How any white blood corpuscles are there in the average human body? That is the question for this week’s superquiz. Next week Dave asks for their names and addresses.

Mark takes over at midnight – but sadly I don’t have this recorded. If you have any Thameside recordings please get in touch. Email or twitter @fmthen

Thameside Listeners mentioned include
Pete Cooper, Bikers Mike, Ian, Nigel and Andy, Malcolm Fryer

Bob Edwards continues his show. Bob continues to arrange Dave’s bike trip to the south coast. Amongst other records he plays The Message by Grandmaster Flash.  Goodness – it’s 1982 and rap is already mainstream.

There is a 20 minute gap in this recording towards the end of the Bob Edwards show.

Bob is followed Dave who tells us more about the bike trip.

Thameside Listeners mentioned include
Anita in Highbury, Andrew Simpson, Ruth from Harrow, Dominic from Wimbledon, Everyone at the Green Belt Festival. Paul Wedell in Coulsdon,

Dave Birdman starts this Thameside Radio broadcast with apologies for problems in the previous two weeks. The DTI were raiding Thameside quite regularly at this time. There are studio problems so he doesn’t have any prefade when means some awkward segues between records, the show goes well though. He tells us about rat infestations in Hillingdon and edible snails in Heathrow.

Bob Edwards takes over at 8pm

Thameside Listeners mentioned include
Karen Scott from Epsom Downs, David Scott (who has passed 10 O-levels),

More mayhem with the Thameside Radio crew broadcasting live from Notting Hill in the middle of the 1982 carnival.

This extended show came from the Notting Hill Carnival - which was smaller and a little more edgy in 1982 than it is now. The main Thameside Transmitter was on top of Trellick Tower in the middle of Notting Hill while the lower roof (still 35 stories up) was used by the police to watch what was going on in the carnival.

Of course there was no interference between the police walkie-talkies and the Thameside Radio setup but still - it must have been "interesting" for the engineers.

Part 2 of Bob interviewing the Mystsics followed by The Intrepid Birdman Show on Thameside Radio 90.2

Part 2 of 2

Dave opens up another extended broadcast. He has some surprises for Bob who interviews the Mystics and learns  more about electronic music.

Part 1 of 2

The Mark Ashdown show closes this extended Thameside Radio broadcast.

Mark asks for suggestions for new listener events.

Part 3 of 3

The Intrepid Birdman produces another inimitable show for this extended Thameside Radio broadcast.

Part 2 of 3

Bob is late so Dave starts his show. Bob takes over and then hands back to Dave. The broadcast went on to midnight. We hear from  Mark for the the last hour. 

Thameside Radio were subject to a lot of attention from the DTI at this time - but still managed to have occasional extended broadcasts!

Part 1 of 3

The show has  highlights from the Birdman’s holiday at Hayle in Cornwall where his bike broke down – so he had to buy a new one (well new to him, it was a 1963  Triumph T90 which needed new tank badges and a speedo). The bike makes  a terrible racket.
 
Paul James has been on the “Voice of Peace” for the last 4 weeks or so.

Bob tells us that “I Eat Cannibals” by the Belle Stars is the best record out at the moment.

Mark brings in an unrelased live Genesis track from a flexidisc on the cover of “Flexipop” magazine.

We hear lots more from The Mystics.

Following a couple of Thameside broadcasts which ended early due to technical problems Bob Edwards hosts a limited two hour broadcast. Everyone else seems to be on holiday.

Bob plays more from The Mystics and tells us about a girl that he spent 24 hours with!

We hear from Mark for the first hour. He is sitting in for Paul James who is spending some time on The Voice of Peace in Israel. Later Bob Edwards chats with the Mystics about making electronic music.

The recording finishes early with a burst of static. The hot weather had set off the sprinkler system at the Thameside transmitter site!

The Interpid Birdman presents the last two hours of this extended Thameside Radio broadcast from the Summer of 1982. He has lots of unlikely sounding police reports.

Of course with the Birdman the show isn't over till it's over. Keep listening after the official end of the show.

Part 3 or 3

Paul James says "goodbye" to Thameside Radio for the next 3 months as he is going to work on "The Voice of Peace" in Israel.

Bob plays songs from a demo tape by the Mystics who use "a lot of new electronic equipment" to quote Bob. There aren't many demos that have stuck in my mind since the early 80's - but this is one of them.  The first track starts 48 minutes in, the second is  1h30m, third at 1h59m. Band members include Dave Booth, Sandra Cook, Dave Newson, Yvonne Carns, Nick Hogarth, Gavin Blair Watson.

The band come in to the studio and tell us a bit more about who does what. Whatever happened to the Mystics?

Mentions for: Mike of Chalfont, Paul Marshall, The Intrepid Birdman Appreciation Society, Mazzy Margaret, John Brennan, Ian Bell, Bob Gower, Cindy of Ealing, Mothball, Hairy Pete, Dave Booth, Gary Williams, Colin Pratt.

Part 2 of 3 of this extended broadcast

Paul James and Dave Birdman take the first two hours. The authorities had been chasing the Thameside Radio crew for the previous few shows, but they weren't out this evening so the Thameside crew extended the broadcast to 1am.

Part 1 of 3

Nice to hear from Ian Stewart (who is also the Thameside Radio engineer) who takes the first hour while Paul James is on holiday in the south of France. His show is followed by The Intrepid Birdman.

Sadly the transmitter knew that the engineer wasn’t paying it full attention and started having problems with the PLL circuit – so the transmission finishes early.

Part 2 of this broadcast from the Summer of 1982. Bob Edwards tells us that Thameside Radio is now the most powerful and longest running pirate station in London.

He also mentions that  that “the good news that we’ve nearly got them in the Falkland Islands”.

Listeners letters include: Jeff Dawkins E2 Bethnal Green. The Mathematics department at  University College London. North London Polytechnic Law students. Nick Doherty in Elgin Road. Listeners at the BBC.

Paul James and The Intrepid Birdman host the first two hours of this four hour broadcast from Thameside Radio 90.2.

Paul tells us all about the difficulties of doing exams (he’s doing his exams at the moment too) and plays the sax solo from “Will You” by Hazel O’Connor for Rosalind – one of the behind the scenes people who help keep Thameside going.

The Birdman tries to finish a little early so Bob Edwards can start on time.

Bouncing Bob Edwards presenets the second half of this broadcast from Thameside Radio 90.2 VHF.

Paul James and Dave "the Intrepid  Birdman"  from the summer of 1982.

Part one of a 4 hour Thameside Radio show.

Because of problems with the power supply (it had been lent out and not returned on time!) for the first  45mins the transmitter was powered by a car battery with charger across so there is some background hum.

9-11pm Dave hands over to Bob who has just turned 24 now and thanks the listeners for for all the cards and presents including an extra long moustache!

The team have been on a 12 mile sponsored trail to raise money for Oxfam. The next Thameside Radio disco is on Friday Jun 4th at the Tabard pub in Bath Road Chiswick. 

Listeners are still writing in for copies of Time Out (50p) which had a feature about London’s radio pirates.

There is also the official statement on the two Thameside staff who were fined £25 each for stealing 0.25p of electricity. They weren’t charged under the Wireless Telegraphy act though!

Paul James tells us that he eats two packets of Maltesers a week (that’s almost £100  / year)

7-9pm with Paul James and The Intrepid Birdman show. Dave Birdaman (photo) has passed his motorbike test. Paul assures us that Radio Caroline will be coming back. He also tells us about a new film called Polyester  (produced by John Waters). The exciting thing  about the film is that it was released in in in Odorama so Paul got a scractch’n’sniff card to use at key points in the film. Sounds better than 3D. I wonder why it never caught on?

We also hear from Ian the engineer.

The news includes an item about 2 members of Thameside Radio staff who appeared at Marylebone court last Tuesday charged with stealing ¼p of electricity. The magistrate was more concerned at the waste of police time than the negligible theft of electricity.



Thameside Radio listenerers mantioned include: Cindy of Ealing. Gary in Hillingdon. Martin Gould of Greenford and Janice.  Jamie Witcombe in Colin Gardens NW9.  Alan of Kingsbury for Francine. Nigel Collins from Muswell Hill.

Bob talks a lot about his upcoming birthday. He also discusses a new book called Alternative London which has a section on pirate radio and mentions Thameside

It is a sunny day and the show starts late because the Thameside Radio team were distracted by a girl walking past the studio. (It’s 1982 and sexism hasn’t yet been discovered yet).

Paul has passed his driving test thanks to Tony Gregory his driving instructor. Dave is about to take his test too. 

The Paul James competition asks for “Thameside” in the phonetic alphabet: (Tango, Hotel, Alpha etc) At the time Eric Gotts from the Home Office used to refer to Thameside Radio as “Tango Hotel”.

The team are collecting sponsorship for a walk which they are doing for Oxfam

The second hour comes from the Intrepid Birdman.  The superquiz needs you to be in the bath!

Bob starts the third hour and tells us that he is going to be 24 years old next week.


The show was broadcast from the Arndale Centre in Wandsworth which has good coverage over south and east London but is not so good to the west and north so reception is a bit poor on this recording.

Two hours of Thameside Radio with Bob Edwards between 9 and 11pm this Sunday. He has a demo from South Side Dynamos, chats about how often we have baths and pays a lot of Status Quo. Sarah from Kew turns up. She’s been down the pub with The Birdman. (She’s definitely grown older while we’ve been listening over the last few years hasn’t she?)  Dave talks about the new fangled Walkman radios – and mentions obliquely  listening in to the Home Office radio channels on the Bernardphone.

Bob chats with some of the crew about the favourite songs. We discover that:

Dave’s favourite record is Grooving with Mr Bloe by Mister Bloe which he remembers from the juke box at  The Macabre coffee bar in Meard Street in Soho. (Probably the coolest place in the universe in the 60s)

Sarah’s favourite record is Follow you Follow me by Genesis. It reminds her of her 16th birthday party which ended in total chaos with broken banisters and broken doors. (How did she explain it all to her long suffering parents?)

Bob’s fave is Dire Straits and Skateaway.

Wow – I’m now right back to my teens – endless summer, endless music, no responsibilities and amazing parties. 

After a major raid a couple of weeks earlier the Thameside Radio team are back with an extended broadcast

Paul James is about to take his driving test.

The Birdman tell us that story about a couple who were served their dog in a Chinese restaurant. He also reads out a pamphlet on the Dangers of Knitting in a public place.

The first 50 minutes of the show are missing from the archive - but may turn up yet.

Bob Edwards plays Sailing by Rod Stewart for 'The boys sailing out to the Falklands.'  The computer continues to tell the presenters what  to say.  Paul complains that he didn’t get a cup of coffee from the tea lady when he was doing a show. Dave says he was overcharged for his tea (55p instead of 20p). Where can you get tea fpr 20p now?

Not many letters or dedications this week (apart from a very flattering note from Jo English in Teddington). No jingles either. The music is great though.

This is part two of the Thameside Radio broadcast which went through until 11pm. There’s a lovely snatch of BBC Radio 3 right at the end. Goodness me didn’t the presenters sound stuffy back in 1982?

Paul James starts the show followed by Dave.   Bob is apparenly installing a fully computerised system in the studio that will tell the DJs what to do on a digital display in the studio. All sounds very unlikely to me – surely it’ll never catch on! Dave says that all computers seem to achieve are inflated phone bills. 

Dave plays a fabulous selection of records – from the sublime to ridiculous, literally - as well as some great sketches. The tea lady also makes an appearance on the Intrepid Birdman show with her trick tea spoon. She pretty much steals the show really.

The show was broadcast from a tower block on the South Acton estate which has since been demolished.

This is the first half of a 4 hour programme. The second half with a full Bob Edwards show is coming next week.

Time Out have just run a centre page spread on the London pirate stations featuring Thameside Radio so the team are sounding pleased. It’s clear that there are radio pirates broadcasting pretty much every day and throughout the weekend in London.

 This was an interesting week behind the scenes: Rather than just responding to reports of interference Eric Gotts, who ran the Home Office detection unit, was actively trying to close down all the pirates. Many of the pirates had now discovered the radio channel that the detection unit used so they were able to stop broadcasting or change transmitters as soon as they were being tracked. However this week half way through the evening the detection team were heard to say that they were “going home as all the pirates have gone off” so many of the pirates came back on. In fact the Home Office switched channels and ran a number of successful raids.

 This does illustrate how this was something of a personal battle between Eric Gotts and the pirates. It was wasn’t just about preventing interference it really was a vendetta which was probably made worse when Eric was successfully prosecuted by Radio Jackie for violent conduct!

 The recording has most but not all of the show. If you have more please drop me a note.

 You might notice that  the VOX was set a bit tight on one of the transmitters – this is the circuit which automatically switches the transmitter off when the broadcast stops. Unfortunately it set so that it switched off even if there was just a quiet bit in a record. It comes back on when the record gets louder though...

 The number of transmitters being lost to the authorities around this time meant that some  engineers had started to specialise in building and selling VHF transmitters and link equipment to the pirates. Funnily those entrepeneurs are still doing it but they now run major businesses building equipment for mainstream broadcasters throughout the world such as the BBC and have moved away from the pirate market completely.

Dave takes over from Bob for an extended broadcast and we hear for the first time from Ian the Thameside Radio engineer who takes over from Dave for a while. Hi Ian!

The show finishes early (well just after midnight) because the transmitter was turned off before Dave finished his show.

Part 1 of a live broadcast that went on to midnight. The first two hours are the Bob Edwards show - at the end of the recording Bob hands over to Dave.

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!

Paul James stands in for Bob. This is the week after another Thameside Radio 90.2 party from Shepherds Bush. (The recording of that show is still being worked on). 

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.

I think that this is Thameside's first stereo test transmission.

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 first part of the show is presented by Bob Edwards from the studio. The second part, hosted by Paul James, was recorded earlier that evening at the Thameside Radio 90.2 party in the Shepherds Bush Village Hall.

Sarah is off with a throat infection - so Bob is standing in for her.

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.

Two hours with Paul, Sarah and Dave. Paul is eating the Spangles that  Thameside gave out as prizes.

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. 

A two hour show from Thameside Radio 90.2  The first hour with Paul James and Sarah from Kew, the second with the Intrepid Birdman. Bob is clearly still away.

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.

Paul James is standing in for Bob again in this two hour show. The first 30 minutes has techincal problems - all is resolved after the transmitter change in time to listen to Sarah reading out dedeications.

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.

Sarah interviews Rat Scabies fron The Damned at the beginning of this Interpid Birdman Show. Dave tells us that there is a new voice on Thameside Radio: While Bob Edwards is away Paul James (ex Radio Floss) presents the first hour. Dave still has the second hour. Paul (see photo) became a regular Thameside presenter.

Following a mammoth New Year's eve broadcast Thameside Radio has decided to go down to  two hour shows. Bob is going away to somewhere he describes as "a bit like Colditz" (true - see photo) for a couple of months. This week the first half hour has Dave running the show playing Bob's favourite songs - with chat from Bob. Something like Desert Island Disks. 

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.

Following a mammoth New Year's eve broadcast Thameside Radio has decided to go down to  two hour shows. Bob is going away to somewhere he describes as "a bit like Colditz" (true - see photo) for a couple of months. This week the first half hour has Dave running the show playing Bob's favourite songs - with chat from Bob. Something like Desert Island Disks. 

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!