Heard from late 1971
Address 70 Clifton Road, Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey.
Click here to hear Radio London Underground 113kb download or streamed audio!
Click here to hear the announcement that would indicate to listeners that programmes must cease immediately due to an impending raid on the station. 61kb download or streamed audio!
Radio London Underground grew out of the London Underground programme that had up until 1971 been heard on the Radio Jackie VHF Saturday night broadcasts.
In April 1972, Radio London Underground began regular broadcasts on Sunday evenings between 10pm and midnight. It was heard over an eight-month period. Regular presenters included Peter Allen and Rick Martin.
Using the facilities of the London Transmitter of Independent Radio, its small team put together ground breaking and imaginative programming which set out to stimulate interest in many fields including many documentaries and the reading of stories (War of The Worlds) and introductions to the world of the occult etc. The station also introduced its not inconsiderable audience to the delights of the progressive rock music of the day as well as an enormously wide variety of classical, semi-classical and pop music.
Radio London Underground became popular due to its unique 'freeform' format as well as distinctive style and presentation.
Radio London Underground experimented with the Dolby B noise reduction system (the first radio station in Britain to do so) which led to higher quality transmissions than had been heard from a pirate radio station to date.
With official activity increasing to such an extent towards the end of 1972, programmes from Radio London Underground became restricted to one hour and usually only a part of that was actually broadcast before transmissions were interrupted.
On Christmas Eve night, 1972, a brief announcement from Rick Martin at the end of the programme informed listeners that of the sad news that Radio London Underground had broadcast for the last time.
RLU was never heard again and as such, became a short but highly regarded part of the history of the fight for independent radio in Britain. RLU was replaced on Sunday evenings by Radio Odyssey.
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