Thameside Radio was an unlicensed radio station based in London. It launched in the winter of 1977, offering "very slick pop rock with competitions", according to '' Time Out''. According to the ''

Richmond and Twickenham Times The ''Richmond and Twickenham Times'' is a weekly local newspaper that was established in 1873 and is published on Fridays. It covers the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in south-west London and surrounding areas. It is delivered free to ...

'', it broadcast from "a certain

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tower block A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdicti ...

" – a reference to

Trellick Tower Trellick Tower is a Grade II* listed tower block on the Cheltenham Estate in North Kensington, London. Opened in 1972, it had been commissioned by the Greater London Council and designed in the Brutalist style by architect Ernő Goldfinger. ...

. The station received 30-40 letters each week and had an estimated

listenership Audience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites. Someti ...

of around 20,000. It pioneered new music, and is noted by the '' New Musical Express'' for giving airplay to "Win a Night Out with a Well-Known Paranoiac" by Barry Andrews, which was subsequently picked up by

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

. Increasing numbers of raids resulted in the station losing five

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...

s in six months and the station ceased live transmission, instead taping its shows shortly before broadcast. Recordings of a number of Thameside Radio shows are held by the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

. Many shows are available for download fro
fmthen.com
In late 1984, Thameside set up the first London unlicensed TV station for a one-off event.

References

See also