Solid Gold Radio Sovereign - Part 2

We continue our in depth look at Radio Sovereign the popular South West London Medium Wave All Gold Music Station ...

Howard Rose aka Crispian St John at work in his office at the station HQ in Twickenham

Radio Sovereign's advertised transmitter coverage footprint

5 months after its April launch, an extract from the Houslow Informer

Contributing to the output, little Kev' gets to grips with the Alice 828 Desk

Radio Sovereign history

Patched into the Alice desk, the virtually indestructible Gates Turntables, a pair of Spotmaster's & the familiar Pirate favoured AKG D12 Microphone

Part of the Radio Sovereign record library, much of the material from John Kenning's own collection on original 45's

Programme Schedule rescued from the files

Hard to remember now that between 1964-1987 the labour intensity of presenting. We were all busy cueing records, tapes & cart's, a far cry from today's methods

DJ's on the ships & forts had to contend with isolation & often big seas running, not easy to control a lively studio & still sound happy

Listening to the output shadowed by the Loving Awareness Album Poster

Radio Sovereign Advertising Spot Rate Card

Kevin Turner

Note the transmitter monitoring V/u meter & rather chunky TV remote

Small business local trade rates

Views of the transmitter antenna

Sited in the back garden of 3 Sherland Road Twickenham

Things though are about to get rather bumpy for all the land based stations, including Radio Sovereign

Radio Sovereign fined ten times that of the first Offshore Pirate

Radio Sovereign continues defiantly for a while, but eventually has to cease broadcasting

Kevin Turner having made the final closedown announcement

Howard Rose attempted to relaunch Radio Sovereign from Eire during the summer of 1987

Using 2 KW rig near Drogheda transmissions were heard over most of Europe on 1521 MW 6240 SW

Programmes taped at Howard's Now Radio Magazine office in Kettering, with plans to carry American religion the station never got beyond the test stage & folded in August

Radio Sovereign Parts 1 & 2 (UK) is dedicated to the memory of Howard Rose aka Crispian St John, Jay Jackson

It's not the end Radio Sovereign it was to decamp across the English Channel & turns up in Europe

We continue the history of the station in Radio Sovereign - Part 3

Grateful thanks to Chris Edwards Editor of Offshore Echoes for his contributions in producing this part of the feature

Also to Paul Graham for the information on the aborted Irish incarnation of Radio Sovereign

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Good old Flab-skin, Sovereign wouldn't have happened without him - Richard A

Radio Sovereign, I felt the best of the London Pirates - Gordon Stewart, Epping