Hans Knot's International Radio Report - February 2008
It took some time to
edit this edition of the Hans Knot International Radio Report as I was
to busy with writing a long article �they were young and ready to fight
on� which � for those who haven�t read it � can be found on
here
As a result this edition of the report will be the longest since the
first one appeared way back in the year 2000. Thank you all for your
mails and memories and let�s start with Edward: �Hans, I have a box full
of what probably amount to hundreds of press cuttings on pirate radio,
mainly 1967-71. There's quite a lot on Radio 270 from earlier and plenty
on RNI. I've just moved house and would rather give them to one of your
readers than throw them out. Any takers? Happy to give my email address.
This newsletter must be your life - but well done. Regards Edwards
Waterson.� edward@waterson.me.uk
Thanks Edward, the �270 cuts� seems most interesting to me so if you
could send them, my postal address is PO Box 102 Groningen 9700 AC
Netherlands. Thanks in advance. Then a reader who found a mistake in
last issue: �Hi Hans, Just a small correction to your information about
Tony O'Reilly. He worked
on the VOP before coming to Beacon where he worked on WABC, the stations
AM service. I was Programme Manager at the time and remember him well,
in fact he lent me some VOP airchecks, which I dubbed. Regards, Bob�.
www.boblawrence.co.uk
Thanks a lot Bob and I hope you�re doing well!
Another plug for an internet site is the next one from Mike Hayes,
former Radio 270 deejay but also a writer of interesting books. On both
subjects and more you can find out on:
www.mike-hayes.nl
From a computer some 500 metres away from my home I got an email from
Jan Fr� Vos who listened to some old recordings from 1974 and heard a
nickname which was not
listed yet on the long list on
www.hansknot.com On Caroline, in the seventies, Peter van Dijken got
the nickname Petula van Dijken.
When
researching the above mentioned article I found a lot of
news cuts which will be
appearing in the months to come. The first one I sent out to one of the
Caroline people from the sixties. Hans Knot wrote: �Well Tom I found
this in my archive. Must be a fun loving memory to see this after all
those years. greetings Hans�
Tom came back with: �Hello Hans. Thank you for the cutting. Yes, that
was 1966. It was a time when Radio London was using the "Drake Format",
a format that had proven most successful in the US. The sound was new to
the British ears, because Radio Caroline South had a more conservative
"Middle-of-the-Road" type of programming. But then Ronan O'Rahilly took
over Radio Caroline South from Allan Crawford and asked if I would come
down from Radio Caroline North and revamp the programming and get the
audience back from Radio Caroline. I was delighted. And with a whole new
team of deejays: Mike Ahern, Dave Lee Travis, Robbie Dale, Keith
Hampshire and Emperor Rosko, and a new more personal and fun format, and
a spirit that was stimulating and not mechanical like the "Drake
Format", we then surged back and became the number one pirate radio
station. That was a special and rewarding time.
Thanks again for the cutting, Yours,
Tom Lodge.�
Peter Murpha, aka Peter Chicago
was next with sad news: �I am sure you will be saddened to hear that
Chris Cary, also known as
Spangles Muldoon on Caroline, has had another serious stroke whilst
working in Tenerife. He already had a stroke which affected one side of
his body. This latest stroke affects the other side, and his condition
at the moment is very poor. His partner Sybil has gone out to be with
him. The stroke took place a couple of days ago, and he remains in
hospital on the Island. Let's hope he's the strength to fight this
second battle again. For those of you who are unaware of what has
happened. Chris suffered a second stroke a couple of weeks ago and is
likely to remain in hospital for a considerable time. He is in Room
H603B at the Hospital Universitario Neustra Senora de Candelaria, Santa
Cruz de Tenerife.
His partner Sybil has a special message board where also wishes can be
placed
https://members3.boardhost.com/spangles/
Mike Brand from Israel has also an interesting site to mention
https://tinyurl.com/2poyup
Le�t go back to 1964
and Big L. �Hi Hans, here
more about Big L, after reading the report and Stephen Raindle his
message, It was just before Christmas Big L started and I followed the
station from the very first day. For me it became very clear that the
signal from the station was far much better than the Caroline one. And
above that it was on 266 that I recognised my favourite deejay from
those days again, Tony Withers, who we heard earlier on Radio Atlanta
and who I heard for the last time on Radio Caroline South in July 1964,
just before Tony Blackburn took his place. The record collection on Big
L during the first weeks was not too big and so many records returned
over and over again in the programs. I do remember songs like �The jerk�
from The Larks and �It sounds good to me� Adam Faith, which was
originally the backside of �Take a message to Martha�. Another few
special songs were �Suzie Q� from Frankie Vaughan of course �Paper
tiger� with Sue Thompson, which was played over and over again and only
made the Fab 40 in February 1965. There must have been �Fab 40� in the
early days but I can�t remember if they were ever transmitted. When
playing songs deejays mentioned sometimes songs were in the Fab 40 but
not on which place. I fear the results of the first weeks relating to
the Fab 40 will never show up. Greetings, Frank van der Heerde.
Mary Payne also has something about those days : �Hi Hans, in the latest
newsletter you wrote: Looking in my bible on the British Music Industry
I can�t find any listening of a chart success for �Amen� by the
Impressions. In fact the Impressions' single 'Amen' was a US Top Ten hit
towards the end on 1964, so if your reader Stephen heard it played on
Radio London, it must have been on one of the tapes that were brought
over from Texas. The song apparently came from a film called 'Lillies of
the Field'. PS I like �Do the 81� too. A big Northern Soul hit I
believe.�
And the third one to reflect is Paul Rusling who wrote: �Maybe this will
be of interest to Stephen Raindle, who asked you about Amen by the
Impressions and Big Lil playing it. This track was in a Sidney Pottier
film in 1964 called Lillies of the Field, and the track was a big hit in
the States. It was released in the UK at the time - I have a much
treasured (but also much battered) copy on the HMV label. I purloined
that disc from the Hull Locarno ballroom when I worked there a few years
later. Amen was a big dance floor favourite and very popular with the
Mod girls who would stand around dancing in formation to it. The
Impressions had loads of hits in the States, came from Chicago bands and
included a great soul singer Jerry Butler, and that well-known soul star
Curtis Mayfield, who did a better remembered movie soundtrack in the
1970s Super fly. Paul Rusling.�
Again sad news as one of the nowadays Caroline deejays has passed away.
Peter Moore wrote the next on Caroline internet site: �It is with shock
and deep sadness that I announce the death in the early minutes of
January 17th of my good friend and Caroline broadcaster
Rob Leighton. Aside from
the fact that he was from time to time absent from his weekly
programmes, his audience will not have known that Rob was continually
suffering from and battling with a wretched illness called Crohn�s
disease, a chronic and progressive condition that caused him much
suffering, The nature of the illness meant, among other things, that his
diet had to be precisely controlled. Any deviation caused severe
reactions. Returning from one of his many and ever more frequent spells
in hospital, I asked him what had gone wrong this time and he replied,
with just the slightest tinge of annoyance � you know, I just really
wanted to eat an orange �.The archetypal stoic Englishman, if he ever
discussed his health, he just stated that it was � a bit of a nuisance �
although I knew that he structured the recording of his programmes
within a window of time when he was not either in too much pain to make
the programme or so sedated by pain killing medication that he could not
do a proper job. He did not want his audience to think that he might be
drunk. Typically, he worried more about my dubious health than his own.
When he detected that I was under excessive stress he would warn, using
the precise pronunciation that was his on air trademark � Be careful,
you are a thoroughly good chap you know and we don�t want to lose you �.
Again it will not have been known that Rob was a brilliant technician.
Some broadcast equipment is at his home, while he waited for his health
to rally sufficiently to take it and install it overseas as a Caroline
relay. He was also hoping that in the spring he might be able to go to
Ireland top recover more equipment that he had built, which was then
destined for Italy to set up a relay there. I know that he was
frustrated in having to hand in for a time his driving licence, but that
he was waiting for the moment when he could again drive his much loved
vintage Wolseley car. Musically, he embraced the genre of progressive
folk and rock, within which areas he was highly regarded. Rob�s wife
Sharon who called me with the sad news, mentioned that an album by the
band Blue Horses had just arrived at their home in Staffordshire and
that the band had thanked Rob and Radio Caroline personally for helping
their career.
The gentlest of men, Rob never abandoned his ideals of tolerance,
freedom, love and liberty. He was genuinely perplexed when some were
unpleasant, cruel and even offensive in their criticisms of Radio
Caroline. Certainly this news makes me understand that the petty
squabbles I am presently involved in are supremely irrelevant. Peter
Moore.
6.30am Jan 17th 2008.
After
this sad news Ian is next with: �Hi Hans, �Just in reference to the
question on the Irish station.
Telstar Radio was located in Blackrock, County Louth indeed just
outside Dundalk. It broadcast on 1197 kHz AM and 88.5 FM. The
transmitter was indeed a professional Marconi job, I think capable of 1
kW.
It was on the air from 1980 until all the stations closed on December
31st 1988. During that time the station had several owners. I was at the
station a few times in 1981/82 when I worked at Boyneside Radio as a
good friend of mine Owen Larkin was a jock on Telstar. If I remember
right, Telstar replaced North East Radio for which Howard Rose worked
for a time. I was at the station a few times in 1981/82 when I worked at
Boyneside Radio as a good friend of mine Owen Larkin was a jock on
Telstar. I also worked for the man that Robbie mentioned one Hugh Hardy
of Radio Carousel. He was very passionate about radio and his beloved
country music. It was at this station I had the pleasure of working with
one of my all time heroes, the late Daffy Don Allen. Ah happy days.
Thanks for the report, Ian Biggar.�
You all can see the world is small if we talk about radio. Les Woollam
is next:
�Dear Hans, many thanks for your recent International Report - as
always, very informative. I grew-up listening to Caroline North and
characters like Don Allen and Jerry Leighton certainly shaped my future
career! I currently have a large collection of
Caroline North recordings
and photographs, but have very little detail of her time after she was
sold in 1972 - do you have any pictures of her being scrapped? Also, a
good friend of mine, I look forward to hearing from you, and thanks once
again for a truly excellent publication.� Les Woollam.
Well Les what happened to the MV
Fredericia you can read in the article I mentioned on page one of
this Hans Knot International Report. Next a photograph taken in the late
seventies in Ouwerkerk aan de IJssel (Karel Gerbers).
Les
Woollam has more interest and business which is to be found at
https://www.take2studios.co.uk
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has several new managers in important
roles.
John Catlett was named
COO; he�s a former manager of FM stations for CBS in New York and
Chicago, but since 1984 he�s developed stations abroad. He was the last
manager of Radio Luxembourg and introduced the first private radio
stations to India in 2001 for News Corp.; he�s been working as an
international broadcast consultant more recently. Catlett is taking on a
new position that incorporates the duties of former Director of
Administration Margaret Rauch. Ragona and O�Sullivan will carry out the
duties of former Director of Broadcasting Michele DuBach.
John Catlett in 1987 (Archive OEM)
RFE/RL President Jeffrey Gedmin made the announcements. RFE/RL, based in
Prague in the Czech Republic, programs to Eastern Europe, Russia, the
Caucasus and Central and South-western Asia; it is funded by Congress
through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. John Catlett was in the
eighties of last century one of the more important people behind Laser
558, which came from international waters from the MV Communicator.
Now we are talking about Laser 558, just a few weeks they programmed a
syndicate show from Dr. Demento,
a guy who is still active in radio:
https://dmdb.org/playlists/zip_pl.html
Now some time to go back to the sixties with a memory I wrote just
before Christmas about
Jos� Feliciano's live concert on
the Laissez Faire.
And talking about the radioship from Radio 355 and Radio 227, which was
also used by Swinging Radio England and Britain Radio, Svenn Martinsen
from Norway was interested in the history of the ship for many years and
has great news:
�Dear all contacts in the radio history work "The Radio Rose of Texas"!
At last we seem to have come nearer the solution around the many
questions surrounding the �The Radio Rose of Texas�, the �Olga
Patricia�, as my research in this matter has had significant
progress. The ships name in Lloyd's Directory descending from what was
earlier the �Laissez Faire�
has been found in Reedville, VA, USA where it is the name of one of a
fleet of 10-11 menhaden fishing ships owned by Omega Protein Inc.,
mostly sister ships of the radio ship, but they all are much, much
converted! It is the �Earl J Conrad jr.�, call letters WYZ9562. I am
pleased that one of my many correspondents, Ben Miller of
www.bayweekly.com, found the story so far to be so interesting he wrote
a magazine article about it. Still Serving after All These Years How
World War II ships came to catch Chesapeake menhaden a Bay Weekly
exclusive. It was published February 14th, and I hope it will bring
forward even more information.
www.bayweekly.com/year08/issuexvi7/leadxvi7_1.html
Thanks a lot Svenn and about Svenn his research more is to be found at:
www.northernstar.no/olgapatricia1322845.html
www.northernstar.no/chapter7.htm
www.northernstar.no/chapter10.htm
I hope you take a lot of time to read this interesting research from
Svenn in Norway. Jack Curtiss,
also working for the Swinging Radio England and Britain Radio
organisation added another question to the research by writing: �Really
enjoyed this. A great bit of sleuthing and detective work. One riddle we
may never solve after all these years. Who the devil was �Olga
Patricia�? The ship was called "Don Carlos" a bit earlier in the
Caribbean suggesting Hispanic ownership. Olga is a common name in Cuba,
the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Was she somebody's daughter.
girlfriend, mother? There are thousands of Olgas all over the region but
far fewer Olga Patricias. Patricia most certainly would not be a
surname. Is she still alive or are there any surviving photos of her,
since her name -beyond all others the ship once carried-stands out in
posterity. It would be fascinating to know something of the person
behind the appellation. I'd like to think not far from the Miami docks,
in a Little Havana nursing home sits a white-haired widow watching
Spanish soap operas, whose dark-eyed beauty once inspired someone to
name a ship after her. There she passes each day blissfully unaware how
her own name became inextricably linked with the history of
international broadcasting.�
We go to Washington with the next e mail: �Best wishes for the New Year
to you and your wife. Thanks for all the radio reports you've sent me in
2007. I always enjoy reading them. Recently, I was listening to channel
6 (the 60's) channel on XM here in the US. They broadcast a British
invasion type program laced with jingle from all the big offshore
station around the UK. It's quite a treat!
Check them out on the Internet (www.xmradio.com)
or through the AOL web site which features XM on their radio play-list.
Best Regards, Rene Burcksen.�
Thanks Rene, hope you still enjoy your long stay there. Rene is
originally a guy from behind the Dutch dykes and has his tulip business
there for many years.
From the USA to Ireland is a big step but
Kenny Tosh is there and
mailed the next to me: �Hello Hans. Just a few lines to let you know my
new e mail address
theoldiesman@gmail.com Also
to say that I'll be in Amsterdam on 11th - 15th March, maybe meet up for
a beer if your free! My Revival show is now on radio Six
www.radiosix.com and can be heard
0.00 GMT Sunday and 0.6.00 GMT Wednesdays, (for the early bird) Hope to
see you in March. Regards Kenny Tosh.�
Thanks Kenny and hope my readers will tune in into your program soon. A
pity we won�t meet in Amsterdam as during the week of March 10th I�m in
England for a week for my work.�
Next plug is for the new internetsite from the ultimate fifties and
sixties specialist as far as it is related to the music industry. Almost
every artist from those days knows his name as well as been photographed
with him. When you do meet the guy it�s like a waterfall. Bert Bossink
is his name: www.bertbossink.nl
I think more than 10 years a weekly update was made by Dr. Martin van
der Ven on his internet pages related to sites publishing about offshore
radio. At one stage his counted more than 1500 several sites. Of course
there is a lot of interesting things to tell. But there were also sites
with repeats of other sites and sites with too less info to mention. At
regular rotation all those sites had to be visited to see if there was
an update or even if the site still consists. As Martin had a busy life
and also does a lot bringing our hobby at a higher stage he decided to
change the index and make a Top 50 of the Offshore Sites which can be
found on
www.offshore-radio.de/links
It seems every month there must be bad news, one or two times. Of course
we all get older and this happens of course. �Hello Hans. Had the sad
news this morning of the death of
Colin Clark. Colin had
operated Laser Hot Hits on SW from Ireland for some years, and broadcast
under the name of Colin Dixon. He'd also operated Radio Gemini in the
70's and was well known and respected around the landbased and to some
extent offshore radio scene. I don't have a lot of detail at present,
his close friend Doreen phoned me this morning, before going to visit
Colin's mother. Will probably know more later this weekend. Believe that
Colin was just a little older than me, think he was 57 or 58. Colin was
one of the stalwarts of free radio.�
Later on I got more news: �It is with great sadness that we have to
announce that Colin Dixon passed away early yesterday morning. Colin was
a major part of Laser Hot Hits and kept the station going through thick
and thin. He was always a friendly and helpful person who was greatly
respected by all those involved with Laser. We all admired his �can do�
attitude, never letting any excuse get in the way from carrying out the
more difficult or unpleasant jobs to keep the station on the air. He
also had an impressive engineering knowledge that he put to good use
building high power valve transmitters for Laser. Many listeners
probably know that Colin had a long history in free radio, being
involved from the start with the long running SW station Radio Gemini
which
began
back in 1972. Laser Hot Hits then evolved from the last broadcasts of
Radio Gemini in the early 1990�s. Colin�s sudden death has come as a big
shock to all of us and he will be irreplaceable. However we shall try to
continue for the time being as a tribute to the memory of a great man.
Saturday we will remember him all day next weeks, 6275 kHz in Europe ,
on Laser hot hits, Europe's ongoing free radio history. On the Sounds
page we have added the last show recorded by Colin less than a week ago.
This includes an introduction by Martin Scott. RIP Colin. Info via
Laser Hot Hits
Another subject brings us to the female deejays: Well here we have one
which was not listed before by myself in the female deejays list. Also I
didn't find her in your 60's listing. All I can tell is her name Linda
Bass as well as that she was a former Romford Carnival Queen. Also I
don't know when she was on the station. It could be that a photo has
been taken in the on land studio in Whitstable. I found this today in my
archive in an info sheet from Free Radio News in summer of 1968.
I already sent a copy to Jon from the Pirate Hall of Fame and he
responded with: �She is listed (accompanied by another photo, probably
taken at that same time as yours) on the site 'help wanted' page
www.offshoreradio.co.uk/help.htm under the name of
Peggy Knight - which is
the name I believe she used on air. I don't remember ever hearing her.
Bob Le Roi mentions her on his site (https://www.bobleroi.co.uk/ScrapBook/SutchCityPics6/SutchCityPics6.html)
as being a "publicity stunt... a DJ for about 2 minutes". She is listed
as providing 'taped shows' in the first edition of 'Monitor'
(www.monitormag.org.uk/guernseybranch/html/monitor1.htm), a Radio City
souvenir issue. It would be great if we could
find
out more about her - or even find her. All the best, Jon.� For all those
who know more on this or any other subject please write to
Hknot@home.nl
Once again a hi and big thank you to winner Paul de Haan he always
succeeds in digging and digging and finding exclusive photographs. This
time he brings a very old photograph, probably around 1936 from the MV
Tiny in a Dutch harbour. It was later renamed in MV Zeevaart and again
in King David. Capitol
Radio made use of it.
Next Henk van Hanegem who wrote last time questions about Radio Antwerp
and he comes back with: �Thanks a lot Hans for publishing the info about
Radio Antwerp. I�ve never
known there was so much material left on the project. Here some
coordinates of the mentioned archive in Bordeaux where maybe more can be
found on the ship, MV Crocodile, they used for the station.
"Les archives d�partementales sont disponibles ici :
https://archives.gironde.fr
Archives d�partementales de la Gironde
13-25, rue d'Aviau 3081 Bordeaux Cedex t�l�phone: 05 56 52 14 66
(impasse Poyenne) t�l�phone : 05 56 29 18 16
(4, rue d'Aviau) t�l�phone : 05 56 79 06 69
t�l�copie : 05 56 79 19 93
Deux adresses pour le site Internet :
http//archives.cg33.fr or
https://archives.gironde.fr
e mail address:
archives.gironde@cg33.fr
Due to the problems they had with a sistership when launching the ship,
most of the photos shown will be of a ship launched a week earlier than
the Crocodile. Ik think the sister ships were almost identical to each
other. Also remarkable is that the first built sister ship came into
problems the same way the MV Crocodile or MV Uilenspiegel came to an
end. Maybe must have something to do with the material, concrete, they
used!
Nickname time again.
First Charlie Wolfe on Laser 558. He had quite a few and now we add
Charlie �your costy Prince� to the list. Also we mention Tony �tea cosy�
Blackburn.
Next
mail comes from Scotland: �Hi Hans, John Macdonald here. As you perhaps
know Radius 100FM in Israel has a daily
Voice of Peace programme.
Well, they have invited me to present the Wednesday edition. The show
begins on 6th February and can be heard at
www.100fm.co.il between 4.00pm and
5.00pm UK time. I have not, of course moved back to Israel. This runs in
tandem with my daily programme on Sunny Govan radio which you so kindly
took part in last year. I have recorded a big 'bank' of programmes for
them and so it looks like it will run for a while. Since I have five
years worth of hits and memories to share I hope they do not get bored
with me. My best wishes to you as always and I hope you are well.
John Macdonald
A recent visit brought Stella
and Robbie Dale finaly to the place which he used to mention in
his programs a lot, that is �The Admiral�. Very proud he was and the
next photograph was taken.
Photo Stella Robinson
Someone has done a terrific job by putting all songs, which have been in
the all time Top 2000 in December on Dutch Radio 2 on a list. No, not
only the titles but also the internet addresses were the videos with the
songs can be found on Youtube.
https://www.vindhetsnel.com/top2000video
Another internet site to visit is the �Unofficial Independent Local
Radio Site�
https://www.thisisilr.org.uk
Visit
to Antwerp and a small report came in from England: �Hi Hans! We
successfully found the Norderney on Tuesday 22 January, though my Google
Maps directions let me down in the centre of Antwerp. Google Maps
couldn't cope with the intricacies of Antwerp's one way streets in the
vicinity of the Kempisch Dok! However, we found it in the end, and were
not unduly delayed for our onward journey to Monschau in Germany. We had
a nice sunny day for our picture taking, and the attached files are a
choice selection - all except 100_0177 were taken by Patrick who's got a
very good camera and is a much better picture taker than Rod is. We
don't know who the white-haired bearded gentleman you can see Rod
talking to was, but he clearly knew about the history of the ship. In
Rod's picture you can see our car complete with Radio Caroline stickers!
Feel free to include any of our pictures in your excellent International
Radio Report; if you do, please ensure that Patrick Hannan gets due
credit for them. regards, Rod Davis & Patrick Hannan Faringdon,
Oxfordshire
Photo: Patrick Hannan
Well guys thanks a lot for sending and good to know you enjoyed your
stay in Antwerp as well as beautiful Monschau. Both a good choice.
Due to overwhelming listener demand, the
Big L Fab Forties
returned to Oldies Project on Sunday January 27th, starting all over
again from the beginning in January 1965. In conjunction with Radio
London, every Sunday from 1100 to 1300 UK time, Oldies Project will
broadcast a Fab 40 from the same week 43 years ago. From 1300, you can
hear Kees Brinkerink's feature 'Forty Years Ago' � two hours of new UK
releases and hits from exactly that week, in 1968. We expect the Oldies
Project back-up server to be fully utilised! The chart and 'Forty Years
Ago 'are both repeated weekly, he following Wednesday from 1800 UK time.
www.oldiesproject.com We hope
you enjoy listening - while looking at the chart on the Radio London
website! Mary Payne. Director RADIO LONDON Ltd Exclusive Radio London
Merchandise.
https://www.radiolondon.co.uk
An email from Holland and Thijs Wassens: �Dear Hans, Thanks for yet
another fine report on the radio memories we share. There is one thing I
miss. In my youth (the 70s) I wasn't very picky: I listened to
everything, even to the official public radio stations, like Hilversum
3! I have very few recordings of these stations, e.g., a recording from
1 September 1977 of NOS-maal with Frits Spits. One of the main reasons
for commercial offshore radio was the bad quality of public pop radio,
if there was any at all. What I would like to know: how bad was it
really? Is there somebody out there that can show me links to recordings
from (Dutch) public pop radio programs from the 60s/70s/early 80s? What
about VARA's Zoekplaatje? Or the family Kachel (I believe from the KRO)?
Or even Arbeidsvitaminen from AVRO and Welkom bij Barend from the NCRV?
Only thing I have is the banter of Dik Voormekaar. I remember that each
major public broadcasting company had a special day on Hilversum 3.
Monday AVRO, Tuesday VARA, Wednesday NCRV, Thursday TROS and Friday
Veronica (and some others). Any audio material would be highly
appreciated. Best regards, Thijs Wassens, OTR collector.
Thijs.Wassens@getronics.com
Well in the meantime I�ve sent my list to Thijs and even exchanged some
recordings. Never forget Thijs that Hilversum 3 was put on the air to be
a competitor for Veronica in 1965. Due to the fact all public
organisation had to share the airtime (in those days the station left
the air at 18 hrs) they never came to an idea of horizontal scheduled
programs. Also they didn�t knew what the word pop station mend. It took
up till mid 1970 that programs with light classical music disappeared as
well as other non related pop music. Everyone who wants to exchange
memories, ideas and recordings can write to Thijs at his above e mail
address. I never heard before of this Thijs Wassens but the world is
very small. I worked in Hospital Radio in Groningen between 1969 and
1978. Since in contact with Thijs I learned that in the year I left the
station he came in to stay another 10 years there!
Time for an e mail from Australia: �Another afterthought from again
reading (re-reading) earlier issues of your newsletter - John Junkin,
the late actor and comedian, was an early voice for Caroline. I'm not
sure he was broadcast, as he recorded at the Dean Street studios of
Radio Atlanta for the early Caroline programmes but then opted out of
the project - he was concerned about he legality and any effect of that
on his career. He recorded under the supervision and tuition of people
like myself, Bryan Vaughan, Tony Windsor and so on and the programmes
were complied by Ken Evans. In other words, the early Caroline people
were trained and recorded in our Atlanta studios at 47 Dean Street Soho
W1 and we taught them. Simon Dee was another who came. These were said
to be audition tapes but they may have been intended for broadcast as at
that time, Allan Crawford was intending to tape all programmes in London
and perhaps Ronan was thinking of doing the same. I'm not sure on that.
I do know we all wondered what was going on and why Allan was allowing
this to happen, but at that stage, he was caught up in his confusion
about what was going on and still thought Caroline was going to let
Atlanta go on the air first, since it had been the first to set up, as
had been discussed between Allan and Ronan.
Colin Nichol�
Well
John Junkin made it to the air and Colin has already the recording which
you can find at:
https://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/djsj2k.htm#junkin
But Colin had another remark: �I'm confused about the question from
someone in one of your reports about the height of the Galaxy's mast -
the answer is in one of your publications in Soundscapes: �Galaxy
leaving Miami with its towering 212 feet (64,5 meters) tall aerial mast�
Thanks Colin. Indeed if you go to www.soundscapes.info and write in the
search modem �Galaxy� a lot of articles and photographs about Radio
London will appear.
Colin has sent a lot of photos which will be soon in his gallery on
www.offshore-radio.de
Photo from the Colin Nichol files.
Crew on the MV Mi Amigo, Maureen Blackburn in the middle.
My webmaster Martin van der Ven has put on line a wonderful story in
Dutch written by Walter Galle about his experiences with Radio
Waddenzee. Next to that 56 exclusive photographs of the rebuilding of
the radioship are on the same site. Either on
here or on
www.offshore-radio.de
Of course we won�t
forget the updates of our friends in radio and so we start off with
Bob LeRoi this time: �Sad
to hear the news of Rod Allen�s death on 11th January particularly as
we�re compiling a new series on the groups of Reg Calvert: The Fortunes
were managed by Kings Agency so the group were naturally heavily
promoted on Radio Sutch & City. Rod was principle & front man of the
Fortunes one of the original best acts of the 1960�s. Over the years
I�ve interviewed the group a number of times & found Rod a lovely chap.
In Scrapbook: We take to the high seas again with the next instalment of
the Laser Story it�s Hot Hits 576. The MV Fredericia & Medway FM Pages
have been updated & in addition there are pictures from the TLR (Thanet
Local Radio) Re-Union. The Pirates come ashore with a new book on Radio
Jackie 'A very English struggle� available from the Offshore Shop. �One
Subject One Link� reflects on the on-air discussion in 1966 on the
future of British Radio & asks �What went wrong�
www.bobleroi.co.uk
Second one is Jon at the Pirate Hall of Fame: �What's new this month?
� Correspondent Brian Cullen has provided some great Caroline North
memorabilia and photos from a 1967 day-trip he took out to the
Fredericia;
� following last month's addition of the Caroline North ship's plans, we
are now delighted to add the plans of the southern ship, the MV Mi
Amigo, courtesy of John S. Platt;
� we hear from former Radios Scotland & 270 DJ Peter Bowman;
� we add photos of Caroline South newsman Bob Larkins and seventies
Caroline engineer Jeremy Chartham - and discover how he got given his DJ
name!;
� and the gradually growing 'Seventies Supplement' reaches the offshore
disc-jockeys of that decade whose names begin with E or F. There are a
few we haven't been able to track down so any extra information anyone
can provide would be most welcome.
� Since the last full update I have also added a tribute to Radio
London's Dave Dennis (Neil Spence on Atlanta and Invicta) who sadly died
at the end of December. www.offshoreradio.co.uk
David Leadbeater sent us the next news: �Tony Blackburn is to continue
more than four decades in radio with a weekend breakfast show on 102.2
Smooth Radio in London. He was the first DJ on BBC Radio 1 in 1967 and
has since worked across the BBC and commercial broadcasters on radio and
television. In 2002 he won �I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here�. He
started at Guardian Media Group-owned Smooth on February 16. Programme
controller Gavin McCoy said: "Tony is a consummate professional and an
entertainer through and through. We are over the moon he�ll be leading
the charge on the weekends."
Blackburn commented: "Smooth Radio is a wonderful station with a growing
audience and a music format I love. Doing the weekend breakfast show
gives me the opportunity to really enjoy what I�ll be doing and with the
team, deliver a great show."
The next internet page I�ve mentioned some years ago but feel free to
revisit it as there is a lot of new audio material from Radio Nord days
to listen too.
https://radiohistoria.jvnf.org/indexnord.htm
Another internet plug: ITV News report on Radio Northsea International
1970, Andy Archer and Roger Day interviewed on the MEBO 2:
https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Iq-oe7DVs
Question time now: �Hi Hans, Does Tiggy Walker now �qualify� to be on
the list of female Pirate DJ's? This as she took part in Johnny�s
program on Pirate Radio Essex? I think she would love to be on it ! Best
regards Stuart�.
It's a nice gesture Stuart but the qualification is not correct. She was
not on international waters and the station also had a licence. With all
the other people listed on the female list as well as the nicknames we
have always followed this two rules. But nice thinking to add her.�
I sent the answer in an e mail to Stuart who reflected with: �I agree. I
will tell her that she �failed� the test :-))�
Bob Le Roi wrote : �I don't know if you were ever told but I've had
several nick-names over
the years some not so nice Archer has a lot to answer to! But the one
that's stuck is 'Salty' since I'm often sailing and out on the seas.�
RTLZ presentator
Nico Steenbergen has
stopped presenting a program on this television business program from
RTL. He�s going to retard. But behind the scenes of the program Nico
will be doing some work as final editor. Therefore he raised his own
company and will be hired by RTL. Nico started his media career in the
sixties with the Hospital Radio Station from Lucas Hospital in
Amsterdam. From there he went in 1971 to Radio Northsea International.
He was one of the original Driemaster live team as well as newsreader on
220. He also worked for AVRO Radio and TROS Actua. In 1992 he joined the
news team at RTL News.
Mike Terry as well as Robbie Dale mentioned that the Sun brought a
special on February 8th concerning a possible forthcoming movie: �Love
Actually� director Richard Curtis is planning to make a film about a
pirate radio station, a report claims. According to The Sun, the
filmmaker is bringing the story of Radio Caroline to the big screen. The
station started life on a boat off the coast of Felixstowe, Suffolk in
1964 and is believed by many to have been the precursor of BBC Radio 1.
It transmitted on-and-off until 1991, but a legal, onshore version
remains in operation. Welsh actor Rhys Ifans is in line to take the lead
role after starring in Curtis' 1999 movie Notting Hill. A source said:
"Richard and Rhys loved working together and have remained friends ever
since. Rhys is the perfect man for the job and he will be hilarious."
The movie - entitled "The Boat
That Rocked" - will be a change of direction for Curtis, who is
known for romantic comedies such as �Four Weddings and a Funeral�. The
insider added: "Hugh Grant isn't in it and there will be no cheesy
soundtrack. It's rock 'n' roll all the way. The film is set during an
exciting time for music and showbiz. DJs became friends of the stars and
the story will be brilliant on the big screen."
https://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/a88931/curtis-to-make-pirate-radio-film.html
Offshore
98 was a funny project only on air with Eastern 1999. A short
movie on the project, where I also presented two programs, is on
internet. And no, you won�t see me on the movie:
https://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=rAdioLEX
During the last two issues the subject
�Peace� from Peter was in
the report with contributions from several persons. Peter Timmerman has
another fact he want to add: Peter Gosling also took part in the
collective Chorale who had a minor hit in the Netherlands with �Riu
riu�. They reached number 28 and were for 4 weeks in the chart in 1978.
Gosling played Keyboards and could also be heard in vocals.
Graham Gill phoned me one
evening in January and told me he went to England to visit the funeral
of a very good friend from Caroline days.
Bob (Robert) Ginger died
late December as a result of long cancer. Bob was 55 years of age and
one of the then young guards annex technicians on board the MV Mi Amigo
and MV Fredericia when the ships were in the harbour of Zaandam early
seventies.
Plug time again for a newsreport on RNI I don't remember seeing at the
time:
ITN News reports on the aftermath of the bombing of Radio Nordsee
International (RNI) off the Dutch coast in 1971. This was an attempt by
rival offshore station Radio Veronica to put RNI off the air.
Desmond Hammill interviews deejay
Crispian St. John (aka
Jay Jackson/Howard Rose)
https://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-Trws4Nq2Ko
Let�s go back to the article I published and some of the response I
already got on:
www.offshore-radio.de/HansKnot/march1968.htm
�Thanks for your extra special 40 years later article. It�s totally
fascinating.
Every good wish, John Allen, Beckenham, Kent....aka an anorak!�
�Hi Hans, Just to let you know how much I enjoy every news letter, but
especially your �Extra Special Report 40 years later� article. As you
know I was on the MV Mi Amigo as a radio engineer for a short time, just
before the marine act enforcement come into effect. It was not until
recently that I started to hear of the vessels history before and after
my time aboard. Reading your article was very special to me, and relived
those moments in time paragraph by paragraph, as they unfolded. In 1975
I was posted to Bahrain for an international company whose main business
was marine services of all kinds. In which we carried out marine
survey�s on behalf of Lloyds and BV insurance companies, for repair to
ships inflatable life rafts, ships radio room equipments, emergency
transmitters etc. Without which no marine insurance certificate could be
given to any ship, once the current certificate expired. It was this
aspect mentioned in your article, that must have played an important
part in the Dutch company�s decision to return the ships to Holland.
Unpaid tender fees etc on their own seem insufficient reason for this
action alone, and were unlikely to have provoked payment. Interestingly,
I meet many marine hull safety inspectors whilst in Bahrain; none I
think would have taken kindly to putting their name to the marine safety
certificate with a hundred foot mast hanging on the bow or aft part of
the ships superstructure. This raises the question who or how the ships
obtained the marine safety certification in the first place? Perhaps
they never had one, or perhaps it was unnecessary due to the low tonnage
of the ships, perhaps one of your reader will know marine law and able
to answer this. Best regards,
Sheridon Street, Chiang Mai, Thailand.�
Well Sheridon thanks for the long e mail. Surely I�ve somewhere in my
archive documents that are certificates for the anchor supplied to the
Mi Amigo as a radio ship. I don�t think they can leave a legal wharf
without a certificate. But maybe one of the readers can tell more and
tell it to Hknot@home.nl
Next response from England from one of the key role players in August
1967: �Dear Hans. Thank you for passing on this wonderful piece of
writing. It was good to se that photo of Robbie and Stella. Tiggy and I
took a photo outside Singel 160 when we were over for the Radio Day but
unfortunately they got erased by mistake. All the very best to you.
Johnnie Walker.�
Next to Johnnie also Robbie Dale
responded with: �Thank you for the special article, I glanced over the
special; you should send a copy to the film makers. A lot of good back
ground information and research. Greetings Robbie
In the article I mentioned the fact that Ronan O�Rahilly warned that he
had a tape in which the secret life of Prime Minister Howard Wilson was
told. He even warned that he could transmit it on Caroline at a certain
stage.� Well in the seventies something happened again with a tape. It�s
Clive Warner who was on
the MV Mi Amigo and tells for the first time this story to a wide
public.
�It was not the only Wilson tape. A couple of days before the general
election - this would be, what, 1974? I believe so. Anyway, a small boat
came out from one of the BBC local radio stations. One of the BBC
presenters was on it, and he came on board and handed me a reel-to-reel
tape of an interview done by one of the Dimblebys. This was the audio
sound track taken off a VTR I believe. The tape, which was never
broadcast, was eye-opening stuff. The mild-voiced Dimbleby soon got
around to asking Wilson how much he was being paid for his memoirs.
At this point Wilson completely �lost it� and started raving away at the
top of his voice. As I recall it went like this: "You never asked *him*
how much he paid for his bloody yacht, did you? Eh? How much?"
(Referring to Ted Heath and the Morning Cloud). Dimbleby tried to calm
him down but by now Wilson really started to rave. �I would love to see
the video�, he started shouting, "Is this being recorded?" Dimbleby:
"Well yes Prime Minister, we are doing a programme after all." Wilson:
"Turn the cameras off now! Turn them off!" (Dimbleby agrees to stop
recording but of course the reels kept turning). Wilson:"This had better
not leak! Or you'll all be in serious trouble!" Dimbleby tried to
reassure him: �it won't leak.� Wilson: "I've never been to Broadcasting
House yet without leaks all over the bloody place!" and goes on to make
various threats involving the security services.
It was evident to those of us who heard the tape that Wilson was
completely off his rocker. Raving mad. And this was our leader, for
heaven's sake. I was already very anti Wilson and thought (still do)
that he was little better than a crook. So there I was with the election
coming up and a half decent chance of scuppering the Labour government
and I had this tape in my hands. What would you have done? I was in an
agony of indecision. On the one hand I desperately wanted to put this
tape on the air and was in fact on the point of doing so. On the other
hand I had very real fears that if I did, the SBS would shortly be out
to scupper *us*.
I can't recall discussing it with Tony Allen or Andy Archer, and I
certainly dared not mention it to Ronan over the ship to shore, because
(a) I was certain that Ronan would tell me to throw it into the sea
(maybe I was wrong about that) and (b) obviously I was aware that our
communications were constantly monitored by the Blue Meanies. In the end
I decided not to air the tape, basically because of the above mentioned
fear of the consequences vis-�-vis being sunk, secondly because I felt I
had no right to do that without Ronan's knowledge, and third, because I
felt it would have been unprofessional. So if anyone has a video of that
and wouldn't mind letting me know of a location where I can download it.
I sometimes think I should have put it on air every hour. I wonder how
things would have turned out. Well, one thing for sure, if the
population had turned against Wilson and thrown the government out, the
incoming one would have taken direct action to eliminate the ships. All
governments are paranoid about who can put material on air... and if
Wilson had stayed in, he would have had us torpedoed. So I suppose I did
the right thing. Best wishes and thanks again for another great Knot
Report! Clive Warner / Corell.�
One question which came in my mind is what happened to the tape you�ve
got onboard. A interesting story to read by the way. Clive Corell has a
new Science Fiction novel out called �Appointment in Samara�, from which
the first chapter is now on internet.
www.citiria.com/citiriapublishing/fiction.html
Another response on the article came from the USA: �Dear Hans, Thank you
very much for the article, explaining the MOA and the demise of
Caroline. I am an American and have always taken free radio for granted.
I remember seeing a program on American television in 1966 about Radio
London. I was just a young teenager then, but I thought, �How odd to
broadcast from a ship!� The program went on to explain the BBC�s
monopoly on broadcasting, its ban on rock n� roll, and how it was
financed by tax payments. I served in the military in the early 70�s and
enjoyed the broadcasts from Radio Northsea International, which came in
well at my duty station in Germany. Over the years I have researched the
history of off-shore broadcasting in England and other European
countries. What a rich history! What a sad ending. Still, I consider
myself fortunate to have been able to experience RNI and (on occasion)
Veronica. I have worked in broadcasting in the USA all of my adult life.
On days I am not too busy, I enjoy visiting the web sites dedicated to
the offshore stations from the 60�s and 70�s, and remembering those late
nights in Germany listening to RNI. Thanks again!� Larry Selzle
KUNC Chief Engineer
Community Radio for Northern Colorado
www.kunc.org
It�s so interesting to see from where the response comes. Offshore Radio
has made a lot of friends through the decades and as we saw from the
above e mail from Larry and all the other ones coming in, it was not
only in Western Europe but all over the world. It took a lot of time to
do the research but seeing the response it was not for nothing.
Here�s another response: �Dear Hans, Thanks for sending me the article,
very interesting. I'm not so sure about the Wijsmullers pulling out over
insurance problems. I did not know the actual fate of the 'Fredericia'
it was sad to see the picture of her aground and partially dismantled, I
would of hoped that she had a quicker dismissal. You are always welcome
to contact me if you feel that I can give you any information. Best
Regards Hans and thanks again, George Hare�.
Thanks a lot George. On the withdrawn of the certificate and the
insurance problems one of the Wijsmuller Brothers affirmed the facts in
the Dutch newspaper �Telegraaf� in early summer 1968.
George Hare worked as
Caroline North's on-shore agent. Perhaps as far as the DJs were
concerned, his most important function was to make sure that they got
paid, but the payroll was just a small part of his job and he often
arranged functions and promotions for the station. More about that on:
https://www.radiolondon.co.uk/caroline/george/memorabilia.html
�Hans, Just a quick note to thank you for the fascinating special
article. Well done on a rally excellent piece of work. I hope that you
can do some more of these 'specials' in the future. One good subject to
cover would be Caroline from when the Mi Amigo sank until when the Ross
Revenge arrived in the North Sea. I am sure there is an interesting tale
to tell! Kind Regards Robert.�
Maybe, when time permits, I will dive into my archive to try this
subject. But I know this will not in 2008 or 2009 as I�m far too busy
with several other projects. In the meantime take a regular visit to the
on line journal for media and music culture at
www.soundscapes.info
You can find a lot of articles written by several persons, including me,
in English, German and Dutch.
Well that�s all for this months edition of the Hans Knot Report, back in
late March! Hope you enjoyed it with greetings
Hans Knot.
Offshore Radio Programme Names - Programmanamen Zeezenders 1958-1990
Read Hans Knot's former report