Radio 390

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Radio 390 (1965 - 1967) was a pirate radio station which operated from the former British Army Maunsell towers located off southeastern England on the Red Sands sandbar.

Radio Invicta's successor KING Radio was bought by Ted Allbeury, who wanted to relaunch it with an easy listening format and name it Eve, The Women's Magazine of the Air. One of KING's disc jockeys had been John McGowan, brother of Cathy McGowan, who was then a major star and female fashion icon as presenter of the television rock show Ready Steady Go! Allbeury was advised to change the name to the station's wavelength (in metres) so listeners hearing of the station would know where to tune to amid the plethora of pirate stations on the air at the time. The actual wavelength was 388 metres (773 kHz), but 390 was perhaps chosen because it was easier to remember and close enough for tuning purposes. However, the original name was not completely discarded: the station's daytime programming was announced as "Radio 390 presenting Eve, The Women's Magazine of the Air".

Like its neighbour Radio City, Radio 390 took advantage of the fort's layout by erecting a 250-foot vertical mast on one of the inner towers, guyed to three of the outer towers. This gave it a very stable and highly efficient antenna (more so than on any of the ship-based stations), ensuring that with only a 10 kilowatt transmitter the station was able to achieve very good coverage of southern England - so much so that for the benefit of its advertisers the station claimed to have a power of 35 kilowatts.

The station's easy listening format was innovative but was criticised by rival Britain Radio as "stone age radio - a series of segmented dirges".

The 1966 Danger Man (Secret Agent) episode "Not-So-Jolly Roger" was set aboard a pirate radio fort, and was at least partly filmed in and around Red Sands, with the credited permission of Radio 390. The fictional "Radio Jolly Roger" was a front for enemy spies, which 390's management might not have found flattering.

Recently there have been several attempts to revive the station. One such attempt is a website claiming to have association with the original people behind the Radio 390 of the 1960's. This can be found at http://www.radio390.co.uk.tt

Red Sands Radio, a temporary radio station operating under a Restricted Service Licence, broadcast from Red Sands Fort for ten days between July 14 and July 23, 2007. Many of its presenters had previously worked on offshore pirate stations in the 1960s and 1970s and the station celebrated the legacy of offshore broadcasting, particularly from the forts. [1]