Rate It!

The review page.

Rate It is Radio Today's review section, featuring radio reviews and reviews of radio related items: books, magazines, TV programmes, videos, records, tapes, bobble hats... if it's to do with radio then we'll review it!

Quick note to anyone who wants their radio related items reviewed: send them in! Rate It, Radio Today, BCM Box 225, London, WC1N 3XX is the address. We'll do our best to make sure we give them a mention.

Clockwork Wireless

Ken North takes a listen to some old names on a new station.

After one or two broadcasts earlier in the year, the Clockwork Wireless Broadcasting Company began regular transmissions at the beginning of May. Unfortunately they appear to have suffered terrible technical problems and many broadcasts have had to be abandoned early — several times they've left the air after just a few minutes broadcasting — the record being just two minutes on the air.

But when they do manage to make it to the air, it's certainly we worth tuning in. Clockwork Wireless is an amalgamation of two highly successful and pioneering stations: Thameside Radio (Dave Birdman) and Uptown Radio (Terry Anderson).

Terrv's programme is a delightful pot-pourri of comment, music, news and short tape inserts. He is particularly strong on U.S. items, including tapes of New York radio stations and bizarre stories taken from a U.S. paper called the 'Weekly World News'.

Dave plays mainly pop classics interspersed with comic cuts, reminiscent of early Kenny Everett. He has managed to update his style and build on it — something Kenny Everett seems unable to do these days, relying on past glories.

The only criticism I have is the tendency for both presenters to lift items from easy sources, such as the True Stories column in Private Eye and the Ad Lib column in the Standard. Nevertheless. Terry and Dave put more effort into each programme than the average pirate DJ can muster in a decade.

For the person who prefers quotes from H.L. Mencken to Sun horoscopes, the station is highly recommended.

Clockwork Wireless broadcasts on 90MHz on Sunday from 7PM.

Radio Is My Bomb

Steve Hamley looks at the new guide to unlicensed broadcasting, 'Radio is my Bomb', produced by the anarchist 'Hooligan Press'.

Radio is my Bomb is an updated and much expanded version of a booklet put out by Our Radio back in 1983. It aims to show you how to start your own pirate station, while also looking at past pirates in the UK and around the world, mixed up with a great deal of the group's anarchist broadcasting philosophy.

There are three main sections in the book. It starts with a look at past pirates, including a history or Our Radio and a look at other political stations in the UK with examples of their programming. There's also a conspiracy theory about the Community Radio Experiment, which alleges links between Radio Jackie, the CIA, MI6 and Norman Tebbit! The International section provides coverage of pirate broadcasting around the world, in particular Anarchist broadcasting in Europe.

The largest part of the book is taken up by a reasonably extensive technical section, with plans for a range of transmitters — though our resident technical experts don't rate them too highly, and in the hands of inexperienced constructors are likely to cause problems. It also includes pieces on the practical side of broadcasting and the law, which are probably the most controversial as the book does advocate violence against the DTI — something that both the vast majority of pirates and ourselves do not agree with and believe should not be tolerated. Also on the minus side, it rips off Relay Magazine and TX, both out of context.

Overall, it seems likely that the book will only really appeal to other potential anarchist broadcasters, people after the technical plans or those just interested in seeing a book that's been in the news (The Peter Wright syndrome). You have been warned.

'Radio is my Bomb' is available from the Hooligan Press, BM Hurricane, London, WC1N 3XX price £2.40.

PAM S Jingles

And finally, we move on to a look at the latest PAMS catalogue and demo tape.

Remember those jingles from Wonderful Radio London in the sixties? Or if you're a bit younger, Radio Sovereign? Or, if you're even younger, Tony Blackburn's show on BBC Radio London? They were all produced by PAMS jingles, one or the best-known and longest established jingles companies in the world.

Their latest catalogue is of interest to both jingle collectors and DJs and radio stations. For jingle collectors there's the original PAMS demo tapes and jingle collections, including PAMS Pirates (with jingles from Radio London, Caroline, Sovereign, Jackie and more) and Metroplex — a journey through radio in Dallas. For DJs and radio stations, PAMS can produce custom jingles at very reasonable prices — starting at just £9.95 or a set of three disco jingles through £85 for acapellas and upwards for custom productions.

Examples of all these are featured on a demo tape, available for a small charge. Both the collector tape and custom jingles are demonstrated — and if you weren't tempted before, then you will be afterwards!

For details of PAMS, see their advertisement on the back page of this issue.