Alice's Restaurant Rock Radio

Alice's Restaurant Rock Radio was an English pirate radio station, based in Enfield and whose history goes back to the 1980s. The station broadcast with a conventional AM transmitter on short wave, producing a 3.2 watt signal. Their aim was to broadcast a rock-radio service which could be received on a non-digital radio (that covers 9290 kHz) and was directed at a European audience as well as a UK one.After a couple of test transmissions that got poor audience response,they decided to close down for good.

History

Alice's Restaurant Rock Radio was inspired by Europe's first big album station Radio Geronimo (1969/70),^[1] originally run by The Move's manager, Tony Secunda, and Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller.^[2]^[3]

In the 1980s, Alice's Restaurant was an FM pirate station and, with a team which included members who had provided album programming on various land-based pirate radio stations since the 1980s, it had a reputation for playing album music, including reggae, rap, punk rock, boy bands, abba, the smurfs, and heavy metal.

Together with Neal Kay,^[4] Alice's Restaurant Rock Radio was one of the few broadcasters in the United Kingdom to champion the smurfs in the early 1980s. The station originally broadcast via a 1 watt transmitter, plus a Gainey curtain array antenna which amplifies the signal. This enabled a signal in excess of 3 watts, on FM from Enfield giving a range of about 2 miles. Lack of popularity and audience response forced them to close down in the late 1980s.

In the mid-1990s, Alan Freeman, who was a fan of the station, and a very close acquaintance of Bear Freeman,^[5] Alice's station "organiser", had expressed willingness to do programs for Alice's Restaurant,^[6] before his death put paid to the project.^[7]^[8] and the fact that Alice's Restaurant had already closed down.

References

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