THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED February 4th 1985 was not a pleasant day, whichever way you looked at it. No amount of flowers or good wishes were going to save Radio Jackie now. Most people spent the day in nervous apprehension wondering if the doors would come crashing in again in a vicious attempt to rob them of their final moment. The main studio was now a makeshift affair, consisting basically of a modified disco unit, and the station ID's and jingles were coming out af a cassette deck. The whole thing was being broadcast on FM as well as the usual AM service. Unusually though, the FM transmitter was actually in the building, as there was no secret about the location of the event. It was being announced on air, "Come to 32 Central Road, Worcester Park, and be a part of our final day". Actually there's no way that the doors could have been kicked in this time, as they were all wide open. The idea was for as many listeners as possible to come and experience things from the inside. And come they did. Hundreds of Jackie listeners came and shared the last day live at RJHQ. Which probably helped keep the bad guys away, as they might not have had a very warm reception if they had turned up. In spite of this, a lot of time was spent looking out of the windows, expecting the cavalry to arrive at any moment. But mercifully the authorities did stay away, and let the station die with dignity (well they stayed away for almost the whole day, as you see if you read on). And as the day slowly turned into evening, the final hour approached and the presenters began to take their turns to file into the studio and say their final farewells. By now it was quite a struggle to actually get into the studio. Many hundreds had come and gone throughout the day, but there were probably now about 500 listeners still in the building by that time. The photo on the left looking into the main studio shows how difficult getting in and out was, because there were people absolutely everywhere. It was all very emotional, and there were many people in tears. In spite of the crush, there was no nastiness. In fact most of the Jackie staff remember it as a moving experience. Programme Controller Dave Owen presented the final hour, which ran over by about ten minutes or so. The DTI had dutifully waited until the top of the hour before smashing down the fence at the medium wave transmitter location and finally taking the station off the air. The dying moments went out on FM only. After it was all over everybody spilled out onto the street. The crowd lined both sides of Central Road for a good hour or so after it was all over, singing Radio Jackie Jingles while passing traffic sounded their car horns in approval. Eventually, the staff retired to the conveniently located North End Tavern (which had previously doubled as the place most suited for programming discussions) and drank a toast to the greatest land based pirate station that had ever graced the British Isles. There are some more shots of the last day on the photo's page.