Hans Knot's International Radio Report - April 2007
Welcome to another
edition of the Hans Knot International Radio Report sharing memories,
photos and above all remembering the radio, as it used to be. Well a
little name change as I�ve added Hans to it. A lot of e mails, from
which a nice selection will be published, came in. Also in this issue
another long story, this time from Colin Nichol in Australia. We have
also an open letter from Caroline�s front man Peter Moore and tell you a
bit sensational news about the forthcoming Radio Day in Amsterdam as the
first guest is known to us!
Let�s start with some e mails from all around the world starting with
Clive Warner who reflects
on the questions from Phil Crosby from Australia. �Hi Hans. Great report
you sent us, fascinating story about the grounding of the MV Mi Amigo,
way back in 1976. Many thanks! Here some comments on the question from
Phil in Australia: �It would have been good to hear more about his
technical challenges with managing high power transmitters in the
difficult environment of a ship on the ocean.�
Well it's pretty difficult. The constant movement of the ship makes it
dangerous to work on the transmitter when it's actually on power.
Engineers often need to be in close proximity to high voltage when
diagnosing some problem, and on dry land you simply act in a a
professional way and you're safe, but on the ship there is always the
chance of a sudden wave that makes you lose your balance. Secondly there
is the problem of all that brine. Salt is a pretty good conductor and
causes arc-overs on the antenna insulators. So you have a lot of
maintenance replacing ceramic insulators, I had to do that and it was an
unpleasant job.
Another point that I sometimes think about is the choice of frequency
for the offshore stations. I wonder what factors the station took into
account? In the early days (pre 9KHz spacing) I guess it was simply a
matter of tuning around to find a clear spot day and night, then locking
the transmitter on that frequency (or getting a crystal manufactured).
But generally, there was a trend towards the pop music formats being
above 1000Khz (or below 300 metres), and the easy listening stations
above 300 metres. Maybe the location of the BBC light program (247m) and
Radio Luxemburg (208) originally encouraged this?
�Factors? Don't think so! I remember that when the DTI began jamming us,
I went to look for the crystals to see what I had to choose from. Yeah I
was pretty radical in those days, I had a tendency to take unilateral
action! I found a box that had three crystals in it. The one we were
actually using, someone had engraved a heart shape on it as it was the 'heart'
of the transmitter! But it was not as if we had a lot of choice.
Re-tuning a Doherty type of transmitter such as the 50KW Continental
would have taken quite a while, possibly a day or two, especially with
the extremely limited equipment. I had brought a RF bridge with me from
the UK but that was about it. Basically, on medium wave you want the
lowest possible frequency because it goes a lot further. Long wave is
known for its great range, for instance. But low frequencies mean high
antennas and there are limits as to what you can put on the ship. So
it's a big compromise, basically you find whatever spot you can, then
check at night to see if there are any distant high-powers on that
frequency, all the time thinking about antenna size, retuning components,
stuff like that.�
Thanks a lot Clive, most appreciated and hopefully Phil down yonder is
also happy with this answers. Next e mail comes from Frank van Heerde in
Holland who wrote: �Hello Hans, thanks again for your report. Always
nice read. You mentioned a program on
Radio 390 which was not
�Music from the Organ� but named �Masters
of the Organ�. During the period September/Oktober 1965 I�ve
listened to this program which had an opening tune called �Now is the
hour�. I�m looking for this number already for years so maybe someone in
your readership can help me. Before this program came on the air Radio
390 had �Country style�. Who knows the title of their tune and who
performed it? �
Well Frank hopefully someone can be of help and will send an answer to
Hknot@home.nl
Next an e mail from Henk in Friesland: �Nice stories again in the Knot
Report, especially the one about Laser and Radio Mi Amigo written by
Peter Tankard from Sheffield. I never knew Laser had such a good
reception in that part of England. Here in the province of Friesland
reception was no problem during daytime and only during evenings it
became worse. Listening to Radio London 1395 this afternoon on my old
tube radio receiver I learnt that news was programmed directly after the
news and the team was giving away travel goodies. I feel good with this
station being on the air now.�
Next from Germany an answer on another question: �Hi Hans, thanks for
your second March report, interesting as ever. There was a question from
Ad Tervoort where Tom Lodge
made the interview with the Beatles in 1966. In his book "The ship that
rocks the world-The Radio Caroline story", Tom included a chapter to
this. There he wrote, that the interview happened in Chelsea, London in
a mews called "The Vale" near Kings Road. Hope I could help. Best wishes
and Happy Easter Harald.�
Thanks Harald and I�ve forwarded the answer to Ad who wrote me back he�s
very happy with the solving of the question.
And again also an e mail from my big friend over in California: �Hi
Buddy, another great report on the past and present scene of British
radio. I have to first and for mostly congratulate you on what I think
was you longest report ! I have to agree with Peter Tankard in
Sheffield. I totally agree with your letter about the state of radio in
the UK The thoughts on the current scene echo mine. I was hoping IOM
radio, which was to bring back the feel of free format radio, was going
to be the answer, alas as you know it crashed again! I hear the
rebuilding process (sans departed Paul Rusling) is once again in route.
We will keep hoping. If nothing else seeing a lot of my old pals
mentioned monthly is comforting ! roskoradio.net has had to offer pod
casting now as we maxed out the server within 3 weeks. Happy to say were
the fasted rising Internet station last month! If I might plug us for
old mates and young mates of the future, we play soul, old new and rare!
Thanks again for the best report around !
Emperor Rosko.�
www.roskoradio.net
***************************************************************************
EURORADIO 2007
Offshore Echo's & France Radio Club's annual event Euroradio, takes
place in Calais France on Saturday 8 September at the Georges V hotel.
Our special guests include the man who officially opened Radio Caroline
on Easter Saturday March 28 1964; one of Caroline's early engineers; a
man of many names and radio stations; plus a man who didn't play pop
music. Find out more at:
www.offshoreechos.com
***************************************************************************
Like in the last issue of the report we have a special. This time Colin
Nichol friom Australia takes us back to the sixties with an interview he
had with Paul Hollingdale
Read the interview
HERE.
Thanks a lot Colin, a wonderful interview! Most appreciated to share it
with us.
See
what we have here to the right! An original coffee dish stand featuring
Radio Caroline. It�s from the eighties and I don�t remember how I got it
during that time. So who knows who produced these dish stand and also if
there are any other available featuring other stations. Answers as
normal to Hknot@home.nl
The next small text comes from the last report. It can from a reader
Phil in Australia and will be answered by another reader: �Another point
that I sometimes think about is the choice of
frequency for the
offshore stations. I wonder what factors the station took into account?
In the early days (pre 9KHz spacing) I guess it was simply a matter of
tuning around to find a clear spot day and night, then locking the
transmitter on that frequency (or getting a crystal manufactured). But
generally, there was a trend towards the pop music formats being above
1000Khz (or below 300 metres), and the easy listening stations above 300
metres. Maybe the location of the BBC light program (247m) and Radio
Luxemburg (208) originally encouraged this? Of course later on the shift
to 558KHz for Laser/Caroline broke this tradition. Or was there a deeper
technical reason (later overcome) for choosing higher frequencies,
perhaps more range with less power, or maybe the antennas could be
shorter. Has anyone done any work on the logic of frequency selection?
Phil�.
Hi Hans, I have cut and pasted the above from your excellent monthly
digest. I was a listener to the offshore stations in the 60's during my
early and mid-teens. I was always wondering how they broadcast from
offshore and it was finding out that got me a job with the BBC
Transmitter Department in 1970. I'm still employed in transmission in
one of the three privatised companies that came form the Government
inspired sales of the IBA and BBC transmitter departments in the 1990's.
So to answer the question...
It's really quite simple... how high can you reasonably [and safely] rig
a mast on a boat? Until the 300' Ross Revenge mast of 1984 the highest
was probably Radio London's 212' design. They chose the 1133kHz, 266m
spot on the dial and the antenna height was equal to about a quarter of
the wavelength. The formula is 234/freq in MHz, 234/1.133 = 206 feet.
Similarly for Radio Caroline '199' in the early days the mast height was
about 160-170 feet. 234/1.520=153 feet. so they had a bit to spare. it
helps the efficiency. A quarter wavelength antenna gives an efficiency
approaching 90% especially with a sea-water ''earth'', and so as you
would expect good coverage was predicted and indeed found with this sort
of system.
As the frequency is decreased, say to 773 kHz, the Radio 390 channel, a
quarter wave antenna needs to be 234/0.773 = 300' and I am given to
understand they used a 250' mast on their Red Sands fort. A ground-based
structure like a fort allows you to be more adventurous with a vertical
antenna and even a 50' reduction in mast height from the quarter-wave
optimum still affords good efficiency. This, coupled with the fact that
the lower MF channels propagate better [provided you can get the rf the
leave the antenna in the first place] shows why Radio 390 had such a
large coverage area, in spite of sharing the frequency with Sweden.
Radio City on 1034 kHz used a 200' mast, again from their Shivering
Sands fort, 234/1.034 = 226' and enjoyed good coverage on what was a
relatively clear channel. When it came to the transfer from 192m / 1562
kHz of Radio Veronica to 539m / 557kHz then the antenna on the Norderney
would have been a more tricky problem and in effect an awful lot of it
would have been coiled up at the base within an Antenna Tuning Unit.
Most likely it would have been in a large loading coil, whilst it's
possible to make the transmitter work into a small antenna the
efficiency of the antenna system falls and the advantage of the better
propagation of the lower frequencies is lost. Laser 558 suffered the
same fate as did the 576 kHz and later 558 kHz service from Caroline,
even into the 300' mast on the Ross Revenge.
With regard to frequency selection the common-sense method would indeed
be to monitor the frequencies in which you are interested and then pick
the best, it's important to remember that in the 1960's the use of the
MF band was more important to countries than it appears to be today.
Indeed a lot of European countries all had services on MF whereas today
some countries have no presence at all eg) Sweden, Finland with others
only using one of possibly three or four channels allocated to them. I'd
like clarification on the next point but I'm given to understand that
Swinging Radio England and Britain Radio were planning to use 640kHz for
one of their services, obviously they had not done their research as the
BBC from 1950 to 1978 used 647kHz for the high power Third Programme
Classical music / Culture service and no doubt the BBC would not have
been pleased to have a station on 640kHz.
Even Radio London were not thinking when one night they tried tests on
an announced 277m which one would guess as 1079kHz, not a good choice of
channel as the BBC Home Service was using 1088kHz at 150kW from
Droitwich, central England and more of concern at 10kW from Postwick
near Norwich, in the east of England. Again a high-powered pop-music
station literally next-door would have caused all sorts of technical and
political problems.
So as you can see it's important to consider many aspects when designing
and specifying antenna systems and frequency selection. Dave Porter, ex
BBC Transmitter Engineer, G4OYX. Hope that's ok for you Hans. Regards,
David Porter.�
Well David thanks a lot and I think not only Phil in Australia and me
but a lot of other readers of the Knot International Radio Report have
read with most interest this very interesting answer to the questions.
Keep enjoying the report!�
We stay in the UK and go to Johnny Stevens: �Hello Hans, Still receiving
your report which is still interesting and full of info. I have been
listening to the internet service of
Mi Amigo 192. I contacted
Ferry Eden thinking he was on the station but I now know he is writing
books on transport. He said the station was not pulling in enough
listeners, so maybe you could plug Mi Amigo 192 in your report as
thousands of us in the UK loved Mi Amigo as much as Caroline. No
offshore fan can ignore our Dutch brothers who contributed so much to
offshore radio, in fact without them we would not have had Caroline.
Veronica was also there years before Caroline, and some of the best
music comes from our Dutch brothers who have a knack of putting good
oldies shows together, like Ferry�s old Mi Amigo shows back in 1977/78.
Some of us were as sad to lose Mi Amigo in 1978/79 as we were of
Caroline in 1980. So to all our ex Dutch offshore deejays let me say we
still miss you. Johnny Stevens, Norfolk UK
Thanks Johnny, and indeed if you go back onto older reports (find them
at www.hansknot.com ) you will see we haven�t forgotten the Mi Amigo
boys. If you go to
www.offshore-radio.de you�ll find a lot of photographs taken during
the Mi Amigo 192 days with Easter on the Norderney in Antwerp. So will
find some familiar Mi Amigo and Caroline Dutch faces too.
Talking about Radio Mi Amigo in the early days there was a deejay called
Mike Moorkens who also
was heard on Radio Caroline and Radio Atlantis in 1973. I have to come
with the sad announcement that Chr�tien Dewaele � which was his original
name � died after having a heart attack on March 14th.
Next it�s Kenny Tosh: �Hello Hans Just a quick few lines to let everyone
know about a great 60's show featuring the offshore sounds and memories.
C.J. Munroe every Sunday afternoon from 4 PM on Palm FM 105.5 FM for
Torquay and www.palm.fm
Wonder where the jingles came from??????? Regards, Kenny Tosh�.
Well knowing a certain guy with the name Tosh I could win a fortune
guessing it was him providing the jingles! I stay in Ireland and go to
the next e mail:
�Hans. Many thanks again for the reports. Always a good read and always
something new and interesting in it! I enjoyed reading about Caroline�s
return in September 1976 after drifting. It mentioned one of my
favourite deejays from that era Ed Foster. Anyone know where he is today
and what is he doing? I noticed that Steve Szmidt in his recent report
on
www.offshore-radio.de said that
Ed Foster had dropped out
of the circle of ex Caroline deejays and no one knows of his whereabouts.
Going back to the drifting in Sept 76 there�s a good recording of Ed
Fosters first show after the drifting along with 1000s of other great
recordings on
https://azanorak.com.
Reading of our piece about
Communicator Club reminded me that I was also was a winner of 3
albums in 1985. Living here in Cork, Ireland I could only receive Laser
558 during the hours of darkness so I decided to join the Communicator
Club and send my membership number to a lot of people in England and ask
them to keep an ear out in case my number was called out! One day I got
a letter from England telling me that my number had been called out and
I immediately wrote to Laser in US and a few weeks later my 3 albums
arrived. Can only remember that one of them was a Prince album! Finally
Nick Richards is still on the breakfast show here in Cork on 96fm. On
air from 6 to 9 Monday to Friday you cam listen live on
www.96fm.ie Keep up the
good work. Patrick (Healy from Cork Ireland)
https://www.rfsoc.org.uk
Thanks Patrick. There was a reunion in London lately with some of the Mi
Amigo and Caroline people from 1975/1980 but also there no Ed Foster,
which is really a pity. So someone knowing where to find him please let
us know.
Good news next from Mary and Chris Payne from England: �On March 29th,
the Radio London website
celebrated its eighth birthday. We've marked the occasion with a big
site update, including a feature about Kenny and Cash's single 'Knees'
from the song's co-writer David Cummings. Jempi Laevaert has put a huge
amount of time and effort into creating a unique collection of Caroline
charts, but has now found he can no longer continue to host and update
his website, The Stonewashed Collection. As we already have a Caroline
section on our website, he asked us if Radio London would be prepared to
take over the collection. In honour of our eight birthday and Caroline's
43rd, we are proud to announce that Jempi's Stonewashed Collection
www.radiolondon.co.uk/caroline/stonewashed/index.html
is now part of the Radio London website. The charts collection will
continue to be completed from existing information and will be updated
as other data becomes available. Mary Payne, Director RADIO LONDON Ltd
Exclusive Radio London Merchandise
https://www.radiolondon.co.uk
And from Chris and Mary to Jon at the
Pirate Hall of Fame is
just a small step: �Hi, I have just updated The Pirate Radio Hall of
Fame. What's new this month? We have a Radio Atlanta special with a
fascinating in-depth interview with station founder Allan Crawford,
courtesy of Colin Nicol. If you thought you knew how Radio Caroline got
its name, you may have to think again. Allan has a different story!
Colin has also provided an original Radio Atlanta advertising rate card.
Another former Atlanta DJ Johnny Jackson has sent some great memorabilia
from the very earliest days of this short-lived station. We hear from an
even shorter-lived station - Radio East Anglia. It mysteriously appeared
- and disappeared - on April Fools Day forty years ago. We are sad to
report that Alan Black, of Radio Scotland, Britain Radio and Radio 355,
died a couple of weeks ago. We pay tribute to this fine broadcaster.
Pinky Siedenburg, who ran Radio Caroline's Amsterdam office after the
Marine Offences Act, has provided a couple of photos of DJs from that
era. And we have added some more information and audio to the Seventies
Supplement. All in all - a bit of a bumper update! The Pirate Radio Hall
Of Fame was launched in March 2000 which means it is now seven years old.
Thank you to everybody who has contributed photos, tapes, cuttings,
memorabilia or information since then. We couldn't have done it without
you. All the best, Jon
www.offshoreradio.co.uk
And next not forgetting to plug
Bob Le-Roi: Welcome to the very full April Website Update. �In
this this months Scrapbook a new feature begins with the real story of
Radio Lazer which of course became the highly popular to Laser 558 From
the initial idea to it's opening as told by Lazer's brainchild John
Kenning The story is linked to Radio Sovereign and we've now added a "Where
Are They Now" to the Radio Sovereign Story - Part 4, if you've any more
detail let us have it? Coincidentally whilst spotlighting Laser we also
announce a brand new Power Amplifier produced by Stuart Vincent once
radio Engineer on Laser 558, the amp's a real quality piece of kit &
available to order now, see Equipment Sales Also in Equipment Sales
prices have been reduced and so there are bargains to be had. And a plea
from Musician Paul Trip for help in finding a AKG D19 microphone
connector. "One Subject One Link" a view on being on air everyday is
good for the listener let alone presenter? Shift Change takes an
alternative view. In the A-Z of Pop & Rock it's the letter (N) with a
highly collectable Bob Newhart 7" EP record & the Best of The Newbeats
on CD. Enjoy your visits
www.bobleroi.co.uk
A question next from Oscar de Pater. Not long ago I heard a story of
problems with inhabitants living in IJsselstein very near to the
transmitter mast from the AM 675.
Illnesses like brain damage, leukaemia would occur more than in other
places in Holland. I wonder if former deejays and technicians on radio
ships, who have worked and lived in the short distance of a
electromagnetic field can get health problems like those are mentioned?
Difficult question Oscar and probably one of the deejays or technicians
can answer the question at Hknot@home.nl
A Message from Peter Moore:
�Many years ago, a
party of Caroline enthusiasts travelled from Britain to Holland to sail
past our ship Ross Revenge and so to celebrate Caroline's 25th
anniversary. Ronan O'Rahilly spoke to the crowd and wondered if we might
meet up again on the fiftieth anniversary. It seemed like a foolish
comment, but come this Easter that milestone date will only be seven
years away. How quickly time and life passes by.There have been Caroline
anniversaries that came around without much to celebrate at all, such as
when our ship was impounded and when we were either not on air, or were
broadcasting in some insignificant, or obscure, or demeaning way.
Our 43rd anniversary is better than that. The ship is in fair order and
we are broadcasting reliably and nationally with the potential of a
large audience, if we can only persuade them to tune in and to impress
them with what they hear. Conversely, technology is racing ahead and we
can scarcely keep up with it. Also, Caroline is sometimes offered
broadcast opportunities that we simply cannot afford to take advantage
of. Determination is admirable, but at the end of the day, money talks.
To keep the interest of both the Caroline staff and the supporters and
listeners, we need to be seen to be moving forward. Each advance is
welcomed, but soon becomes commonplace. Our last expansion, in June
2006, was to take Sky audio channel 0199 but the cost of this has
prevented us from looking at any fresh broadcast opportunities.
In hard terms, our situation is simple enough. By being frugal, we can
probably continue as we are. Our supporters are astonishingly loyal, but
if they drift away, we may have to contract our activities, which would
be very sad. We cannot rattle the begging bowl too loudly, since
generosity can turn to resentment. But, the truth is, we need more money
to stabilise what we do, to expand with either new or old technology, to
cover more territory. The opportunities are all out there. Concerning
the Caroline staff, since we all work for nothing, whether on air or
behind the scenes, we are obviously not looking to line our own pockets.
We have no shareholders, no finance house, no merchant bank wanting to
see a return on their money.
In pure terms, we exist in order to broadcast, to any place and by any
means we can achieve At Easter 2007 I can only hope that you will all be
ambassadors for Caroline and that you will stay with us and help us as
much as you can. Happy Easter, Caroline continues.�
Thanks Peter and sorry we couldn�t sent the report out before Eastern as
we were committed to other work.
Peter Moore, April 2007.
https://www.rcsg.co.uk/rc/rcsg.htm
Talking
about Eastern Caroline brought us
Tom Anderson with
memories to Caroline�s Overdrive. A pity all the internet connections
were completely used and brought problems in listening. Is there anyone
who recorded without problems the show. If so let us know as Maria
Depuydt in Belgium also tried to record the show, a pity without success.
Also Tom Lodge could be
heard, sadly for the last time. He wrote to me: �Hi Hans, I thought you
might like to know, that my last show on Radio Caroline will be this
Sunday April 8th at 9.00 pm English time. This is a special show that I
am doing. It is my reading from parts of my book, "The Ship That Rocked
The World", along with music that we were playing at that time. It tells
the whole story, at that time, from my perspective, creating a feeling
of those early years. I hope you get a chance to listen. It is the 43rd
anniversary of the Easter Sunday. You are welcome to record it.
Tom Lodge Caroline 1995 (Photo
Hans Knot)
Thanks Tom sorry I couldn�t make it to listen to the program but surely
it will come to me by an upload from one of the other Caroline addicted
listeners. A pity you have stopped making programs for our lady. Above a
photo as a memory to the day we met each other for the last time, way
back in 1995.
In Germany there is quite a large group of Offshore Radio followers and
one of them is Jan Sundermann who wrote: �Hallo Hans , according to some
literature, Johnnie Walker's
name might not be a pseudonym, but is his real name? So the old joke,
who was taking the name at first, the whiskey or the dj, is clearly
decided. But, this name has some maritime background by itself. This I
found reading a book out of my fathers in the very large maritime
library, I have here. The title is "Sailing around the world", Boston
1899, by Joshua Slocum. Boston based captain Slocum was the first man
sailing single-handed (alone) around the world in 1895 to 1898. On his
return course thru the Atlantic from South Africa back to Boston he had
a hard storm and a stay of the sailing boat masts broke. His comment in
the book: " if the mast would have not had a so very good fixture (at
the inside of hull bottom), he would have made the John Walker, when
breaking one of the stays". So, a breaking mast on a sailing ship must
have been named like that in seamen�s daily language. Best regards to
you and Jana, Jan Sundermann�.
Thanks a lot for this wonderful historic explanation and maybe sir
Johnny could comment himself on this as he�s a reader of the Knot
International Radio Report himself!
Message from Israel: Hi Hans and Martin. It�s only days till
Abie's 80 Birthday and I
want to tell you what we are planning to do. On the 20th of April there
is going to be the opening of special exhibition dedicated to Abie's 80
Birthday with paintings of 30 of the most leading painters in Israel. It
is going to be in a art gallery in Yavne (20 km south to Tel-Aviv) and
it� s open to the public for a month. On Abie's birthday on April 29th
there is going to be a special broadcast on Radius 100 FM from the
morning till evening with the voice of peace jingles, former DJ's and
recordings of Abie from the VOP. In the evening we are going to have a
small - "family type" celebration with only 100 guests. Among them are
going to be Abie's daughter Sharona and his grand son Daniel, Shimon
Peres, Yuli Tamir - Israel minister of Education, the Mayor of Tel-Aviv,
chief Rabbi of Tel-Aviv and others. A group of 17 years old boys and
girls from the Naval school Me'vout Yam had organized 3 weeks ago a
special sailing as a salute to Abie. They visited him and made him very
happy. The writing on the ship mean: Mevoot Yam(the name of the school)
salute Abie Nathan.
The Tel-Aviv municipality is going to dedicate on a sign-board to Abie
and the Voice of Peace on the beach promenade were the Peace Ship had
anchored outside for nearly 20 years. It's going to be inaugurated by
the Mayor of Tel-Aviv on the 18th of May. Today I visited Abie with a
journalist from the most leading newspaper in Israel. He was tired but I
think he was happy to see us. So that is all for the time and I'll give
you more news when I know more. Best regards, Noam Tal, photos from Noam
are on Martin�s site:
www.offshore-radio.de (go to "News").
**********************************************************************
Talking
about Martin I have the following text from him about the forthcoming
Radio Day in Amsterdam:
For nearly 30 years, the annual Dutch "Radio Day" has been a "must" for
all (offshore) radio experts and enthusiasts. About 300 people are
normally attending the event each year. The 2004 Radio Day saw the Radio
Caroline 1973/74 reunion with many former deejays, technicians and crew
members, and in 2005, "RNI in 1970" attracted several former Radio
NorthSea employees who had a magnificent discussion on the podium. In
November 2006, the Voice of Peace reunion formed a major highlight, as
20 former VoP jocks and technicians got together from all over the
world.More details plus countless pictures from former Radio Days can be
found at:
https://www.offshore-radio.de/radioday/
Hans Knot, Rob Olthof and me are now busily planning this year's event
which will be held on Saturday 10th November 2007 in Amsterdam's Hotel
Casa 400 near the Amstel railway station (James Wattstraat 75). This
coming August, it will be 40 years ago that the Marine Offences Bill
came into force. Both Radio Caroline North and South ignored the new law
and kept on broadcasting until the fateful 3rd March 1968. That's why
this year's Radio Day will commemorate "Radio Caroline resisting the MOA".
There will be a round table discussion focussing on the topic "Caroline
and the MOA" and we're definitely hoping to have many well-known guests
taking part.
This year's Radio Day will also emphasize the Swinging Radio England
broadcasts from the Laissez Faire. We are preparing a "mini-reunion"
with several guests from all parts of the world. So that's another
reason to join the crew in November. In the meantime, Roger Day, Roger
Scott
(Arnold
Layne), Graham Gill and Ron O'Quinn have been assuring us that they will
take part. But you may look forward to many more guests who will attend
this year's Radio Day! Just watch this place - we will constantly keep
you updated.
***********************************************************************
Of course we want to share as much as possible with you the reader of
the positive response after our mailing went out inviting people to take
part in the Swinging Radio England Reunion as well as the 40 Years after
the MOB event which will both take place on the Radio Day (with some
other guests too to attend). A very nice mail came from
Roger Scott, who we all
know also as Arnold Layne: �Sounds like fun and I hope to be there.
Since it is so far off, I had better say God willing. It might also be
wise to also say Lorraine willing! The reason that I have not got my own
email address is fairly shameful: it is simply that I can barely get my
head round computers at all and would have no idea of how to set up an
address. It is just very fortunate that my radio days were spent in
studios run on steam power and bits of string, rather than on digital
technology. I still have a deep, deep interest in radio but since 1990,
I have not been able to avoid noticing that my age (only 58, mind) and
style are not compatible with modern commercial thinking on how to do
radio: i.e. treat the listener as a complete and utter moron. I'm sure I
never did that. Certainly not. I invested my listener with so much
intelligence that most of the audience went away scratching their heads
in bewilderment. Existential esoteric surrealism ahoy! Anyway, I look
forward to memories of early 1968 when I worked with Don Allen, Martin
Kayne, Freddie Bear and others on Caroline North. I spent only a very
short time there but that was
because
we got towed away and at least I was aboard at the end of a legend. Best
wishes, Greg Bance / the original Roger Scott etc.�
Ron O�Quinn (Archive Ron O�Quinn)
And what about a part of the email coming in from
Ron O�Quinn: �Hi Hans, I
am very pleased that I will finally get a chance to meet you. I think
that the "pirates" get a lot of credit that actually belongs to you,
Martin van der Ven, Svenn Martinssen, Steve England, and many others who
have kept the memories alive all these years. We that were there simply
started the fire but you guys kept the fire burning long after we would
have been forgotten. I think Pirate Radio and Dutch Radio instilled a
desire in the UK and Europe for "free radio". People finally realized
that radio could be so much more. I want to shake your hand and thank
you for your contributions. See you in November. Best regards, Ron
O�Quinn.�
It was very silent during the last 6 months when I mention the name
�Mike Brand�. Mike is an Englishman who lives already for decades in
Israel and was reporting about the radio scene in the Middle East for
several magazines and internet sites. Suddenly he�s back and told me
that he finally made it what he always wanted to do: working in radio.
He has the weekdays breakfast show now on
93.6 RAM FM in Jerusalem.
We wish him all the luck in the world.
Mike Brand on air at 93,6 RAM FM
Mike ends this edition of the Hans Knot International Radio Report. I
will be back next month with a lot more memories from the past and some
news from now. If you want to share your memories or photos and so on,
well you know the address to sent it to:
Hknot@home.nl
Till next month with best wishes
Hans Knot
Offshore Radio Programme Names - Programmanamen Zeezenders 1958-1990
Read Hans Knot's former report