Radio Aquarius was set up in 1972 by Charlie Turner, initially under the name of Radio Lancashire on short wave. After a few months, the station made a move to MW and then to VHF, at the same time changing its name to Radio Aquarius. An appearance on local ITV news got the station noticed, and a raid by the Post Office followed. After this, a long series of Sunday MW broadcasts was made from the fields of south Manchester, with Parr's Wood being the favoured site.
Shortly before Christmas 1973, Aquarius was taken off the air when the PO struck again, but it was back the following week with replacement equipment and from a new location. Things then settled down for a while, the station remaining on MW until April 1974, when another change back to FM co-incided with Piccadilly Radio's (ILR) appearance. A few weeks later, another raid forced Aquarius back onto MW. More raids followed, and it seemed the authorities had made up their minds that Aquarius would be taken off for good. The mailing address was blocked and the raids were stepped up.
A live, high power MW broadcast (about 400 watts) was made at Christmas 1974 with just one DJ - Tim Small - manning the decks. Stuart Randall, Bob Layne and Tony Greaves were all conspicuous by their absence. After this, Aquarius limped on for a few more weeks before throwing in the towel.
Radio Aquarius clips track list:
1. Jingles.
2. Early Aquarius on FM, probably from Winter Hill. Off air tape.
3. Paul East. Oh dear....off air tape.
4. Dateline Sunday with Bob Layne. Off air tape.
5. Michael Knight guests. Off air tape.
6. Michael Knight guests. Studio tape.
7. Bob & Charlie 1. Studio tape.
8. Bob & Tony 1. Studio tape.
9. Stuart Randall 1. Studio tape.
10. Stuart Randall 2. Studio tape.
11. Tony Greaves 1. Short bit of studio tape intended for Christmas broadcast, I think.
12. Tony Greaves 3. Studio tape.
13. Trevor James 1. Studio tape. Trevor's tapes always sounded crappy, even though they were recorded at Charlies (I think).
14. Trevor James 2. Studio tape. I've re-equalized these clips, but there's hardly anything to get hold of.
15. Sandra Chalmers' phone-in show. Bob gets some publicity for Aquarius. Recorded off air from BBC Radio Manchester.
16. Stuart Randall 3. More Randall, plus a personal message for Gordon (our local PO man) at the end of the cassette.
17. It's a raid! Charlie's musical raid spoof thingy. Studio tape.
18. The Professionals. Recruiting ad for the PO. Studio tape.
19. Stuart's intro.
20. Four Young Men. Oh-oh.
21. Post-Tel ad. Spoof of the K-Tel ads of the time. Studio tape.
22. Bob Layne 3. 'Please don't let it happen again..' says Bob. He's talking about a raid, which happened the previous week.
23. T-shirts ad. Studio tape.
24. Tony Greaves 4. Studio tape.
25. Ads & Jingles. More of Bob's handiwork. Studio tape.
26. Half Kilowatt, Christmas 1974. Tim Small at the mic. Off air tape, and the transmitter was suffering a meltown.
27. Stuart Randall 5. Stuart does his stuff for New Year 1974/5. Never aired as far as I know.
28. Tony's 'Just for You' jingle. Never aired. This was pristine last time I heard it, now it's gone down the nick!
29. Crumbly bits, out-takes etc.