Newsdesk

The latest stories about radio in London

Sea Bill Will Hit Offshore Pirates

A new Government bill, currently before Parliament, will increase the United Kingdom's Territorial Waters from the current 3 miles to a new limit of 12 miles. In addition, Customs and Excise will have powers another 12 miles out. This effectively brings the radio ships to within a short distance of UK territory, which would make them vulnerable to arrest by UK authorities if they drifted.

As a result, the ships will be forced to move further out into open seas, losing their current protection against rough weather by the sandbanks. If they wish to be outside the Customs zone, the boats would have to be around 30 miles from the shore. Reception of signals would also be affected were the boats to move further out.

Farewell Alice — Take Two

After originally going to say goodbye to London's rockers at Christmas. Alice's Restaurant will now make its final broadcast at Easter. The Christmas broadcast didn't go ahead for a number of reasons, including the possibility of resuming regular transmissions again in the summer. However this is not now to be, and the group has decided to call it a day as they are occupied with other projects.

Farwell Kiss?

Kiss FM were off the air or 5 weeks from 8 February following the departure of their original engineer. The station returned on 21 March with several changes, including more reggae being programmed, and a new mailing address of 37 Grand Parade, Green Lanes, Haringey, N4. Kiss FM were voted number one station in London in the 1986 TX Readers' poll, published in the last issue.

Welcome Fame

After being off the air since April 1986, Fame FM returned to the air on 8 March. Programmes are now on tape and mixed in with continuous music whilst more DJs are sought for the station.

Solar Weekends

Solar Radio are now operating weekends only, after an abortive attempt at seven day a week broadcasting at the end of last year. They spent a great deal of money in that attempt, which is the reason for hours being reduced now. However, Solar hopes to gradually expand hours as it becomes more settled in. Back in 1985 the station recorded a massive one and a half million listeners at the weekend in an independent survey, rivalling Capital.

Nannell May Finally Broadcast

The MV Nannell may soon be finally be heading or an anchorage in the North Sea, to begin broadcasting a new station provisionally named 'Europa Radio'. The ship was originally to have carried 'Stereo Hits 576' on one channel, and a black music station 'WSOL' on another. However, due to internal disagreements the original project fell apart, the people involved moving on to other radio projects.

Jackie: 'We're Not Relaunching'

Radio Jackie's official management have denied that they are restarting the station, or that they are behind the test transmissions on 1332KHz on the medium wave. However, TX has received information that different group, which includes previous members of Jackie's broadcasting team, plans to launch a station under the Jackie name. The new station is reported to be starting at the end of March on 1332KHz, from a transmitter site in the New Malden area.

Offshore Celebration Announced

The Caroline Movement, the offshore supporters club, has announced that it will be holding a special convention on Saturday August 15th to commemorate 20 years since the passing of the Marine Etc. Broadcasting Offences Act, which outlawed the offshore stations. The event will take place at the Bloomsbury Crest Hotel in London, and will feature film shows, videos, sales stands, special guests from the world of pirate radio and much more. Further details about the event, and details of advance booking, will be given in future issues of TX.

Upfront

What happened to Cuts you may ask? Well, I have to tell you that it was thrown out at the last editorial meeting. Everyone (except the editor who thought it up) agreed that it wasn't a very clear title and that's the reason for its demise. Instead we have Upfront, which incorporates the late news snippets.

Talking of demises, one popular Question in anorak circles recently has been 'What's happened to Caroline Overdrive?'. The official reason has been that there's a lack of suitable presenters for the station, but this is really only covering up or the horrifying truth.

Word has reached us via an extremely long and tortuous journey about the real reason, which we can now exclusively reveal. Tom Anderson, who is in charge of the Overdrive service, has reused to operate the station until Caroline boss Ronan O'Rahilly has paid his phone bill. Result: stalemate.

How come all the new station wait till AM/FM is finished before coming on air? (After writing that quote when I did the contents page I had to get it in somewhere...) So, here we go with the updated list.

First off, Radio Shoestring are back once more, but now on 92.8-ish. Soul format these days and programmes hosted by East London club jocks. Girls FM got missed out of AM/FM by mistake. They made a test transmission back on Saturday 24 January and later appeared in the London Daily News to talk about the station. Since then... nothing.

Radio Lumberjack, who we covered a long time ago, are thought to be on the air still down in the NW Kent area, bordering on London. 92.5 was the frequency then.

We've already covered elsewhere plans by RFM to begin six day a week broadcasting. What's happening on that other day? Well, it seems that Radio Amanda is to return and both stations will be timesharing 90.2. Shame it's get tins an increasingly popular frequency again — how about 90.8?

Digging through the diary, a few other snippets of interest...Sky FM are reported to be an anti-drugs station, now on 91.6... Groove FM move to 98... Monique quit tins Caroline and join Laser...London Rock move to 97.9... Traffic Jam FM on 106.5... Fame FM having a few teething troubles... Sonic FM on 93.8... And that's about it.