Category Archives: Features

Features, Listen, On Demand

A Tribute to Pirate Radio – Fifty Years On.

“It was 50 Years Ago Today” is a special tribute show which looks back to the events of 1964-68 when ‘pirate radio’ stations Radio Caroline and Radio London were declared illegal after the introduction of the Marine Offences Act.

Susy stalwarts Jim Richman, an engineer on Radio Caroline North off the Isle of Man in the 60s and David Jay, an avid teenage listener in Surrey are retelling a well known story – with a run through the history of those years at sea, plus a taste of some of the ‘turntable hits’ of the day and the material which gave the stations their unique sounds: accompanied by some personal memories, which will be the original content in this view of a moment in time which was endlessly thrilling for those who were there, and which changed the faces of radio and of music for ever.

Although Radio Caroline’s North and South services are better remembered, not least because they battled on after being declared illegal, Radio London (‘The Big L’) was by far the biggest and most successful station, and it closed for ever at 3pm on 14 August 1967.

Listen On Demand:

Features, Listen

Eric Martin remembers “The Tower of Power”

On 4th September, 2003, when SUSY Radio was campaigning for a permanent license, a special programme was broadcast which introduced Eric Martin as a special guest of the “Alan French Afternoon Show”.

Eric was one of the pioneering DJ’s of the pirate radio era of the 1960s, and broadcast on Radio City which was based on an old war-time fort located on Shivering Sands in the Thames Estuary.

Formerly Radio Sutch, the station commenced broadcasting on 27th May, 1964 on 1542kHz (194 metres), and in September, 1964, was taken over by Lord Sutch’s manager, Reginald Calvert who invested in new equipment including a more powerful transmitter, changed frequency to 1003kHz (299 metres), and re-launched as Radio City (“your Tower of Power”).

Eric joined Radio City in 1966 as an 18 year old, often presenting the 6am – 10am breakfast programme, and stayed with the station until a few days before it closed down in 1967. He then followed a completely different career until his retirement, when the opportunity allowed him to return to the airwaves, broadcasting under the name of Richard Lee.

Audio quality isn’t the best as the recording is many years old now, and some of the included archive from the 60s is even older!

Image courtesy of www.redsandsradio.co.uk
Audio courtesy of Richard Lee and Ian Rennison

Features, On Demand

Reigate & Banstead Writes

Reigate & Banstead Writes is a new local, short story competition established by The Warwick School with a simple rule – the story has to be set in the local area.

Over 400 entries were received for students in Years 5-9. The winning stories were read on David Jay’s Afternoon Stroll Teabreak and are now available to Listen On Demand.

Year 5 – Grace Moore (St Joseph’s Primary Redhill) with her story ‘Beneath’ Read for the Afternoon Stroll Teabreak by Katie Harvey and broadcast on Thu 8 June.

Year 8 – Ben Herneman (St Bede’s Redhill) with his story ‘The Lord of the Rails’ Read for the Afternoon Stroll Teabreak by David Jay and broadcast on Thu 15 June.

Grace with mum Nadine and her Y5 teachers at St Joseph’s.
Ben Herneman (St Bede’s Redhill)
Features, On Demand

Redhill Choiroke

Have you ever thought of singing but perhaps have been a little shy?

 

Then your chance to have a go is coming to the Harlequin theatre, Redhill on Saturday 10th June in the form of a fun-tastic event “Choiroke” where lots of choirs come together to perform songs based on a theme and some numbers where the audience can join in.

 

Susy Radio is the official broadcast partner for this year`s “Choiroke” and I went along to Rehearsals to find out more and caught up with Musical Director Sean Peters and asked him about the preparations for the big night …..