2007 – THE END OF RUGBY RADIO STATION

When the MSF 60 kHz Time Signal service moved to the Anthorn Radio Station near Carlisle in April 2007, it brought to an end over 80 years of time signal transmissions from Rugby Radio Station.

From 2005, a temporary Loran ‘C’ Navigation Service on 100 kHz had been run for the General Lighthouse Authorities. This used a large aerial suspended across the ‘C’ building from the 820ft Mast No. 1 and Mast No. 2. This was the last remaining transmission from Rugby, and this too transferred to Anthorn in July 2007.

On Thursday 2nd August 2007, the Rugby Radio Station’s four remaining 820ft masts were felled, no more to grace the skyline of Hillmorton and Rugby. No longer to be glimpsed from Coventry and the A14. Gone, those welcoming red lights that, for so long, reassured travellers that they were almost home.

Few people today will remember the time before the radio station was built. All those voices, the Morse and telegraph messages beamed around the world, to vessels across and beneath the vast oceans… all now just a wonderful history.

But, what history! What a magnificent heritage. 83 years of pioneering technology and indomitable engineering, all of it driven by humanity’s shared and unquenchable desire to communicate.