (and another of my favourites)Dave makes up for playing long records the previous week by playing a lot of his old sketches – remember Dangerous Animals of the World? The superquiz is impossible as ever. He also has the winner of the scream of the week competition where listeners had to send in a recording of themselves screaming.Thameside Radio Listeners include: Andrew Simpson who is at the Green Belt festival and invites Thameside listeners to join him for a cup of tea. Jeannie from Southall who is besotted by Frances King, Vivienne Smith from Wembley. Mark Haybittle. Ramsey Margolis. Tim Cutcliffe for brother Tony. Valerie and Robert Taylor. Varessa (Vanessa?) Newman from W2. Latymer Upper School. Godolphin and Latymer. Dave Geer-Moring. Heather Jackson. John Gallagher. Catherine Brockelhurst. Carshalton Boys School. Gary Knight of West London Radio.

The fifth of the regular Intrepid Birdman shows on Thameside Radio 90.2 - Dave is definitely getting into his stride now: it's full of fun, horror and fiendishly difficult quizzes.

This recording starts with a some of the ten minute "warmup" which Thameside Radio used to broadcast before the official 7pm start.

The warmup originally formed part of the early broadcasts because the entire transmission setup was portable and needed setting up afresh every week. The 10 minutes of music before the 7pm start time provided a few moments to verify that everything was working perfectly. It would be used to align the link aerial, check power supplies, make sure the leads were plugged in properly and to check the tape player if the show was prerecorded.

After a few months there was a permanent transmitter installation in Trellick Tower and fixed studios in Kew, Chiswick and Ealing so you could be sure that everything would come to life at the flick of a switch. But by then warmup had proven itself useful in catching listeners tuning over from Radio 1 charts just after (or before) the Number 1 record was played (lets face it - there are only so many times that you want to listen to "Mull of Kintyre" and 9 weeks at number 1 was just too much and 9 weeks of You're the One that I Want " is pushing it a bit too. Oh and don't get me started on "Bright Eyes" please!

So the warmup stayed and the music was carefully chosen to catch people tuning away from the Radio 1

First half of a 3 hour show.

If you have any other Thameside Radio recordings please get in touch or leave a comment.

This was the second week that Dave Birdman took over from Tony Lloyd. Also clue 2 for the treasure hunt and part 2 of Norman Normal. There's a jingle explaining how listening to Bob Edwards can cure dandruff.Bob wants to play all of "the Wall" but Dave won't let him.

Bob of Camden Town wins the mystery tune competition - he is a DJ at the Royal Free Hospital.

Mentions include: Martin Gould. Another letter from Pat Hickey for her family (big fans they were). The heavy rockers at Ealing College. Su Everett. Nick Luxford of Chelsea everyone at Notting Hill nick. Steven Cruickshank. Marcus Gaugales. Hammersmith and West London Collegs. Dave Watson. Andy and Madeleine of Richmond whho are getting married. Tony Alegranza from East Finchley. St Cartwright Gardens. Diana Evans. Derek Card of Shepherds Bush. Ian Oakey of Caterham School. John Turner. Richmond upon Thames College. John Peak from Inperial College.

Sadly this is only the first half of the 3 hour broadcast. If you have any recordings of Thameside Radio shows do please get in touch.

The Intrepid Birdman explains haw he gets inspiration for his Thameside Radio jingles with the help of a warm bath and a piano. He also interrupts Bob a lot. Danny Webb of Hammersmith enters the mystery voice competition as does Alan Dolby. There is another treasure hunt where listeners have to find an envelope hidden somewhere in London. – with new clues each week. Listener Jonathan Wilmot of Wembley tells us that he was awarded an out of court settlement after being caned at his school in Harrow.

There is also a recording of the Intrepid Birdman's "OK Ron" at the end of the tape

Dedications include Tracy Leatham of Chingford. Alan Jameson of Hampton. Kim Walsh. Dave Kenny of Twickenham. Kingston Poly. Jim Stockwell. Sharon Slezer. King College. John Lyon School. Marie Rosa. Haverstock School. Linda-Jane Hickey (age 3½)

This is the first half of the broadcast - as ever if you have any more Thameside recordings do please get in touch

Al

Tony Lloyd presents a lovely laid back show with contributions from Dave Birdman and Debbie the phone girl. The star prize for the Thameside competitions is a packet of Spangles. There is a recorded feature on life in the US sent in by Bob who is still on holiday.

Listeners include: Dick Gustavsen from Sweden. Jean Fooks from Epson. Barclays Bank in Ewell. Keith Archer from Romford. Dave Collins. Graham King from Orpington. Andrew Shaw of Bromley. Philip Casell from Harlesden. Trevor Ball. xxx

Judging by the number of letters and calls the station is growing rapidly in popularity. By now Thameside 90.2 is definitely a major part of the London radio scene.

The recording improves significantly half way through.

Tony Lloyd the Thameside Radio newsreader takes over behind the mic as Bob Edwards has gone on holiday to the USA.

The wonderful Thameside Radio wander mic comes into its own as the crew celebrate 6 months of untroubled broadcasting. Bob is in the garden with the Birdman making helpful contributions. You can hear the birds tweeting in the background when Bob is on.

Bob tells us that Richard and Tony are running the desk in the studio upstairs and that his little sister is handing out the beers.

This is the first 30 minutes of the show. If you have the other half – or any recordings of Thameside shows please do send me a note.

Listeners include John Dodds of Putney, Kevin Tunstall in N19 and Keith Baker,

Al (@fmthen.com)

Time Out have just run a centre page spread on the London pirate stations featuring Thameside Radio so the team are sounding pleased. It’s clear that there are radio pirates broadcasting pretty much every day and throughout the weekend in London.

This was an interesting week behind the scenes: Rather than just responding to reports of interference Eric Gotts, who ran the Home Office detection unit, was actively trying to close down all the pirates. Many of the pirates had now discovered the radio channel that the detection unit used so they were able to stop broadcasting or change transmitters as soon as they were being tracked. However this week half way through the evening the detection team were heard to say that they were “going home as all the pirates have gone off” so many of the pirates came back on. In fact the Home Office switched channels and ran a number of successful raids.

This does illustrate how this was something of a personal battle between Eric Gotts and the pirates. It was wasn’t just about preventing interference it really was a vendetta which was probably made worse when Eric was successfully prosecuted by Radio Jackie for violent conduct!

The recording has most but not all of the show. If you have more please drop me a note.

You might notice that the VOX was set a bit tight on one of the transmitters – this is the circuit which automatically switches the transmitter off when the broadcast stops. Unfortunately it set so that it switched off even if there was just a quiet bit in a record. It comes back on when the record gets louder though...

The number of transmitters being lost to the authorities around this time meant that some engineers had started to specialise in building and selling VHF transmitters and link equipment to the pirates. Funnily those entrepeneurs are still doing it but they now run major businesses building equipment for mainstream broadcasters throughout the world such as the BBC and have moved away from the pirate market completely.