RADIO GERONIMO sleeps no more...

Media reports from 1969-1973

Press sources include:
Disc & Music Echo
Record Mirror
Record Retailer
New Musical Express
The Sun

JUMBO BLIMP BLASTS OFF

To broadcast to the alternative society - what better than the alternate radio. To provide the necessary, vehicle to spread wisdom over the air waves, next month will see that launching of Radio Jumbo Blimp, on 428m based in Andorra.

The radio will be run by Hugh Nolan and Terry Yason, who will be helped on the engineering by Mike Graig. American backers are ensuring that there are no bread hassles, and an American, Tom, is a major force behind the plan.

Jumbo Blimp will take the form of a continuous seven day show running five.hours, 1-6 am, every night. One person will take each entire five hour spot.

Yason and Nolan hope to explore areas of using radio that have formerly been left untouched. They want to destroy the  ego-basis of so many current radio shows. The contributors should have no more importance than the public to' whom they are broadcasting. The content of the programmes should be the way of putting the message across, not the ebullience trivia of the disc jockey.

They hope to add plays, news and other non-musical entertainment to their programmes. Musical collages and experiments in sequencing the records will be used. They hope to establish regional news centres to take the pressure off London.

Radio Jumbo Blimp is still only sending out random test broadcasts. It will start regular broadcasts in about a month

geronimo

7 March 1970: Other 'pirate' news includes Radio Geronimo, described as 'the only legal progressive rock station in Western Europe', which takes to the air again this Saturday on 205 metres from midnight 2 a.m.
Planned for the programme are exclusive tracks from Ginger Baker's Airforce 'live' LP, 'Delaney and Bonnie On Tour' LP, and Doors 'Hard Rock Cafe'.

28 March 1970: Radio Geronimo this Saturday exclusively previews the yet-to-be-released album by Leon Russell, producer and pianist for Delaney and Bonnie and writer of Joe Cocker's 'Delta Lady'. Featured on the album are George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Delaney and Bonnie, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts and Joe Cocker. Also on the programme (205metres midnight-2.00a.m.) is 'Live Dead', new album from Grateful Dead.

25 April 1970: Underground station 'Geronimo', still broadcasting every Saturday from midnight on 205 metres, was this week given clearance by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. This official endorsement of the station's legality, now means 'Geronimo' will be able to obtain advertising from British companies.

2 May 1970: 'RADIO GERONIMO' extends air-time by 60 minutes to 3 a.m. Eventual aim to broadcast four hours a night, seven days a week.

9 May 1970: GERONIMO, the legal progressive music station, has decided NOT to accept any outside advertising. Says director Tony Secunda: "We have done this because every advertising agency we spoke to wanted to alter our programmes to suit their advertisments and wanted to use jingles."
As an alternative 'Geronimo' is to start its own mail-order catalogue, starting with special LP offers.
Station, currently broadcasting from midnight - 3 a.m. every Saturday night, plans to increase air-time to four hours within a month, with the ultimate intention of broadcasting from 9 p.m. - 4 a.m. seven nights a week.

9 May 1970: RADIO GERONIMO is not going to accept any advertising! The legal progressive rock music station has decided that the advertisers wanted too big a say in the programmes - and they've decided to finance the station with a large mail order system.
Said one of the station's directors, Tony Secunda: "We've had various people offering to take time, but they've demanded that they had jingles and noises and all that scene. And to us, our format is sacred. If we want to play an album right through we're not going to have some baked bean freak come in the middle with his jingles.
So we're going to get totally into the mail order scene - with imported American records and some local product. As soon as a record comes out in the states we'll have it to sell on Geronimo. And they'll cost slightly less than the import shops sell them for.
We've also got other schemes to raise money - like an agency deal with the Hollywood Festival. We'll sell tickets over the air and take a percentage of the gross sales. And we're thinking of a separate mail order catalogue selling things like posters and tee shirts. We're getting some shirts from Morocco to sell. And some dune buggies to sell at £400 or so.
And in four weeks time we hope to be starting weekend broadcasts - on Friday, Saturday and Sunday."
The Geronimo decision comes two weeks after the station had an official go-ahead for advertising from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.

23 May 1970: RADIO GERONIMO, the progressive rock music station, has been having talks about its future with the Director-General of Radio Monte Carlo, the station which transmits Geronimo every Saturday evening.
M. Jacques Maziol flew into London on Wednesday and discussed, among other things, an expansion of Geronimo's airtime and the new financial structure from the mail-order scheme - recently launched in preference to direct advertising.

May/June 1970: "GERONIMO" this weekend play "The Who 'Live' at Leeds" and repeat their exclusive preview of the forthcoming Stones' LP "Get Your Ya-Yas Out". Response to the station's new mail order service has been excellent and "Geronimo" is expected to announce an increase in broadcasting hours this week.

13 June 1970: Three-night Geronimo - RADIO GERONIMO is to treble broadcasting hours from June 20. Geronimo will broadcast three nights a week, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from midnight to 3 a.m. starting June 20. Director Tony Secunda told Disc: "We will gradually increase our air time so that by the end of the year Geronimo will broadcasting seven nights a week - from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Geronimo is waiting for a permission from the French Government to take over a 300,000 watt strength station in Northern Europe to establish an F.M. stereo station. "At the moment there are only two or three stations of that type on the continent and they are all very weak. By the beginning of next year we hope to be operating that station seven days a week from 6 p.m. till 6 a.m.

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NEW LABEL PLANNED BY RADIO GERONIMO by ROB PARTRIDGE (13 June 1970)

A NEW RECORD LABEL is among the major innovations planned for the near future by Radio Geronimo. The records will be disributed entirely through Radio Geronimo's own mail-order scheme and negotiations are already underway for at least one major artist to join the label.
Tony Secunda, one of Geronimo's director's, said: "The Label - from pressing to distribution - will be handled exclusively through Geronimo. And on top of that the artists will receive an unprecedented ten shillings per record in royalties and the record buyers will get the records for slightly less than the market price. "We can make these savings because we've cut out the record companies and the middle men."
Geronimo is also negotiating for the rights to a number of American artists, including the recordings of Lennie Bruce, the satirist.
It is hoped to start the label within the next few months.
Meanwhile, Radio Geronimo expands its broadcasts to three nights a week in two weeks time. The station will broadcast from midnight to three a.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The new air-time allocations were agreed in talks last week between the directors' of Radio Geronimo and M. Jacques Maziol, the Director-General of Radio Monte Carlo, the Geronimo transmitting station.
In October the air-time is to be increased to seven nights a week from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. and by December from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Geronimo will also become the first stereo FM radio station in Europe in December when they will also use a French transmitting station of 300 Kilowatt strength from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
None of the new innovations will be directly financed by advertising, however, as Geronimo will not accept commercials. Instead, the station have their own mail-order scheme selling everything from tee shirts to beach buggies. They have also added the entire Mary Quant range of cosmetics and fashion clothes and Hamleys' toys to their catalogue, as well as a new Radio Geronimo radio, made in agreement with Rank-Bush-Murphy.

How the BBC was 'jammed' (24 July 1970)

Radio Geronimo - the facts (28 November 1970)

More media reports:

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