Red Relics

Issue 1 : Updated : 8th November 2007

First in a series of features looking at some of the relics from Offshore Radio

We begin with colourful bits of information from the Red Sands Fort

Radio 390 shortly after the take over of KING Radio in September 1965 with Brian Cullingford, studio comprised a pair of Garrard 301's with Collaro tone arms, & a Lee & Doughty mixer & two Ferrograph Mk3s

I'm sure I heard someone has original Garrard 301's turntables & old studio mixer from Radio 390 in a loft somewhere? - Rob Ashard

Everything went back to the radio stations base in Folkestone Kent, most equipment was sold, including the RCA BTA 10J 10.5kw MW transmitter which went to RNI (Radio Northsea International)

There's no equipment left behind on the Red Sands Fort now, see Fort Fax for details

Jonathan Hall in Radio 390's studio in 1966 the Garrards & Ferrographs now mounted in the bench top & addition of two Spotmasters

But the good news is that yes the 301's lurk locally Robin Adcroft reports ......

The 390 Garrrard 301's are still around, a bit garish looking having been painted silver by a Folkestone Night Club

Spares are still available but prices vary but it would be nice to "do them up" for the Red Sands Fort Project Radio Museum Studio - Robin Adcroft

The Garrard 301's today in need of some TLC

27/06/08 - Garrard 301 Mk1 manufactured from I think 1954 to about 1965 were painted silver hammerite & may or may not have had a strobe etched platter. Garrard Mk2\'s were manufactured after this date. The bearing was different in the models. The MK1 had a grease bearing while the Mk2 had an oil bearing. Both models of turntables are still quite sought after and at times make silly money on Ebay. Cheers Jon.
PS: you may know all this already, sorry if you do...

Audio: Revalli Magazine advertisement sealed the fate for one 390 announcer

Arriving late the Revalli copy was rushed into the studio to John Stewart, who wedged it behind the mixer, a breeze from an open window blew it onto the floor so John ad libbed

Revalli & station bosses weren't impressed, exit John Stewart bound for Radio Essex as Chris Stewart

Peter James doing programme prep' in the record library with an old Garrard turntable deck mounted in plywood box

In Follow up Rob Ashard writes ......

I believe the turntable being used to "prep" is a Garrard 4HF. I had one in the early 70's. It uses the same motor with variable speed, idler wheel & bearing as a 301 but as I remember had a pressed steel platter & not a cast machined one. I've always assumed that the platter on 301's & 401's is a machined casting. I recall that the motor on mine was only quiet if you ran it fast. At the correct speed it made a very strange warble that was audible in quiet passages. Very annoying. I also had a Quad 22/II amp & can't for the life of me remember who I sold it to. A little bit of my history Cheers, Rob Ashard

I was interested to read your comments about the 4HF. I also had one in the early sixties & experienced exactly the same symptoms with the variable speed that you mention, only silent running at maximum speed, which was too fast, with a nasty rumble, getting progressively worse as you slowed it down, which you had to do, to get it to run at the correct speed. Very annoying. I have always though that mine must have been faulty - I couldn't imagine that GARRARD had produced a product with such fundamentally poor performance. It now seems that this was, in fact, a DESIGN fault. Oh dear...

Incidentally, I later went on to learn how superb Thorens decks were (I worked for Metrosound in the 70s, who were the UK distributors) - the TD124 (I think it was) was particularly good for certain applications, having the turntable with a clutch!

Love the site, having always been an avid fan of offshore radio
All the best regards - Roger Morley

Apt Roy Leichtenstein poster from 1965

Worried about the Radio 390 Announcers & the other equipment?

Here's a report from Robin Quinn ......

The story of the Radio 390 equipment including the famous 301s, of course is something I know a bit about, since I lived in Folkestone in those days

Radios Invicta, K I N G, & 390 had many connections with the town, much of the studio equipment for Radio 390 was supplied by John Gething owner of Guildhall Tape Recorders who was to become a Radio 390 Director. His shop was 100 yards from Estuary Radio's registered office in Queen's House

Their service engineer John Budd I believe he'd worked out on the fort & told me a bit about life out there. The mixers were built by another Folkestone firm - Lee & Doughty of Sandgate, a public address firm. Their shop is still there in a very decayed state, but the business closed down long ago

After Radio 390 closed down in 1967, the equipment went back to Guildhall Tape Recorders now Kent Audio. Various bits & pieces were "liberated" from store. I saw some 7" reels of tape which had come into a friends possession. One contained an edition of 'Serenade' complete with a running order in the tape box written on a page from a duplicate book. Other reels episodes of 'Doctor Paul' & had labels from Grace Gibson Radio Productions, Sydney, Australia

Inside box of a surviving Radio 390 original tape

At the beginning of 1970 the "Seventies Disco" opened in the basement of the Grand Hotel, Folkestone. I'd recently started working as a DJ & went along to have a look not long before the opening night. The equipment there consisted of the Radio 390 studio hooked up to an amplifier & some speakers. The equipment having been sold when the owners of Radio 390 realised that the Government wasn't about to give them a broadcasting licence on land

The two 301 decks now in your possession were there, & had been fitted with Ortofon arms with Decca Deram cartridges. There were also two Ferrographs, used for jingles. The valve mixer had been removed from its original metal case as seen in photos of the studio on the fort, & built into a new console. The power supply for the mixer was on a chassis without a cover mounted under the console. I was warned to be careful not to touch the HT rectifier the type which was several inches long with cooling fins. The live end of this, carried about 350V DC & was perilously close to the DJ's right knee!

Radio 390's studio gets a new lease of life in "70's"

There was a Fi-Cord/Calrec condenser microphone, but this didn't work well in a disco environment as it produced feedback, so a AKG D1000 was used instead. However, a Calrec resurfaced again supplied by John Budd to Chris Ashman's small recording studio in Folkestone. Eddie Austin borrowed it for use on White Cliffs Radio when it first came on air in 1993 & I think this may have been Radio 390's

Eddie Austin, these days at home in Malaysia. Eddie had run the popular Landbased Pirate Channel Radio, before setting up The Sound the predecessor of Neptune Radio Dover & Folkestone

I became the resident DJ at Seventies in January 1973, by which time the discotheque had been altered & extended considerably. We had a mixer with sliding faders designed & built by Dave Hawkins of Big L fame. The old mixer cases remained but the rest of the unit disappeared later. Dave had built a similar mixer for Radio Luxembourg's production studio in London, & another was used by the short-lived Radio Monte Carlo for pre-recording shows in at Advision studios London

The Ferrographs had been relegated to a back room for editing & dubbing purposes, these had disappeared by the time I left. A Philips machine Pro-12, which I hated, was used just to play in jingles. By the way, "Seventies" had attempted to buy the Radio 390 Spotmasters, but I think the asking price had been too high

For the first few months I was there, the 301s were still in use, though there were a few niggling faults with them. One night when they both went wrong at the same time we decided to replace them with 401s & the old turntables were put into a corner & forgotten

I left Seventies at the end of 1973 to work abroad & I believe that Richard Moffatt who worked at "Seventies" for a time rescued the 301s from the scrap heap

Incidentally, I understand that someone has subsequently painted them silver. Some early 301s were supplied with a silver finish, but not these! The photos of them on Radio 390 show them to have been cream, & that's how they were when I used them. It would be great to see & hear them restored to their former glory - Robin Quinn

Still there but stripped of usable parts & souvenirs by visitors since Radio 390 left the Red Sands Fort. The original wartime 30 KVA Gardner LW generator sets used by Radio 390 & common to all the sea forts

Thanks to Robin Adcroft, Robin Quinn, Hans Knot & Martin Stevens for their help in producing this feature

For all of the features on Red Sands & its Radio Stations navigate from Red Sands Rendezvous

For a brief history of all the Thames Estuary Forts see Fort Fax

For the full history of Radio from Redsands on CD & the range of our other documentaries, the Sealand VCD, books, & a video on the Forts go to Offshore Shop