Evolution of Overflow
Overflow DOES go back a long way, way way back into the (excuse the pun) anals of time when men were men and you could buy a quarter of sherbert and still have enough money left over to buy your Granny a new hat!
The Overflow was established (nay hatched out like an uncomfortable egg) in December 1986. Fed up with the monotonous drone of mainstream radio, It was time to do something about it! At the time, the only alternative programme on radio, was the Overdrive service on 963khz AM which came from the pirate ship The Ross Revenge (home of Radio Caroline). Fantastic as it was, the Overdrive service was rather short lived and often irregular, finally closing for good in early 1987. In it's short time on air, Overdrive 963 had accumulated quite a following in Essex
Even our local pub (The Albion - Rowhedge nr-Colchester) switched off the jukebox at 9pm in favour of Overdrive, the AM signal echoing around the building, mixed with the sound of beer swilling bikers - I will never forget those days. Then suddenly they were gone!
The Albion Public House
I had been running a station called Radio Freedom up to this point, a Top 40 format land based pirate, which I would rather forget about now! (see pre-overflow history). On December 17th at 8pm Freedom Overflow (as it was known then), hit the airwaves in Essex on 90.9FM for the first time.
The new station provided a strange mixture initially, made up from releases that the Overdrive service had been plugging, along with obscure album tracks and really ANYTHING that wasnt played on the painfull mainstream
Still merrily running along side on 93.9 FM was your All Hit Radio station - Radio Freedom.
The very first Overflow broadcast was only two hours long, yet created plenty of interest. Probably for two reasons: 1). It was covering similar ground to that of the popular station - Overdrive 963... and 2). No-one had ever heard a land based pirate station quite as loony as this! The programme presentation was still slick fast moving like Radio Freedom (although it became 'well-relaxed' later), but the music was completely different. Both Radio Freedom and Freedom Overflow continued to run until March 1987, but by March, I'd had enough. It was practically a full time job trying to keep both stations on air. Organising everything, or more to the point - everyone! It all became too much to deal with.
Having a few broadcasts under our belt now, it soon became clear that Freedom Overflow was gaining a much better response than the (by now dwindling) Top 40 service from Radio Freedom. It was at this point a decision was made to put all resources into the new Overflow service, as not only was the response and feedback far better, so was the music!!!
So, poor old Radio Freedom was abandoned - and looking back - It was the right thing to do. Anyway, the music being played, you could hear in a dozen different places on the radio band, so why bother? Freedom Overflow continued to broadcast as a FREE radio station, operating on various FM frequencys over the years and the many voices of Overflow came and went. The Initial DJ line up for the first broadcast was - Garry Lee and (the awful) Larry the doorknob. New DJ: Reggae Ray was next to join the station, shortly followed by Tim Rice (who I had been working with since the original start-up of Radio East FM in 1983) (see Pre-Overflow history).
Tim had followed on to Radio Freedom, although his programmes didnt fit with the Top 40 format at all (though I still have tape of him playing a soul record by ATLANTIC STAR)! Tim assures me to this day that it was just a one-off, I can't help but wonder what else is lurking in the depths of the closet known as Tim's record collection! (He keeps it under lock & key at all times).
Above : The song Tim played (His mum photo-copied this for us, from Tim's secret record box, kept in the shed)
As the years went by, Freedom Overflow progressed into Essex's only outlet for Alternative & Underground music. Many local bands made contact, gasping for airplay as the mainstream stations didnt want to know. We helped as many as we could, giving their demo tapes airtime and also starting a local gig guide, which focused particularly on un-signed bands.
Things were soon to change drastically (once again), as in November 1988, I met & started a relationship with The Black Widow, who I later married in the summer of 1994. Little did I know at the time, she was to become one of Overflow's most popular DJ's. It took me a year to coax her onto the airwaves, finally making her debut as a DJ on Christmas day 1989.
Through the 90's, we were often heard on air together. We managed to play off each other extremely well, as both of us were quick with sarcastic humour & ready wit, usually giving as good as we got! It was often a battle, much to the amusement of our listeners. The Black Widow also did a handfull of programmes for Hampshire's Freesound Radio in 1992 - A shortwave pirate in the (un-official) 48metre band.
Other DJ's through the nineties included names such as: Captain Chaos (now a highly regarded historian), L.Blitz (with all the Hitz) (now a fellow diabetic beer drinker), Ivor The Driver (now practising maintenance in Southampton), Paul Windsor (who appeared on Mi Amigo 1503 & also the Anglia Online Radio service), Dingo Virgin, Old Man Ghenghis, David Lee (no relation), Mystic Sister, Gordon Ganja & Herman The German.
There were also many many others - see DJ Profiles. (I hope there will be a profile for everyone - eventually!
Tim Rice: No one mentioned Jethro Muckspeader!
Garry Lee: Patience dear boy!
If you know of anyone missed out from the profiles, please mail me and help make the history 100% completely complete! (I think that makes sense)?
Going back to the on air gig-guides, we ended up receiving so many dates from local bands & artists, that we started printing up a monthly A4 gig list. These only went to one venue, the notorious Bakers Arms in Colchester. Everyone & anyone likely to be interested in what we were promoting went there for at least one night of their weekend.
Eventually, the printed gig guides became too much work, so we packed that idea up! We were soon to become very good friends with the staff at the Bakers and they decided to start printing up their own gig guide booklets called 'Whats on'. We were given a free advert regularly on the back cover, as we were plugging the now legendary Sunday night 'Happy Hour' (an event in itself - believe me). I can sum Happy Hour up in one word... HOBEC! If you were there, you will know!!!
Between 1991 & early 1993, The Overflow Club happened every Tuesday evening at The Colchester Hippodrome. Yes, a weekly Live appearance from yours truly, giving their massive sound system what can only be described as a 'DAMN GOOD THRASHING'. A mixture of Rock & Indie past & present was played, with a live group each week.
Many of the bands that played were unknown Rock bands, some local, some from further afield. Bigger acts included Hazel O'Conner, Dumpys Rusty Nuts, Engine, Babes In Toyland, Skin (before they became Skin) and without doubt the highlight for me - The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown!
I had been a follower of Arthur for many years, so to meet him was a very nerve racking experience for me. I paced around the house at night worrying myself stupid for the weeks leading up to this, though it really wasn't necessary at all. Arthur was a wonderful chap, very approachable and happy to answer the 25,000 questions that I had ready to ask the poor guy!
Other than his performance, the other highlight of the occasion for me, was travelling with his crew a short distance across town to their hotel. I sat in the back of the tour bus, listening to Arthur tell the story of when he played at a festival with Jimi Hendrix in 1968. I remember thinking 'Life doesn't get any better than this'! We also put on the very first gigs from an extremely young 'Cradle Of Filth'. One at the Hippodrome and one at another local venue I was involved with.
Moving to the mid 1990's, the 'Freedom' was dropped and the station became known as 'Overflow Radio'. A slightly snappier title, so new jingles were made to coincide with the slight change of name.
Between 1986 - 2001, Overflow accumulated a mass of over 700 jingles & inserts, many of which we hope to make available to you on CD in the future. For the first few years, all jingles were made by Tim Rice (apart from my few dreadfull half-hearted attempts). Then later, I learned how to make proper jingles + a handfull were made by David Lee (still no relation) lol. Between 1999 - 2000, The Overflow took a turn for the worst. My marriage to The Black Widow was on the rocks, and looking back I feel that this is where the programming became pear-shaped (or was that me)? We finally split in early 2001 & Overflow Radio closed temporarily.
From it's final pirate studio in 2001, the Overflow continued on 90.9FM until later that year.
These were the very last pirate transmissions. But after a 15 year lease of life, I had ran out of venues/DJ's & options to keep the station going.
In early 2002, I met up with old friend Tony O Neill (above), whose charity - The Pharos Trust, owns the last manned lightvessel - The LV18, anchored in Harwich harbour. Tony was planning a second RSL (restricted broadcast license) as Radio Mi Amigo 1503, but had previously had problems with station staff and was looking for someone to take control of the broadcast output. I was soon to be offered the post of programme director.
Naturally, I seized the opportunity and had many meetings with the man over the coming weeks. In conversation with Tony one evening, I happened to mention that although Mi Amigo was a great name for a daytime Adult Pop/Rock service, how about doing something different overnight? As we talked, the name Overdrive popped up in the conversation (uncanny),and Tony said 'Fine, why not call it that'? 'Are you serious'? Said I, grinning from east to west, 'Why not' said Tony. Trying to contain my excitement, I casually agreed and went on to get no sleep that night.
Yes Mr.Lee's brain was in Overload at the thought of 'PROPER' music being played legally - YIPPEE!!! The 28 day RSL happened in August 2002 and was one of the best experiences of my life. Again, something I will never forget, is seeing the sun going down & rising again across the waters and also the lights of Felixtowe (That's in Suffolk folks), lighting up the night whilst the music played on.
Although I met him just before the Mi Amigo/Overdrive broadcast commenced, I was shortly to get to know a chap called Sietse Brouwer....
Sietse (at the time) was running the dutch service of Radio Caroline. He programmed on daytime for a week or so, on the Mi Amigo RSL, & seemed like a really genuine chap. He was also rather interested in what I was up to with the Overdrive service. I think what really got him interested wasn't so much the music, but the feedback that I was getting of a typical evening. The text messages just kept on coming! Hand on my heart, I have never ever received as many messages by text as I did whilst that evening service was on air. The music was much the same as Overflow Radio had been playing, the difference was - We had a bigger outlet!
In late 2002, I was asked to join Radio Caroline in Holland, a fantastic opportunity. Caroline NL, was broadcast via various streams on the internet, and also through the cable network in Holland. I was given two time slots, 10pm - 1am on a Tuesday evening & 7-10pm on a Friday evening. At first, I asked if I could use the name Overdrive for my programmes, but this wasn't acceptable as the Overdrive name was devised originally by 'Tom Anderson', a rather influential DJ from Radio Caroline, who still produced Overdrive programmes from time to time.
So after a brief break, it was time once again for Overflow Radio to return. This time, it was re-named 'The Overflow' & re-invented as a radio show for Radio Caroline. Programmes commenced in Dec 2002. So, we were given another lease of life and this time it was to become a very important one. In the summer of 2003, Radio Caroline NL was to close.
At the time, I felt rather dissapointed by this, as so many listeners had remarked that the Dutch Caroline output was far superior to the UK Caroline output, so I was rather proud to be a part of something that was highly regarded in the radio world. Sietse Brouwer being the polite dutchman that he is, was soon to ask all of his Caroline NL staff the following question....
We are starting a new station - Radio Seagull, from Harlingen in Holland. It will be a totally independant service, breaking from Caroline, although obviously the links will still be there. You have the option of staying with Radio Seagull, offering your services to Radio Caroline UK, or going your own way. Contact me if you wish to become a part of the new Radio Seagull.
It didnt take much thought to decide that the best option at that time was to join the new team at Radio Seagull. It was time to revive The Overflow once again! Since August 14th 2003, The Overflow has been broadcast via the new station Radio Seagull (again from Holland), for many years at the time slots of 7-10pm CET Friday & Saturday nights (repeated 7-10am the following mornings). (See the 'Listen to The Overflow page for current prog times). As well as the popular internet streams, the programmes have also been heard on MW & SW around the world via various relays. Now Radio Seagull has been granted an 8 year dutch AM radio licence and is broadcasting on 1602khz from Holland. I am extremely pleased that The Overflow is a part of this Alternative & progressive radio station and that after all these years, we are still able to promote the very latest in Alternative & Underground music, which after all is what the objective has always been.
May the Seagull fly high & take the Overflow with it!
In early 2004, Radio Seagull began a short spell of relay braoadcasts via Apple FM, on Sky digital sattelite. After these came to a close, I did'nt want to lose out on having The Overflow on Sky, so made my own approach to Apple FM. Jack at Apple was a brilliant guy and gave us airtime overnight every saturday & sunday, as part of the Apple programming, which was great!
Also, in the Spring of 2004, I hooked up with Anglia Online & Tendring.net, two local information websites. The chap behind them was keen to have a radio stream up & running, so we ran some experiments. Firstly they were just test transmissions, then later a regular LIVE service from The Overflow began, heard every Wednesday night (+ also a week long broadcast over christmas 2004). The Overflow via Anglia Online continued until the end of March 2005, having satisfactorily achieved all we wanted to, without taking things a step further.
So, It's the summer of 2005 and you can hear The Overflow regularly on the mighty Radio Seagull & also Apple FM. But..... as always the story doesn't end here! I am currently working together with a new website called The Online Music Network. There are plans being made to make The Overflow available here, through the latest broadcasting technique..., Podcasting! I am really excited about this new venture, especially as as we've not had a crack at this type of outlet before.
Unfortunately, the proposed Podcast & services via The Online Music Network never happened. Although the site did appear briefly on the internet, as with many projects in radio world, time & money did'nt permit this venture to succeed. Further bad news arrived in May 2006. Apple FM ran out of funds and had to cease broadcasting via Sky sattelite. At the time this felt like a major blow, having enjoyed positive feedback and a good response through Apple.... but all was not lost. We were still on air via Radio Seagull on 1602AM and on the internet and the station was growing in popularity.
In August 2006, I had a call from Jack (a good friend & previously the owner of Apple FM - pictured above), who informed me of a new RSL station he planned to run in the south of England, with a view to gaining a full time licence. The station - BAY 107FM would broadcast throughout September and he was happy to relay The Overflow once again, which was excellent news. So with thanks to Jack, The Overflow was heard in the west country in sparkling FM stereo!
In September 2006, I received an e-mail from a friend, musician/ TV producer Johnny Reb, who had got invoved with a station in California called Bay Area Radio. They were an alternative station like ourselves and were looking for presenters to cover their airtime. They were happy to take as many hours as we could provide (apparently), so I started work on uploading a good supply of material for them, to our online storage facility. I waited.... and waited... and waited... but heard nothing. I e-mailed Johnny Reb.... e-mailed Bay Area Radio, e-mailed both again a week later and e-mailed again a week after that. Even after recording some specialist programmes for them, I had no response to any one of the e-mails I sent. Such a shame that there are so many un-reliable people in radio, when there are a few of us that are desperate to spread the word for true Alternative/Underground artists and get the music out there for you to hear.
Nil desperandum (lol), by letting me down, Johnny Reb & Bay Area Radio actually did me a favour. They had been broadcasting via the Live365.com facility, which made me take a good look at how the system worked. After months of looking into this and taking advice from other stations using the same site, I decided it was time to bring back OVERFLOW RADIO 24/7. It seemed that many internet stations were using Live365, so we were soon to join the masses.
The plan was, to have a few hours of programming rotating for various timezones across the world, which would be changed every other day. Also there would be many LIVE broadcasts that would overide these recordings at regular advertised times. This would enable me to get through the backlogue of music that had built up in the studio and also give the many bands that send in material to The Overflow, more airtime.
At the end of the day, the main goal was always to expose as much new music & help as many bands as possible. Live365 was to be a major breakthrough in airtime and exposure for all. The station was planned to begin on Jan 2nd 2007.
It was then decided to bring things forward, to co-inside with our 20th birthday celebrations on December 17th 2006. Only a week before, we had signed-up with Live365, all ready to go, having prepared weeks of programming to keep us going until a full-time service could be maintained. Sadly, it was realised within hours that Live365 could'nt provide the service we required. In order to broadcast via them, you need to run live programming from your pc, using mp3's with a pc microphone to speak between. All the mp3's needed to be tagged individually with 'artist', 'song', 'album', 'label' what they had for breakfast for the last month etc etc. Doing that, would have been an impossibility when you have a record & CD library of over 10,000 albums! This was a real kick in the teeth at the time. Overflow had always broadcast from a good old fashioned studio, playing vinyl and CD's, even tapes back in the day... the idea was to link these live studio broadcasts to the central pc and run a stream direct, but Live365 did'nt cater for that.
So, once again, we took a knockback. Seeing as it was our 20th anniversary, it hit me where it hurt! I was down in the dumps for weeks until...
In May 2007, as well as being heard weekly on Radio Seagull, The Overflow became part of a new station called RIVER GIBBS FM, which although based in the UK, streams from Kansas USA. River Gibbs FM being a station that promotes a mixture of new bands signed and unsigned, together with some classic progressive music from the past. The Overflow was initially given the regular timeslot of 5-8pm on Saturday nights.
By July 2007, further timeslots were agreed for The Overflow, weekdays on River Gibbs FM. Monday and Tuesday nights 10-11pm became regular slots for shows containing archive material. Also Mon - Fri daytime, there are several one hour slots, filled with repeats of odd hours from recent programmes. There was also an open schedule introduced for Sundays, which again included Overflow programmes. This meant, that for the first time, The Overflow was on air 7 days a week - wow!
In September 2007, the Starship Overflow website was attacked severely by forum hackers. Annoyed that I would'nt allow them to link websites containing things such as porn, meds and political propaganda, they laced our databases with viruses that virtually shut the site down. Much as it was fun to have the forums to play around with, it did make a whole lot of extra work for me, so in a way I guess they did me a favour by shutting the forums down.
On January 1st 2008, the new Overflow website was launched.... and that's what you're looking at right now. The website is constantly updated, bringing you the very latest news, CD releases and hopefully stuff that you will find amusing!
Throughout the rest of 2008, things ran pretty smoothly until late August, when suddenly River Gibbs FM had to temporarily closedown, due to complications with premises. This was supposed to be a minor setback, but unfortunately things got worse. RGFM were due to re-launch in November, then December, January... etc etc, but due to complications it never happened.
In May 2009, there was an advertising campaign for the return of River Gibbs FM, including a promotional launch party and FREE gig at a venue called 'The Peel' in Surrey. The night went ahead as planned, yet still the station was not re-launched. Since August 2008, a continuous loop of programmes has been broadcast on River Gibbs FM, most of which are Overflow shows!
In the meantime, I had got fed-up waiting for something to happen, so decided to bring back Overflow Radio once again, though this time something rather different. I had always had a love for the Festival scene, Space-Rock & Prog-Rock bands, anything psychedelic avant-garde or just out of the ordinary, so came up with an idea called 'The Space Stream'!
On July 11th 2009, Overflow Radio came back on air as an internet station, with a new specialised show. The Space Stream could be heard from 10pm (UK time) every night, by going to the player on the website. New programmes were aired Wednesday & Sunday evenings, other nights giving listeners another chance to hear previous shows. After less than four months on air, the stream had proved amazingly popular. Our provider had even ranked us at number one in their chart of 'Most Popular Channels'!
On Saturday November 7th 2009 River Gibbs FM returned. 
Aside from the RGFM saga... by February 2010, I was rather proud that the Overflow's Space Stream had been at No1 in the chart of most listened to stations for over 3 months! This was a momentus achievement, we only had our listeners to thank for supporting us regularly.
On March 7th 2010 we took things a step further. That night saw the launch of Overflow 2, a second stream on our website, this time carrying 'The Overflow Archives', shows previously aired on RGFM. This particular stream only lasted 4 weeks, as at the beginning of April, I reluctantly decided to leave River Gibbs FM. It was'nt that I wanted to leave, or that I had fallen out with Paul who ran the station. It was purely down to one reason.
Since RGFM returned, it had proven rather unreliable. Often shows advertised in our Overflow schedule were'nt being aired. The problem was discussed with Paul Gibbs and the promise was made to get things right. Unfortunately, after many many chances to rectify things, the problems were'nt resolved, due to various reasons. Complaints from listeners were coming in and a decision had to made to leave the station. At the end of the day, I would have been happy to continue indefinetely for RGFM, but it was'nt to be.
After a weeks break, on April 6th 2010, the Overflow 2 stream changed format and began to carry selected hours from the Archive of Radio Seagull shows. Our new stream also entered our providers chart of most listened to stations, initially at No17. As the word spread and the stream grew in popularity, the highest position on the chart achieved was No2... and very satisfying it was to briefly take the top two positions!!! Both Overflow 1 & 2 continued to stream throughout 2010.
January 2011... more news to add! Over the previous year, River Gibbs FM had been busy re-organising the station and building a substansial listenership in many countries around the world. In December we received an e-mail from Paul Gibbs, inviting The Overflow to return to RGFM and his kind offer was accepted. Both the Overflow's 3hr new release programme and also new editions of the Archive show, could once again be heard regularly. It's now November 2011 and things have been running smoothly all year. Overflow shows can be heard daily on RGFM, just check out the schedule on our 'Listen' page.
Overflow Radio is now approaching it's 25th birthday. I could'nt possibly have imagined all those years ago, that now in my 40's, what began as a tiny pirate radio station in my bedsit above a pub, would still be going strong! Let alone have of accomplished so many things over the years. I have only you the listeners to thank.
As for the future, who knows what it will hold? But as we find out, it will be recorded right here. Until then... keep listening, enjoy the alternative music & watch this space (man)! MORE SOON!!! :)
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That was and this is..... THE HISTORY OF THE OVERFLOW! As soon as we make anymore history, you will be the first to know. Thankyou for reading the adventures so far!
Yes, when the news happens, you'll here it first... right here at the..... OVERFLOW (deep voice jingle with reverb there) (Tim Rice takes a Fisherman's friend... again)!!!
