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"We've got it right across the county..."
Invicta Radio
Invicta Sound, Invicta Radio, Invicta FM
Kent's first major commercial radio station took it's name from the crest of the county showing the word which heraldry shows as meaning 'undefeated'.
It commenced broadcasting on 1st October 1984 using 103.8FM, & 242meters 1242kHz Medium Wave for the Maidstone area and 95.1FM & 497meters 603kHz (Canterbury) 95.9 FM (Thanet) 96.3 (Ashford) & 97FM (Dover). However, it could quite easily have been called Northdown Radio - this was the working title given in the initial 1983 application written by Roger Day (ex-Radio England, Caroline, Luxembourg, North Sea International, Piccadilly & BRMB)
In the early days, it played on the AM services - station logos prominently showing 1242 & 603kHz 'and on FM in Stereo' attached as an optional add-on. Also, in the early days, you could have been forgiven for thinking you were listening to a talk station, because there was a significantly high level of news - in such an early period of commercial radio, this had quite an adverse effect on listeners. Having spent some time externally monitoring the output, station management brought in local man Michael Bukht to turn things around.
An early Alfasound jingle amusingly sung 'Invicta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta Stereo'.
Due to a frequency audit around 1985, 103.8 became 103.1, and 95.1 became 102.8 - this was to
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enable the FM band to show groupings for FM commercial and BBC stations. Programmes came from studios in Canterbury and Maidstone. Another frequency change, albeit slight, occurred with the splitting of FM & AM frequencies in the late 1980s.. Invicta FM continued on FM whilst Coast AM took over the MW service, which later became Invicta Supergold. Amongst it's celebrity names to have appeared, there's ex-Radio 1 early days presenter Duncan Johnson & the great Dave Cash (ex-Radio 1, Caroline & London) was also Weekend Breakfast show presenter and Deputy MD from 1987-1989. In that time, he turned around the station's revenue fortunes and increased the station's audience. Southern Radio bought Invicta in 1991 which in turn latterly became part of Capital Radio plc when they bought out Southern Radio Group stations. Invicta is currently part of GCap Media plc.
Today, the station, which is officially for Maidstone, Medway & East Kent operates on five frequencies - 95.9 (East Kent), 96.1 (Ashford), 97.0 (East Kent), 102.8 (Canterbury) & 103.1 (Maidstone & Medway) from studios at Radio House, John Wilson Business Park, Whitstable in Kent.
Invicta Radio Jingles
- Invicta Radio - jingles coming soon