page_title: Radio City (pirate radio station)
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Radio City (pirate radio station) / Origins
caption_attribution_description: English: Screaming Lord Sutch and roadies sailing the Thames; foreground: David Edward Sutch, 2nd row (left to right) Geoff Mew, Brian Paull Deutsch: Screaming Lord Sutch mit Freunden auf der Themse, vorne David Edward Sutch, dahinter (l. n . r. Geoff Mew, Colin Dale, Brian Paull)
context_page_description: Radio City was a British pirate radio station broadcasting from Shivering Sands Army Fort, one of the abandoned Second World War Maunsell Sea Forts in the Thames Estuary.
context_section_description: In 1964, following the launch of Radio Caroline, Screaming Lord Sutch said he would start his own station. On 27 May Radio Sutch began broadcasting on 194 metres (announced as 197), 1542 kHz, from the south tower of Shivering Sands. It was a low-powered, low-budget operation.
  The transmitter, from a Handley Page Halifax bomber, was powered with a cascade of car batteries, a scaffold pole with a skull-and-crossbones flag as an antenna. By September 1964 Sutch had become tired of it and sold it to his friend and unofficial (Unpaid) manager Reginald Calvert for a reported £5,000. Calvert bought new equipment and expanded the station into other towers, renaming it Radio City. One of the original seven towers had been destroyed when a ship collided with it, leaving the northernmost tower isolated. The remaining five were connected by catwalks in an irregular star shape. Calvert's team repaired the catwalks and refurbished the facilities and living quarters. New studios were built, a more powerful transmitter installed, and the station experimented with new antenna configurations and frequencies (1034 and eventually 1003 kHz). Initially antenna wires were strung around the periphery of the towers. This was unsuccessful due to poor insulation. Later a vertical mast was erected on the central tower, supported by guy wires on three of the surrounding towers, and the station adopted the nickname "your tower of power". Although output never exceeded 2 kW, the efficiency of the antenna combined with its location over water (a reflector of radio waves) gave it the coverage of a more powerful land-based station, and Radio City claimed a power of 10kW for the purpose of attracting advertisers.
  One of the early DJ's on Radio City was Tom Edwards.
caption: Sutch (foreground), allegedly broadcasting from a ship. 2nd row (left to right): Geoff Mew, Colin Dale, Brian Paull
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