Teenage Radio Days

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As regular readers will know I occasionally write something in response to the prompts offered to us by John Holton in his Writer’s Workshop, and one of this week’s is a good one for me. You can find his post here, and the one I’ve chosen is his option 4:

‘Talk about your favorite radio station when you were in high school.’

In the latest episode of “Divided by a shared language” that translates for me as ‘my favourite radio station when I was at Grammar School.’

I went to Dover Grammar School For Boys from September 1964 until July 1972, and as those were the formative years for my musical tastes I listened to the radio a lot. My first radio, a hand-me-down from a work colleague of my Dad which I was given around 1960, was one of these:

 

That was known as a ‘suitcase radio,’ as it resembled a small case. You switched it on by lifting up the lid, and put the lid down to switch off. The flip top compartment at the top housed a very large battery, which I tended to wear out fairly quickly. It gave great sound, albeit in mono, and I loved it. It resided on my bedside table and I used to listen for hours. In the early days I only had the BBC stations, plus foreign language broadcasters, and that was a bit limited: in those days the BBC just had three channels, the Light Programme, the Home Service and the Third Programme, which played light music, talkie stuff like the news and some excellent comedy shows, and classical music respectively. The music choices were very limited, as the dear old Beeb hadn’t really grasped pop music at that time, so it was mostly ‘mum and dad music.’ Then I found Radio Luxembourg, which was officially classified as a pirate radio station, but at least it played music I wanted to hear. The only problem was that its signal was very temperamental, and even when you could pick it up it was like listening through a tornado.

Things really brightened up for me when the real pirate radio stations began broadcasting. There were many of these, the two main ones for me being Radio Caroline and Radio London, known affectionately as ‘the Big L,’ and I was in my element. The Big L quickly became my station of choice, and its DJs felt like friends, as I heard their voices so much: guys like Kenny Everett, Tony Blackburn, John Peel, and many others all cut their broadcasting teeth there. It was a top 40 (in London’s case, the “Fab 40”) offshore commercial station that operated from 23 December 1964 to 14 August 1967, from a ship anchored in the North Sea, three and a half miles off Frinton-on-Sea, in Essex. I was 11 when it started up, and was very much into pop music: those were the days of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, loads of Merseybeat bands, The Kinks, The Small Faces and many others, and I couldn’t get enough of it. The station was started by Don Pierson, a Texan entrepreneur, who compared the number of stations then serving the population of his native northwest Texas with just two stations serving the entire UK. Amongst all the music, one of their innovations was the plentiful use of jingles to support the programmes. Each DJ had their own, and this is a small sample:

That really takes me back!

The pirate stations became extremely popular, so much so that they were seen in the corridors of power as a threat to the BBC’s monopoly, and the regulators set about closing them down. They eventually managed to pass the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act, which came into force at midnight on 14 August 1967, the day Radio London shut down. They decided to close at 3pm, partly to guarantee a large audience as well as to enable the ship’s DJs and other staff to return to shore and board a train to London. A one-hour recorded show was broadcast from 2pm to allow staff to get ready to leave. The time also described a “Big L” shape of the hands on a clock face, but whether that was a real consideration is unknown.

Their Final Hour, as the programme was called, had recorded greetings of farewell and remembrance from big pop stars; included were the voices of Mick Jagger, Cliff Richard, Ringo Starr and Dusty Springfield. The 2:30 news bulletin, read by Paul Kaye, was the final live segment on the station. Programme Director Philip Birch thanked DJs and staff and others involved throughout the station’s life, as well as politicians and others who fought for the station – and its 12 million listeners in the United Kingdom and four million in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. That was followed by the last record, A Day in the Life by The Beatles, then the final announcement: “Big L time is three o’clock, and Radio London is now closing down.” Radio London’s theme tune, the “PAMS Sonowaltz”, popularly called Big Lil, was played before the transmitter was switched off just after 3pm. This was during the school summer holidays, and I can remember listening to all of that in my bedroom, and feeling desperately sad.

This reminds me of that day:

And this is how I was feeling at around 3.05pm on that day:

By that time my prized radio was beginning to show its age and for my birthday that year my parents bought me a replacement, one of the new style transistor radios, a Perdio like this one:

 

 

It was smaller and less powerful than the previous one, but I could take it with me wherever I went – I never did try to lug the suitcase around! Although my birthday wasn’t until September (the 16th if you want to send gifts) they gave me the radio early so that I could listen to the BBC’s replacement for the pirate stations. In addition to making those guys illegal, the Beeb had been working to sign up their best DJs for the launch of their new pop music channel, Radio One, which was part of a big shake up of their output: all of the above mentioned DJs went to the Beeb along with many others, plus guys like Johnnie Walker and Emperor Rosko from Radio Caroline. Radio One began broadcasting just over two weeks after the Big L’s demise, at 7am on Saturday 30th August, and for once I was awake early on a Saturday for this:

And this was the first record played on the new station:

I quickly got used to Radio One, which became my station of choice right through until the end of my uni days in 1975, by which time I was going more for albums than the pop single charts. But sometimes I look back at those days and feel a sense of the magic that was all around me and my music. Those days were brought back for me by the movie The Boat That Rocked, which took a comedic look at the last days of the pirate stations and was hugely enjoyable, with an amazing soundtrack. If you haven’t seen it I can recommend it – this trailer gives you a taste:

I’ve already played one of the tracks from that soundtrack – the Skeeter Davis one, as the Beatles weren’t included. Just for fun, here’s another that was, as its video is a nice snapshot of the social history of those days, with the teens being their usual selves:

I leave you with my thanks to John for the prompt for this piece, and for giving me another chance for a stroll down Memory Lane. I’m still trying to get used to the shock of England coming from a goal down to win last night, and am looking forward to some good games this evening for which I can be neutral: much less stressful! I hope you have an enjoyable and stress-free day, and I’ll see you again for Song Lyric Sunday 😊

35 thoughts on “Teenage Radio Days”

  1. Glad you made it over this week, Clive, and thank you for sharing with us at SSPS 418. See you soon, and do not miss checking what’s new on Thursday, July 16

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  2. Hi Clive, I don’t recall much about radio in my childhood. It was more about TV. We only had 2 hours of TV a day from 6pm to 8pm. 2 x 30 minute children’s programmed until 7pm and then an adults or family hour. I must be honest I think iTV was better when it was limited. To much of anything isn’t good.

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  3. No idea why, but I have never seen a suitcase radio. I was given a small transistor radio when I was quite young, probably 10 or 11. I don’t remember the make, but was red and white, and had a long extending aerial that helped me listen clearly to Radio Luxembourg as I sat in my bedroom. I bought ‘Flowers In The Rain’ at the time, I was 15. And I have seen ‘The Boat That Rocked’ when it was shown on Channel 4 (or Film 4).

    Best wishes, Pete.

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    • I was lucky to be given it: it was around six or seven years old and served me well for a further seven years. But it was nice to go modern with a transistor radio! The aerial on mine did a good job too, though Luxembourg was always a struggle!

      It’s a fun film, which I found for £2.99 in iTunes. Watched it several times since 👍

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  4. Fabulous post, Clive! I used to listen to Radio Luxemburg and Radio Caroline in the early 70’s when I eventually got a transistor radio for my birthday. I preferred them in the evenings and at the weekend to Radio One. I have a feeling that Radio One played the same programmes as Radio 2 in the evenings; I may be mistaken. I remember Radio Caroline doing a rock chart programme on a Sunday evening I think. So long ago!

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    • Thank you, Clare, I’m glad you liked it. It seems you have good memories of those times too, when Caroline was defiantly breaking the law! Those were great times for music.

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  5. Ah, laying in bed at night, back in the good old days of feedback and static as you fiddle with the dial trying to get away from the State mandated station that teed up lite-weight pap such as Val Doonican, or the so-sanitised Seekers chirping away about some ‘Morningtown Ride’ or the Swingle Singers, the sort of tosh that State radio thought was pop music suitable for their youngsters! Nothing at all offensive, no Who, nothing Stonesy or Kinksy.
    We wound up with our own pirate, Radio Hauraki which also suffered being sunk by bloody minded bureaucracy and bad weather. It lasted as an offshore radio boat from 66 to 70 then wound up physically on the beach.
    I remember a very early George Carlin doing a satirical pis- ahem, bit about 60s disc jockey lingo, ‘Radio WINO’ I believe was the title.
    Anyone who grew up in that era has a transistor sized place in their heart even now.
    Very enjoyable look back Clive, thanks.

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    • Interesting to hear that the radio experience was the same there. There was a lot of pap being pumped out by the state broadcasters, and you had the benefit of pirates to counteract it too, I’m pleased to hear!

      I’m glad you enjoyed this look back and the memories it brought back for you.

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  6. I had a completely different experience because we emigrated to Perth, Western Australia in October 1964. On our chartered migrant flight our second stop was Singapore and Dad, in an unprecedented flash of generosity, bought duty free transistor radios for us. I had never seen one before, let alone held that almost palm sized rectangular miracle in my hands. It had a brown leather case. For the first time in my life I could listen to what I wanted and Australia had commercial radio stations, presumably without handwringing about the effect on ABC Radio! Petula Clark’s Downtown is forever associated with our early weeks; looking it up she released it in October 1964, so no wonder. We still listened to ABC Radio, discovering we could continue the Sunday lunch tradition of listening to Beyond Our Ken.

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    • You got your transistor radio a bit earlier than I did, but I had that big box for my listening. Interesting how the state and commercial stations co-existed, long before the UK adopted that model. Sunday lunchtimes were a delight – not just Beyond Our Ken, but Round The Horne and The Navy Lark are happy memories.

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    • I was the same. My Mum could never understand how I managed to concentrate on homework with the radio on!

      Sorry, never heard of him. I guess he is American, and few, if any, made the transition over here.

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  11. I love this post, Clive, as it brings back my own memories of listening to Radio Luxemburg and Radio Caroline while living in Germany! 💖 And I liked The Boat That Rocked movie (called Pirate Radio here) so much, I bought the DVD. 😀

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  13. Listening to those pirate stations must have been a real joy, Clive. Great capsule history. I still have a few bootleg cassettes from my trading days with Brit pen pals, with the voices of Peel, Everett, and others. Peel, in particular, had great musical taste and helped shepherd many talented “underground” groups.

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    • They were fantastic times to be getting into music. John Peel was a favourite: he did the late night show, called ‘The Perfumed Garden,’ and carried that over to the BBC when he joined them. Many acts owe their radio debuts to him, and he became a national treasure. Sadly missed.

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  15. The Boat That Rocked was a great movie. I was raised on the radio as we didn’t have a TV. We had CBC but also local indie stations so we always had the latest songs from the states and Britain. We even listened to American radio stations as we were close to the border. I still prefer listening to the radio over watching TV.

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    • It was fun, wasn’t it. And according to those in the know wasn’t far off the truth.

      It was good that you had so much choice – we didn’t! I rarely listen to radio these days, I just find the stations and the DJs annoying!

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