Radio Sutch
Radio Sutch was a pirate station founded and operated in 1964 by the British rock musician and politician Screaming Lord Sutch along with his manager Reg Calvert . It was the third pirate broadcaster in Great Britain, alongside well-known ones like Radio Caroline . The station existed under the name Radio Sutch only a few months and then went on in Radio City .
Radio Sutch regularly broadcast several hours twice a day. Failures due to the primitive technical equipment were not uncommon. The program consisted of rock music by bands supervised by Reg Calvert, with Sutch's own works taking a large part. Mandy Rice-Davies , who was involved in the Profumo affair , which led to the resignation of a British minister in 1963, also read from the novel Lady Chatterley , which was then regarded as pornographic .
Radio Sutch continues to be operated as an internet radio by the former DJ Colin Dale .
history
In the 1960s, many young Britons were dissatisfied with the BBC's monopoly program , as it broadcast almost no rock music. This gap was only filled by the American Army Broadcasting Company, AFN, and a few semi or illegally operated radio stations that enjoyed great popularity among young people. Since the stations were operated without a license and therefore illegally, they had to be protected from official access. The cheapest solution was to operate them outside UK territory, for example in international waters. In 1964, Radio Caroline started broadcasting on board a ship outside the British three-mile zone , causing a stir . It was only natural for Sutch to increase his popularity by running his own station, especially since many of his records were boycotted by the BBC.
Sutch presented his station, which he later dubbed "Britain's First Teenage Radio Station", at a press conference. When he switched on the radio, those present were enthusiastic about the powerful transmission power of the new radio station. Reg Calvert is said to have secretly transmitted from a nearby hill, hidden under a tree, to simulate a much higher transmission power than was actually available.
The sender's mailing address was the King's Agency, 7 Denmark Street, London WC2. It was about the agency Calverts and his business partner Terry King, who already looked after well-known groups such as The Fortunes .
Sutch lost interest in the station as early as September 1964 and sold his stake for ₤ 5000 to Calvert, who expanded it considerably and continued to operate it under the name Radio City.
Cornucopia fishing trawler and harvesters
Early broadcasts were reportedly broadcast by the 20-meter trawler "Cornucopia". Sutch hired the trawler by the hour after it had finished fishing. However, the conditions on board a fishing trawler were extremely unfavorable.
"It was covered in fish scales and smelled to the heavens, and all the reporters and press people slipped on it and almost fell to their death."
The broadcasting operations on board the Cornucopia began with great media interest on May 25, 1964. The trawler went fishing until noon, after which it served as a broadcast platform, but only for about two weeks. Then the owner urged to move out, because his insurance threatened to withdraw his contract because he was not using the ship as intended.
According to Colin Dale's recollections, however, the “Cornucopia” era was just a promotional maneuver; the trawler had been hired a number of times in order to advertise it, decorate it with banners and drive it up and down the Thames. The broadcasts from the fishing boat "Harvesters" are also said to have been invented. In truth, Radio Sutch is said to have broadcast exclusively from the abandoned Shivering Sands military base .
Shivering Sands Army Base
Shivering Sands, one of the Maunsell forts in the Thames estuary , abandoned army bases from the Second World War with an unclear legal status, served as the broadcast platform . In May 1964, Radio Sutch settled on Shivering Sands ( 51 ° 29 ′ 57 ″ N , 1 ° 4 ′ 29 ″ E ) and continued broadcasting from there on medium wave 1542 kHz under primitive conditions. The power supply of a bomber type Handley Page Halifax originating station was carried out by interconnected car batteries, later approach brought from the mainland diesel generators. A turret was destroyed in a ship collision and the system was thus cut off from its own generator. The antenna was improvised from a scaffolding pole . Half-hearted attempts by the British Navy to induce the operator of the transmitter to evacuate the facility were ignored, a serious evacuation attempt was not made. A friend of Sutchs supplied the station with supplies with his fishing cutters "Harvesters" I and II. Several incidents occurred during operation, such as the improvised electrical installation caught fire, and DJ Colin Dale had to be flown out by a military helicopter due to acute food poisoning after calling for help on the station during program time. An important visitor from the London music industry fell into the sea while attempting to climb the ladder to the fort from a boat and was almost crushed by the boat on one of the pillars of the facility. He drove back drenched and annoyed without having entered the fort.
Internet radio
At the end of 2009, DJ Colin Dale resumed Radio Sutch as an Internet radio . The program consists of rock 'n' roll and pop music from the 1950s and 1960s as well as current rock music.
Others
- Radio Sutch was the first broadcaster to set up shop on an abandoned military base off the British east coast. As a result, several other bases were occupied by pirate stations. Because of the use of the forts as broadcasting platforms, there were sometimes violent clashes.
- Sutch's manager and partner Reg Calvert was shot dead in 1966 in the dispute over such an offshore radio station.
- The self-proclaimed Principality of Sealand , consisting only of a Maunsell Fort and a few people, emerged from the offshore radio scene at the time.
- DJ Colin Dale ran in the 2010 general election as a candidate for the Sutch-founded “ Official Monster Raving Loony Party ”.
Web links
- Radio Sutch as web radio, accessed February 18, 2011
- Homepage of Colin Dale
- Radio Sutch on Offshore Echoes , accessed January 23, 2011
- The Offshore Radio Fleet , accessed January 23, 2011
- The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame , accessed January 23, 2011
- Solveig Grothe: one day: The fortress of the roaring Lord Der Spiegel online, February 18, 2011, accessed on February 25, 2011
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Radio Sutch at offshoreechos.com , accessed January 23, 2011
- ^ Bob Le-Roi: Call Up The Groups. private website, accessed February 22, 2011 .
- ↑ Shivering Sands Fort on offshoreradio.de ( Memento of the original from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 23, 2011
- ↑ a b Cornucopia on offshoreradio.de ( Memento of the original from July 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 23, 2011
- ↑ a b usually referred to as The Harvester , but photos show a boat called Harvesters II
- ↑ a b Colin Dale's autobiography
- ↑ The Book of Bands , private website, citing Dorothy Calvert; Retrieved January 26, 2011
- ^ Bob Le-Roi: Radio Sutch & City in Pictures & Audio Part March 31, 2010, accessed February 27, 2011 .
- ↑ Andy Sennitt, Radio Netherlands Worldwide: Former Radio DJ Sutch to stand in UK election (19 April 2010)
