Radio Zoe 102.3 (Clowne)
Radio Zoe broadcast to the Clowne area briefly in 1989, over Easter and then during August and September.
The history of Radio Zoe, however, can be traced back to September 1988 when Anthony, the station operator, went to the Anoraks UK Communicate '88 pirate radio convention at Blackpool. This inspired Anthony to plan to set up a station in his home village of Clowne. Initially, however, the plan was for a return of Radio Nemesis, using taped programmes.
But that autumn things were to change. After being involved, as a DJ, for pirate radio stations in Birmingham which broadcast live, Anthony decided that he would set up a live station in Clowne. Having bought a 25W transmitter from a pirate TX engineer in Birmingham, and an audio mixer, Anthony slowly drew his plans ...
Radio Zoe hit the airwaves in Easter 1989, initially broadcasting each Friday, Saturday and Sunday night from 8pm to 10pm. However, this schedule could not be sustained, and broadcasts were sometimes missed.
The ambitious schedule was not Anthony's only mistake. A dodgy pirate radio operator from Birmingham had taught him the very dubious practice of making Slim Jim antennas out of wire and junction blocks, using wooden sticks to hold the wire antenna upright. This led to rather poor coverage, despite the 25W transmitter power.
After Easter, Radio Zoe closed down for a while as Anthony went back to college in Birmingham. Returning in late July / early August, Radio Zoe now broadcast on Wednesday and Saturday nights - this time in stereo, as Anthony had obtained a stereo encoder from the same TX engineer who supplied the TX. The DJs were Anthony (using the name DJ Al Capone) and his brother, "Bruce Gordon".
While in Birmingham, Anthony had begun to idolize the aforementioned dodgy pirate radio operator, later to become known as Groove Master for a while (This particular Groove Master is in no way connected to others who have used the name previously or since).
The format adopted by Radio Zoe, of dance music of the present and recent past, seemed like a good idea at the time - but the style of a city-centre pirate was not really suitable for a semi-country village like Clowne. Besides, Anthony even went so far as to imitate his DJ technique, which led to endless dedications and the use of Birmingham pirate radio cliches, and the bad practice of "crashing" the records (ie talking over them to the extent of spoiling the music).
Meanwhile, it became increasingly apparrent that Anthony was getting close to a nervous breakdown. While at college in Birmingham he had been mugged, then failed many of his college exams, and finally lost his summer job. Deep depression set in, and the quality of "Al Capone"'s programmes went from bad to worse.
Bruce Gordon did continue to present good programmes, but was becoming increasingly pissed off with Anthony taking the station too seriously. By late August, Radio Zoe's days were numbered.
Meanwhile, Anthony's depression was slowly turning to anger - especially after his appalling treatment while looking for student accommodation in Birmingham (in time for when he re-started at college in October), by a fascist landlady. This was exacerbated by the DTI and Dutch Customs raid on Radio Caroline's ship, the Ross Revenge, on 19th August. Many angry comments were made about the raid, and a "spoof advert" for employment in the Dutch Customs (the Dutch equivalent of the DTI).
But by now the rot had set in. In an effort to make Radio Zoe into a decent station, Anthony first moved the studio gear out of his bedroom and into a shed on his yard. Then he invited other local people to become DJs on Radio Zoe. He even changed the broadcast days to Wednesdays and Fridays to enable other people to become more involved.
This had the opposite effect, and totally wrecked the station. None of the other "DJs" took the station seriously, and used it as an ego-trip in the worst possible way. Defamatory, slanderous and obscene comments about other local people were heard.
Ironically, Radio Zoe did manage a dignified closedown in late September 1989. Numerous subsequent factors - not least, Anthony's utter and total disillusion of his one-time "pirate radio hero" - meant that Radio Zoe was not to return.
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