THE OFFSHORE CHUNK

Radio Sutch

Frequency 197 metres medium wave (am)

Location Shivering Sands Fort, Thames Estuary

On air dates: May 1964 - September 1964

I am ashamed to say that I totally missed this station on air. I would be interested to hear more recordings from this station.

All of the reports and recordings that I have heard, seem to indicate that this operation was done for fun, principle and not profit. The programmes I have heard are very amateur, but full of youthful enthusiasm. We all know that they also read out books at night; something the BBC do now. One choice that raised eyebrows in the sixties, and no doubt boosted sales, was "Lady Chatterley’s Lover" by DH Lawrence. I think they must have read the same passages over and over again. It would not be classed as erotic by todays standards. The station carried advertising but is was in essence a "local station" due to limited broadcast power. There were very few staff on the station, and I doubt whether many of the staff got paid a proper salary.  The whole sound that recordings of the station evoke are one of youthful fun and exuberance - sometimes very amateur but always fun and musical.  I heard one where the presenter, Lord Sutch I think shouted out "This is not the BBC!"

Lord Sutch started to broadcast from a small fishing boat the "Cornucopia" after the mornings fishing had taken place. The story goes that the fisherman needed to renew his insurance. It was discovered that his boat was being used for broadcasting so a larger premium was quoted and they had to part company. Lord, or David Sutch, was an inventive adventurous young man and his attentions turned to the maritime structures in the Thames Estuary. The forts were outside the three mile limit and had been left derelict by the Royal Navy after the Second World War. He boarded the Shivering Sand Towers. This is a feat in itself - the legs of these structures rise many hundreds of feet from the sea bed. These forts were built on floatable barges set at the base of 4 legs. When the fort was at sea, above a suitable sandbank, the barge was filled with concrete, which set and sunk and fixed the structure to the sea bed.

I did listen to Radio City which came on after Lord Sutch sold out to Reg Calvert, manager of his pop group.

I met Lord Sutch in South Harrow a few weeks before he died and he was reminiscing about the towers. He said that somebody in Guernsey had done a lovely web site which gave the history of his station. He had been back to the rusting Shivering Sands forts that he occupied a few weeks prior and said that some of the walk ways had fallen into the sea.

Here some copies of the Raving Loony money which was signed for me by Lord Sutch himself - they were not to hand when this article was being compiled.

 

 

 

 

 

© Wireless Waffler Updated March 2006    Picture from Offshore Radio Site - Offshore Structures Section