Passing through History
It's strange to think that Radio Enfield has lived through the Wombles, Osmonds, Slade and Bay City Rollers era. When Radio Enfield started, there was no local radio in London. In 1970, the BBC were just starting their network of local stations on VHF (now called FM) but most people still listened on Medium Wave (or AM): commercial radio didn't start on land until LBC and Capital Radio began in late 1973. Radio Enfield was therefore unique in bringing a local radio service to the area. Strange also to think that the country moved to decimalisation the year after Radio Enfield first went on air. A special last programme was broadcast in pounds, shillings and pence (which still exists in the archives) - including songs such as 'Pennies From Heaven', 'Half a Sixpence', 'Feed The Birds Tuppence A Bag' and 'Penny Lane', etc.
How Radio Enfield and its founder members came together and the station got 'on the air' is a long story, dating back to the 1960s. A book is still being put together on our history and may yet appear in time for our 40th birthday in 2010! Suffice to say that the idea was borne out of the offshore pirate radio stations of the 1960's, in particular Radio Caroline and Radio London, which are still fondly remembered by many forty years later.
The original Radio Enfield line-up was Chris Tucker, Colin Dye (known on-air as 'Dave Collins'), Keith Baker and Nigel Hunt (known on-air as 'Nig Hunter') who each presented a half-hour programme from 8pm to 10pm on Sundays from 24 May 1970. Howard White and David Scarff deputised if one of the others was away and following the return to university of Chris and Howard in autumn 1970, the regular 8.00-10.00 line-up became Colin Dye, David Scarff, Keith Baker and Nigel Hunt. A four minute quiz was introduced compiled by Matthew Shuttlewood (known as Alec Wood) by the end of 1970 and in early 1971 programmes were extended to Thursday evenings (8.45-10pm) to include local news and features. We were able to get hold of the local papers the night before they were published to glean some information! At that time there were no free sheets, only the two main paid-for local papers, the Gazette and the Herald. Guests were often invited to the studios on Thursday nights e.g. members of the Leagues of Friends, local MPs etc.
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