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Radio Sutch & City in Pictures & Audio

Part 6

Updated: 22nd January 2019 Issue: 2

Some more rare pictures & audio dug out of the archive

Radio City studio on Shivering Sands Army Forts depicted in a listener cartoon (1964)

Meeting in the transmitter room Johnny Evlin, Dick Dixon, Chris Cross & Paul Elvey (1964)

299 metres had failed to penetrate London after dark religious advertisers demanded action be taken with the threat of withdrawing their programmes

Since their advertising kept the station going it was Hobson's Choice the additional transmitter a Cossor left joins the General Electric 299 unit (1964)

Chris Cross with Paul Elvey by the 188 metre Cossor transmitter that provided an additional output for Radio City's religious service (1964)

Shivering Sands South Buoy viewed from the tender (1964)

Reg Calvert being hauled up on the 1 ton electric hoist with Paul Elvey in the background (1965)

Publicity stunt as Peggy Knight became a DJ for about 2 minutes! (1965)

Trouble looming

Port of London Authority (PoLA)

Letter from their own files (1966)

"Tatty" Tom Edwards publicity photograph (1966)

Radio City Blue 299 Poster (1966)

299 by now had became the Tower of Power with Ian West & Phil Perkins performing miracles modifying the limited equipment

Ship-shape and tidy the final days of Radio City on Shivering Sands (1966)

Big mast & the "Jungle Walk" in use between the Southern G1 Gun Tower & the Control Tower (1966)

Note the jib arm lanterns that were later removed by Roy Bates after the close down whilst City still had a caretaker crew aboard

They were later noticed in a second hand shop in Avenue Road Southend for sale at £300 each!

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Audio

Ian MacRae Programme trailer, Alan Clark voices his own show opener 1966

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Alan Clark publicity picture (1966)

Alan was partner in crime to Ian MacRae "with the hits of the day" on the Auntie Mable Hour

Alan a long time journalist on Southern Region TV is married to Peterborough MP Helen Clark

Reception report from Finland (December 1966)

Radio City like the other fort based stations received many reports from the Scandinavian Countries that all enjoyed extraordinary reception after dark

"The Last Round Up" (1966)

Final QSL Card depicting the final line-up clockwise from left: Alan Clark, Tom Edwards, Paul Kramer, Phil Jay, Ed Moreno, Ian MacRae & Eric Martin, no relation to Eric K Martin station manager

These days Ian MacRae above runs a successful school of radio in native Australia (2007)

June 1966 the beginnings of the end (June 1966)

National Press picture of the Gravesend dockers in the transmitter room who'd shut down Radio City & secured Shivering Sands Fort

The electric 1 ton hoist on the G1 Southern Gun Tower lowered as the raiders leave (June 1966)

Following the death of Reg Calvert his widow Dorothy took over the station until February 1967 when Radio City closed for the last time having been fined for broadcasting within the territorial limit. But the Shivering Sands Fort continued to have visitors & squatters until 1969

Headlines as the Radio City Fort is taken over - again (Whitstable Times 6th June 1969)

Record Centre the former Radio City office Top 10 Chart from same paper (Whitstable Times 6th June 1969)

Herne Bay cover the story too of former City DJ Dennis Swinnerton AKA Alex Dee with Penny Towsend-Jones and her baby Zachary are named in planned residential Fort commune (Herne Bay Press June 1969)

Dennis, Penny and baby Zachary on the Southern Gun Tower 1 Walkway (June 1969)

A contemporary water colour of Shivering Sands in ( Peter Hudson 1996)

Many have noticed the appearance of a mast! (2003)

Deceptively it's not actually on Shivering Sands but the Wind Farm weather monitoring mast 5 miles off the coast on the Kentish Flats

See Greta 2 for close up pictures

Shivering Sands from Hampton's ancient pier remains and marker buoy (March 2003)

The Wind Farm mast left clearly on the Kentish Flats

See Greta 2 for close up pictures

Shivering Sands behind Herne Bay pier head the remains isolated after a storm in 1978 (March 2003)

A feasibility study is being considered to restore the pier to it's former glory

The story will continue in Sutch & City Part 7

For a surname A-Z biograghy of the Radio Sutch & City Jocks The Pirate Hall of Fame

When I was a teenage would be pop-pirate, I went out to Shivering Sands Fort with friends & boarded it via ladders which led to a trap door. The thought of that now makes me cringe! On a more recent sailing trip we passed Red Sands and noticed all the catwalks & ladders had been dismantled.Which begs a question. How the hell did you get on the roof? Was there any sign of a radio station inside the fort? Kind regards Tom Lees Ascot, Berks

Great section in your scrapbook on Radio City - thanks a lot! Keith

Trade secret Tom, see Fort Fax for the detail on how the forts are today & what's not left inside

For all the Shivering Sands features navigate from Sutch & City Part 1