Radio Jackie raided (1985)

Radio Jackie first went on the air on medium wave in 1969 with the aim of providing a local radio service for the people of south west London. Its popularity grew and in 1984 a petition was signed by 55,000 people calling for the station to be given a licence. But in February 1985 the station was raided by the DTI and closed down. When a license was advertised in 1996 for SW London, Jackie applied but it was given to a rival bidder, Thames FM. But in 2003 Thames FM was in financial trouble and the Jackie team bought the station and Jackie was back on the air as a legal station, and can still be heard on 107.8FM in south west London.

There is more about the station history and photographs on the Radio Jackie website: http://www.radiojackie.com/

There is also a lot more information and recordings from the 1970s and 80s on the Radio Eric website: http://radio.eric.tripod.com/radio_jackie.htm

The Pirate Archive also has more information and audio: http://www.thepiratearchive.net/jackie.html

Here is a short clip I made of Jackie's final moments on medium wave in 1985, although the final closedown was only heard on FM.




(0.50 mins)

The Radio Jackie theme tune played by the Bob Keene Orchestra