Many thanks to Mark Stafford who shares the following news:
RIP Tom Taylor/ Barry Stephens a Short Wave Pirate Radio Legend
Just got some very bad news: Barry Stephens (Tom Taylor) of European Music Radio fame has died.
To many of us learning the art of Pirate Radio Broadcasting in the South East of England in the 1970’s, Tom was “The Governor”.
EMR was a class station, probably the best Short Wave Pirate in the late 70’s. Barry and his colleague Roger Tate were legends.
Tom/Barry was also a really nice guy who helped us so much. He fixed our transmitters so many times for us and taught us how important good modulation was. Tom used to tell us “you have got to have hissing sidebands, mate”! By that he meant, lots of top end so that it cut through the noise and splashed audio on the next door channel!
Tom had a famous three wheeler Reliant Robin that the he took the EMR gear out into the woods with! We will all remember that.
Thank you, Mark. Tom was an on the SWLing Post readers and even sent his EMR weekend notes which I happily published. Though I never got to meet him in real life, he was always a good soul–and of course, a tremendous figure in the world of shortwave pirate radio.
Rest in peace, Tom.
I am sure many here will remember Tom Taylor. Tom passed away a couple of years back after a long battle with cancer. I was contacted today by Tom’s widow Jan. She wants to dispose of all his radio ‘stuff’ She doesn’t know exactly what it all is but she mentioined record decks and a mixer (his studio) radio receiver, crystals, capacitors, valves, books and lots of tapes (don’t know if they are reel to reel or cassette or both) going back to 1970. I am sure there will be other stuff as well. Jan lives in Wiltshire so you will need to drive to Wiltshire to collect it. It is free to a good home but whoever takes it has to agree to take everything, not just the good stuff. Jan just wan’t to move on in her life with her new partner Ade. She would prefer not throw Tom’s stuff away and would like it to go to an enthusiast (which she wasn’t). If anyone would like it and is prepared to drive to Wiltshire to collect it I will put you in touch with Jan