Hans Knot's International Radio Report - May 2007 (1)
Welcome everybody and
another thanks for many e mails with memories, questions and your
photographs, which came in into my mailbox. A part of these will appear
in this issue. In last issue there was a question from Frank van Heerde
in Holland who wrote: �I�ve listened to
Radio 390 and the program
�Masters of the organ�, 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. So here�s what Clive answered
on
the question:
Program Schedule 390 (Hans Knot
Archive)
�Now is the hour� is a Maori farewell song. I seem to recall it being
popular with my parent's generation. Frank Sinatra also recorded it, so
did Bing Crosby, Charlie Haden and the Quartet West, and I also located
a recording by some Pacific islands band. If you use Bit Torrent you'll
find many different versions. I used
www.thepiratebay.org
and there were quite a few, but whether any of the versions is the one
you want, I can't say!�
Thanks a lot Clive and anyone knowing more on this subject please inform
on hknot@home.nl
Next one is from Allan Bailey
who wrote: �Hi Hans and thanks for another interesting report. It was
also interesting and good to read that interview between two friends of
mine Colin Nichol and Paul Hollingdale (we're all ex 208). Just in case
anyone's interested, that photo of the Swinging Blue Jeans was
photographed in Studio A control room of Radio Luxembourg in Hertford
Street, London (I was there at the time) and the man on the extreme left
is Derek 'Eggy' Ley, who was the producer of that session and I was
engineer. Eggy had a jazz band in the '50's called "Eggy ley and his
Jazzmen" who were very big particularly in Germany. When he left
Luxembourg he went to BFBS as producer and later went to live in Canada
where he passed away after a long illness. All the very best my friend,
Alan Bailey (The world famous Earl).�
And so we make together with each other the historic facts completer,
thanks Allan.
Also we received an e mail from Bert Alting, who is an avid Veronica
offshore lover and has more than 1200 complete hours from their offshore
days in his personal archive: �Hi Hans, very interesting report.
Especially the information on the coming Radio Day. That will become
very exciting. Thanks,�
Well Bert more interesting news on the Radio Day will come later in this
report. We now go to some info about a station calling herself
Laser: �Laser is back!
Every Saturday on 6275 kHz from 9-15 hours UTC, which is about 1 (UK) or
2 (continent) hours later in some parts of Europe. New programs and old
offshore tapes! Laser is back!� Talking about Laser also on internet old
recordings can be heard from the original Laser 558: �Up till May 12th
old programs from the original Laser 558 can be downloaded at:
www.laser558.nl
In last issue we had a question 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?"
It�s former Veronica technician
Juul Geleick who reflects on the question: �I�ve talked a long
time, years ago, with Freek
Simon (newsreader on the MV Norderney from Veronica); just after
he heard from the doctors in hospital that he probably would not live
longer than 6 other months. That was July 2001. Freek died in February
2002. It was cancer at the pancreas. He had earlier the same problems in
1971. There were under the Veronica crewmembers through the offshore
years � as far a Freek and I knew at that moment � only a few guys
passed away as a result of cancer. We counted three and another one
became impotent! When you analyse the figure of three you couldn�t say
that this is due to the living in the surrounding of the transmitter on
the radio ship. Also Freek talked about the subject with his doctors. No
scientific conclusion was made. That impotence is maybe more interesting,
I think.�
Thanks Juul for giving your answer to us and Oscar.
Now we go to one of the female readers of the Hans Knot International
Radio Report, Mary Payne: �About Jan Sundermann's comments about the
name Johnnie Walker the
next: when Johnnie joined Radio England his name was Peter Dingley. His
on-air name was adopted from a jingle that was part of a package
originally from WPTR, which Larry Dean brought over in 1966 to be used
on the station he was joining. Naming (or renaming) DJs to fit existing
jingle packages was a common practice in the US. It was easier to change
the DJ's name than to get new jingles! Johnnie Walker is now officially
Johnnie Walker, because he changed his name legally by Deed Poll some
years ago.�
Thanks Mary and hope to see you in a couple of months! Now we go to
Glasgow and an email arrived around April 12th: �Hans, hello. It is
John MacDonald here. 5
years on The Voice of Peace and survived it all. I am now working for
Britain�s' largest community radio station. Sunny Govan Radio broadcasts
to Glasgow and a fair sized area beyond the city on 103.5FM. I am here
Monday-Friday from 10.00am-Midday and Saturday from 1pm-4pm so they are
getting plenty of work out of me. You can catch the station at
www.sunnygovan.org
where we have an eclectic mix of programmes.�
Well good to see John has found us on the web. He was looking on his own
name and came in the chapter of the book with memories to the Voice of
Peace and saw his own diary he earlier wrote in the early nineties,
during the Gulf War 1. In the meantime John and I had already a talk
about the history of Voice of Peace on the radiostation in Glasgow, he�s
working for.
https://www.offshore-radio.de/temp/SunnyGovanRadio-JohnMcDonald-HansKnot-27thApril2007.mp3
Look
who we have here, the one who always reflects and is best known as the
Emperor: Mike Pasternak
wrote: �Hi Amigo, good info as always! I will send you a picture a bit
later, the worlds first deejay to broadcast via the sun! Solar! For sure
the first ex pirate deejay to do so! Watch this space. EMP.� But next
day another one came in from Rosko: �Hi Hans, one of two pictures, I was
thinking of all the old masts and antennas you frequently post. This is
my "from pirate to Solar construction� Went up January 2007. The wave of
the future is here, the worlds first ex pirate radio deejay resumes
Global reach but, courtesy of the sun !
Emperor Rosko 2007 (Rosko archive)
News from our friends at Offshore Echos: �We're pleased to announce that
the Radio Caroline story,
now continues into the 1970's. The story now includes
Caroline's brief return from the Mebo II and the 1970 UK election
campaign, and the return a couple of years later from the Mi Amigo, off
the Dutch coast.
There's a whole lot of photo's, press cuttings, documents - many
previously unseen, plus air-checks and audio clips. Click on, or copy
and paste this link
www.offshoreechos.com/Caroline%2070/Radio%20Caroline%20-%20The%2070s%20Chapter%2001.htm
Next
is Steve Roberts who wrote after I sent him some rare RNI Promo�s:
�Hello Hans and many thanks for the Radio Northsea International
Judge Dread promos for
big 6 and big 7. You can�t believe how happy it made me to hear them
again. It bought back so many happy memories of the greatest radio
station of all time. (well for me it was at least). I can not thank you
enough, suffice to say if you have any spare time and listen to offshore
music radio you , along with many others will shortly be hearing them
again. Do you have any more of these or were they the only ones? I have
to confess big 6 and 7 were the only ones i remember hearing. With
special thanks once again Steve Roberts
www.offshoremusicradio.com
Well Steve indeed these were the only two ones which were recorded by
Judge Dread for RNI.
Now Tom Lodge about his
last show on Caroline, which was aired with Easter: �Hi Hans, not to
worry Hans that you missed my last show from April 8th and 10th, because
the guys at Caroline are making it into a CD for sale. It will be
available at the Web Shop:
https://rcsocietysales.co.uk/index.html along with my book, "The Ship
That Rocked The World, The Radio Caroline Story" Also, even though I am
not doing any more shows, my son Tom Lodge Jr. has taken over the spot
and he is doing a great job. He too has the pirate spirit. But then what
else to expect, he was brought up with Radio Caroline always in the
background and living through many of those adventures. There is a
picture of him, as a boy, in the Radio Caroline days, in my book, too.
Thanks, Hans and best wishes, Tom Lodge.�
From Canada to Kent in England: �Greetings Hans and as usual the latest
Report is fascinating. Your comments on Radio London and 277metres
reminds me of a test on that frequency at 3pm one weekday by
Kenny Everett. A record
was played and listeners urged to re-tune to 277metres, which I did, but
nothing! At the end of the record and knowing the test failed, in true
classic style he announced: "I didn't want to go onto 277 anyway." Every
good wish, John Allen. Beckenham, Kent.
Thanks John and it always good to read back memories from those who
listened to the Offshore stations from the sixties and have unique
memories.
David Graham is the next one: Hello Hans, I have been trying to get in
touch with a person called Geoff Hutton to whom I gave a couple of
scrapbooks I filled in over the many years listening to offshore radio,
I said at the time I had a couple of reel to reel tapes recorded
straight from my old Philco radio (ahhhhhhhh memories eh.) As I am now
nearing retirement and trying to declutter my home, I was wondering if
you would like to have them, they consist of many, many memories held
for me of Caroline, Radio 270, (as I live in Newcastle upon Tyne) Radio
Scotland and RNI. I cannot vouch for the condition of them not having
played them for many years. I am willing to post them to you as I have
read your column for so long and am sure they will be treat with the
dignity they deserve, hoping you will help me, a loyal offshore listener.
David N Graham.�
Well first to you the reader: Is anyone knowing the present whereabouts
of Geoff Hutton? Please if so contact me at
Hknot@home.nl so I can forward it to
David. And secondly of course a very nice gesture from you David to give
your personal recordings to the big Hans Knot Archive. In the meantime I
have arranged with David that the recordings will be digitalised by Harm
Koenders and that David and I get a copy on CD. Members of the Offshore
Download Group can also download the recordings at a later stage.
https://offshoreradiodownloadclub.web-log.nl/
In
our last issue we mentioned already some of the names of people who want
to be our quests to the Radio
Day. Some of the e mails we received as a reflection on the
announcement of personalities joining us:
Tom Mulder aka Klaas Vaak
(Veronica) who promised me to join the party too: �Unimaginable is this
list with names. It seems to become a radio version of the Grand Gala du
Disque. It�s almost an official acknowledgement for the yearly happening.
Very good and very exciting. Strange that there are so many people who
have marvellous memories to a period of less than 3 years, which
happened 4 decades ago! It also shows that what happened in radio
afterwards didn�t bring the emotion we do remember. �
Another one joining the gang who reflected to the invitation from the
organisation: �Sorry to take a few days before replying. I had to check
on the date of another event which is taking place about the same time.
But yes I'd love to be there at the Radio Day in Amsterdam on November
10. Sounds interesting and fun. Do keep me posted as you get more info
nearer the time. Meantime my wife Gill and I can build it into a
pleasant late Autumn weekend break in that most pleasant city. Best
wishes Phil Martin.�
Wonderful to see also, next to
Phil Martin and Roger Day
another of the British deejays from Laissez Faire days is joining in.
Yes you read it well: Sir Johnny is also joining in as he wrote: �Dear
Martin, Yes, I would like to attend the day and will do my very nest to
ensure that I can make it. As it is some way off, there might possibly
be something that comes up that might prevent me attending but rest
assured, I will do my utmost to be there. Regards,
Johnnie Walker.�
When we�re mentioning Johnnie Walker and Roger Day, we�ve to mention a
third one, which is Robbie Dale:
�Dear Martin, On Sunday I returned from a visit to Holland. Before I
went to NL 3 weeks ago. I remember telling Hans that I would do my
utmost to attend Radio Day 2007 in Amsterdam on November the 10th. It
should be an interesting gathering of like minded folk and I would like
to be one of them. Please send more details as they come to hand and
kindly let me know who has confirmed attendance.'
From
the USA also more former Swinging Boss Jocks are telling us to join in:
�Since your invitation I have heard from my old friend
Ron O'Quinn who has said
he intends to join your event in Amsterdam, and expressed his hope that
I would be there too. While it will require unpaid time away from my
current employment, and of course extensive travel, it is a journey that
I do intend to make. Please count me among those "seriously planning" to
be there. Rick Randall.�
JERRY SMITHWICK (Archive Pirate
Hall of Fame).
In the meantime I also want to mention that
Jerry Smithwick will do
his utmost to come to The Annual Radio Day (29th year in a row) in
Amsterdam. Let�s go on with the next one: Martin: �Thank you very much
for the invitation and the advance notice. I will make every effort to
attend, if possible, but will have to give you a definite answer at a
later date. Howie Castle (Bud
Ballou).
Last but not least: "I am looking forward to meeting you in November.... sounds like a good time... Best regards, Frank Laseter aka Larry Dean."
And there will be
another special section on the Radio Day, which is reviving the days of
the International Service of Radio Atlantis. Special guest for that
segment will be Steve England.
Of course we will inform you on our special information pages where you
can also find information where to book a hotel, if you want to come,
too:
https://www.offshore-radio.de/radioday/
More interesting e mails to come: �Hi Hans, and greetings again from
Australia. Congratulations on another very interesting newsletter, I
enjoyed reading it a lot. I really appreciate both Clive & Dave who took
the trouble to answer my questions about maintaining high power
transmitters at sea, and selection of frequency. Antenna matching is
obviously crucial, actually I do recall one of the ships (Caroline?)
having a �capacitor hat� atop the mast to improve transmission. It seems
that an occasional technical question might be of interest to readers �
or perhaps a regular item in the newsletter? Actually I have another
question if you think it�s worthy of including it. Many DJs and other
staff aboard the radio ships and forts mention that they watched TV (to
pass the time), and also listened to the BBC or the other offshore
stations to get the news (for their newsroom!) or just to hear what
their competition was doing. From my experience with much lower power
transmitters on MW, whenever you are close to the
TX,
the splatter and harmonics made it almost impossible to receive other
distant stations. I wonder if anyone can explain how it was possible to
receive other broadcasts in the confines of the ship. How was the
filtering achieved, especially for a watchable TV picture? The Medium
Wave was certainly an exciting place to tune around in the 60�s, you
just never knew who or what was going to pop up. I used to secretly
listen to the offshore stations in high school classes through an
earpiece, and once got so excited by some unusual transmission that I
yelled out to a school chum � all very embarrassing as it was clear that
I was ignoring my lessons completely! My radio was confiscated but I
stole it back next day. The best time was evening and night of course,
when it was quite easy to hear all the UK pirates from my home in
Surrey, even if they did fade out occasionally. Later, when running
Radio Britannia on 254m at only around 75-100 watts, we were pleasantly
surprised to get QSL�s sometimes from 50-60 miles away. Great era, great
music, and great choice. Kind regards, Phil Crosby, Sydney, Australia.�
Thanks Phil for some other interesting items and for those who want to
reflect on the questions feel free to sent them:
Hknot@home.nl
Next we go to Norway and it must have been excitement in the home from
Sven Martinssen when he
was watching television as he wrote to me: �From synopsis of Heartbeat
episode "Judgement Day" The police are called in to investigate when a
local judge is the target of a series of mysterious attacks, but the
case takes a sinister turn when the prime suspect is found dead on his
own doorstep. Peggy is delighted when David's new radio starts picking
up police broadcasts, but a news reporter doesn't share her enthusiasm.
Comment: David Stockwell's (David Lonsdale) new radio not only starts
picking up police broadcasts. Before that, there is a short incident
where he picks up a "PAMS" Swinging Radio England jingle "Good Morning
the world is bright and new..", (full ID, not the watered-down version
used by Tony Blackburn on BBC R1) and, tuning back, he finds part of
another! Episode Number: 291 Season Num: 15 First Aired in UK: Sunday
January 22, 2006 Aired in Norway: April 14th, 2007.�
https://www.tv.com/heartbeat/judgement-day/episode/619758/summary.html?tag=ep_list;title;15
From Norway we go to Scotland: �Hi Hans. This mornings Daily Telegraph
carried an article about the BBC Archives going online. You might like
to mention the article in the next International Report. Best way to see
it is to go to
www.telegraph.co.uk and in the search box type in 'bbc archives' and
it should take you right to the April 16th report. Cheers !
PeterFord, one of the former people working on the MEBO II, recently did
scan some papers which are in his archive, including the next one:
On the crew list not only the crewmembers but also the deejays. One of
them is the German DJ Axel.
Martin reflected and went on search. We know now that Axel�s complete
name is Axel Bosdorf and Martin found an interesting story on the
internet. He�s living nowadays in Thailand:
https://www.pattayablatt.com/014/Gestatten.shtml
A few months ago a large envelope felt on the floor (with thanks to the
postman). It came from Willem Krajenbrink. He had enjoyed the offshore
radio period and for him it was time to say goodbye to the material, but
couldn�t throw it into the dustbin. He worked for a while together with
the people from Music Media International, which was involved with
Radio Monique in the
eighties. From the
parcel
I�ve scanned several things which can be find back on Media Pages:
https://www.mediapages.nl/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1545&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Now some memories to Radio Scotland: �Hi Hans,
As always thinks for the report and the downloads. Always interesting
stuff. Living around a mile from Troon I often gaze out to sea and
wonder exactly where the Comet
was anchored in 1966 and into 1967 before they were prosecuted. In fact
Paul Graham and I did the same thing when he visited me a few months ago.
I think the one thing that is beyond doubt is that the Comet WAS within
UK waters when Mr Shields was prosecuted in 1967. No tricks from the
government there! I was only six years old when Radio Scotland left the
air, but was aware of it due to my sister who is nine years older than
me. She was in the Clan and had all the stickers etc, none of which
survived. (Luckily I have managed to pick up some original memorabilia
via Ebay.) Her favourite deejay was Ben Healy, at least that was the
name that I could always remember from that time. I recall when the
station
closed
there was an article in one of the papers with a photo of the ship and I
remember taking that into school as we always had to bring a news item
in to talk about on a Monday. Assume that would have been August 14th?
It was six more years before I came across Caroline now safely off the
Dutch coast, but those Radio Scotland memories probably planted a seed
for an interest that has spanned nearly 35 years. I know that makes me a
youngster compared with some!
THE 242 RADIO SCOTLAND CLAN (Hans
Knot Archive)
There appears to be no sign of the promised Radio Scotland book by Bob
McLean. According to an article in the national Sunday Times newspaper
it was to appear last year to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the
inception of Radio Scotland. However maybe they will look to publish
around the anniversary of the MOA. If any readers have recordings of the
station that they would like to exchange please contact me versus the
report. I am especially interested in those that id as "Radio Scotland
and Ireland" during her short period off Ballywalter, Northern Ireland
during her move from Troon back to the east coast. I have a few
recordings of the station, as well as a few documentaries, to swap that
people may find interesting. Thanks again Hans. Kind Regards, Ian.
So once again the address to write to if you want to exchange any Radio
Scotland or offshore recording with Ian mail me at:
Hknot@home.nl
Some long time ago we had the conversation about was he or wasn�t he?
One thing we all know he�s a bit of a dreamer. Someone who�s always try
to slip away from us all. Another thing for sure he�s still on water,
Yes, drinking it. Now I got an email from Rob in Amstelveen who advised
me to look at a scan he made from an article in a Dutch Magazine called
�Platenblad�. In the article I read that the later Graham Bond
Organisation were heard on the BBC on July 16 1963 under the name
�Graham Bond Quartet� and their manager was
O�Rahilly who also
managed Blues Incorporated�, Well we know the story behind Ronan and
Georgie Fame. Did he really manage Graham Bond?
Well now here�s one for all of you. My generation was a big hit for the
WHO in the sixties. Wild, exciting and wonderful is also the next tip we
got from Oeds who wrote: �have a look at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqfFrCUrEbY
And play it loud and enjoy!� Well thanks Oeds wonderful and I advice
everyone to have a laugh too. Just watch the video up till the end and
maybe do like Radio England did in the sixties too: Instant Replay!
Someone
wrote to me if it was possible to get him in contact with
Erwin van der Bliek. He
has worked on Radio Monique, Radio 558 and has done some shows in
English on Radio Caroline in the late eighties. Afterwards he has done a
lot of radio work in Holland, including some spells on the national pop
station 3FRM. I�m talking about Erwin van der Bliek. Well he�s left a
long time ago and thanks to his former colleague Walter Simons you can
find him in the Caribbean, where he is working on Radio Dolfijn FM.
www.dolfijnfm.com/djs/erwinvanderbliek.php
Erwin on board the MV Ross Revenge
(Photo: Hans Knot)
Who does remember the name Bill
Scadden? I did and after receiving a wonderful interview made by
Colin Nichol in the
eighties, which has never been published, I thought to dive into my
archive looking for several photographs as well as newspaper cuts. Also
Colin sent in a lot of photographs and the interview can be read now
either in English or Dutch at the following addresses. Please do enjoy
them with also thanks to Martin van der Ven:
scadden-uk.htm
scadden-nl.htm
Is there a possibility to ask you to have a look, now and then on the
Journal for Media and Music Culture, which is run by Ger Tillekens and
me at the university Groningen. Now more than 1000 articles can be found
as well as the very big Offshore Radio Discography.
www.soundscapes.info
And what will Auntie BBC do when in August it will be 40 years ago that
the MOA made an end to the offshore radio stations off the British
coasts, except Radio Caroline. The BBC are busy trying to re-invent the
wheel as far as radio is concerned, moving good broadcasters/programmes
rapidly sideways to make room for all the new brushes - the latter in
the form of either kids fresh from media studies or ethnic amateurs.
The
result is that guys like Keith
Skues (after 12 years of presenting a 4hr 'live' Sunday to Friday
nightly show via the Beeb's Eastern Counties/Lincolnshire regional
broadcast area), has been reduced to 1 x 4hr 'live' on Sunday nights
only. We must not forget that the decision makers who stopped the
popular program knew that Jictar has consistently put his audience
ratings as the highest throughout the whole of the BBC's output - both
regional and network!
As told August this year marks the 40th Anniversary of The Marine
Offences Act and guess what? the BBC has hired a boat to be moored off
Frinton on sea for a week. They will mentioning it Radio Caroline South.
They are lining-up a number of original Pirate deejays to broadcast 60s
pop like shows from the ship, as in days we all liked flowers and more.
It will be on air from August 7th up till 14th. More later!
Next
another Email: �Hi Hans, Thank you for the latest News Report, its
always fascinating reading. Hans, I am very interested in
Radio Mi Amigo, although
my radio interests has always been Watery radio, I have always found
Radio Mi Amigos adventures in Spain during the 1970s fascinating, from
photographs I have seen over the years it looked like the presenters and
staff of the station had the time of their lives and what a lovely
location it was for the station.
Hans,
I would very much like to make contact with any of the Radio Mi Amigo
presenters who worked at Playa de Aro, for many years there have been
lots of questions I have wanted to ask about life at the Playa de Aro
studio and maybe obtain some copies of photographs taken at that time.
Michelle at studio Playa de Aro
(Photo Marc Jacobs)
My email address is
pj007d4886@blueyonder.co.uk , I loved Radio Mi Amigo and the Dutch
service of Caroline which took over after Mi Amigo parted company with
Caroline. These days I listen to Radio Mi Amigo 192 more than any other
station, I think the Mi Amigo 192 Boys and Girls do a great job in
keeping the Mi Amigo sound alive. I have attached a picture from week on
board the mv Ross Revenge taken at the River Blackwater, Essex in March
1995 after I celebrated my 30th birthday on board with my girlfriend
Sabine. Here you can see Sabine and myself (at the back, middle of
picture along with our replacement crew Mike Regan and Donut), happy
memories, amazing to think ten years later. I also celebrated my 40th
birthday on board the Ross Revenge. Anyway, just before I sign off, I
would like to say thanks to everyone at Radio Mi Amigo for such a
wonderful station, please if any of the former Mi Amigo presenters has
time, please drop me an email sometime.
Best wishes Paul Johnson, Bristol UK.
From
Australia Colin Nichol sent me a lot of photographs including a shot
taken at a Christmas Party. It was taken aboard Radio Caroline but
didn�t know which year. �Was it 1965 or 1964�? The studio photo must
have been at Christmas one year and I recognise
Paul Noble on the right,
but can't recognise who he is with, who must be at the microphone. Paul
had left, as I remember, before 1966, so this may have been Christmas
'64 - or '65 at latest.�
Lucky enough I could give Colin Nichol the answer in this by e mail:
�Paul Noble left in 1965 to get work at Montserrat so it must have been
Christmas 1964. Can't see who the other guy is, but we can asked it in
the report to the readers of course, greetings, Hans
The big question is who�s on the
left next to smiling Paul Noble? (Archive Colin Nichol)
Colin came back to me with: �That's what I thought. Paul got the job
because I gave it to him. I had applied and was prepared to go, then
changed my mind and decided to try for Radio Luxembourg - succeeding in
1966. The job in the Antilles (or whatever it is called) was offered to
me, but they took him in my place when I recommended him. I heard that,
years later, he had been badly hurt in a car crash. I don't know more
than that of his fate. On a private note, he gave me his girlfriend in
exchange, which was a job I took on with pleasure!! We were quite
friendly, after all.�
Well some research brought me in the Caribbean, where Montserrat is too.
He lives already for years on Jamaica and does voice overs as well as
jingles and commercials.
Bob Le Roi update for
May: In this months Scrapbook its all happening at the Forts Weekend
WWII Heavy Equipment, parades, displays by re-enactment groups, the
Radio Forts and a look at the Castle. With an upturn in the weather it's
all hands on deck with some spectacular sunset pictures across the water
Diving into the mire Big L hits an all time low with a the aftermath of
Channel 4's TV programme in "One Subject One Link" We've arrived at the
letter O in the A-Z of Pop & Rock & it's the Big O Roy Orbison on record
& OMD on CD. Enjoy your visits:
www.bobleroi.co.uk
Well I can tell you the visit I took to Bob�s site was it worth!
Wonderful pictures.
Nico Steenbergen, former
RNI newsreader and deejay in the seventies dived into his personal
archive and decided to scan some of the photographs he made in the
sixties. A few of them were taken in Amsterdam when both Mi Amigo and
Magdalena, the Caroline ships, were towed in due to the fact the company
hadn�t paid the money for tendering and supplying. Nico saw on the
photographs that on the Mi Amigo strange enough not the word �Mi Amigo�
was painted but �Mi AmiCo�.
Did we all those years pronounce the name of the famous Lady wrong?
Nico then took Gerry Bishop�s Offshore Radio from his bookshelf and on
the front of the book the Mi Amigo is featured indeed with a �C�. Next
he went to page 28 and again Mi AmiCo on a picture. And I can tell you
that Gerry�s book was published way back in the mid seventies and we
didn�t had a home computer at that stage. So it�s not a case of just
simple photo shopping. When the message arrived I first couldn�t believe.
Of course we had for many years the idea that the big other Caroline
ship was mentioned �Frederica� until a photograph showed us that it was
indeed �Fredericia�. Repainting the painter had forgotten to repaint the
�I�.
I decided to dive in my archive to and scan some material including
Newspaper cuts and other material. It shows also material from Sweden
and England in which some confusion can be learnt. The whole story is in
Dutch. But of course all the scans are interesting enough to have a
watch. I advise you to go to
www.hansknot.com and
scroll to �Naam Mi Amigo of Mi AmiCo� and click
there to find more.
On May 10th there will be an interesting program on German TV (ARD Eins
Extra). At 20.15 CET they will have a special on �Freiheitsender 904�
and other things related to radio during �Cold War�. Info in German can
be found at:
https://www.ard-digital.de/index.php?id=13833&languageid=1
https://www.ard-digital.de/index.php?id=13825&languageid=1
Next an e mail from Holland: �Hans, compliments for your site. In one of
your articles on the net I read that you and your brother were members
in the seventies of the Whiskey
Oscar Club, together with some other people from your hometown
Groningen. Some time ago I decided to open an internet site as a
nostalgic look back to the Club. You can find it at:
www.whiskyoscar.com
The Whiskey Oscar Club was a club of people who wanted to take contact
with each other by shortwave only talking in Dutch. Jelle and myself
were early up every Sunday in a game, together with some other radio
friends, to make every Sunday as much as possible radio contacts in the
11 metres band with people speaking Dutch in the world. Mostly it meant
contacts with people in former Dutch colonies Surinam and Antilles. But
of course there were also many immigrants in the United States and other
countries we heard and speak to during that period. Due to the fact my
research and writing about radio became more and more important I
decided to stop transmitting in 1983. I was Whiskey Oscar 363 in those
years.
One guy who�s still going strong although not getting the air play on
Radio Caroline he expected to get is
Nick Barnes. Early March
he was part of a charity show at the Congress Theatre in Eastbourne
supporting the Even Appeal (ovarian cancer) and the Cancer Vaccine
Institute. Nick Barnes performed 5 songs including his specially written
song �For Eve� . A very good performance from Nick and more info is to
find at
www.nickbarnes.does.it
Well ending this edition with nice summer greetings as Holland at the
end of April is like being in full summer. Tulips are in more than
hundred colours and almost everyone is smiling to see the weather is so
wonderful. Hope the same happens in your surroundings. More later this
month with best greetings from Groningen in Holland.
Hans Knot
Offshore Radio Programme Names - Programmanamen Zeezenders 1958-1990
Read Hans Knot's former report