horizon radio 1985

[famefm]

Cheers for that I will tune in what does he play mainly? As for Blackburn he has been heard all the time over the past 50 years I have not heard Chris Stewart since 1988 and by then only on adverts

[famefm]

Amazing to hear after all this time sounds like he doesn't really like anything much after 1989 I don't think he will be playing any thing on the house side of things

[Effemm]

Horizon Radio London

Horizon Radio London Is Undergoing an Update & will be back later in the year

Please Note

The Historic Rights by Law To The Name Horizon Radio Are Claimed By The Rightful Owner Of The Name who Established it in London UK In The Early 80's.

Dateline 14th September 2020

Its 35 years since the biggest and most successful Soul Radio Station ever closed down to apply for a radio license.

We had hoped to have the full new website up today to celebrate Horizon Radios achievements and stop the silliness of the few who have tried over the years to damage the Stations achievements, even claiming they as a DJ made the station what it was.

Sadly another radio stations website had to take priority, but now Horizon Radios new website will be here very soon in full with studio and transmitter block details and the truth that some do not want you to hear.

Back Very Soon

[famefm]

I tuned in that Sunday afternoon 15/9/85 and the future was a huge let down apart from the low power choice 969 that didn't appear for another 4 and a half years later and was nothing like as good as the 1985 945 horizon or the mighty 102.5 1984 horizon I still listen to the living past on tapes and I think it's better than trying to revive the sound now from ageing djs that never sound the same mid 80s soul stations in London were the best

[Effemm]

mate Streetsounds Radio are trying but so much commercial/ pop shit being played lately ... also the ads have started

Need a few big names involved

[Polecat]

Some interesting info about Bob Tomalski (Roger Tate on Invicta) from his funeral:

http://www.radiofax.org/Bob_Tomalski_speeches.html

[Effemm]

Updated

https://www.horizonradiolondon.com/

[Effemm]

... as above ...When Bank Holidays were really good listening !

Been on YouTube reminiscing lately, Horizon were a step ahead. Great website above giving many stories & all the jingles !!!

[famefm]

... as above ...When Bank Holidays were really good listening !

Been on YouTube reminiscing lately, Horizon were a step ahead. Great website above giving many stories & all the jingles !!!

Definitely worth the wait and I been in touch with the man himself and it's a real eye opener and makes a lot of sense why the following events started to go wrong in radio and i don't really think the rest of the necks on here are very interested in the 1980s soul stations but at least you are Mr effemm

[Albert H]

Chris "Stewart" Ba******k actually took over Horizon from its originator (when it was a pop station) who was Nigel W****n. Nigel washed his hands of the station way back when it was on Wednesday nights and Sundays, though he continued to build rigs for them for a while.

Chris "Stewart" tried to blame every other station in London after they suffered a studio raid. The reason for the raid was that Gotts & Co followed a couple of his DJs - carrying huge boxes of records - straight to the studio!

[Albert H]

Incidentally, the website doesn't tell the whole story......

[oldtech]

Incidentally, the website doesn't tell the whole story......

Well without naming names perhaps you could enlighten us, I am only familiar with the transition of the co-founder from Uptown Radio to Horizon and some shenanigans about the takeover by Horizon of Uptown's frequency 94.4MHz. Also that the stacked auto-reverse car cassette players originated on Uptown Radio, this allowed the site staff to keep away from the transmitter site for the entire transmission rather than risk being ambushed by the DTI once an hour for tape changes

[oldtech]

Incidentally, the website doesn't tell the whole story......

Well without naming names perhaps you could enlighten us, I am only familiar with the transition of the co-founder from Uptown Radio to Horizon and some shenanigans about the takeover by Horizon of Uptown's frequency 94.4MHz. Also that the stacked auto-reverse car cassette players originated on Uptown Radio, this allowed the site staff to keep away from the transmitter site for the entire transmission rather than risk being ambushed by the DTI once an hour for tape changes

No answer came the stern reply, are you saving it for your book? that would be one worth reading

[Albert H]

Oldtech - I'm not really going to "dish the dirt" on Chris Ba*******k and the way he ran "his" station. Suffice to say that there were a number of very dodgy deals.

Also, he claims that he "found out how to build stable rigs from P***s" - that's patently untrue - Nigel's VFO rigs were stable to <3 kHz over any range of temperatures that you'd come across in the UK, and the PAs were doing 80 - 120 Watts. Shortly after that, I showed Nigel how to build a simple (and cheap) PLL using the venerable SP8629 prescaler IC and a few CMOS chips, and he stopped having to shop around for the expensive silvered mica capacitors that gave the original exciter its stability!

I think that I might have a few rig photos from those days - I'll have a rummage in the dustier recesses of my filing cabinets, and see if I can find any of them....

[oldtech]

Oldtech - I'm not really going to "dish the dirt" on Chris Ba*******k and the way he ran "his" station. Suffice to say that there were a number of very dodgy deals.

Also, he claims that he "found out how to build stable rigs from P***s" - that's patently untrue - Nigel's VFO rigs were stable to <3 kHz over any range of temperatures that you'd come across in the UK, and the PAs were doing 80 - 120 Watts. Shortly after that, I showed Nigel how to build a simple (and cheap) PLL using the venerable SP8629 prescaler IC and a few CMOS chips, and he stopped having to shop around for the expensive silvered mica capacitors that gave the original exciter its stability!

I think that I might have a few rig photos from those days - I'll have a rummage in the dustier recesses of my filing cabinets, and see if I can find any of them....

Thanks Albert, yes we used Nigel's rigs on Uptown Radio and they were stable then and no doubt improved over time, not that we were running anything like the power Horizon used, losing our frequency was a sore point, but yes understood, it's a long time ago no need to stir it after all this time. The rig photos would be interesting, we didn't really take any photos of the original Uptown set up, other than the studio which for the first transmissions was the Skyport Radio studio complete with the aircraft noise.

[Albert H]

There was another station that used Nigel's rigs, and was based in Fulham. They only lasted a few months, but were the first to use the PLLs that I showed Nigel how to build. I think that I have a few photos of the gear from those days. As I remember, they were one of the first to use stacked dipoles, and I made the phasing harnesses for their 2- and 4- dipole aerials. They used to come from the Brentford blocks, and I could hear them well in East Dulwich despite their only using about 20 Watts.

I found a couple of really ancient rigs from those days in a box of miscellaneous junk in my garage - I'll take some photos and give everyone a bit of a laugh!