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.
