The show started late the first we hear from the Paul James show is at 7:20 which is where this recording starts. Mark tells us about the South Side Dynamos who he saw at a gig at the Kings Head in Fulham. They sent a demo tape which was played the following week. There's a re-recorded version of the Thameside theme about 40 minutes in. Still catch…

The end of the Paul James show. The Intrepid Birdman takes over. Dave plays a demo tape from a band called Kite. Sent in on reel to reel! He also plays a tape from Radio Centraal - a Dutch pirate - saying "hello" to Thameside. More about them on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Centraal . Soem technical info: There is another transmitter change.…

Paul James takes the show. Sarah is back from Devon specially for us. Dave complains that Paul is talking down his nose rather than using his normal voice. Paul ignore him and carries on using his DJ voice and sticking close to the mic for extra extra warmth and bass. We hear from BT's "Pope Line" because the Pope is visiting the UK but he doesn't …

The last of 15 hours of Thameside Radio's 1982 Easter Bank Holiday 1982 broadcast. After a mammoth broadcast The Intrepid Birdman hands over Bob Edwards. Bob won't tell us where he was. Mark, Ian and Dave are still at the studio so we hear from them too. The transmitter turns itself off duding quiet patches of songs - an eternal problem with the Th…

Dave Birdman is in a mischevous mood - He is asking listeners for scurrilos rumours about where Bob Edwards is. Dave tells us about his problem his local AM breaker - CB radio was the wild west in those days... We hear more from from Mark, Ian the Engineer, Paul James and Paul's mum who has been providing snacks. Mentions for Bamber; Mark Linden of…

In this part of the Easter Monday extended show the Intrepid Birdman asks where Bob Edwards has gone, and with whom? He plays a lot of sketches including a classical spot featuring unfinished symphonies. We hear from the telephone ladies who turn out to be Paul James, Mark and Ian the Engineer. There's a Duracell advert too demonstrating how much l…

Dave is in the studio in Harrow. He has an "interview with ELO" on a broken phone box (only Dave could do this... ) and then inevitably credits the next track wrongly. You may have to explain to your kids what a "phone box" is, what those beeps mean when calling from one, and what "Button A" and "Button B" are. There's a Duracell Battery advert - i…

More from Sarah who is playing the top 3 from David Bowie, Supertramp and The Human League, she is only presenting for an hour as she is about to go to the Hammersmith Palais to see The Thompson Twins, The Sound and China Crisis. She she hopes that someone is ready to take over. What a busy life! We're also promised a Thameside listeners top 15 lat…

We hear more from Mark who tells Bob to stop whatever he is doing as it's illegal and immoral! Sarah starts playing the top 3 songs from 4 of the artists in the Thameside Radio charts: The first three artists are David Bowie, Supertramp and The Police.By Thameside Radio Revisited 90.2 on fmthen.com

Mark takes over the show from Bob. His music is less Middle of the Road, the studio is empyying leaving only Hilly and Mark there. He plays "All too Much" by Steve Hillage part of which was used in the Thameside Radio closedown when the station first launched. There is a live link set up between the studio and the picnic and the Birdman pops in to …

The other Thameside Radio DJs have gone to Harrow Hill for a picnic with the listeners and left Bob Edwards in the studio. This predates cellphones so he doesn't hear anything from them for a bit. We do hear from the "tea girl" and the "record library girl". Bob tell us can see the hill from the studio in a tall building so tries to get the listene…

More from the mega broadcast from Harrow. Paul James finishes 5 1/2 hours of programming with traditional local radio stuff like football news. We discover that QPR are playing on Astroturf - that hurt if you fell over. I do wonder if Thameside could have gone on to become something like Radio Jackie FM which is the local station for south west Lon…

Paul James continues with the Thameside Radio breakfast show. It’s a lovely morning, the skies are blue and the birds are singing We hear more about the Free the Airwaves campaign stand at the CB 82 show in Wembley. Dave turns up with some breakfast from the local Wimpy. Unusually Paul does some weather and traffic reports – just like local radio! …

It's 8am on Easter Monday. Paul James is pretty much alone in the Thameside Radio studio. Dave Birdman is still in bed at home although Ian the Engineer is going there to pick some things up! The show starts with The Jam and Start - which you don't hear much any more. Did you know that The Beatles sued them for because the riff and the bass line we…

This is the second half of the Thameside Radio 90.2 Easter Sunday broadcast starting at 10pm. We're reminded that the pubs close at 11pm. Remember those days?. Bob Edwards makes it into the studio and tells us he has been out with the transmitter guys. Really Saying Something by Bananarama and The Fun Boy Three is a new release. We get the 12" vers…

We're told about a game called Obliterate which BT have released on Prestel. You command a submarine and torpedo Argentinian submarines including one called "Fray Bentos". (You may have to look Prestel up on Wikipedia, it was like the internet but 1980). The phone lines are open for the Thameside listener charts. This week's chart is - 10:Layla/Der…

Thameside started this live broadcast at 10:30 with Bob Edwards running through the Thameside Radio 90.2 listener charts for 1981. What a year: Fade to Grey - Visage; That’s Entertainment - The Jam; Tainted Love – Soft Cell; Joan of Arc / Maid of Orleans – Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark; Imagine – John Lennon; Don’yt you Want Me? – The Human Lea…

The week after the incredibly successful Thameside Radio third birthday party in Chiswick. Bob isn’t there for the start of the show so Dave takes the reins, with a just few technical hitches. Alex and Sarah fill in with an early and extended news section. John Lennon had been shot in the preceding week so Alex does a tribute to him before Bob fina…

One of the final shows broadcast by Thameside Radio 90.2. The last broadcast was on May 15th, just 5 weeks later. Thameside Radio have been broadcasting since 10am that morning. There are even some new jingles. The show was broadcast in stereo, although this is a mono recording. The recording is of the Paul James show at 7:00. He has just come down…

Another show from a listener's house. This week Adrian Leaper from Harrow has invited the Thameside Radio 90.2 crew round . The studio is set up in his bedroom. Adrian tells us he saw a UFO hovering over the hill the day before. Bob Edwards is reading a book that says stupid people are clever people and clever people are stupid. Hmmm. He also reads…

Recently uploaded to YouTube: This is one of the Thameside Radio histories put together by Ian Stewart. There are clips and a commentary from the first year of broadcasting when the shows were just one hour long. Don't they all sound young! http://youtu.be/5spFxbB1QaM

It’s the Intrepid Birdman’s birthday – so the first part of the recording has Bob chatting with the Birdman about records that have influenced him. We learn about Dave’s being a disco DJ and Dudley Moore. Bob mentions the Thameside birthday party the next day where listeners meet at Turnham Green station and look for the red dot on the map showing …

A very short Thameside Radio show. The station was being targeted by the DTI so this was a very quick broadcast before the transmitter could be located. Quality is poor so this is for collectors only! Welcome to any new subscribers - I've received a couple more recordings so will put them up over then next few weeks.…

The first 90 minutes from an early Thameside Radio OB in June 1980. Bob presents a show from a party full of kids from Latymer Upper School (boys) and Godolphin and Latymer School (girls). It's very noisy and packed with people taking A-Levels who are probably all responsible adults now! Helen from Twickenham is very nice to Bob Edwards. There have…

45 minutes from Thameside Radio’s first year with Tony Lloyd and Bob Edwards. Some listeners think that the news feature takes up too much time in the one hour show! There are a numer of converts from other pirate radio stations. Mentions for Thameside Radio listeners including: Tony of Arkley Paul of Gates Hill, Stephen Mulham, Fairlough the Build…

Part of an extended broadcast from Thameside Radio 90.2 with Sarah taking calls. It’s so busy that we even get to hear Sarah answering the phone on air with a call from Howard for Dave, Ian Lawrence and Bernie.At this point Thameside Radio had installed a permanent transmitter in Trellick Tower and set up a live Band III link so could broadcast as …

Following last week’s very extended broadcast Bob Edwards tells us that he is going to the USA next week for an indeterminate period and Tony Lloyd will be taking over DJ duties at Thameside Radio. We also discover that Bjorn Borg has just won Wimbledon! Listener Steve is on the phone and wins the competition – he tells us that he records all the p…

The first extended show from Thameside Radio. Instead of the usual one hour from 7-8pm there is a second show with Tony Lloyd where he plays all the tracks from Rumours by Fleetwood Mac (probably recorded on the other side of the C120 that had the first show) Dave has a jingle about Thameside helping you to escape the BBC. The competition prize is …

A 45 minute section of an early extended broadcast from Thameside Radio 90.2. This went out about 7 months after their initial broadcasts.

Thameside listener and regular competition winner Rupert Bailey is the special guest on The Intrepid Birdman Show. Rupert also DJs for a while on Bob Edward's show, he even interviews Bob! Boris wins the phone competition. Bob also features Sarah from Kew who reveals that in addition to reading the Thameside Radio news she answers listerners letter…

How any white blood corpuscles are there in the average human body? That is the question for this week’s superquiz. Next week Dave asks for their names and addresses. Mark takes over at midnight – but sadly I don’t have this recorded. If you have any Thameside recordings please get in touch. Email or twitter @fmthenThameside Listeners mentioned inc…

Bob Edwards continues his show. Bob continues to arrange Dave’s bike trip to the south coast. Amongst other records he plays The Message by Grandmaster Flash. Goodness – it’s 1982 and rap is already mainstream. There is a 20 minute gap in this recording towards the end of the Bob Edwards show.Bob is followed Dave who tells us more about the bike tr…

Dave Birdman starts this Thameside Radio broadcast with apologies for problems in the previous two weeks. The DTI were raiding Thameside quite regularly at this time. There are studio problems so he doesn’t have any prefade when means some awkward segues between records, the show goes well though. He tells us about rat infestations in Hillingdon an…

More mayhem with the Thameside Radio crew broadcasting live from Notting Hill in the middle of the 1982 carnival.

This extended show came from the Notting Hill Carnival - which was smaller and a little more edgy in 1982 than it is now. The main Thameside Transmitter was on top of Trellick Tower in the middle of Notting Hill while the lower roof (still 35 stories up) was used by the police to watch what was going on in the carnival. Of course there was no inter…

News includes the death of a second Pope, Johnny Rotten promoting his Christmas show for kids and a film to be called Quadrophenia - all in 60 minutes with Bob Edwards! There are two tracks from the new Meatloaf album called Bat out of Hell. The warm up music includes an Intrepid Birdman jingle whcih says Thameside is on 90.4 VHF if I hear it corre…

Tony Lloyd hosts a one hour broadcast from Thameside Radio's first year. I’ve included the run up music because it has a Birdman jingle just before the 7pm start of the show. There are lots of Birdman jingles during the show too and Tony provides a more rocky slant to the music. The competition has the traditional prize of a packet of Spangles. The…

Tony Lloyd looks for cars with Thameside stickers, he also reads the news on this early one hour show broadcast during Thameside Radio's first year. There are already a lot of listener letters, Adrian Leaper wins the competiton. Thameside Radio listeners who get a mention include Patrick Sullivan in Streatham. Listeners at John Lyon School. Steve M…

This broadcast coincided with a Thameside Radio party at the Shepherds Bush Village Hall. Because of transmitter changes the recording stops after 45 minutes - but later on during the show there were recordings from the party - almost live, but not enough for the DTI to visit!

Part 2 of Bob interviewing the Mystsics followed by The Intrepid Birdman Show on Thameside Radio 90.2 Part 2 of 2

Dave opens up another extended broadcast. He has some surprises for Bob who interviews the Mystics and learns more about electronic music. Part 1 of 2

The Mark Ashdown show closes this extended Thameside Radio broadcast. Mark asks for suggestions for new listener events. Part 3 of 3

The Intrepid Birdman produces another inimitable show for this extended Thameside Radio broadcast. Part 2 of 3

Bob is late so Dave starts his show. Bob takes over and then hands back to Dave. The broadcast went on to midnight. We hear from Mark for the the last hour. Thameside Radio were subject to a lot of attention from the DTI at this time - but still managed to have occasional extended broadcasts! Part 1 of 3…

The show has highlights from the Birdman’s holiday at Hayle in Cornwall where his bike broke down – so he had to buy a new one (well new to him, it was a 1963 Triumph T90 which needed new tank badges and a speedo). The bike makes a terrible racket. Paul James has been on the “Voice of Peace” for the last 4 weeks or so. Bob tells us that “I Eat Cann…

The first show presented by The Curlyman who ran a comedy telephone answering machine service which was featured on the Thameside Radio news and the London Evening standard. Sadly there were no premium rate phone lines then so there was no viable business model. The Curlyman also took calls from Thamesde listeners which were played on next week's s…

Following a couple of Thameside broadcasts which ended early due to technical problems Bob Edwards hosts a limited two hour broadcast. Everyone else seems to be on holiday. Bob plays more from The Mystics and tells us about a girl that he spent 24 hours with!

Bob plays a track from Bruce Springsteen’s new album called “The River”. There’s more from Incognito – one of the bands that Thameside championed as well as a Garry Glitter SpeciaL as Gary Glitter is in court for bankruptcy! Tony Lloyd is in Australia. No-one mentions Bob's Triumph Spitfire blowing its big end on the M4. Mentions for: Dave Rowan, H…

The show includes a recording of the rather wonderful Radio 1 interview with Bob Edwards and Dave Birdman about Thameside Radio on Adrian Love’s B15 show (photo). The interview was originally broadcast by BBC Radio 1 at 4pm 12 Oct 1980. Some things change, some stay the same: The Thameside Radio music news includes: WEA being accused of accused of …

We hear from Mark for the first hour. He is sitting in for Paul James who is spending some time on The Voice of Peace in Israel. Later Bob Edwards chats with the Mystics about making electronic music. The recording finishes early with a burst of static. The hot weather had set off the sprinkler system at the Thameside transmitter site!…