Sunshine Radio - Ludlow 299m/1017khz

[dave brum]

There surely should be a special section of this forum devoted exclusivelt to this conoisseur of Midlands pirates.

If you were to ask me what the best thing about Sunshine Radio was, I'd say, being a bit of a poor man's musicologist, that it used to play new 45s that Radio 1/BRMB/Beacon ignored. It was Sunshine that championed 'Major Tom' by Peter Schilling after he'd just done an English translation of it - Alan Jones particularly liked that one! Also, Weird Al Yankovic's parody of 'Beat It' (Eat It) was another one of 'Weird Al Jones' top tunes!

And those jingles...'SUNSHINE...playing all over Leinthall Starkes NOW!' I bet there's only about five houses in Leinthall Starkes!

[alanjones]

Thank you for those kind words.

Don't forget about playing over Hopton Wafers! Very tasty, those wafers

[dave brum]

Where's Leinthall Starkes anyway? Sounds Welsh.

Isn't there a big naturist commune there - Leinthall Starkers!

Fortunately, I know where Hopton Wafers is - or should that be are?

[dave brum]

All those times I've come home from school, my granny was sat watching 'Sons And Daughters' on what used to be called Central, go up to my room, Alan Jones was always on the radio from 4 till 7, although if it got dark earlythe interference from Germany made it impossible to listen.

Does anybody remember that sort of synthy-pop tune that got played on a tape loop after the 7pm closedown that included the announcement:

"Sunshine Radio's programmes have now finished for the night, but our transmitters remain on air 24 hours a day.... etc. Which was not true as some evenings, the transmitter was turned off at 7.05, others it was 7.30 or even after 8. I couldn't ever get the chance to tune in any later because of the German station.

As soon as I possibly can (may have come close to my download limit for this month!) I'm gonna be downloading the Sunshine Radio story, and AJK's final show from Feb 1985 (he was another one of my fave DJ's). Who else at that time would play Emerson Lake and Palmer? (maybe Caroline Overdrive 963)

And then there were the adverts...

'C---- B---- is the place to be
He's got the bargains for you and me!
Seed Potatoes, Wolf and Bosch power tools
in Craven Arms, C---- B---- rules!'

The one for the certain Sunday market at Church Stoke that always began with the doorbell sounding - to attract your attention

And Carol Barnes voicing AR chemicals ad over Horst Jankowski's 'A Walk In The Black Forest'

Oh, I could go on and on!!

[Gary Edwards]

Does anybody remember that sort of synthy-pop tune that got played on a tape loop after the 7pm closedown that included the announcement:

"Sunshine Radio's programmes have now finished for the night, but our transmitters remain on air 24 hours a day.... etc.

Ah...you mean this...

Night Cart1c.mp3

[dave brum]

Gary, YOU'RE A REAL PAL!

And it's good to hear it without any German guys whispering in the background!!!

[dave brum]

Thank you ever so much to the person who put the Sunshine Radio story on here! I've just spent the last hour listening to it. I saw in the window of what was Preedy's in Ludlow back in '86 or '87 time that there were some copies on sale on tape, and having just got my first few weeks of Supplementary Benefit I thought I'd treat myself, only to get in the shop and find they'd all sold out of 'em!

I confess I have actually met Cookie, the great Colin Cook. He actually juggled that breakfast show with running his off licence in Shrewsbury, in fact it was in Shrewsbury I met him, and he's a really nice guy to talk to.

And yes, the 'Accumulator Quiz' in the afternoon with Geoff Dorsett in the school holidays. (or was it Escalator, or even Elevator?)

But now I know the answer to the question why during 1984 Sunshine changed it's phone number from the Tenbury 6-digit number to the Ludlow 4-digit number!

Sunshine never 'died' after 20/02/85, test transmissions would occasionally pop up on 299 at odd weekends later on in the 1980s, announcing that Sunshine were 'back sounding better than ever before' but these transmissions were unreliable and never lasted long. At around that time, BBC Radio Shropshire began, and I suspect that the powers were looking to 'take care of' Sunshine before the BBC could formally launch their station in the county. Also, the ILR station in Wrexham Marcher Sound, whose reception area at the time reached a long way south of Shrewsbury/Telford on FM, also shifted their FM frequency from 95.4 to 103.4, thus causing more problems for a return on 103.5FM for Sunshine.

For me, Sunshine 'died' when it was sold at the will of the free market to Muff Murfin (the same guy who wrote the Gladiators theme song incidentally!) South Shropshire Communications ceased to exist, as did the managing directorship of that Harding man. Nowadays, it breaks my heart to listen to Sunshine 855, and as for the new FM service, well how on earth can that be a 'local' service if it covers two counties in two completely different UK countries!

[Dave]

Not much wrong with Sunshine 855!

Night *Cart*?? I thought everything was off tape?

[Gary Edwards]

It was called night cart, but yes, it would have been on tape.

The reason for saying "Sunshine Radio's programmes have now finished for the night, but our transmitters remain on air 24 hours a day" was so that if they ended up in court they could claim it was only one offence not multiple ones.

Not sure how that would have stood up if they were challenged tho'!

[dave brum]

Good evening Gary!

...and what was this 'Channel 55' thing about then? I know about the FM band being divided up into 'channels' - many old sets in the UK have channel numbers alongside the frequencies, but I was never sure as to any similar system on the AM band.

James Harding, as saft as he came over on air, obviously knew his onions then when it came to legal issues. Has anyone seen the two clips of Sunshine on Youtube?