A day in the life of Radio Jackie, with Peter Robinson

Radio Jackie

110-112 Tolworth Broadway

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Surbiton.com: March 3, 2013 - 6:37pm

This month Peter pays a visit to the 60s pirate station gone legit, Radio Jackie.

Radio Jackie is a rather eccentric station broadcasting to south-west London from a former post office on a busy Surbiton high street. It dates back to 1969 and, once upon a time when it was a pirate, it would broadcast from countryside locations or a pram loaded with car batteries, but it's been legal since 2003.

I meet Jackie's owner, 56-year-old Tony Collis, in the far corner of the station's open-plan HQ. Within easy reach is a spectrum analyser, which allows Tony to monitor Jackie's output, and a toy pirate ship. There's no computer on his desk and Tony doesn't do email, but there is a stressball that looks like an orange. An engineer by trade, he's been working on radio equipment since he was 12 and with Jackie since he was 14. Today, and I suspect perhaps every day, he sports a well-worn Radio Jackie hooded top, and reclines in his chair with one arm draped over his head.

Jackie's own music content – like everything else about the station, from the 70s logo it still uses to the fact that you can walk straight in off the high street – is pleasingly idiosyncratic. While I'm visiting I'll hear recent hits from the Wanted and Example, but I'll also hear Texas and Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield. Tony seems like he wouldn't welcome comparisons with either station, but Jackie's playlist feels like a cross between Capital and Magic, a tune-heavy mix of classics and current hits.

So I leave Radio Jackie this afternoon feeling liked and respected. It's an unusual feeling for me, to be honest, but it strikes me that Radio Jackie's continued relevance is down to its passion for giving local listeners the same feeling. Although I still think the occasional ballad wouldn't hurt.

The Guardian

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