Radio Sutch - Medley

The familiar vision of the offshore pirate stations is of huge old ships, but some stations chose instead to make use of the rusty war-time forts which remained protruding from the depths of the North Sea.

Radio Sutch was one 'sutch' station, brought to the air by the British eccentric, Screaming Lord Sutch, who also appeared on the station. As you would.

It launched as did Caroline, in 1964, from Shivering Sands towers. You can imagine it, literally powered by car batteries.

The station was sold to Sutch's manager, Reg Calvert, shortly after, then becoming Radio City. This whole era of radio which, back then, was not strictly illegal, but almost illegitimate, gave rise to an interesting operational culture on the edge of the law. City nearly merged with several other stations, including Caroline. The station's story ended in tragedy though, when a dispute over paying for a transmitter erupted and Calvert was shot. This headline was more fuel to the Government's case to introduce anti-pirate legislation.

Loving the artificial verbal crescendos in this typical '60s delivery; and indeed early examples of what we now call brand integration. Sutch himself is on here too.