Fm Stations in the 80's

[PirateTapes]

Chicago 90.6 wasn't the 80s it was 1996 and only ran for about 2 years and unusual for a pirate station only ran on weekdays

There was a Chicago 87 though.On air in 1987. Think it was 94.5 in stereo.

[PirateTapes]

Chicago 90.6 wasn't the 80s it was 1996 and only ran for about 2 years and unusual for a pirate station only ran on weekdays

There was a Chicago 87 though.On air in 1987. Think it was 94.5 in stereo.

Just found a bit of info on them. Apparently they might of been on 90.6 aswell.

Chicago '87 94.5 FM

Formerly Horizon '87 and now playing upfront soul and Chicago house music.

News

After broadcasting mostly at weekends since the start of the year and then managing a short stretch of 7 day a week broadcasting, Horizon '87 returned at the end of August and then transmuted Into Chicago '87 (reports suggested one Christopher Stewart Esq. was not happy about someone else using the name). Since then they've been keeping up 7 days a week broadcasting with hardly a break. The 94.5 signal reaches mainly South East London, Kent and Essex, so a new transmitter Is proposed to serve the rest of London on 90.6.

http://www.amfm.org.uk/tx/tx16/amfmlondon.html

[famefm]

I'm not sure but I think it's highly unlikely the 1996 till 98 Chicago fm was the same as the station from 87 who Chris Stewart got upset with for calling it self horizon before changing it's name

[teckniqs]

Wasn't Chicago the same station as Radio Active which came on straight after Pulse? Think it was ran by Montana/Tony Montana?

[famefm]

Maybe I can remember just before the 1996 Chicago there was a radio active. But again there was a 1980s radio active also that defently was a different station because they went on to become starpiont fm

[PirateTapes]

I remember the Chicago around 96 on 90.6 and Radio Active before that. I very much doubt its the same as the 80's Chicago station.

[Albert H]

There was a Chicago 87 though. On air in 1987. Think it was 94.5 in stereo.

Just found a bit of info on them. Apparently they might of been on 90.6 aswell.

Chicago '87 94.5 FM

Formerly Horizon '87 and now playing upfront soul and Chicago house music.

News

After broadcasting mostly at weekends since the start of the year and then managing a short stretch of 7 day a week broadcasting, Horizon '87 returned at the end of August and then transmuted Into Chicago '87 (reports suggested one Christopher Stewart Esq. was not happy about someone else using the name). Since then they've been keeping up 7 days a week broadcasting with hardly a break. The 94.5 signal reaches mainly South East London, Kent and Essex, so a new transmitter Is proposed to serve the rest of London on 90.6.

http://www.amfm.org.uk/tx/tx16/amfmlondon.html

The 1987 lot came from a couple of blocks in Plumstead and Woolwich. They had one rig seized from a block in Woolwich by the Army because they thought that it was a "suspect device"! They briefly used the same link frequency as RFM, so their rigs relayed RFM on Sundays!

[PirateTapes]

There was a Chicago 87 though. On air in 1987. Think it was 94.5 in stereo.

Just found a bit of info on them. Apparently they might of been on 90.6 aswell.

Chicago '87 94.5 FM

Formerly Horizon '87 and now playing upfront soul and Chicago house music.

News

After broadcasting mostly at weekends since the start of the year and then managing a short stretch of 7 day a week broadcasting, Horizon '87 returned at the end of August and then transmuted Into Chicago '87 (reports suggested one Christopher Stewart Esq. was not happy about someone else using the name). Since then they've been keeping up 7 days a week broadcasting with hardly a break. The 94.5 signal reaches mainly South East London, Kent and Essex, so a new transmitter Is proposed to serve the rest of London on 90.6.

http://www.amfm.org.uk/tx/tx16/amfmlondon.html

The 1987 lot came from a couple of blocks in Plumstead and Woolwich. They had one rig seized from a block in Woolwich by the Army because they thought that it was a "suspect device"! They briefly used the same link frequency as RFM, so their rigs relayed RFM on Sundays!

Have a vague memory of something like that happening with LWR aswell with a rock station cutting in maybe on there link or main transmitter signal. Was RFM close to LWR at some point? Or was that RFL?

[PirateTapes]

There was a Chicago 87 though. On air in 1987. Think it was 94.5 in stereo.

Just found a bit of info on them. Apparently they might of been on 90.6 aswell.

Chicago '87 94.5 FM

Formerly Horizon '87 and now playing upfront soul and Chicago house music.

News

After broadcasting mostly at weekends since the start of the year and then managing a short stretch of 7 day a week broadcasting, Horizon '87 returned at the end of August and then transmuted Into Chicago '87 (reports suggested one Christopher Stewart Esq. was not happy about someone else using the name). Since then they've been keeping up 7 days a week broadcasting with hardly a break. The 94.5 signal reaches mainly South East London, Kent and Essex, so a new transmitter Is proposed to serve the rest of London on 90.6.

http://www.amfm.org.uk/tx/tx16/amfmlondon.html

The 1987 lot came from a couple of blocks in Plumstead and Woolwich. They had one rig seized from a block in Woolwich by the Army because they thought that it was a "suspect device"! They briefly used the same link frequency as RFM, so their rigs relayed RFM on Sundays!

[FMEnjoyer]

Nice topic that bought back some memories of Saturday and Sundays tuning around listening out for a new logging and
stations. It felt like a window into another world, one of signal meters and illuminated spin wheel dials. Up and down the dial like a yo yo.
Testing out new antenna positions indoors, mainly dipoles or long bits of wire positioned to get specific stations. Put in the odd reception report following an on air request. A heady mix of rock, soul, oldies and happy hardcore, the latter more in the early nineties.

I'll be honest, the only thing that gets close are community stations these days. You know long gaps of silence
as they go boil a cuppa and the track runs out etc. Those days were unpredictable and fun and had an air of mystery about it all. Random switch offs, raids and staring out of your house seeing dipoles up and down from different stations. You knew who was on your local blocks cause they sent the needle to the end of the meter.

[Albert H]

Maybe I can remember just before the 1996 Chicago there was a radio active. But again there was a 1980s radio active also that defently was a different station because they went on to become starpiont fm

The 80's stations was called "Radio Activity" on 93MHz or thereabouts. It was frequently in stereo and got pretty good coverage given the low blocks they used. Some of the people involved with that moved on to Starpoint, which mostly came from Crystal Palace.

[SamTheDog]

Anyone remember Southside Radio on 92.4
first broadcasts from Eltham in SE-London.
Some of us WNKR folks helped JJ with the kit / setup.
Tx by DM. I think I still have photo's of that setup....

[SamTheDog]

I'll be honest, the only thing that gets close are community stations these days. You know long gaps of silence
as they go boil a cuppa and the track runs out etc. Those days were unpredictable and fun and had an air of mystery about it all. Random switch offs, raids and staring out of your house seeing dipoles up and down from different stations. You knew who was on your local blocks cause they sent the needle to the end of the meter.

Talking about the silences between tracks....
When aquarius had stopped using the bexlyheath location for thier broadcasts WNKR used the same site...
DM and AW arrived in the morning and asked what happened.... I was busy sleeping while Led-Zep 4 span around
on the turntable making regular clicking sounds....... Been on the air for 6 hours and fell asleep... OOPS....

[SamTheDog]

The 1987 lot came from a couple of blocks in Plumstead and Woolwich. They had one rig seized from a block in Woolwich by the Army because they thought that it was a "suspect device"! They briefly used the same link frequency as RFM, so their rigs relayed RFM on Sundays!

I think Nightingale vale was one of the blocks in the woolwich area. there was another too just a bit further down the road...

I visited a radio site at the top of Gypsy-Hill with Steve, he was looking for someone to build transmitters at the time
He told me it was the horizon O/P site at the time/or planned for use. we were talking about throwing a UHF link east to link into it
from our area. (bexleyheath and surrounding)
Steve was still in dartford at the time. This was before the LWR 92.4 days...

[SamTheDog]

The 1987 lot came from a couple of blocks in Plumstead and Woolwich. They had one rig seized from a block in Woolwich by the Army because they thought that it was a "suspect device"! They briefly used the same link frequency as RFM, so their rigs relayed RFM on Sundays!

RFM now that was a really great station... They tried some transmissions on 819 on the MW band too from near
Guys-Hospital in south-London. ( not that far from waterloo-bridge-house ! )..

[Albert H]

RFM - "Your All-Weather Station" - was the only thing on the air on the morning after the big 1987 hurricane! Dave & Andy used a couple of car batteries to power the rig and link receiver up a block in New Cross and linked on UHF for about a mile.....

The London "Veronica" spent one Sunday jamming Q102's link - playing Elvis Costello's "Veronica" repeatedly on a tape loop - since they were annoyed that Q102 had flattened their piss-poor signal over most of London. We got to the Palace on the Sunday evening, and installed a rather different link receiver to the Q102 site, and normal service was resumed. "Veronica" moved frequency the next weekend!

[teckniqs]

and horizon was 102.5 and 94.5 never was 98.3 fm

There was another one from Essex on 98.3

[famefm]

They were nothing to do with the original and the owner got very upset about other stations using the name and one horizon changed it's name to Chicago 87 and before you ask nothing to do with the 1990s Chicago 90.6

[house-every-weekend]

The London "Veronica" spent one Sunday jamming Q102's link - playing Elvis Costello's "Veronica" repeatedly on a tape loop - since they were annoyed that Q102 had flattened their piss-poor signal over most of London. We got to the Palace on the Sunday evening, and installed a rather different link receiver to the Q102 site, and normal service was resumed. "Veronica" moved frequency the next weekend!

I thought Q102 and Veronica had a frequency sharing arrangement?

[Albert H]

I thought Q102 and Veronica had a frequency sharing arrangement?

Boring Barry believed that 102 was HIS frequency, and made every effort to jam Q102 itself or its link. The Q102 rig in Church Road Crystal Palace was well over 400 Watts into a twin-slot colinear, so the ERP was pretty huge. Barry and his pals couldn't muster more than about 50 Watts, which they used to put on that block at Baker's Arms. They used to get really p***ed off when they just couldn't hear themselves ½-a-mile from their site! In the end, Veronica moved to 102.4 and Q102 stayed put!

At Christmas one year, Q102 became "Cure102" and broadcast live from the "Garage" venue at Highbury Corner, presented by Fat Bob and the rest of the band. They broadcast a couple of live gigs, lots of interviews, and many hours of good music.