Thameside Radio Revisited

It’s the Intrepid Birdman’s birthday – so the first part of the recording has Bob chatting with the Birdman about records that have influenced him. We learn about Dave’s being a disco DJ and Dudley Moore. Bob mentions the Thameside birthday party the next day where listeners meet at Turnham Green station and look for the red dot on the map showing the location. I remember getting there at about 6:30 and seeing the station manager desperately trying the get the huge crowd of people out of his station forecourt.     There’s a fabulous superquiz and a sketch that implies that you can get away with anything if you wear a Thameside sweatshirt. Only £6.50.   Dedications include Alan Jameson Simon Miller from Fulham, Ian Hobbs from Bromley, Philip Chapel from Windsor, Richard Parkurst, Mick Taylor, Clive Barwood from Ascot, Kevin Waldridge from Ealing, Sebastian Peaty, Ann Bedral from Stanmore, Don DT from Putney, Simon from South Norwood, Martin from Hackney, Barry Wanrney NBK, Pedro from Beano’s, the Hitchhikers

A very short Thameside Radio show. The station was being targeted by the DTI so this was a very quick broadcast before the transmitter could be located. Quality is poor so this is for collectors only! Welcome to any new subscribers - I've received a couple more recordings so will put them up over then next few weeks.

The first 90 minutes from an early Thameside Radio OB in June 1980. Bob presents a show from a party full of kids from Latymer Upper School (boys) and Godolphin and Latymer School (girls). It's very noisy and packed with people taking A-Levels who are probably all responsible adults now! Helen from Twickenham is very nice to Bob Edwards. There have been a few short recordings from this party already uploaded - but this is the complete first half. Thanks Roj. Names include George Wood, Bob and Rupe, Jane Susan Sarah and Cathy, The Hoary Scab, Bishop's in Rayners Lane, George Johnson, Mouse, Inge, St Paul's School, Andrew Simpson, Rosemary Kelly Shaun Kelly (Sean?), Andrew from Reynolds School, Renata, Sue Everett, Harrow Weald 6th Form College, Ian and and John from the 1979 - 1980 6th form  from the Salesian School in Chertsey, Julian Cole, Roy Masters, Niall Stoddart from St Clement Danes.

45 minutes  from Thameside Radio’s first year with Tony Lloyd and Bob Edwards. Some listeners think that the news feature takes up too much time in the one hour show! There are a numer of converts from other pirate radio stations. Mentions for Thameside Radio listeners including: Tony of Arkley Paul of Gates Hill, Stephen Mulham, Fairlough the Builders, Mike of Mayfair, Nigel Barnes of SW9, Radio Invicta, Dennis Hough (Huff?) of Walton-on-Thames, Alan of Barkimgin, Knoxford FC, Rory from Hayes, Pete Turner of Wanstead.

Part of an extended broadcast from Thameside Radio 90.2 with Sarah taking calls.  It’s so busy that we even get to hear  Sarah answering the phone on air with a call from Howard for Dave, Ian Lawrence and Bernie.At this point Thameside Radio had installed a permanent transmitter in Trellick Tower and set up a live Band III link so could broadcast as long as they wanted. (Band III used to be home to low quality 405 line TV but there were a lot of clear channels. It’s now used for DAB.)The phone lines are very busy with  an awful lot of dedications. Here are just a few Danny and Carrel in Swanley, Carl, Bruce Bill Dave and Anna; Andrew of Brentwood for Adam, Class 4D and Brentwood County High School; Bob Lawrence, The Royal Free Network, CMC motorcyclists, Mick of Carshalton, Carshalton 6th form, Neil Chris Arnold & Kevin. Rookie  for his wife Lynne, Jim Jim, Gary, Jane, Christopher. Steve for Alex and Bamber; Alex for Rachel Inge Biddy and Rabbi; Liam Simon the quick brew kid Leon; Bamber for Susan, Alex,

Following last week’s very extended broadcast Bob Edwards tells us that he is going to the USA next week for an indeterminate period and Tony Lloyd will be taking over DJ duties at Thameside Radio. We also discover that Bjorn Borg has just won Wimbledon! Listener Steve is on the phone and wins the competition  – he tells us that he records all the programmes: you wouldn’t still happen to have them would you Steve?There are lots of songs from 1970 on this week's Thameside show.Listeners mentioned include: David Lewis of Pinner, Andrew of Southall, Colin of Bromley and his brother Ross, Len from 60 Burleigh Rd, Lawrence and Bruce from Barnet, Ross Patterson or Bromley,  Carol, Michael, Betty and Lesley of Chalfont St Peter, Chris Curtain of W8,   David Lewis of Eastcote, Richard in Tulse Hill, Gavin Cryable of Collingham Gardens W5  who is writing a book about flat hunting in inner London, Pat Sandrey of Kings Langley and his brother Michael; and  Kings Langley School.

The first  extended show from Thameside Radio. Instead of the usual one hour from 7-8pm  there is a second show with Tony Lloyd where he plays all the tracks from Rumours by Fleetwood Mac (probably recorded on the other side of the C120 that had the first show) Dave has a jingle about Thameside helping you  to escape the BBC.   The competition prize is still a packet of Spangles (the answer is  “Debbie”, Debbie the phone girl used to take phone calls for Thameside Radio). Mentions for Bernard O’Brian from Ilford, Neal, Kevin, Danny Osbourne from Putney Hill, Jeff and Cindy from Imperial College, Stephen Cruickshank from Croydon, Philip “The Fiddler” Cull of Rickmansworth, Radio Telstar One.

A 45 minute section of an early extended broadcast from Thameside Radio 90.2.  This went out about 7 months after their initial broadcasts.

Thameside listener and regular competition winner Rupert Bailey is the special guest on The Intrepid Birdman Show. Rupert also DJs for a while on Bob Edward's show, he even interviews Bob! Boris wins the phone competition. Bob also features Sarah from Kew who reveals that in addition to reading the Thameside Radio news she answers listerners letters too. She tells us that Thameside  receive about 30 letters each week but they hope to have 100 letters next week. Thameside listeners mentioned include Bob Lawrence, Jeff Hawkins, The Tony Lloyd Fan Club, The Alsatians, James Warren, Denise (Buzby),  the TV production class at Richmond College,  Martin Greaves of Wathmstow,  Andy Kearns, Peter Young from Capital Radio (who is a regular listener), Mick Kelly , Chris de Souza , Keith Harrison, Pablo Cabello, Micheal Galivn, Charlie Gibbons, Jeremy Voisey, Peter Bailey, Christopher Bailey, Austins the newsagent in Molsey, This is the first half of a 3 hour broadcast. If you have any Thameside recordings please get

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 @fmthenThameside Listeners mentioned includePete 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 includeAnita 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 includeKaren 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.

 News includes the death of a second Pope, Johnny Rotten promoting his Christmas show for kids and a film to be called Quadrophenia - all in 60 minutes with Bob Edwards! There are two tracks from the new Meatloaf album called Bat out of Hell. The warm up music includes an Intrepid Birdman jingle whcih says Thameside is on 90.4 VHF if I hear it correctly. Of course Themside radio did move to 90.4 (or was is 90.45) to avoid interference with a cable station on the Rediffusion network in Grenwich (who were Thameside listeners too) but the advertised frequency always remained 90.2 - in the days before digital radios it really didn't matter. Mentions for Ian of Dulwich and Andrew Feely.

Tony Lloyd hosts a one hour broadcast from Thameside Radio's first year. I’ve included the run up music because it has a Birdman jingle just before the 7pm start of the show. There are lots of Birdman jingles during the show too and Tony provides a more rocky slant to the music. The competition has the traditional prize of a packet of Spangles. The news includes an item about luminous records and how much the Musicians Union are asking the Marquee Club to pay support acts (£9.50 per band member per show) This recording finishes just before 8pm while the phantom phonebox in Harrow is ringing. Mentions include Nigel, Mark and Vince Barnes from Kennington; Karen Chin; Stephanie from Lowlands Junior College; Radio Invicta; Barry Benson; Martin Crew; Trevor Llewellyn; Philip Sharp; Jeanette Harris of Mill Hill;

Tony Lloyd looks for cars with Thameside stickers, he also reads the news on this early one hour show broadcast during Thameside Radio's first year. There are already a lot of listener letters, Adrian Leaper wins the competiton. Thameside Radio listeners who get a mention  include  Patrick Sullivan in Streatham.  Listeners at John Lyon School.  Steve Marshall (from Radio Invicta). Gavin Robson.  Kevin Hargreaves of Welwyn. Trevor Ball from Harlesden.

This broadcast coincided with a Thameside Radio party at the Shepherds Bush Village Hall. Because of transmitter changes the recording stops after 45 minutes - but later on during the show there were recordings from the party - almost live, but not enough for the DTI to  visit!

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