Radio Jackie first took to the airwaves of Southwest London on the 19th March 1969. They went on to be one of the most regular and well known pirates throughout the 70s.
There were many raids and court cases, and in one of them, the barrister they had hired found a loophole. That was, that the authorities could not confiscate any transmitting equipment without a court order. Radio Jackie, and many others, went from broadcastings for a few hours on a Sunday to 24/7.
The 1984 Telecommunications Act put an end to the loophole, but Jackie was able to carry on till February 1985. They were raided heavily, twice in as many days, so decided to close on the 4th February in a blaze of glory.
They hoped to get one of the promised new community radio licences, but these never happened and it was 1996 before a licence was made available. Jackie applied but the Radio Authority gave to it another applicant, Thames FM. Over the years Thames Radio, as it was later renamed, had a number of owners. None of them could make the licence work and it fell into financial difficulty.
In 2003 the original Jackie team purchased Thames Radio for £1. Radio Jackie was finally launched as a legal station on 107.8 MHz on Sunday 19 October 2003.
The full story of Radio Jackie has been published in a book, which is available from most book stores and on-line:
‘Radio Jackie – A Very English Struggle’ by Colin King ISBN 190400640X
More on Radio Jackie can be found on these sites:
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