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Central Radio International
1987.
The Return
Central Radio
'International', as it was known, (It once recieved a reception
report from Albania) was on between 1984 and 1987. Due to problems
with unreliable transmitters in the early days, it was never on for
more than six weeks at a time. They were raided in 1984 and We joined
it in September 1985, but it got raided again because Jim Brown and
Phill Davies decided to go on Fridays and Mondays, which has been the
downfall of many stations in the eighties. We all had a meeting and
decided to put money into getting another transmitter built by Joe
the engineer who decided to make it the best transmitter the station
ever had. It proved to be reliable and we had no further problems.
The twin turntable unit was built by me from 2 old BSR decks which
had been found in the tower block where we broadcast from. The
set-up was cheap and cheerful, like many set-ups at the time but it worked.
Trouble
The station
was on for about 3 months and things got difficult. Phill Davies
appointed himself as station manager and brought others on to the
station. Things needed doing to the transmitter and turntables as
there had been no maintenace and we wanted to stay off for a few
weeks and got accused of trying to take over the station. As I had
spent 37 Pounds on components, including the crystal, I decided that
if Phill Davies and others wanted to tell me what to do, they should
pay me what was owed to me. There was a negative response to this
suggestion so the equipment was removed from the location until an
aggreement was reached. The station then carried on as normal.
The
End Of The Mediumwave
One Saturday,
I was doing my show and there was a visit from Manweb. Apparently the
electricity to the flat was connected directly to the mains without a
main fuse or even a meter ! Nothing was said by the Manweb engineers,
but as there was the possibility of a raid by Manweb, Phill Davies
removed the transmitter to his home and used it to transmit his
station Liverpool Pirate Radio. He was eventually raided and,
according to him, the Central transmitter was taken in the raid. I
have heard rumours to the contrary.
The decline of
Mediumwave pirates is mainly due to lack of suitable locations,
wheras FM stations can broadcast from virtually anywhere. At first, I
enjoyed doing Central Radio, but it became a duty rather than a pastime.
Pirate
operators may have to return to AM, as the FM is officially full in
the Merseyside area.
Central
On
FM
Central has
since returned. In 1999, it has been on FM on occasional weekends. At
Christmas 1999, they did a reunion broadcast with Jim Brown, Phill
Davies Mark Evans & Tom Webb. For updated information go
to: www.centralradio.info Also
check out this Youtube
Video
Phill Davies
also did Liverpool
Pirate Radio
on 1431 Khz. which is now on FM (105.00) on occasional weekends.
Pictures by
Jim Lowe © 1998. All indoor photo's were taken with a Chinon CA4
35mm SLR camera using an aperture of f8 at 1/60th shutter speed with
a Prinz fixed flash unit. 400ASA Kodak film used. |
