JFM Studio
Raid 1985

Studio Link Transmitters

Studio Link transmitters were used by most unlicensed radio stations back in the 80’s who broadcast live. The idea of the link transmitter was to keep studio’s and the DJ’s who worked in those studio’s a little safer. The link transmitter had the modulation (Music/Voice) off the desk plugged into it. The link transmitter was of low power on a frequency up in the 200+ Mhz’s. Horizon Radio was up even higher at around 460/470 Mhz’s. A Yagi antenna was used to keep the signal being sent to the main transmitter on a very narrow path width. This made it hard to track by the RID. The RID acquired new tracking equipment in the autumn of 1984 we think.

Telephone Conversation About Tracking Studio’s

Chris Stewart talking to the special investigators wondering what link frequency’s could be tracked.

 

A little history. In late March early April of 1984, Horizon Radio received a telephone call from the former JFM engineer, who said had just left the station. At that time, Horizon Radio just knew of him as Roger. He said he had something special to show Horizon and could he pop over. He arrived in a red Astra driven by a friend who he made wait downstairs. The first thing he says is he is just finishing a new prototype of studio link. This he said was just like the one JFM had.  A Laser Optical link transmitter he claimed. Mr Howe was desperate to join Horizon Radio and had brought with him a 450 watt power amp and before leaving, he gave it too Horizon. He also offered to build transmitters for the station Free of Charge and give Horizon the new link when finished.

Mr Howe & Mr Gotts

Then as we wrote his telephone number in our contact book, his last name “Howe” came out. Horizon Radio did not say at the time, but when Eric Gotts (RID) raided The Horizon HQ back in 1983, that name came out for the first time and we said we did not know him. Eric at first did not believe us, but after seeing the Horizon Radio transmitters in the “Transmitter Factory” as he called it, Eric said “I guess you are right, these are not Howe’s transmitters. Then Mr G told us all about Mr Howe, what he had been up to with the amateur network and how he wanted to get his hands on him. No room for Mr Howe on Horizon Radio, that was for sure. If you pee off the likes of Mr Gotts, you set yourself up as a target. Most of those RID guys were legal amateur radio people.

JFM Studio Raid 1985, Laser Optical Studio Link?

Laser Optical studio link, if it was, it was something special. But one thing is sure Howe did not build a Laser Optical link as in December 1984 Solar Radio got a visit in their studio in Brixton sometime around Christmas. By all accounts it was chaos, (all that had been taught during the Horizon days had been forgotten). No security, DJ’s had left records there and Mr Gotts had a Field Day. Later it came out that Mr Gotts was after Mr Howe, so hit the studio when Mr Buick was on air, as the investigators had made a report saying these two were always together up on Crystal Palace most days at transmitter sites nosing around.

In Clive Richardson’s book it states the JFM studio was in St Aubyn’s Road and linked to the transmitter by a microwave link.

 

 

 

Clive R a JFM DJ at the time and close friend of Tony Monson also states the RID raid that saw the demise of the JFM took place in September 1984. That is incorrect, it took place in the 2nd week of January 1985.

Solar Radio. After the Brixton or was it Kennington? raid and in a rush to get back on air for Christmas, Solar (Mr Monson) threw caution/security into the wind and started to set up the new studio at 54 Westow Hill Crystal Palace London. Solar being invincible (so they thought) started setting up the new studio in full view of those special investigators who at the time were based above the Gas Board showrooms (52) and watching the area like an hawk. The investigators just sat back and videoed as equipment went into the building. The Solar radio team were suddenly made aware of the fact they were being watched when one of the investigators started taking photos of the team. Thinking it was the RID the Solar team started running in every direction.

No studio, missed Christmas 1984. Antenna mast being cut down? The RID at this time had just started to use cherry pickers/cranes, so they could remove the antenna masts off building. Perhaps the Solar (Sound Of London’s Amateur Radio) team who were in a hurry to get a new studio together forgot to look at the transmitter site at No 70 Westow Hill, This was the former Horizon Radio transmitter site on the corner of Westow Hill and St Aubyn’s Road, a fish and chip shop back then<<???. The 450watt transmitter, well the 450watt PA Howe gave Horizon in March of 84 was 200 watts of sprogs and had to be rebuilt. Did the boys by any chance leave it at the studio when they did a runner as they thought the RID had caught them red handed? Did one of those Special investigators walk into 54 to have a look and had taken it? After all they got it back according to the press release. No it was Christmas so Mr Gotts of the RID based at Waterloo Bridge House, felt guilty and rushed back to CP and gave it back. Yeah, Right as if.

Mr Howe phoned the investigators after he realised it was not the DTI that made them run that day. >>>Was<<< a deal done to get the transmitter back in exchange for information on the location of the JFM studio<<< as it was costing the Gas Board thousands £’s per day, investigator costs and lost revenue? Have a listen to the clips below and make up your own mind, we have known for years what happened, now you will.

Telephone Chat with the GB Investigators Friday 4th January 1985 (11 minutes long)

 

It was Roger Howe the former JFM engineer who grassed up the location of the JFM studio. The investigator went on to say someone by the name of Paul was prompting Mr Howe during the conversation. That investigator also said Howe told him “he wanted to get Brian Anthony as Brian took him for a lot of money a few years back” That was the same story Howe told Horizon back in March of 1984. Howe gave the investigators a description of a >>>>>>>>”particular property”<<<<<<<< Would that be by any chance in St Aubyn’s Road just up the road from the Solar Radio Transmitter site where the investigators observed a red Astra take off at speed when the proverbial hit the fan that day?

JFM Studio Raid 1985 The Grass Up

The Howe telephone conversation took place just before the New Year break, Tuesday 27th of December 1984. The information given, was checked out and then passed to the RID/DTI on the first working day of 1985. The RID/DTI checked it out and found that location was the JFM studio and applied to the courts for search warrants. It had to be done correctly because of the High Court Case. (Off the record)? Solar Radio were informed on the 4th of January and reminded on the 5th by Chris Stewart of that conversation with the investigators and told to tell JFM if only to safeguard those DJ’s who worked on the station. Chris had been given that confidential information from one of the engineers who gave Horizon Radio tips. Chris could not sit back and let fellow DJ’s get nicked so told CJ Carlos.

The telephone conversations below January 4th and 5th 1985 with CJ Carlos, when Carlos was told what the investigators had said and he was told to do something to stop the JFM DJ’s being nicked. The tape ran out (clip 2) but he did say at the end he would talk to Tony Monson about it. Solar Radio or it’s headman, Tony Monson did not say anything to JFM and remember on New Years day, Solar had done a live link up with JFM which Brian Anthony (Head Of JFM) had not authorised and later Brian read the riot act at that DJ who took part in the link up. That DJ was also a close friend of Paul Buick who was present when the Gas Board investigators were informed of the location of that JFM Studio. Buick was despised by Brian Anthony and by all accounts Brian had allegedly kicked Buick out of the Goodness Records Shop which Brian was the manager off in months previous. One has to ask was it all a set up to get rid of JFM, poach the best DJ’s for Solar Radio and eliminate the competition a quality radio station like JFM provided. Solar Radio was and is just a poor imitation copy of the mighty JFM.

Recorded telephone conversation with CJ Carlos on the 4th of January 1985

Clip Contains Colourful Language

At the time very close to JFM In the same street and Roger knew??

CJ Carlos January 5th 1985

 

Solar Radio sat on that information given on the 4th of January 1985 for over a week and did nothing to safeguard those JFM DJ’s, finally the JFM studio was raided on or around the 12th of January 1985. JFM DJ’s ended up in court thanks to Roger Howe and Solar Radio’s headman Tony Monson. That’s one way when you are just not good enough is to get rid of the opposition. Now you know what we mean by the radio scene turned TOXIC on the 12th of October 1984, Theft, Threats to Kill, Lies, Forgery and Grassing Up, all from one station on a full on ego trip?

Clive Richardson’s book once again and here we see Tony Monson was on the phone to his old mate at JFM just days after the JFM bust, poaching those JFM DJ’s to come and work on Solar Radio. That’s how you do it?

 

Within hours Solar Radio’s Tony Monson was at it again with his journalistic twaddle and is telling the world how he is going to raise a Phoenix from the Combined ashes of JFM and Horizon Radio. That was the Que to bring Horizon Radio back and prove him wrong as Horizon Radio did in 1985.

Recorded Jan 5th 1985 CJ Carlos On When He Arrived on Westow Hill Crystal Palace That Day

Clip Contains Colourful Language

 

Mr Buick Christmas is in February

 

Mr Buick spinning it again on the Solar Radio close down. Someone hired investigators to find their studio, he well knew who those investigators were as he was stood next to Roger Howe on the phone to them when the location of JFM’s studio was given to get the transmitter back. He told Tony Monson that Chris Stewart had nicked the transmitter. Christmas in February, a bit like Soul On A Summers Day in 1983 according to buick on his facebook when it was in 1984. Brain damaged comes to mind.

Mr Monson looking to get highly speaking presenters/DJ’s, That confirms what Junior King overheard in a conversation back in April 1984. (Bary T, Nick Lawrence and co you should have gone to a school in Switzerland  and learned to speak with a plum in your gob then guys?). One way to get better DJ’s is to let the opposition get busted and take the best from there. Come on Monson inherited the no 1 soul station in London, why change the Horizon success story? In those days if you had a local accent there was no chance of getting a job on legal radio, you had to speak like the Knobs did.

Was that why Solar Radio failed to tip JFM off, after all they knew on the 4th of January 1985, 7 days before that raid by the RID/DTI took place. When you read Mr Monson did not get on with Brian Anthony of JFM and why he left  JFM, things may drop into place?

JFM Studio Raid 1985

What really happened was Howe and Buick did not create that optical link, they might have used the working link system stolen from the Horizon Radio Studio on the 12th of October 1984. They may have have told Mr M and co they had used that optical Link and would never be tracked. An optical or laser link would not cover the distance from Brixton to Crystal Place or was it Kennington, even further away as claimed in that newsletter. Solar Radio again in June/July 85 got a visit from Mr Gotts (RID) and lost another studio, this again confirms no laser link. In the conversation you heard above when the special investigators were being quizzed by Chris Stewart (Jan 85), you heard the investigator state the capabilities of the new tracking system and how good they where in a (hint) helicopter. Roger Howe was extremely angry with Chris Stewart as Chris would not let him become part of Horizon Radio.

Fast Forward to 2020 and a conversation with one of the DJ’s who was at the studio location that night when Solar Radio were setting up their first studio. No furniture in that room except a table and chair which Buick and Howe were using while trying to get the studio link to connect. Mr Monson invited all those present to sit on the floor with himself sat crossed legged in the middle of the DJ’s and held a hippie style pow wow. Hiss up in a brewery comes to mind as far as security goes. That DJ also said that Buick joked about theft of Horizon Radio equipment that night!

Buick and Howe spewed out the farmyard manure after the first studio raid to cover themselves, blaming Chris Stewart for grassing up the Solar Radio studio and Monson being Monson believed the garbage, although he later denied blaming Chris Stewart. That pack of lies Buick and Howe span were re-span again when the idiots cocked up and got caught creating the new studio on Westow Hill just before Christmas 1984. This resulted in Chris Stewart’s answerphone being bombarded with more threats to kill and more obscenities, one of those people who left comments was Barry T. Chris was away in Devon with friends from the 18th of December and did not get to hear the answerphone tape until the 4th of January 1985.

 

In Mr M’s opinion because you do not ring him to find out what happened you are guilty of grassing up. What on earth did they teach him at the posh school in Switzerland, common sense was not on the school curriculum by the sounds of things. Bull$hit was, that is for sure.  Would you ring someone who you felt had told you a pack of lies?

Brian Anthony R.I.E.P.

Sadly Brian passed away in a road traffic accident in Turkey, his adopted new home in December 2021. Brian was one of the leading pioneers of Soul Music Radio here in the UK and will be featured on the Horizon Radio Walk In My Shoes page, when we tell all about that meeting in a cafe in April 1984. Brian insisted on paying for the coffee’s that day the real Brian Anthony came across?

Horizon Radio Had Worked With Gas Board Engineers & Investigators

Horizon Radio had worked with the Gas Board starting in March 1984 and at their request Horizon had moved from 104Vhf, which had been creating interference to the GB communications. Any frequency above 102.6Vhf caused the problems. Horizon moved down to 102.5Vhf, as that frequency did not cause any interference. Horizon Radio had also at the GB’s request, tried to get Brian Anthony JFM to talk to the Gas Board engineers. 5 attempts where made but Brian ignored those requests. Horizon did get tip offs of any action forthcoming (if others in the right places knew about it), but did not get a tip off on the 11th of October 1984 when the Horizon Radio studio was hit and taken off air. Horizon Radio was not on the air from October 1984 and had no plans to come back on air until these shenanigans came to light in Jan 85. On the 27/28th of December 1984 A GB engineer left a message on Chris Stewart’s (Horizon) answerphone to be careful, this was not picked up until the 4th of January 1985 as Chris was away for Christmas. Chris returned that call on the 4th of January, when all the shenanigans became clear.

Be careful who you share your bed with as some people will throw you under a bus just to get their own selfish way.

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