In This Month…
This is a list of entries I have for various Decembers within the two decades, that I have no exact dates or frequencies for.
If you can help, please do! 🙂 [my questions are in square brackets]
Dec. 1974
* GBR. London. 92.8 FM. Saturday evenings Sun Radio starts broadcasts on the old Radio Free London frequency. RFL DJs Tony Randall and Kenny Myers feature, and the 148 George Lane, Lewisham mailing address given out on the air is the same as the now closed-for-a-second-time Radio Free London. [was this from the first Saturday in December – which was the 1st? and for how long did these broadcasts continue?]
Dec. 1976
* FIN. Radio Urbino is raided and closes down. The staff go on to form Radio Sylvania International. [a long shot, but can someone help with a date for the raid?]
Dec. 1977
* GBR. Wolverhampton. 1332 kHz MW. Work begins on the studio of the planned new station to become UK Radio. The test broadcasts cover about a mile
[I have a fair bit of UK Radio included now, but this is one of the loose ends, all I need are some dates]
Dec. 1978
* GBR. Wolverhampton. 104.0 FM. After several test broadcasts, UK Radio starts regular FM broadcasts this month in addition to the 1332 kHz MW service.
[More loose ends, again it is dates I am after here]
Dec. 1980
* GBR. Birmingham. 1179 kHz MW A breakaway station from RFB, called Sounds Alternative, starts broadcasts, run by Keith Rodgers formerly on Radio Free Birmingham [RFB]. It is a heavy rock station, and broadcasts Sundays and Bank Holidays with 80 watts. Its signal is very strong across the West Midlands.
[what was the first Sunday broadcast? The 2nd? And does this include over Christmas?]
* GBR. London. 1368 kHz MW. Comsat Radio appears this month, Steve Justin, formerly of Phoenix Radio is its founder.
[more dates here please, first TX and further ones, if on weekends or 7 days a week etc…]
Dec. 1982
* GBR. Wolverhampton. UK Radio extends programmes for Christmas, launching Wulfrun Sound the same time.
* GBR. London. 1323 kHz MW. Radio Jackie goes 24 hours.
[was this from the 1st Dec or later in the month please?]
* NED. FRSH re-starts 48mb broadcasts with a new rig. Programmes being pre-recorded and played back in an auto-reverse cassette machine.
[when, and on what frequencies?]
* GBR. Liverpool. on 259m 1158 kHz MW. the Liverpool Broadcasting Company starts broadcasts, on Saturdays and Sundays, featuring Bert Williams
[again, what was the first of these broadcasts? the first Sat was the 4th and Sun the 5th of this month]
* GBR. Merseyside. 1242 kHz MW a new station appears this month, initially calling itself DBC, but eventually after a few broadcasts becoming Merseyside Free Radio, the signal is very strong and covers much of the north west of England. DJs include Kevin Hall, Steven Bishop, and Andy Davis, who is the operator of the station
[when did DBC start? When did the name change happen?]
* GBR. Deptford. 92.5 FM. From Aragon Tower, LWR starts broadcasts, these are linked on band 3 from a studio in Bromley. The station initially uses an old South London Radio rig.
[I am sure someone knows the date this started?]
Dec. 1983
* GBR. Colchester. Radio East recruits Duke Edmunds [who ran Radio Sovereign on 220m MW in Essex in the 1970s] and Ray Best [who ran Independant Radio Colchester on 92.8 FM in the late 1970s], just in time for a four-day Marathon broadcast over Christmas.
[ideally the frequency would help, some dates would be even better. Plus any details of the Essex Radio Soveriegn and the Independant Radio Colchester would be great if possible]
* Beccles, Suffolk. Good Music Radio [GMR] increases power to 40 watts, and an influx of DJs join the station. These are Simon James, Andy Jackson, Paul Masters, Stu Collins, and Rock DJ Timmy Lee.
[Does anyone know when this happened and what the frequency was?]
* GBR. Merseyside. 738 kHz MW KGW starts broadcasts this month, announced as 399m.
[when? and what were the days broadcast? weekends? 7 days?]
* GBR. Merseyside. 1197 kHz MW and 94.8 FM. Radio Merseywaves starts broadcasting this month, it is set up and run by Bert Williams, this station is to last a long time. Initially broadcasts are on Sunday evenings starting at 6pm. It is also noted on 1125 kHz 266m MW
[The first Sunday of this month was the 4th, was this the date of the first TX?]
* BEL. 6205 kHz SW? In this month – the date is not given – another relay of Free Radio Service Holland [FRSH] is made by Radio Delmare
[can someone help with the date please?]
Dec. 1984
* GBR. Merseyside. Storeton Community Radio is on air this month, this station actually reaches a lot further than most community stations do, and is regularly heard in Blackpool! After this month it disappears until 1988.
[I have been trying to find out more about this interesting station; presumably it was on every day this month? and on what frequency please? Finally why did it disappear this month, was it a raid?]
Dec. 1985
* GBR. Wolverhampton. 103.5 FM. UK Radio is on air, with its usual Christmas and New Year programmes.
* GBR. Crystal Palace. 90.5 FM. ‘Soul Over London Town’ station Fame FM is launched this month, and loses three rigs in the same month.
[does nyone have any dates for this start and the raids please?]
* GBR. Crystal Palace. 88.5 FM. Yet another of the many similar stations is noted this month. Starpoint-FM plays a mixture of soul, reggae etc music, it gets one raid, on the 12th but returns soon after
[‘soon after’… if someone knows when it came back I would be grateful?]
* GBR. South Essex, 103.5mHz, Inner-City Radio is noted every Sunday this month, playing mainly soul music
Dec. 1986
* GBR. West Midlands. Towards the end of this month Radio Orion closes its 3465 kHz SW service, due to a lack of listenership. The frequency is outside the 90-metre tropical broadcast band, and thus does not get picked up by a lot of potential listeners
[‘towards the end of this month’… could someone provide a more exact date please?]
Dec. 1988
* GBR. Wolverhampton 1413 kHz MW and also in 105.5 FM. UK Radio restarts FM broadcasts, as well as continuing on MW, over the Christmas and New Year period.
[I am logging this from the 24th to Jan 1st, is this correct?]
* BR. London. Bert visits an RFM promoted gig, at the Lord Clyde pub in Leyton, meets their DJ, Barry Morgan, and is told to see how well the kit rig will work with the aerial outdoors. He does this, and increases its length. Now that Capital Gold is not played so loudly, he re-tunes the rig to 1611 kHz and enlists Clifford Frobisher to make improvements, unaware that Argus is still on the air in Cornwall, he plans a re-launch of Radio Argus.
[I have no record of the dates of the early events when I got the radio bug again, it demonstrates how the memory is a poor thing sometimes 🙂 ]
* GBR. Colchester. Programmes are suspended when a neighbour threatens to report Freedom Overflow to the authorities if they do not stop.
* IRL. Dublin. Clondalkin Community Radio closes down this month. It has been broadcasting through much of the decade.
[Where would I find details of this station,? I do mean to start on the Irish stations at some stage, but currently am only including the ones that pop up from time to time]
As can be seen, a lot of this is a lot of ‘when?’ questions, and if people can help I will be very grateful.
Also, Christmas… did some stations that usually were only on one or two days a week, keep to those two days, or change their schedules to broadcast instead on Christmas Eve/Day/Boxing Day / New Year’s Eve? Any details of such changes would be helpful as well.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help, and regards to all.
Bert Bridges
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