Radio Rainbow first took the airwaves in the summer of 1984, the transmitter, built by one of the infamous South London constructors who helped keep the airwaves alight across the Capital with the diverse and exciting sounds delivered to an enthusiastic audience fed up with "mainstream" radio by a plethora of Pirate Stations.
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The first incarnation of Rainbow Radio lasted for almost 24 months, broadcasting on 104 Mhz FM. By 1986, the BBC upset that this upstart broadcaster was demolishing the young BBC radio audience in North Essex decided to launch what was and still is a "Piss Poor" radio station under the truly original name of BBC ESSEX and whats more, put it on a frequency so close to this upstart at 103.5 Mhz to ensure that government action would surely be taken to silence the station.
Knowing the chips were down .. and following a close call with the Radio Investigation Service, Rainbow voluntarily shut down its transmitter and shuffled off into the night leaving the North Essex audience to such infamous Radio Essex broadcasters as Steve Scrotum (I think that's his name anyway ... I'm sure if you can be bothered a Google search will sort things out). Nothing, to my knowledge, with the exception of a few advertising items remain from this period.
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Inevitably things didn't stay that way and Rainbow Radio returned to the airwaves 10 years later in 1994, all of the audio content on this site come from that period, there is a very slight chance that one mad show remains from 1984 and I will endeavor to search this out.
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This incarnation of the station lasted for around 18 months until the nasty man from the Department of Trade and Industry finally caught up with us, stole all of our equipment and vinyl and then they disappeared into the sunset .. these tales may well be expanded upon in the future.
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In the mean time, please click the Audio Button below to discover some of the delights Rainbow brought to North Essex at no cost to the tax payer :-). More stuff will come, so if you enjoy your time here, please come back.
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