Potted History:
Following the closure of Radio Invicta, KING Radio began transmissions on 238 metre medium wave on 24th March 1965. Backed by a number of Kent businessmen, KING deliberately directed its format away from the non-stop pop of the ship-borne pirates.
KING played Easy Listening, Middle of the Road, Country and Western and Blues. Presenters read short oems on the air, and used several slogans including "Wonderful Words – Wonderful Artists”, “The Number One Starlight Radio”, “Your Monarch of Music” and “KING – the Most Melodic Delicatessen on the Medium Wave” .
Surprisingly, during test transmissions in early March 1965, KING stated that they were broadcasting from “The Nore”, which had been another series of WW2 army forts located a few miles from KING’s proper location. These forts had been demolished in the late 50’s as a hazard to shipping, and quite why KING never checked their location before broadcasting their position remains a mystery.
KING also associated itself with the capital by calling itself KING – London for a short time, but because of a poor signal, the“Station on Sticks” as it was known locally, never caught the imagination of the listeners, and only managed around 20,000 listeners at peak times.
This is a CD recording of one of those test transmissions, featuring a number of KING’s famous slogans, the incorrect location, and a rundown of the KING presenters : Jeff Towers, Mike Raven, Bruce Holland, Jay Thompson, Roger Gomez, Ed Heakins, and “Other Radio Regal” names!
Audio Quality: - mostly reasonable - some good, but as you should expect from recordings of this age.......
