Radio Kaleidoscope

These new-found contacts, as well as college friends, prompted Steve to restart regular transmissions of Radio Kaleidoscope in 1968. It was this year that listeners first heard the song that served as the signature tune for the station - “Kaleidoscope”, by Tangerine Dream - as well as Kaleidoscope's slogans: “Where you dial for kicks on 226”, and “Sounds fine on 219”, reflecting its new frequencies of 226 Meters MW and 219 Meters MW.

Very soon, offers came flooding in of cars and houses to be used as temporary broadcast locations, which enabled Kaleidoscope to set up a number of different transmission sites across Essex, which could be switched to at a moment's notice, in order to combat the GPO's increasing efforts to locate and shut down the station's operations. Buster and his family, who had been some of Radio Kaleidoscope's first callers during its early days, offered the team the use of their house in Avondale Road, Benfleet, as a studio. This was gratefully accepted, and Buster's house was soon kitted out with the necessary equipment to run a studio. The regular contact with visiting DJs and the technical team opened up a whole new world to the haemophiliac Buster – a condition that in those days rendered him housebound. Even Ronan O’Rahilly himself came to see Buster, and privately funded a much-needed USA drug for Buster's treatment. Buster took advantage of the comings and goings in his home to launch “Monitor”, a radio magazine listing the shows presented by the various DJs on different stations at different times, and featuring interviews and behind-the-scenes information on pirate radio. The publication ran for over a decade, even after Buster's untimely death in 1985.

1968 also saw the arrival of Mike Baker, and the Free Radio Association, on the Radio Kaleidoscope scene. As well as supplying regular pre-recorded shows, which soon became some of the most popular and professional shows on the station, Mike also provided Kaleidoscope with a new set of jingles. Gradually, the station increased in notoriety, gaining listeners and supporters, and even attracting a certain degree of attention from the local press, being featured in several headline articles over the next few years. Kaleidoscope forged links with other pirate radio stations, such as Radio Universe, Swinging Radio England (Hornchurch) and Radio Free London, who commemorated the first anniversary of the passing of the Marine Offences Act by hanging a wire off the BBC's offices in Shepherd's Bush, London . For the first time, too, listeners could post feedback to the station via an address in Rainham provided by Alex McKenna from the Free Radio Campaign. All this success came at a price, however. There was the ever-present threat of another raid, not least of all since Radio Kaleidoscope was now virtually the only land-based pirate radio station broadcasting regularly across the south east of England.