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)
Dick Dixon by the old Radio Sutch transmitter used to communicate with shore under the call sign of Pigeon-Blackbird (1965)
We all thought the shore link call sign was Pagen-Blackwell, the misinterpretation due to Reg's Northern dialect. Hear that story the documentary CD Tower of Power available from the Offshore Shop
Reg Calvert is pictured by this transmitter in Sutch & City Part 1 a more detailed picture of the transmitter can be seen in Sutch & City part 4
Local press picture of Janet Hooper on former Radio City boyfriend Dick Dixon's Norton Motorcycle that he still owns (1965)
The picture accompanied an article after she became stranded on Shivering Sands looking over the fort with Dick after the station had closed down in August 1967
Couldn't have put her off she was to become Dick's wife!
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!
Audio |
Ian MacRae Programme trailer, Alan Clark voices his own show opener 1966 |
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
Radio City Car Sticker (1966)
For Red Sands Fort & it's Radio Stations navigate from Red Sands Rendezvous
For the Navy Forts & their Radio Stations navigate from Radio Essex 222 & Sealand One
For details on all the Thames Estuary Forts see Fort Fax
Make sure you also see the NAB "Mystery Tower" the forerunner to Maunsell Forts in Sailing the Solent
For the range of documentary CD's in the Offshore Radio "Roaring 60's" collection, the Sealand VCD, books, & a video on the Army & Navy Forts go to Offshore Shop