I’ve been collecting Thameside Radio recordings since, well, it started. Not big time obsessive collecting, just the occasional stuff that I taped then and things I got later from friends.  Of course I’ve sent copies to wonderful Radio Eric for their blast of pirate radio nostalga.

So here’s the story. An ex listener emailed me from from out of the blue,  a couple of texts, a call on the mobile number to make sure it was still on, a clandestine meeting arranged in the BBC reception area and a few minutes later we spotted each other.  He had a large heavy black case that looked ready to go  on on a business trip. Next to it I put my scruffy blue retro hold-all, empty and crumpled. While the security guard looked past us we transferred the contents, one cardboard box at a time, from his to mine.

Layer I unzipped my bag and lifted the flap of one of the 12 identical boxes. Inside  were  ten neatly labelled rectangular transparent plastic cases.  I hadn’t seen these things for years. Under the spine of each case was printed “TDK C90″ followed by a neatly handwritten written date and  Thameside Radio. That’s a year’s worth of recordings.

120 cassettes weighs a lot. You could fit the whole lot onto an iPod now.