"Tune In And Rip Yer Knob Off"

I managed to stumble across an interesting piece of audio on Soundcloud,
that being the Invicta Radio 1985 jingle package from Alfasound.


The audio quality's not great, but I happen to know that one of my
fellow jingle buddies has a copy of the master reel,
as purchased from Steve England himself so I may have a few words.

I know said individual happened to really enjoy my JAM resings
from a few years ago...

Anyway,

I guess the most amusing cuts from the package are the jock acapellas
with the examples below proving rather surprising.



I never knew Tony "Laters!" Dortie graced the county's airwaves
for instance, prior to his short-lived stint on Top Of The Pops.

Whilst the audio quality may be not so good, it was a pleasant surprise
to find some off air bits from Invicta dating back as far as 1989 but mainly
from around 93-94.

First up, an extract from the Sunday night phone in "Openline" as
presented by the Reverend Michael Fanstone from around 1989.



The Century 21 package can be heard alongside the slow promo
bed from the preceding Alfasound custom still identifying the station
as "Invicta Radio" in spite of Fanstone announcing it as "Invicta FM".

I imagine the Alfasound stuff continued to be used until the "Steamroller"
package was introduced the following year.

Now at Premier Christian Radio in London, Fanstone used to present
a religious programme at Classic FM alongside fellow Invicta staff
John Brunning and the late Michael Bukht.

And Openline did resurface on the KMFM Medway stations around
10 years ago when they had another alias.

Next up, 1993 and the fondly remembered TOH with Doc Morgan on V/O duties
followed by Stuart Thomas who later became the inaugaral newsreader
when the Morning Zoo launched a couple of years later.



And from December of that year an overall station trail featuring
Glenn Thompsett, Neil Francis, the late Tim Stewart, and
ex Talksport presenter Ian Collins.



This more or less pinpoints the period when I started listening to the station,
although following the sacking of Caesar, and the Southern Radio takeover
many listeners thought the station was past it's best.

It was only going to get worse...

Digressing again, a trail for the breakfast show with the voices
of Simon West, Geoff Fitch, Kirsty Long, and a certain Simon Beale.

No idea where the latter disappeared to...



Also included near the end is a news promo featuring the library
track "Bold Is Beautiful" as penned by Alan Hawkshaw, and
used for 30 second news updates on the half-hour.

I once suggested to Ross Tilley that we should use the track
for trailing the news on Smoke but he frowned on it, despite
myself and Tudor seeing the funny side.

The best bit of audio within the selection however, is Glenn Thompsett
reading the weather over the Supa Glazing bed, immediately followed
by his very nifty Steamroller Cut 17 presenter ID.



The very set of jock cuts that weren't included on the collector CDs
that were sold from Station Road East, but I understand that
a few fellow jingle collectors now have copies of the master dubs
with the jock cuts intact.

I'll get my mits on those sometime, I'm sure I have more than
a right having lived in the Garden for 20 years...