Radio City
Updated: 4th May 2008 Issue: 1
The 40th anniversary of the first broadcasts from Shivering Sands
The Old Boys Network gather at The Dickens Inn St Katherine's Dock by the Pool of London
Tower Bridge in the 1960's by an unknown artist, from where David Sutch sailed on the Cornucopia with his band the Savages in May 1964
Radio Sutch supposedly broadcast when the Cornucopia reached the Thames Estuary but there's nothing to confirm this
The party though did board Shivering Sands Fort 8 miles off the Kent coast
Radio Sutch was to make its first test transmission on 27th May 1964 on 1542kHz, that's 194 metres medium wave close to the 199 metre frequency of Radio Caroline
Engineer Tony Pine became involved with Radio Sutch soon after it's launch
Tony still runs his electrical business called Offshore Maintenance, above with DJ Martin Stevens looking at some early pictures of David Sutch on board the Harvester in Whitstable harbour
Martin studied photography at the Medway College of Art, on graduating he worked on Pirate Radio stories, it was a gift. National News right on his doorstep
Commissioned by The Daily Mail for the Sealand story Martin became a tug anorak he now owns three!
He's dabbled in hovercraft, London buses, old bikes & windmills, but on a more responsible note with his family took over his fathers successful garden machine & woodstove business
Left Martin Green our Dutch DJ applied having seen an advert in the music press
He loved the station phrase "Your friendly host on the British Coast" & used it often, Martin these days is a social worker in his native Holland
Centre Paul Elvey, an established engineer Paul had heard an appeal for an electrical/generator engineer by Radio Sutch
Interviewed by Reg Calvert he was soon on the fort his challenge being to increase the power from 24 volts supplied by a room full of old lorry batteries, still used at night after the first Lister's had arrived
To get a successful aerial system built, sparse materials, mainly old scaffold poles were used to keep it aloft
Primarily an engineer Paul normally warmed up the transmitter & hosted the Early Bird Show
Gaining a respectable following he appeared on other programmes, until almost the end of the stations days on 8th February 1967 as Radio City
Up until early 2003 he was principle engineer a furnace project in Germany that used ultra high temperatures to avoid toxic ash
He'd also been working on a motor less helicopter fueled by Hydrogen Peroxide
He's now pursuing other interests with his family here & in Spain
Dick Dixon right an electronics engineer & often a DJ, jumped forts to join Radio Essex, he now runs a University electronics teaching laboratory
The lovely Candy Calvert daughter of Reg & Dorothy arrives
A real pop music fan she adored the roster of Groups on the books of Kings Agency & was easily persuaded to host "Candy's Pop Shop" aged 13!
Thomas Long of Pinkerton's Assorted Colours represented the many groups managed by Reg Calvert & Terry King at their Tin Pan Alley office & HQ of Radio City at 7 Denmark Street
Thomas with former Colours member Tony Newman still performs today
Candy in conversation across the table with Thomas recall Pinkerton's Assorted Colours "Mirror Mirror" & the adverts the the group recorded for Radio City
Darryl Moreno son of the late Ed Moreno, is a Producer at CBS Television flew in from his USA home to join us
With Greg Bance aka Roger Scott on Radio Essex, Radio 270, & Radio 390, he was also Arnold Layne on RNI in the 1970's
Greg appeared on early ILR & became a commercial voice over & is now on a new venture in caricature voice work
No doubt Greg's telling the story of how Radio City were evicted from the Knock John. The equipment including a generator & Cossor transmitter were to serve Radio Essex 222 well
Tony Pine, with Dick Palmer Fort Captain of Radio Essex
Following a period as Engineer/DJ on Radio Caroline's Mi-Amigo in the 1970's, he was to continue his engineering work here & overseas
Dick's pictured above with Candy Calvert & Martin Stevens poised with Nikon to capture the moment
Left Jonathan Walker talks to Paul Elvey
After Radio City Jonathan worked for Canadian CBC in London relaying news reports to Canada, then Photomotion doing back projection animations for the BBC '24hrs programme, the forerunner of Newsnight
Became a technical operator for BBC Radio before going to New Zealand working for the National Film Unit
Returned to UK as sound recordist at Ealing Studios firstly "boom swinging" then on to BBC news & current affairs before finally becoming a BBC television producer
Candy Calvert right with daughter Kirsty
Jonathan Walker, Martin Stevens, Dick Dixon, Paul Elvey, Tony Pine, Martin Green seated with Candy Calvert & Bob Le-Roi who became a fort DJ having first made the crew change programmes
Dick Dixon & Martin Green browse
Jonathan Walker with Darryl Moreno
Darryl Moreno talks to Tony Pine & Martin Stevens
Dick Dixon with Martin Green & Johnny Flux who became John Edward on Big L - Radio London 266
Johnny & wife Sue later invented the infamous Metal Mickey & Renee & Renato who had the No 1 hit "Save our Love"
Richard Palmer looks above for inspiration
Dick applied by audition tape but was turned down by Radio City, he was destined to become the mainstay of Radio Essex 222
Radio Essex's John Hatt aka Chris Stewart on Radio Essex, always enjoys a pint & yarn
He'd previously worked on K.I.N.G & 390 as John Stewart, & before the 60's offshore chapter closed was to join Radio Caroline, 270 & Radio 355 as John Aston
Lately he's worked in special effects; on a wide range of box office films, including the "Bond" movies
He was responsible for constructing the "Enigma" machine for the film of the same name" additionally John's a competent sound engineer having built & commissioned several studios
Pictured with Dick Palmer, Chris Cary aka Spangles Maldoon, & on the strength of finding the jingle - Herb Oscar Anderson on Radio Caroline popped in to pass on his best wishes
He went on to found the most successful of Irish Free stations Radio Nova
Bob Le-Roi, Dick Dixon, Richard Palmer, Greg Bance, Darryl Moreno, Johnny Flux & Tony Pine
The first ever Radio Sutch & City Re-Union draws to a close
A final picture of the City People who made it; Tony Pine, Candy Calvert, Martin Green, Dick Dixon, Paul Elvey, Jonathan Walker, Martin Stevens kneeling & Bob Le-Roi with St Katherine's Dock back drop
Radio City Posters
For a surname A-Z biography of the Radio Sutch & City & the 60's Offshore Jocks The Pirate Hall of Fame
4/5/08 - Great to see the shots of the City faces. Shame there was no Chris Cross, Ian MaCrae, Ian West, Dennis the Menace, Alex Dee, Alan Clarke or Tatty Tom... etc. Wish I could find my City Club card. Isn't it annoying when things just "go"? And my T'shirt too! Horrible elastic neck though it had. Such memories. "To advertise on Radio City, call Whitstable 4060 & ask for Daphne, or Temple Bar 6030 & ask for Jill" I can actually still picture my mate's old valve radio, hearing that ad of Reg's all those years ago, with Bert Kampfeart in the background. All the best, Carmen Get me, Heated hair-roller House, Battersea Rise, SW no seriously Alex McKenna, Manchester (Well out of range of that throbbing 3kw of power. Nobody's heard of it up here.) Ian Macrae's Monster Club Secretary & Anti-City Show/Feedback regular
3kw you're havin' a laugh most of the times 800 watts max - Ed
Have just looked at the piccies of the reunion. Very good. Great fun. Hope you enjoyed the rest of the day & didn't drink too much!!! You weren't driving were you? Love Candy
Hi Bob, I thought the Sutch/City reunion was really good. All those guys turning up. It was a shame that Phil, Ian and Tom Edwards couldn’t make it. I noticed that Tom managed to come to London for the Caroline re-union though. I think the pictures by Martin Stevens are absolutely superb. Great to see Martin Green too but I've lost his address as you might recall, towards the end, things began to get a little hazy. It was nice to see Tony again but I must admit I would not have recognised him if I had met him ‘on the street’.(That’s the * Whitstable Street of course) See you soon. Regards - Dick Dixon
* Whitstable Street is a spit of shingle built up by tides that stretches 1 mile out to sea, uncovered in part at low tide
Many thanks for recent email and the up-date, very good stuff thoroughly enjoyed our Radio City reunion. Many thanks for all your efforts and of course to Dicks.It was super meeting up with some of the old friends. Yours - Paul Elvey
Thank you! It took a lot of your time and effort to bring us together. It was really good to see everyone again and I hope to keep in touch with them now. Thank you again for organising the reunion in itself it has become part of the story. Best wishes - Martin Stevens
The real thanks are to you Bob for getting the reunion off the ground, hope you plan to put some of your pics. on your site. It'd be great to see them . Howard Garstka ( Michael's) in S.A. is looking forward to seeing them too! Best wishes - Jonathan Walker
It was a great pleasure for me being with the reunion. Many, many fantastic memories came up when I spoke with the "old" Radio City crew & I realised that the time has flown! For me it was the start of everything I was going to do until now, including my job. We'll keep in touch and I'll be waiting for the next reunion! - Martin Green
Hi Bob, Just got home..sorry I couldn't make today. I did text you which hopefully you received and that my "hellos" were passed onto everyone. When time allows do tell me all the news etc, how it went and who was there. Obviously I'd love to see the photo's too. Hope you all had a grand day my thoughts were with you all..hope you got the vibes! Take care my friend - "Tatty" Tom Edwards
Just a line to say how much I enjoyed the reunion.You know, I was joking when I mentioned sailing, I had no idea you practiced the dark art of yachting. Perhaps it's just the way you carry yourself, and maybe the sailing cap with' Dolphins Are Sexy' emblazoned above the peak that gives you away! Sad story about Medway F.M. At least the money took away some of the sting, but didn't let it ruin your enthusiasm. You are a natural. How I hate you ...... Best regards - John Edward "Flux"
What a great afternoon at St Katherine's Dock. I didn't really know who I would meet, I'd hoped Mrs Calvert would be able to come, but in the event it was really good to meet Candy after about 38 years & show her my original 1965 membership card, complete with her signature. It was good to meet up with Bob after conversing for so long. Finally largely out of respect for both Reg who's "baby" it was, & David Sutch who was also a good friend. I couldn't help wondering what it would have been like if they could have been present. Theres no guessing what they would have got up to but whatever they did would have got a spot on the six o'clock news. How I miss them. Good to see all the pictures & hear what it was really like on the forts from the horses mouth. I wouldn't have missed it for anything. Many thanks to all that were part of the Radio City story, it was also part of our bands story. Thanks to Reg Calvert our manager Radio City promoted us very hard & through its connections with the other stations we were often heard on pirate radio. We wouldn't have had the success we did without Reg & RadioCity. Tom Long - Pinkerton's Assorted Colours formerly The Liberators
I regretted very much not being able to join the 'crew' for the City/Sutch reunion. I have great memories of my short time on Radio City working for Dorothy Calvert, the boat trips from Whitstable, loading the supplies in all weather & the lift up to the tower on the crane. At the time I was privileged to work with some great colleagues, Ian McRae, Clarkie, Paul, Adrian Love & Tom Edwards I'm sorry to hear of the dwindling numbers. If only we could get ALL the survivors together one more time that would be an historic occasion - Ross Brown, Pacific Media Unit, Open Source Branch
While listening to a one hour recording of Edward Cole on 390 I really enjoyed the photos of the great Radio City/Sutch re union. Amazing how you got these people together, even the son of late Ed Moreno & Candy Calvert. The photos show the very good mood people were in 40 years after it all started. Looking forward for part 2 Aboard Red Sands 2003.
Greetings from Overschild were we now live 10 km from Groningen population 500 - Paul de Haan
What a wonderful photo's of your Radio City re-union Regards from a very hot Amsterdam - Rob Olthof
Thanks for the update I enjoyed the Sutch & City Re-Union pictures. My own contribution to the anniversary in a day committed by SAGA 105.7 to Offshore Radio - ah happy days! Regards- John Ross-Barnard
Glad the reunion went well. Know that pub was talking about Radio City's old frequency yesterday and realised that all the stations that have occupied that frequency since, in the old Radio City coverage area, such as the country music station, have all failed. Is there a jinx on 1034/1035 now?
Thoroughly enjoyed looking at the photos of your Radio City reunion, it's nice to know that the union of old friends is still alive and well 40 years on. Aboard Redsands part 2 was great too. Regards - Steve, Ealing
4/5/08 - Great to see the shots of the City faces shame there was no Chris Cross, Ian MaCrae, Ian West, Dennis the Menace, Alex Dee, Alan Clarke or Tatty Tom etc Wish I could find my City Club Card. Isn't it annoying when things just 'go'? And my T'shirt too! Horrible elastic neck though it had Such memories. "To advertise on Radio City, call Whitstable 4060 & ask for Daphne, or Temple Bar 6030 &d ask for Jill" I can actually still picture my mate's old valve radio, hearing that advert of Reg's all those years ago, with Bert Kampfeart in the background
All the best,Carmen Getme, Heated hair-roller House, Battersea
Rise, SW
no seriously Alex McKenna, Manchester (Well out of range of that throbbing
3kw of power. Nobody's heard of it up here.) Ian MaCrae's Monster Club Secretary
Have been trying to find Chris Cross for years, Ian MaCrae was coming but couldn't make it, he came over later as you'll see from site pictures
The late Ian West wasn't well enough to attend but can be seen in 2007 Forts Weekend pages
Alan Clarke wasn't keen all best forgotten his sentiments
Tom Edwards was coming but failed to arrive, he does that
Dennis is like Ian a long way off called but really couldn't make it
And sadly Alex is no longer with us - Ed
6/5/08 - I suppose Chris Cross is hiding in the country somewhere, mucking out pigs or whatever it is they do in Hereford. Odd about "Clarkie" - maybe money and success has gone to his head. Best wishes Alex McKenna - Anti-City Show regular