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KING RADIO - SUMMER 1965 - CD
Here's about 60 minutes of KING Radio from Summer 1965....featuring presenters Roger Gomez & John Ross Barnard
Potted History:
Whilst David 'Screaming' Lord Sutch had set up Radio Sutch on a former WW2 gun platform, the Shivering Sands in the Thames Estuary, three Kent businessmen set up Radio Invicta on a similar platform - the Red Sands Towers off Whitstable. Radio Invicta was unfortunately beset with difficulties, and was taken over in February 1965. KING Radio began broadcasting in March 1965, with a middle of the road format, steering clear of the continuous pop output prefered by Radio Caroline and Radio London. Programmes titled "All That Jazz", "Music from the Shows" and 'Stateside '65' were aired, as well as the two programmes featured on this CD....
Roger Gomez presents 'Lunchbox', and hands over to John Ross Barnard for 'Melody Hour'.
KING Radio was short lived, never really grabbing listeners attention, and local businesses could not be tempted to advertise of the station known locally as the 'station on sticks'. KING Radio eventually gave way to Radio 390.
The sound quality is fair, and as you would expect from a recording made over 40 years ago......
KING RADIO - TESTING / MARCH 1965 - CD
Potted History:
Following the closure of Radio Invicta, KING Radio began transmissions on 238 metre medium wave on 24 March 1965. Backed by a number of Kent businessmen, KING deliberately directed its format away from the non-stop pop of the ship-borne pirates.
KING played Easy Listening, Middle of the Road, Country and Western and Blues. Presenters read short poems on the air, and used several slogans including "Wonderful Words – Wonderful Artists”, “The Number One Starlight Radio”, “Your Monarch of Music” and “KING – the Most Melodic Delicatessen on the Medium Wave” .
Surprisingly, during test transmissions in early March 1965, KING stated that they were broadcasting from “The Nore”, which had been another series of WW2 army forts located a few miles from KING’s proper location. These forts had been demolished in the late 50’s as they were considered a hazard to shipping, and quite why KING never checked their location before broadcasting their position remains a mystery.
KING also associated itself with the capital by calling itself KING – London for a short time, but because of a poor signal, the“Station on Sticks” as it was known locally, never caught the imagination of the listeners, and only managed around 20,000 listeners at peak times.
This is a CD recording of one of those test transmissions, featuring a number of KING’s famous slogans, the incorrect location, and a rundown of the KING presenters : Jeff Towers, Mike Raven, Bruce Holland, Jay Thompson, Roger Gomez, Ed Heakins, and other "Regal Radio” names.
Audio Quality: - mostly reasonable - some good, but as you should expect from recordings of this age.......