Thrupiece Blog Archive
Radio Edna
Launched in 1965, Radio Edna, was Dorset's answer to Radio Caroline. Broadcasting from an old Branscombe fishing trawler The Shaftesbury Frigger, it styled itself as the station with "music to make you antsy"
Radio Edna - with its resident hosts DJ Threads and DJ Bones - was one of a number of pirate broadcasters challenging the hegemony of the stuffy old BBC. Anchored just outside Dorset territorial waters not far from Great Heaving, the station exploited loopholes in the broadcasting laws of the time and was responsible for educating a legion of Dorset teenagers into the delights of so called "pop" music.
Though the signal was far from reliable, the station broadcast between 5 and 7pm on Fridays and featured the music of tearaway mavericks like Ziggy Osmington along with The Boners and The Belle Ends as well as the pioneering Latin rhythms of Fernando Mediantepieza. Many a Dorset teenager went through the peaks and troughs of adolescence to the soundtrack provided by Radio Edna. It closed in 1967, having been overrun by the Royal Marines during Operation Nancy.
ABOVE: The Shaftesbury Frigger home between 1965 and 1967 to Radio Edna and DJs Threads and Bones; BELOW early Radio Edna Logo
Nostalgia for the 1960s pirate stations remains strong. Above one of several attempts to revive the heyday of Radio Edna. This one dates from c2017
Original Radio Edna Jingle (courtesy Thrupiece Media Archive)
Edna's Best Bits CD is available from the orinoco store here
DESKTOP or LAPTOP
EDITION
SMARTPHONE
EDITION
Adolph plays Theseus
Hitler in the studio patching the audio soundtrack (courtesy Thrupiece Media Archive)
This unique sound clip - the sole surviving piece of audio evidence of the famous Goebbels-Leni Riefenbacher-Falls project to feature Adolf Hitler in a number of major Shakespeare roles - was discovered by revisionist historian David Irving-Berlin in the Thrupiece Archives, Great Heaving whilst searching for Cold War spy materials. Together with several stills from the aborted project, it had lain unnoticed for decades amongst other Thrupiece memorabilia from his East Berlin trips.
In this extract from Act I Scene 1, Theseus, following the wishes of Egeus, an Athenian nobleman, insists that Hermia must marry Demetrius and not Lysander. Hitler proves himself a robust Theseus, adopting the "Dictator" oratorical style which was very much his fach even in real life.
Audio Clip
