SOUND TRAVELS
Tom Waters: Do you have a first memory, a first unforgettable musical experience that left an impression?
When I was 14 years old, in Greece, I heard a Grundig tape recorder playing Mozart’s Requiem. I thought what is this? This is nice music. Soon after I had the chance to hear the Requiem performed live in Athens. After that experience, I started getting into music and sound equipment. Shortly afterwards, while studying electronics at college, I built an AM radio station with my own home-built valve transmitter (I had no license to broadcast so this was a pirate radio station!). There was no FM back then. The government-owned radio stations were playing only the traditional Greek music but young people wanted to hear music from the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, etc. which was not broadcast. So I stepped into that gap. Because it was illegal, I took precautions when accepting requests from my audience. The phone number I was giving on air was that of a friend quite a few suburbs away from me, who then relayed the request on to me. The police raided my friend’s place a few times! They accused him of having an illegal transmitter but could never find one in his house so they had no case. We carried on this cat-and-mouse game for three years, but eventually when Greece became a dictatorship it became really serious. The government announced that illegal broadcasters would be court-martialled (no civil courts any more). There was a one-week amnesty during which anyone could hand in their transmitting equipment without penalty, so I took advantage of that and handed in my transmitter. I got a lengthy lecture
