Because the pirates were monitoring the  radio channels used by the DTI they knew when they were being tracked and when there was no risk.

The Sunday Civil Service overtime payments must have been great for the crews in teh detector vans!

Bob Edwards has returned after his long break where Paul James filled in. There is a Thameside party again next week at the Shepherds Bush Village Hall. The station changes site every 30 minutes or so to keep the DTI on their toes. Not for the first time Bob says that Dave sounds miserable on his show!

Dave tells us about taking someone to Covent Garden to get their ear pierced and reads the amazing leaflet they were given!

Mark Hawkins of Brentwood wins five singles in the phone competition!

Listening to this broadcast shows how the Thameside Radio 90.2 superbeam easily covered the whole of London. The letters include  listeners in Maidenhead, Bromley, Brentwood and Boreham Wood. All lie outside what is now the M25. That's a radius of at least 17 miles: A quick bit of O-level maths shows the Thameside transmitter covered an area of over 900 sq miles. Wow.

For the engineers out there: The photo shows a Thameside Radio transmitter of the time. The audio and power control circitry is in one of the die-cast boxes, the other box houses the driver board (exciter). On the front panel you can just see the meter which can show the DC voltage or audio levels. Switches on the front control power, meter readings and vox settings.  

 There are more poems for Sarah of Kew and a report on a Genesys concert at the Hammersmith Odeon. One of the new releases is Teen Romance by The Alsatians - who are regular listeners

Dave parodies the Hamlet advert. Remember when you saw cigar adverts on the TV?  A lot of superquiz answers too as well as a new one. Simon Tindall (who wants to be a sound engineer) writes asking if he can visit the studio. 

The Tony Lloyd fan club writes in to find out what has happened to him and to sell Dave a Tony Lloyd sweatshirt. Tony does appear briefly. (Where are you now Tony? Do email al@fmthen.com or leave a comment here.)

Thameside Radio listeners mentioned include: Jeff (Goeff?) Hawkins for University College. Boris Bartkiw for 6S2 at Latymer Upper School including Steve, Stephen, Petra, Zena of Kenton, Ingrid and everyone else in Kew Gardens. Patricia Hickey for Richard. John Firth of SW7.  Anthony Osterwell. John Tenton. Steve Petherich. Markus of NW5. Andy Midsen of Chertsey. John of Boreham Wood, Brian Gording, Marcus Gonzales, Colin Mainu, Warren Stephenson of Chessington, Exeter University. Gary Wilkins of Bromley. Tony Anagranza of East Finchley. Martin Greaves. G S Rocket of Uxbridge. Keith Lang of Petersham.

This recording comes from Radio Eric. I was sent cassettes of the show (along with the previous two) which I had started converting to mp3 when I came across this one so I took the easy solution!    

There are no letters because Bob forgot to pick them up from 1 Grosvenor Parade W5. (Now a restaurant - at the time it was a printers.) It was a great address because it doesn't appear in the A to Z.

Capital Radio had been giving plugs for Thameside Radio on their "Help a London Child" weekend. I know that at least one of the DJs used to listen regularly because he wrote in. It was Roger Scott I think.  

Bob calls Alan Jameson from Hampton who correctly guesses that an egg thrown out of the studio window wouldn't break! 

Dave is on the end of the radio mic having a sticky bun fight with the neighbours before having an egg and spoon race live on air with Bob. Dave (The Inrepid Birdman)  spends his show throwing raw eggs for Bob to catch. He has a great advert for the "self adjusting door knocker" which makes an appropriate sound for the person who is at your front door! Pirate Radio was such fun!

Mentions for: Psychopath Kiev. John Webb of N5. Steve of Acton. Richard of Hornchurch.

Bob tells us that accidents are Freudian - they all have a meaning if you think about them; later we discover he has lost his tortiose: I wonder what that meant?

Bob phones listener Pete (for the mystery voice compettion) who is making a Welsh dresser!

The write in competition this week  has a prize for putting something interesting in a matchbox. I think there were some quite unusual entries! We'll find out on next weeks podcast.

Rupert of East Molsey won a prize for knowing that the Intrepid Birdman's favourite Spangles were the black ones. Someone proposes to Sarah from Kew in verse.

Dave plays outtakes from an interview in the Laseraruim where Bob chatted with the laserist Howard Sachs. (The Laserium was a music and laser show at the London Planetarium). The superquiz is still fiendishly difficult. You'll have to listen...

Mentions also for Marcus Gonzales, Paul Turtil, Mark Hawkins, Radio Caroline, Ian of Ickenham, Paul Cambridge from Catford (who had his Thameside Radio badge stolen), Andrew Bell from Plumstead,  Keith Lang, F W Conrad,

While the show is  still mono  the opening and closing "do you ever have difficulty" jingles are remixed and in stereo. I wonder how they did that?

Paul James has a brand new Beatles spot. It's very hot in the studio and he assures us that Sarah is reading the dedications with her clothes off. (In our dreams!) Sarah mentions (amongst others) Thameside listeners at Hammersmith Hospital, Windy Miller, snoopy, cupcake, the copycats club, Robin Holbert.

As well as more ILR outtakes Dave has CB dedications for Red Rooster, Blue Wheeler and Orange Club in the Rayners Lane area. He also talks about Steve Walsh from Radio Invicta (another fine London pirate) who is advertising Svenson hair weaving in the local press.

The weather was so snowy we had to leave from Kingston Pier rather than Richmond Pier. The captain  really didn't believe that anyone wanted to have a boat party in the mid winter in such attrocious conditions. Then he headed upstream away from Brentford where the main transmitter was located. We worried about losing the link signal between the boat and the main site but couldn't exactly explain to him why it was so important that we went towards Brentford, especially as it was dark, cold, snowy and there was absolutely nothing for the passengers to to see. He turned round though - thank goodness.

An unforgettable evening.

Many many thanks to Radio Eric for the recording (I'm pretty sure it's from their archives originally)

There are some technical problems at the start of the show - I edited about 15 minutes out as there isn't much to hear.  There is a Thameside Radio  Valentines Day party at the Shepherd's Bush Village Hall next week. And the team tell us they will be broadcasting from a new studio that week as well.

Aidan Schulkes of Hammersmith wins the Paul James competition (did you know that Ready Salted was the most popular flavour of crisps in 1980).  Bob interviews Sarah with a squeaky voice in her sick bed.

Dave has some recordings from the cutting room floors of various radio stations - including a Guinness advert which assures us that  "not a lot of women like it". He also plays a a few tracks from the the new Eddie Grunt album. Well - bits of tracks to avoid the language!

There's a CB spot too - Dave sets up the  Thameside Breakers club.

Paul chipped his tooth at a party last night!

Eddie Grunt is in the Thameside Charts (do you remember him?)

There are some slick site changes with great Birdman Jingles - the first one is 30 minute in.

Dave Sarah has a report from the Chinese New Year. Dave has a CB section. He reads an article from City Limits (a competitor to Time Out) about Eric Gotts whose job it was to close down the pirates. There are also some more bloopers from other radio stations.

Dedications include: Les Keely, Mike of Chalfont, Mazzie, Aidan from Rent-a-rabble,  Simon Marlborough from Chiswick, Brother Illiano Pertrowich, St Paul's School in Barnes, Wolfie in East Croydon, Mark Unwin, NESCOTASS at Espsom RAC club. 

The opening by the massed Thameside Listeners was recorded at an Outside Broadcast in Hyde Park as far as I can rememeber. 

Paul reviews "An American Werewolf in London" which was recently released. Sarah tells us that there is going to be a Valentines party on Feb 14th. There's a pretty neat transmitter change when Dave pulls a plug out. Reception was a bit rough after this though.

Listeners mentioned include Steve Scribbler. Eddie Grunt. Gary Bearnd. Les Keely. Andy from Hillingdon. Paul Deacon. Neal Stoddard (who won the competition).  Radio Alpha (Mondays on 90.2 VHF). Gary Steele.

There's an interview with Tony Fletcher who runs the Jamming Records and Jamming fanzine.

Dave plays Henry at Rawlinsons End, tells us about heroic failures and plays some bloopers from other radio stations. The Intrepid Birdman Superquiz asks which record has been in the charts the longest (122 weeks). 

Thameside Radio listeners mentioned include. Carnelia who has been on holiday in Goa where a meal costs 70p. Alan Murrel in Hackney.

I seem to be missing a small bit from the middle of this broadcast - do you have a full recording?

Sarah then has a 30 minute show for dedications etc. 

The second hour is a full Intrepid Birdman Show. Dave has even reintroduced the Superquiz. Next week there is an interview with Rat Scabies from The Damned.

This is a replacement for the pervious podcast which was linked to the wrong file.

Sarah then has a 30 minute show for dedications etc. 

The second hour is a full Intrepid Birdman Show. Dave has even reintroduced the Superquiz. Next week there is an interview with Rat Scabies from The Damned.

If you've been to "Colditz" near Evesham too do say hello!

The Thameside Radio 90.2 Christmas party is next Sunday 27 December 1981 at the Shepherds Bush Community Hall. Were you there? There will also be an extended Thameside broadcast on New Year's Eve (which only just kept me awake as far as I can remember).

Bob Edwards plays records from the year for listeners to vote on for a chart on New Year's Eve. Many of them have  definitely stood the test of time.

Sarah has a spot at 8pm. She reads a couple of the 10 letters that Mazzy wrote this week.

Dave Birdman tells us about the trip. It really was quite unreal being on a pirate ship in the snow on the Thames playing music - he had a driving test which was cancelled due to snow. Dave plays Christmas in Dredland by Judge Dredd and wishes he hadn't. Loads of new sketches too.

There are some snippets from the boat trip - including Mothball being given the bumps for his birthday.

There are a number of transmitter changes. It takes up to an hour to track down a pirate transmitter so the regular changes kept the Home Office at bay. It does require a lot of technology and staff to do it though - especially without the benefit of mobile phones. Each site is temporary so the  aerials have to be put up, the equipment connected, the show broadcast  then it's  disconnected, dismantled and moved on. Sundays were very busy for the Thameside crew. Busy for listeners too as they had to move their aerials around. 

  I have assorted recordings of most of Thameside Radio's 4th birthday almost ready to podcast  but it's a bit of a jigsaw with some better than others. The end of the birthday show is sadly missing. Do you have the end of the broadcast somewhere?

Thameside Radio 90.2 listeners mentioned include Keith Murray from Pinner, Nower Hill High School, Andrew Simpson, John Graves, Clive Barwood, Jerry Sinclair, John Brennan, Doug McLane, Dave Booth, David Swift of West Ealing, Adam Raven.

Bob Edwards is reading a book that says stupid people are clever people and clever people are stupid. Hmmm. He also reads out listeners letters about the secret of life.

Mrs Leaper has made food and we get a guided tour of the meal and the house. Adrian has dozens of champion gerbils in his shed. Dave interviews Bill the Budgie. (That radio mic really came in useful.)

Listener Andrew Simpson reviews a a concert by by Rockpile (Featuring Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe) at Brunel University. Soundwaves magazine has a feature about Thameside Radio.

Thameside Radio 90.2 listeners mentioned this week include: Philip Chapel from Windsor. John Chapel.  John Brennan of Thornton Heath. Students at Kingston Polytechnic. Chris Parry of Ilford. Barbara and Trever Adams from Biggin Hill.  Joannie Conway aged 6 3/4  from Hampton Wick Infant School. Ron Stephenson.  Kevin Ball from Bromley.  Malcolm Fryer of Hendon. Frinton McCarthy of SE5. Mike Boardman of Harrow. John Lyon School. Dave Kenny for the  BDXC. Nick Doherty from North London Poly. Rapic Sandec. Andy Richards.

This is only the first half of the broadcast. If you have the other half or any other recordings please please do get in touch - you can use the comment field or email me at fmthen.com Al

Last week Tony Lloyd was cut off in his prime during a live show from a listeners house (Julian and Vebecca in Meon Road Acton) where the crew ate spaghetti on air. That was the first of many shows from listeners' homes like Tatty's party a couple of months later.

This show has loads of musical jingles by Dave.

Elton John, B52s, The Motels, Supertramp,  Queen .. what a varied musical selection.

Bob calls more listerers with the long running Thameside Radio mystery voice competition. Steve Petherick of Hayes doesn't win tbut  thinks the authorties should return the transmitter they nicked. Later we hear from Ruth Leaper of Harrow who also also doesn't win. She has dedications for her brothers Adrian and Clive also cousins David and Jeremy. Ruth supports Chelsea who are in the Second Division!

Richard Jones of Hornchurch and Jim Stockwell contribute local news.

This show does illustrate that Thameside Radio 90.2 had  a lot of  listener involvement. No wonder there are so many recordings still around. (do you have one you could contribute?)

Bob tells us he is going to play part 2 of the Norman Normal saga and Tony Lloyd will have part 1 of the new LP of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Thameside Radio 90.2 listeners mentioned include: Anthony Osterwell of Wembley Park. Richard Morgan from Bromley. Mr Henry at Latymer Upper School. Mark Bramley of Bromley. Jeff Eagles from the Walthamstow Swimmming Club. Chris Hall. Moat Mount School. Alex and Chris Child of Carshalton. Wilson's School in Wallington. Particia and Paddy Hickory. Richard Jones of Hornchurch. Tim Stockwell.

Bob has asked for funny shaped letters - one even came on a rotten banana another others on an elastic band, a record sleeve and some writtten on brushes. A listener requests some pirate radio themes - Bob plays the Radio Dublin theme, The Pirates Lullaby amongst others. 

Although the Intrepid Birdman Show hasn't yet been introduced Dave has is already released the Ron Nasty songs - This week Bob plays  "Nobody Loves Me (just 'cause I eat worms)"

Thameside Radio 90.2 namechecks include Robert Dudley of Hampton Jeff Fatherin.  Rob Allen of SW15.  Tim Penache. Julies restaurant. Graham Sanders of Croydon. Barry Kemp from New Malden. Andy Segals of Walthamstow. Martin Greaves. Walthmstow swimming club. Davis Lewis of Uxbridge. Steve Holloway of SW16 for parachutists. PJ O'Connor of SW7. Richard Morgan of Bromley. Chris Miller. Geoff (Jeff) Barton.  Bob phones Mark Hawkins who is listening in Brentwood.  The superbeam really did get out a long way. 

There are buckets of letters coming in.

This week Mark is meeting listeners at Wembley Central tube, Barnes railway bridge and High Street Kensington Tube and selling tickets for the forthcoming boat trip. 

Alex Wright tells us about the listeners social last Tuesday at the smallest pub in the UK (the Hole in the wall in Kings Cross) and that next weeks social event for Thameside Radio listeners is at "The Film Location" in Acton Vale. (A tiny cinema / restaurant / bar). 

Last week's show was raided just before the end so the crew are back to transmitter changes. In the past Thameside Radio didn't talk about the problems of being a pirate station on the basis that if they behaved professionally the authorities would leave them alone - which worked for a while. But not any more. so 45 minutes in there's a very different Bob Edwards jingle and then there's a public information item about how transmitter changes work.

Sarah is reading letters after being off wit a cold. Mazzy tells us that she was playing cello in the Royal Albert Hall wearing a Thameside Radio sweatshirt - and peple knew what it was! But she was asked not to wear it for the evening performance. There is a complaint that there aren't enough letters from members of the Intrepid Birdman Appreciation Society. Loads of namechecks. Too many to write up. But John Carbon has a moving dedication for Ruth.

Mark interviews The Basils Balls Up Band at the Kings Head in Fulham who are still gigging now.

Dave has a funky new jingle to open the show. He is given the bumps on air by the crew. He has taken encouraging listeners to spread malicious rumours about Bob Edwards. Dave also has another transmitter change to contend with. These transmitter changes really frustrated the Home Office who had recently taken to trying to track down "Romeo Tango" (their secret code for Radio Thameside) most weekends as they had to catch a transmitter actually being used. As soon as it was swirtched off they couldn't do anthing about it.

Fortunately Dave has another track from the Portsmouth Symphonia album (probably the best band in the world - you really have to hear it - 151 minutes in). Sadly I seem to have mislaid my copy and I can't find it on the Internet. He also plays "Suspended Animation" for the Intrepid Birdman Appreciation Society and Nick Turner from the Inner City Unit. "Tainted Love" is remastered as "Tainted Shirt" advertising the Thameside Sweatshirts. Finally Ron Nasty offers relationship advice.

Bob Edwards phones up some listeners including  Margaret  from Brooklands College. Dave tells us about a bit of "SFX" which was was a music magazine published on cassette - what we'd call a podcast now! There's also has a very obscure Billy Connoly B-side.He spots the similarity beteen "The Pappadom Song" by The RJ Wagsmith band, "Toast" by Paul Young and "Car 67" remember those?

Dave (The Intrepid Birdman) is in fine form. There's the first of Dave's short stories about Al Puck - the character later developed into a major series called "Return to the House of Puck".He also does a full over the top production on one of Mazzy's letters!

And just before the end of the show - Thameside Radio is raided again by the DTI.

Loads of letters this week including ones for Thameside Radio listeners in Queen Mary College. John Shakespeare. Richard Pomford. Bamber in Bristol. Students at City Univerity.

To keep one step ahead of the DTI who were having a crackdown on radio pirates the Thameside Radio 90.2 crew were changing transmitters during the show. Again there were losts of chances for the listeners to meet the presenters as they had the traditional Thameside firworks around London.  Dave (The Intrepid Birdman) was in Harrow on the hill. Sarah from Kew was on Richmond Green (not too far to travel then!).

Thanks for all the emails asking about the shows. There are a lot more to go.

Al

Alex had Thameside Radio "fast food surveys" from  Spud-u-Like in Shepherd's Bush and Huckleberry's in Oxford Street. The report also featured the Birdman's "No-one Loves Me (Just 'Cause I Eat Worms).  

The Birdman has a really great beginning to his show.  

Loads of dedications on Bob's show. Some by letter, some on the Curlyman's number. I've tried to pick out ones that might get spotted in a Google search:  

Francesca from Putney for Tony Fletcher from Apocalypse, Francine, Nick, Xani, Carl, Jeff Jim, Nick and Fran. Moira for the Whitton Skipsters. Mothball for Dandelion and Photon Brick. Toby from Notting Hill for Daniel Abdab, Charlie and Cathy. Carrie for Ian Day and the Paranoid Android Fan Club. Mazzy, Margaret Atkinson, Andy Cooper, John Brennan, John Simon, Jordan Lee, Bernard of St John's Wood, John of Thornton Heath, Alan Simpson, Sue Cook, Nichola for Godolphin and Latymer and, Roslin Park Rugby Club. Greg for the BNZ staff.Juliette and June from tele-ads at the Surrey Comet. Chris Webb. Alison who is Mothball's sister. Ricchard Gordon for Cathy and Jonathan. Everyone at the Alexandria and Fireball concert.   There are more, have a listen!