|
 |
I was interested in the SURGE website which I happened on by
accident. I was on the (then) JCR Committee when Radio Glen
was legally founded in 1977/8. Before that it was run as a
hobby by a student called Paul Blitz, with help from a chap
called Richard, I think. The studio was in an ex-laundry
room next to the Glen shop. As well as the above, the JCR
President Martyn Fowler and a few others did most of the
setting up. I can remember sticking egg boxes to the ceiling
and walls! I used to do a show on Saturday mornings called
the Jack Diamond show, sometimes remembering to switch the
transmitter on first. I remember the two big reel to reel
monsters arriving. I think Martyn bought them from the BBC
in London when they were disposing of old equipment. There
was certainly no mention in those early days of a Beatles or
Abbey Road connection. Hope you find this information
interesting.
|
 |
Adrian Wild (Soton 1977-82)
|
|
|
So for my part I can tell you that I took over management in
my first year in Glen - 1994/95. At the time the station was
in its original hovel under F Block next to the laundry. A
couple of tatty chairs, a dodgy old sofa and equipment that
was held together with solder and duct tape. One CD player
had a mind of its own and the other would only play songs it
liked... the mic stands would never stay up and had a
tendency to drift down just as you would go live, but it
always proved interesting working there. That studio had a
lot of character and its creation was an amazing
accomplishment. I don't know if you still have it but there
was an original BBC reel to reel machine in the entrance.
The two other people who ran things with me were Mark
O'Hanlon and Phil Allnut. Mark was technical manager and
Phil was the librarian - the 7000 or so vinyls we had stored
on the staircase from F Block to the laundry kept him amused
for hours. One of the events we kept alive with the station
was the 2 week Radio Marathon. I don't know if you guys
carried that on? Basically a charity thing where we
broadcasted non-stop for 2 weeks, 24 hours a day. People
would sign up for anything from 4-24 hour blocks and get
sponsorship/donations for doing it. The smell at the end was
never pleasant but it was a great thing to get involved
with: duvets around the place, DJ's falling asleep on air,
or the inevitable playing of Stairway to Heaven allowing the
jock 7 minutes to get to the Glen Bar and back. At the
beginning of 1995 they started building the new
accommodation block (New Terrace) and we were offered a
couple of rooms in there for a new station. We spent the
easter and summer terms sourcing equipment and trying to get
as much money out of the JCR committee as possible. The Hall
also chipped in a fair wad of cash too - I think all up we
had about 12-14k (that was for everything: bespoke
furniture, soundproofing, carpet, putting in ducts, mixing
desk, minidisk players, mics etc). The actual move and
building of the new studio was done at the end of the summer
holidays when Mark, Phil and I came back a couple of weeks
early, I think we took another 4 weeks during the term to
get it all done. I can't tell you how surprised I was when
we actually ran a test - we had done all the wiring,
rewiring and re-rewiring ourselves and the bloody thing
actually worked - first time! Blood, sweat and tears,
literally. If you pull off some of that brown carpeted
soundproofing drilled into the walls you'll find some
amusing doodles and our names dotted around the room - we
had to sign off on our baby somewhere! Anyway, it was a
labour of love and its completion pretty much coincided with
the end of our time in charge. Mark stuck around for another
year as the JCR president so still had a hand in it, for
what happened after that you'll have to chase up the younger
folk!
Best of luck to you with SURGE, from some very humble
beginnings it looks like it's got a bright future.
|
|
Ummit Sethi (Soton 1994)
|
|
|
Hi guys,
Well I just cant seem to keep away from your site - many
a happy hour spent "In the bowels of F block in between
the shop and the laundry" even though I was never a
student at the Uni....just a wannabe DJ who wrote in to the
then station manager by the name of Rippa, who somehow
landed some airtime. Respect is due to other members of the
management during my time at the Glen, including Carolyn
Shadbolt ("Have sex with Shadbolt on a Sunday"),
Dave Sansome ("He thinks he's handsome and looks like
Richard Branson), John Herbert and of course the mighty
Henry Walmsley. During my time on 1602, I introduced Spencer
Bignell, better known as Spencer Kelly, to radio - he went
on to run CUR945 at Cambridge, as well as an RSL there, then
landed the flying eye and later breakfast on Ocean FM before
disappearing to a BBC talent contest. I was also involved
with the university's first two RSLs, SUR FM in 1993, based
in "the port-a-cabin of pop" (well the port-a-cabin
bit is true) behind the Hartley library, which established
most of the team who went on to run Max FM on the
Southampton cable network. If you search for Henry Walmsley
and Radio Glen on Google, you will end up at
monumentaltat.co.uk featuring some of the Radio Glen jingles
that were on air when I started in 1990. By the time I left
in 1995 to start Max FM, we had made some re-sings of the
first package that Power FM used....audio available on
request, if I can still find the cassette! Anyway, hope
Surge is still as much fun as Radio Glen was for me - I
still tune into you whenever I am in Southampton, and it is
sounding slicker than ever!
|
|
Colin Hanslip (Soton 1990-1995)
|
|
|
I arrived at Glen already a fully-fledged radio anorak, with several yearsi hospital radio under my belt. Tuning-in from the first few days, I had the impression the station only owned one chart song; eUnder Your Thumbi by Godley and Creme aired roughly every 50 minutes.
I was on air within a week, playing love songs on the Sunday late show, and elected programme controller within months. It seemed terribly important to give the station a regular schedule; those were the days before an automation system took the strain, and the sustaining service was a very crackly Capital Radio, only just audible via a giant aerial in the roof above the old F-Block studios.
Peter Fortune was the Station Manager, and with technical experts Graham Naylor-Smith and Chris Wilson we set about rebuilding the studios in the summer of 1982. Battles in JCR committee bought us tape cartridge machines for jingles and adverts, and our own outside line so phone-ins could happen at last. The new home-made mixers included design ideas Iid spotted while doing weekend work at the old Radio Victory in Portsmouth. That station also helped record Glenis first (only?) sung jingles, when Victory breakfast jock Bill Padley revealed he had both a soft-rock voice and a cassette of the backing track to the Radio Clyde package of the day!
On-air, my three years are full of happy memories. We started the tradition of 24-hour rag marathon shows, did local/student news every weekday, ran quiz and talk shows and even managed a bit of drama (Pete Fortuneis own version of A Christmas Carol).
The day after I graduated I started as a full-time jock at Radio Victory, and Iive been in radio programming and management ever since. But Iive never forgotten the excitement of realising that I too could be on the real airwaves for the very first time n and I too could play eUnder Your Thumbi.
|
|
Chris Carnegy (Soton 1981-1984)
|
|
|
I was one of the founder members of the very early station. We set up
the first legal station in 1977/8 erecting the antennae (you
mention on your site) on top of various buildings - in fact I was Chief
Carpenter ! (As well as occasional DJ, newscaster etc). The antennae
each consisted of two pieces of timber, about a meter in length, fitted
together as a cross. At each of the four ends, cross pieces were fitted
at right angles to the plane of the cross, so that wire could then be
wrapped around the construct - about five times round from memory. There
were about fifteen of these and they were all wired together, and back to
the studio (and transmitter) in a continuous loop.
This system was necessary due to Home Office regulations at the time
which required that the signal could be heard inside the "loop" but not
outside it (on the Flowers Estate for instance !). I think
the system was called "closed loop induction" .. but as a Maths
student, it was all a bit beyond me. There were about six of us that set
this up. The chief engineer was Paul Blitz ... I think his
electronics degree suffered but Paul was not one to be swayed by such
trivia. Paul also did the PR with the Home Office - it would not have
happened but for him.
We all suffered for our art. The Home Office required that the
signal strength dropped off by a certain amount, a given distance out
from the loop. So we had to "tune" the signal strength for this. Armed
with a signal strength meter, we crawled back through bushes other
obstacles, getting hot, bothered and scratched for our trouble.
The assigned frequency was of course that of Radio Caroline .. the Home
Office's sense of humour meant if they couldn't ban the pirates at least
the legal stations could sit over the top of their slot. The "studio"
consisted of an amp, a microphone, a couple of dodgy old decks, bring
your own LPs. And it was deadened by sticking loads of egg cartons to
the wall. Part of the routine maintenance was
sticking them back on as they fell off regularly. The legal
operation was commissioned only a couple of months before I graduated in
summer 1978, so I did not have much to do there. I think the
first record we played in the legal studio was "Moving Out" by Bill Joel
- a testament to our move from the previous operation ...
Prior to Radio Glen being such a pinnacle of the establishment, we had an
enthusiastic (if rather occasional) pirate station on the Glen campus.
Basically from two or three bedrooms linked together. This was also the
work of "The Great Blitz" - and he had also connected 9 of us together
with a single digit dial telephone system. So we
could call each other using a single number. (We all had old BT dial
phone bought off local markets etc. Being able to phone up fellow
students was unheard of in 1978). I remember one occasion (early on a
Sunday afternoon) when Glen was broadcasting from F block somewhere (a
bedroom, not the studio - that came later). We were in New Block when
some sap set fire to one of the kitchens with a chip pan. We phoned up
the broadcasting bedroom, and switched operations to New Block,
broadcasting Radio Glen's first on the spot newscast. This involved
leaning out of the window as the fire engine's arrived and noting smoke
levels, possibility of meltdown etc. Not very Sky News. When the police
arrived a few minutes later, Radio Glen had to close down "for technical
reasons" - remember we were not legal (and were of a nervous
disposition). It was a shame as one of the tenders
backed into one of the police Rovers .. and we would like to have
broadcast the outburst that followed, which was added to by some
rather disrespectful Glen types leaning out of windows and jeering.
In the process of getting legal, we did a number of tours of the
local "real" stations to get some idea of how they operated. This was
great fun and I met one of my boyhood hero's in the process - one Dave
Clark (he of the Dave Clark Five). Radio Victory were laid back but very
professional, but Radio Solent were rather up tight - and a bit hopeless.
You may have heard the Jasper Carrot sketch - he visited only weeks
before us and we saw his name in the visitor's book .. it was all true!
Anyway, enough rambling. It's good to see that Radio Glen has
thrived, albeit under a new name. I had never heard of the "Radio
Heffalump" name before ... but I do remember the elephant logo on the
Glen Eyre newsletter ... "Hot Eyre".
|
|
Nigel Perkins (Soton 1977 / 78)
|
|
|
I've just read Nigel Perkins' great recollections about the early days
of Radio Glen and I can testify to the complete accuracy of these
recollections. I too was one of the hardy pioneers of the very early
station, and one of the 9 on the Blitz phone line - the early morning
wake up calls were particularly appreciated after a heavy night in the
JCR. In fact as Paul Blitz's next door neighbour, I was one of the
first to be press ganged into the team. As one of the few "Scousers" in
Soton at the time, Paul pestered the life out of me to get my
distinctive accent on air. Anyone who knew Paul would appreciate how
pursuasive he could be and eventually(inevitably) I gave in. I have to
confess it was one of the most enjoyable experiences of my time at
Soton.
Despite being an illegal station, we were undoubtedly assisted by the
tacit support of the Hall Warden (John Smith I think was his name). Not
only did he support our service, but also on one notable occasion, made
use of it. The occasion in question was during the Rag week of 1976,
when some enterprising and extremely brave (or foolish) individual who
to this day remain anonymous, hoisted 14 plastic milk crates, topped by
a flashing traffic light, to the top of a very large tree that used to
grace the entrance to Glen Eyre. The feat was hugely impressive,
particularly at night when the light flashed away for all to see for
miles around. Unfortunately officials at Eastleigh airport where not so
impressed as it apparently buggered up the landing system. John Smith
came onto my radio show to report the complaint and to (reluctantly) ask
the perpetrators to remove the edifice. As a testimony to the early
power of our radio station, the milk crates vanished as quickly (and
silently) as they had appeared! - Just in case you doubt the story
please see this photo!
One of my other claims to fame was the interview I conducted with one Mr
Midge Ure, who at the time, along with Glen Matlock (formerly of the Sex
Pistols) appeared in the JCR with the Punk Band the Rich Kids. What
started out as a straight forward music interview ended up as a live
action news report of a riot as a large number of ticketless fans of the
Rich Kids support band (a local group whose name escapes me) laid siege
to the building in an effort to see their heroes in action. Reporting
on them shinning up drainpipes only to be hurled off the roof by the
"heavies" that had been employed as security made great radio, but
praise has to be given to the four enterpising gate crashers who were
found in a drunken stupor in the bathroom of the bursar. Unfortunately,
she found them and was somewhat underwhelmed by the discovery. She
subsequently made an abortive attempt to ban live bands in the JCR.
Fortunately for live music, a sit in protest and the stacking of her car
on top of yet more milk crates (we must have drunk an awful lot of milk
in those days) convinced her of the error of her ways.
Like Nigel, I'm very glad to see how the radio station has grown and
flourished from the early days, and I'm very proud to have had a small
part in the station's history. Long may you continue.
|
|
Steve Vincent (Soton 1977 / 78)
|
|
|
I was a regular DJ at Glen for the two years I was there, which was a great
laugh. Such happy memories of the old F-Block studio, where I would spend
hour after hour in the company of the legendary Dave Oliver (still the
original Comedy Dave, in my books) and various other shady characters. This
was back in the days when there were quite a few gaps in the schedule,
largely due to so many of our fellow students not being bothered to turn up
for their slots. The solution? We would just stay down there for as long as
it took to get bored. Between us all we had so much inane drivel to discuss
(as well as some very varied playlists) that this was invariably quite a
long time. And unbelievably, people were still tuning in to us regularly-
to this day, I am still not sure why.
The highlights for me: Steve Bowers bursting into the studio during the
Marathon to tell Dave and I that we were "professionally crap" (this during
a 24-hour stint where all sensible topics of conversation had dried up
several hours previously: "professionally crap" then became our catchphrase
for several weeks afterwards). Sunday night solo shows timed to finish at
10pm so I could race up to the Bar for Last Orders, where at least one
fellow student every week would tell me I sounded like Jo Whiley (all very
well, but I was never much of a fan of Jo Whiley). And finally, coming back
from my third year in France to find that we had moved to bigger and newer
studios where- shock horror- everything actually seemed to work. I wish
SURGE all the best for a bigger and better future, although part of me
still hankers for that dingy little studio next to the washing machines in
F-Block where anything that didn't smell damp and musty smelt of Daz
instead.
Best regards
|
|
Paula Reid (Soton 1994-5 and 1996-7)
|
|
|
I was at Southampton in 1990/1991 doing a PGCE in Modern Languages. My hall of residence was Glen Eyre Hall, and being a stranger there and a German to boot I tried to get involved in student life. When I heard that there was a student radio station, I volunteered immediately to do a breakfast show (only twice a week, Mondays and Wednesdays, owing to lecture duties), the slot which no one else was really too keen on filling. Back at home, I had got a glimpse of the radio business through being friends with staff of the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) station in downtown Cologne, where I sometimes sat in and watched the DJs doing their thing. So at Radio Glen I tried to do my show in a similar vein and gave it the name "Wacky Brekkie with Frankie". My signature tune was "Birdland" by Weather Report - a great piece of music to wake you up! The show consisted of the usual bits and bobs of a breakfast show: horoscopes, news from the Evening Echo, silly comments on this and that, and loads of "bloopers" from BFBS Germany I had brought along on tape. I had a lot of fun there in that old little studio right next to the laundrette - albeit being alone in there for most of the time owing to the time of day. The only names of fellow DJs I remember from that time are Ray and Carolyn, who sometimes dropped in for a laugh towards the end of the show, i. e. when they had managed to crawl out of bed. My personal highlight was when someone who was a staunch BBC Radio 1 listener confessed to me in the Glen Shop that he was a regular listener to my show - and another one when several months later someone in a Cologne pub recognised my Radio Glen T-shirt.
I was quite thrilled to re-discover Radio Glen a.k.a. Surge on the Internet and have been listening (in the office, dare I say) from time to time, reliving these old memories and envying everyone at the station now for being able to do what I enjoyed so much fifteen years ago.
|
|
Frank Janowski-Hansen (Soton
1990-1)
|
If you have any more photos or information about the former Radio
Glen, please e-mail it to webmaster@surgeradio.co.uk
|
Back To History 
