Radio City

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Radio City (also called Radio City 299 ) was a British pirate station founded by Reg Calvert in 1964 , which was located on the abandoned Shivering Sands military base in the Thames estuary . It emerged directly from the pirate station Radio Sutch , which Calvert had operated with the singer Screaming Lord Sutch since May 1964. In the course of property disputes, Calvert was shot dead in 1966 by his opponent Oliver Smedley . A change in the law forced the station to give up in 1967.

founding

The direct forerunner of Radio City was the station Radio Sutch, which Reg Calvert had founded in his capacity as manager of the singer Screaming Lord Sutch. Sutch and Calvert had occupied an abandoned WWII Maunsell Fort called Shivering Sands without permission for this purpose . At the time, this was outside of British territorial waters and was thus effectively withdrawn from the access of British authorities, although the facility itself was formally owned by the British Army. Sutch sold his stake in Calvert in the fall of 1964, who then became the sole owner and renamed the station in Radio City . Calvert supplemented the initially primitive technical equipment of the transmitter and was able to improve the range and efficiency.

Radio City's office address was - like Radio Sutch's - 7 Denmark Street, London WC 2. It was the address of the artist agency King's Agency, which Calvert had founded with his partner Terry King.

Frequencies and technology

The original primitive features of Radio Sutch consisting of only a scrapped military radio, some interconnected car batteries, a 24-volt alternator for charging, a scaffolding rod as an antenna and a turntable, filed just for reception of the transmitter in the coastal cities of Kent and Essex from . The quality of the signal decreased sharply with increasing distance. Better ranges were only achieved at night due to atmospheric conditions. After Calvert became the sole owner of the station, he expanded it further.

Originally broadcast on medium wave 187 meters (1603 kHz). Sutch and Calvert had developed the advertising slogan “You're in heaven on one eight seven”. After the old transmitter was replaced by a more powerful General Electric TCJ-7 (nickname "Big Berta") from US naval stocks and another transmitter type Cossor from the Royal Air Force was added, Radio City broadcast at 188 meters (1594 kHz ) and 299 meters (1003 kHz) with an output of 400 watts . The makeshift antenna was replaced by a guyed antenna mast 200 feet high.

The station's increased energy requirements were met by a Lister JP3 diesel generator, which was later reinforced by another generator. In order to be able to lift the aggregates, which weighed over a ton, into the station, the existing crane had to be converted. The diesel fuel required was supplied in 50- gallon drums. The strong generators present in the station could not be used because in 1963 the G4 gun turret was destroyed in a collision with a ship, so that the connection to the searchlight platform that housed the generators was interrupted.

With the improved technology, Radio City could be received well in south-east England including London. The coverage corresponded to that of a land-based broadcasting station. The Port of London Authority complained frequently that the transmitter would interfere with the radio link to their automatic tide measuring system on the neighboring headlight tower.

program

Radio City's programming was largely identical to Radio Sutch, broadcasting popular music, rock 'n' roll , pop , blues , which the BBC public broadcaster ignored. The station was financed through advertising and religious programs.

staff

The entire Calvert family was involved in running Radio City, and Calvert's underage daughters were probably the youngest DJs ever. Chris Cross and the Dutchman Martin Green were also active. The station was managed by Eric K. Martin. The technicians were Don Witts and the radio amateur Phil Perkins, who had previously worked on Radio Invicta on Red Sands and who occasionally appeared as a DJ under the pseudonym Tony Silver. Another technician was Paul Elvey (generator technology, also DJ).

Merger plans and death of Calvert

At the end of 1965, Reg Calvert planned to expand his broadcasting operations and began to conduct merger talks with various parties, as competition within the rapidly expanding offshore radio scene began to make itself felt economically. He sent a team of technicians to the also abandoned Navy Fort Knock John to investigate its suitability as a broadcast station. However, this team was evicted from the station by radio pirate Paddy Roy Bates and his staff. He wanted to use the fort himself. There were sometimes violent clashes that ended with Bates getting the upper hand and setting up the pirate station Radio Essex there.

Calvert's talks with Project Atlanta , the operators of Radio Caroline South , resulted in the intention to merge the stations and use Shivering Sands as a common relay station in order to achieve even greater coverage of England. Project Atlanta primarily wanted to save the high operating costs of its ship. For this purpose, a powerful transmitter was procured and delivered to Shivering Sands, but the technicians there found it to be unusable. It remained unused in the station. The talks stagnated. Project Atlanta was finally insolvent, and their ship Mi Amigo was taken over by the operators of Radio Caroline North.

Early 1966 decided Calvert, along with Wonderful Radio London (also known as Big L is known) the sender United Kingdom Good Music to start (UKGM). However, the impending merger wasn't announced until just prior to its implementation, resulting in a deadly argument with Calvert's original negotiating partners.

On the night of June 19 or 20, 1966 - the information is contradictory - dock workers who had been hired by Oliver Smedley, a prospect for Project Atlanta , broke into the station . This raised property claims on the transmitter still in the station. The intruders, some of whom were openly armed with knives, threatened to cut the transmission mast and throw it into the sea. They dismantled parts of the transmitter, which they put Radio City out of operation, and kept the transmitter occupied and the personnel they encountered. The next day, Smedley asked Calvert to sign a contract that would give him fifty percent of the new station's revenues. Calvert turned to the police, who declared that they were not responsible. On June 21, 1966, Calvert stormed into Smedley's house, there were fights, in the course of which Smedley shot his opponent. Smedley was arrested.

Although the police initially felt they were not responsible with reference to the geographic location and the ownership of the military, investigations were started on Shivering Sands. Police officers questioned the Radio City staff and the occupants who were still in the fort, but without taking any action against them. The occupiers voluntarily vacated the fort on June 26, 1966.

Oliver Smedley was acquitted of murder charges. The court ruled that he had acted in self-defense .

Mission of the sender

After Calvert's death, his widow Dorothy continued to run the station until she was forced to discontinue it for legal reasons in 1967. Dorothy Calvert was summoned to appear before the Southend Court on February 8, which dismissed her argument that the station was outside of British territory and therefore not subject to British broadcasting laws and that the court had no jurisdiction for the same reason. On February 9, 1967, midnight, Radio City finally ceased broadcasting.

Others

A scene from the 1975 film "Flame" is set in the Radio City broadcasting studio. The Maunsell Fort shown in the exterior shots, however, must be Red Sands. At the time of filming, this was the only still undamaged fort of this series.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Solveig Grothe: one day: The fortress of the roaring lord. SPIEGEL Online, February 18, 2011, accessed April 22, 2015 .
  2. ↑ Letterhead top left
  3. ^ Bob Le-Roi: Call Up The Groups. private website, accessed February 22, 2011 .
  4. ↑ a b Radio City "the tower of power"; PART TWO: THE REQUEST STATION OF THE NATION. Retrieved February 27, 2011 .
  5. ^ A b Bob Le-Roi: Radio Sutch & City in Pictures & Audio Part March 31, 2010, accessed February 27, 2011 .
  6. ↑ Bob Le-Roi: Radio Sutch & City in Pictures & Audio Part 4. August 28, 2009, accessed February 27, 2011 .
  7. ↑ Bob Le-Roi: Radio Sutch & City in Pictures & Audio Part January 2 , 2009, accessed February 27, 2011 .
  8. ↑ a b The raid on Radio City. offshoreradio.co.uk, accessed April 21, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Colin Drury: Armed raids, a shotgun killing, drugs and sex abuse - the dark side of the Sixties pirate radio stations. Daily Mirror , August 15, 2017, accessed October 22, 2017 .