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Thameside Radio 90.2 |
The Thameside Radio 90.2 Story
The early days
One
of the early hints that there was more to Thameside Radio than just the music
was their first outside broadcast. To celebrate their birthday they invited
listeners to a "birthday party" in Hyde Park. Alarge group
of listeners turned up at Lancaster Gate tube station. This was exciting enough - generally priates were fiercly anonymous. But instead of the
just the chance to simply meet fellow listeners and perhaps a DJ they
were surprised to discover that Bob had a microphone with him and was
presenting live, on-air, with the records being mixed in back in This was no mean feat from the logistical, technical and risk viewpoint. The few other pirate stations were still using valve technology with each transmitter built by using whatever components were to hand and often constructed inside old biscuit tins. Thameside in contrast had its own high power solid state transmitters designed by Richard Courtenay using printed circuit boards for reliability in purpose built cases. Careful choice of the transmission sites also helped reception. The use of radio links for live broadcasts was also a first. Most other stations relied on pre-recording their shows and running the transmitters from a time switch.
During this year the London pirate radio movement had started to grow. However most of the stations had poorly constructed transmitters which caused interference. They would often goad the authorities on air. The people running the stations sometimes caused damage to the locations they transmitted from. As a result most London radio pirates were raided on a regular basis. All this time the regulatory authorities left Thameside Radio alone. By not acting like pirate Thameside weren't treated like one. In addition by involving the listeners they developed a specific station personality and kept their fingers on the pulse of what the audience actually wanted to listen to. For the first time the a radio station was broadcasting for us rather then just "at" us.
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Special thanks for mp3s, writing in or sending pictures to (amongst others) , Carol H, Olaf Star, Jessica D, Pyers E, Warren S, Stephen Sykes, John G, Mike E, itrilby for Radio Eric, Alex Wright, Aidan S, Dave "The Birdman", Alan Dolby, Rachel McIntyre (for Terry Anderson), Al at fmthen.com for the Thameside Radio Revisited podcasts, Terry/Decibel90 and Steve Scribbler. I know that a lot of Thameside listeners and friends would like to get in touch with each other again. If you are happy to have e-mail forwarded do write in. Even if you don't have any new information it would be great to hear from you.
Martin Wood |
fact style.
He played MOR pop with a Beatles record in every show. He also had Thameside listener
competitions (typical prizes - a 
Beatles at 35 past the hour etc. Occasionally the broadcast was extended to include a second show
presented by Tony Lloyd. Tony had more laid back rocky tastes. In contrast
to Bob's rigid singles based format Tony would think nothing of playing
a complete side of a Pink Floyd album.
Even
when not running outside broadcasts Thameside Radio's technical facilities were
excellent. Their early 
