For the first three years of the 1980s Viking Radio continued to provide the same service as the
1970s, however Dave Gilbert one of the founder members left to live in New Zealand having been offered a radio job in
that country.
In 1984 Phil Watkins another founder member moved 21 miles down the A12 to live in Colchester, and
soon got involved in the university radio "URE", whilst still supporting Pete with the weekend shows in Ipswich. Phil was
also undertaking freelance work at stations in Norwich, London, and Leeds, and Pete was in demand from local stations.
Phil was also hitting Ibiza at the start of the brits invasion and covered many shows at this time
on the wonderful isle.
It was this years summer that Viking Radio had its big success, as July saw most of the university
students leave for home destinations, and their places being taken by Italian students. A meeting with Phil, Pete, and new
roadshow DJs Bruce and Steve saw a move to provide an eight week service running 24 hours, seven days a week to which all
parties agreed. Within a week Chung a french student, Sandra another DJ, and Mark-Anthony joined to ensure a full programme
could be planned,
Mid July saw the launch of URE / Viking Radio, whilst engineer Steve bumped up the broadcasting output
to cover much of Europe.
"Hi and welcome to URE / Viking Radio we bring you eight weeks of non stop music , articles, news,
and views" and the station was launched at 5pm on a Friday evening.
In the background Viking Radio had been informed that Colchester was about to be granted a community
broadcasting licence, and work by the founders to make a bid was initiated. Meanwhile URE / Viking Radio was gaining
huge audiences a fact that phone call requests were coming in from all over the country as well as Ireland, Holland,
Belgium, and France. The shows were also being noticed by the authorities who had no intention of closing the station
down, as it was put it to the URE / Viking Radio founders,
"we have heard the best in broadcasting at your stations hands so we ain't going to stop you"
fax,
Viking Radio the roadshow continued unabated and even captured individual towns summer festivals
such as Clacton and Colchester for differing charities.
In Clacton a simultanous roadshow with the BBC Radio 1 saw more locals at the Viking Radio stand
then at the BBC stand, and Viking Radio was truely running.