Hans
Knot's International Radio Report - June 2004
Welcome
to this report, which starts on May 16th. Last month I had already
planned the next info but there was space lacking to use it because I
had already too much photographs in the report.
April 29th was a special day for Juul
Geleick. He worked as technician for Radio Veronica and later for
decades for the TROS. This public broadcaster began her broadcasting as
RTV Noordzee from a platform in the Northsea, way back in 1964. The
platform is still off the coast of Noordwijkerhout and is used this year
by the TROS for several programs to pay attention to the fact it all
happened for the first time 40 years ago. So Juul went out on the 29th
and wrote: Herewith some of the 200 photos I took during my trip to the
REM island. On that day it was exactly 39 years and 9 months ago that
Radio Northsea came on the air for the very first time. On one of them
you see me with the 192 cap on, which in the meantime is lost in the
Northsea as it was blown of my head when the helicopter started again. 
It was a wonderful day and on the isle are 19 beds, so a few of my
colleagues decided to stay overnight. You can use the photos for your
famous radio report.
Thanks a lot Juul for sharing your memory to this day and sharing the
photos with all the readers.
Steve Szmidt, an avid Caroline man in these days, wrote in to thank me
for the latest edition of the International report and also sent his
report on Radio Caroline. I will take some of the interesting notes so
that you know the latest on Caroline too:
Steve on May 16th:
I have still been listening to Caroline and Seagull,
although from the first of June I and other listeners will no longer be
able to listen to the later via Sky Channel 913, because Apple FM has
sold their airtime slot to a higher bidder. Hopefully their imminent
1602 AM transmissions will be of sufficient audible quality in Kent.
Details from www.radioseagull.com
Sadly one of Caroline's best presenters, Roger Day, has not been able to
do many shows recently. Initially this was due to the 40th Anniversary
celebrations and other birthday parties that he had to attend up and
down the country, plus presenting shows on BBC Kent (covering for his
old buddy Dave Cash) and Pirate Essex. Roger described these as some of
the happiest days of his life. Over the next weeks Roger will be doing "paid for"
shows for Saga in the West Midlands on both Saturdays and Sundays. He
did manage to do around one and half-hours last Saturday evening, after
what turned out to be a bit of disastrous day. Tony Christian was
absent, with no cover for his 9.00 -12.00 hours slot (normally Dave Fox
stands in for him), Pandora and guests were on as usual from 12.00 till
15.00. Roger had arranged for Dave Foster to cover his slot, but poor "Fozzy" was unable to
do so, because he had lost his voice! When Roger got back from the West
Midlands, he was bored at home and surprised to find out there had been
only one "live" presenter on all day, so he went to the
Maidstone studios and did a show from 18.30 to around 20.00 hours. Mark
Dezzani was on as usual at 21.00 till midnight. After listening to the
start of Mark's show, I turned over to Seagull to hear Chris B. At first
I thought I had failed to do so properly, because I was still hearing
the dulcet tones of Mr. Dezzani. After a few moments I knew I was indeed
tuned to Seagull, when the voice of Chris Bent popped up in the
background. Mark was doing a guest appearance, on a programme recorded in Seborga, Italy during Chris's recent travels. It
was nice to see this harmony between Caroline and Seagull, especially
with Chris. Finally, apparently last Saturday's Worldspace transmissions
carried for much of the time, the audio of BBC 1 instead of Caroline,
because when Sky do system updates this can reset some Digibox's from
Radio Caroline to Channel 101 (BBC 1). The answer would be for WS to
replace their Sky Digibox with a Free to Air (FTA) satellite receiver to receive the broadcasts of
Radio Caroline. These can be purchased for as little as £79, at UK
retail prices.
Caroline promoted the first open day of the "MV Communicator",
the former Laser 558 ship. An advert featuring the voice of Jessie
Brandon, a former Laser DJ, gave details of the open weekend in
Lowestoft, Suffolk on the 8th and 9th of May. The ship is currently
being restored as a working radio ship. You can find out more details at
the ships' dedicated website http://www.mvcommunicator.com
Last week was the annual Sony Radio Academy Awards 2004 and it was nice
to see that Johnnie Walker, in Radio Caroline's 40th Anniversary year,
win the "Outstanding Contribution Gold Award". Elton John, who
gave recognition to Johnnie for helping him to launch his career,
presented the award to him. Well done Johnnie! "Man's fight for
freedom" and Johnnie's recent fight for life have been deservedly
recognised. For full details of the award,
including a web cast, go to http://www.radioacademy.org/awards/
for for
the feature specifically about Johnnie http://www.radioawards.org/winners04/win04.htm
(Radio Caroline, MOA etc are mentioned). L A Steve
Well thank you so much for the update on Caroline Steve from
Canterbury..
I can reveal that there will be a big reunion from the Class of
73/74.
People who will be attending on this reunion have worked either on the
ship or on land for the Caroline organisation in 1973 and 1974. Already
a lot of people have been found including office people, crew members
and deejays. At a later stage more info on this reunion but we would
like you the reader to help and search for some people who can't find:
Peter Hayes (known as the Cheshire Flyer) he was an engineer who did
programmes in 1974, René van der Snoeck who worked in the
office. Graeme
Kay (English service of Radio Mi Amigo),
he came from Australia and Eddie
de Boeck who was Sylvan Tack's representative in The
Hague (a very funny
man!). [Andy Archer, Elija van den Berg and Teun Visser.]
So if you know anything, just mention it in an e-mail to Hknot@home.nl
Then an e-mail is coming in from Belgium from former Radio Caroline
newsreader Dave Williams: Thanks for your latest report, it is always
very comprehensive and contains a lot of information about many of my
ex-colleagues. In the report you copied a letter from Paul Rusling which
made mention of a list of persons at the Caroline reunion which you got
from Chris Cortez. I would be very interested to see that list if you
have a copy. We had a fantastic day, but inevitably we missed people, it
would be great to have a better idea of exactly who was there (and who
we missed!!). regards Dave Williams.
In the meantime I forwarded the complete list to Dave, the one which was
published in the 1st of May edition of the International Report. Maybe
Dave you could tell the reader some more about what you've been doing
since we heard you for the last time on Caroline way back in the late
sixties?
From California a very nice remark regarding me saying no thank you to
an invitation to come over to Vancouver:
Thanks, as always, for the report. Fascinating reading. It's a real
shame that flying is a problem for you-- I wonder, one day, if getting
to the U.S. by boat might be possible? I hate flying, and I've been
looking into cheap ways to do it by sea. It works out that you can
travel over on a freightliner in about 5-7 days for about the price of a
hotel room each night. It might be worth thinking about. We'd surely love to drive you
around California to hook up with all the pirates out here. Yes thanks a
lot for that one and maybe I will consider when I've stopped working and
there s more time for such a trip.
Also in the above e-mail from California Tom Lodge was
mentioned again: Sorry to read about Tom Lodge's immigration problems;
it's very awkward, and I went through the same thing for a while. Hope
it works out. He seems like a lovely guy. And listening to the interview
he did with John Patrick on Caroline over Easter, I've got to say that I
love his philosophy of radio. ..we need more Tom Lodges. Cheers, Shaun
B.
Then from Scandinavia an short note from Svenn Martinsen: Thanks very
much for the report and the plug, but the link is: www.northernstar.no/konigs.htm
From far away from Australia a message from Colin
Nichol: Hello Hans Thanks for your latest Report. Fascinating to know where
everyone is and what they are doing. I heard a while back of the
possibility of yet another pirate reunion in Toronto and Mary Payne at
Radio London has provided more information. I copy it here to you. It
seems we are getting to the point where former (I won't say 'old')
pirates could travel the world attending get-togethers!
Hi Hans,
Thanks for the report; I always find them very interesting. I thought
you might like to know, I've joined the team at Radio Seagull and my 60
Jukebox programs will be broadcast at 10 AM CET (9 GMT) every Tuesday
and again 12 hours later at 10 PM CET the same day. Radio Seagull has
struggled in the past, but I can see them doing much better in the
future. Any of my old mates who'd like to join me, I'll see ya at 9 and
9 on Tuesday on the internet at nine AM and on SKY channel 913 in the
evening. See Ya!
Phil Mitchell
Phil worked on Radio Caroline in the Seventies as well on Abe s Voice of
Peace. One of the chapters in the forthcoming book The wet and wild
history of Radio Caroline is written by Phil about his days onboard the
MV Mi Amigo.
The 4th ERKRATH RADIO DAY will be held on Sept. 11th. 2004
This day has nothing to do with the original Radio Days which are
organized by The Foundation for Media communication since 1978 and will
be held on October 2nd in Amsterdam but it s a German version, which is
held for the 4th time this year. The event is scheduled from 14.00 noon
to 21.00 hours in the rooms of the Observatory of Sternwarte Neanderhöhe
at D-40699 Erkrath .Program : a new book release presented by author
W.D.Roth , South Tyrolean early broadcasters / the Offshore- 98 video /
Radio Caroline 40 years / Netherlands and North-Rhine-Westfalia:
nothing new on AM after the new frequency plan? The entrance fee is
7.-EURO. Preliminary registration or requests please to: Jan Sundermann,
Millrather Weg 74, D 40699 Erkrath: e-mail: rp10510@online-club.de
As told earlier the annual Radio Day organized by Foundation for Media
Communication and Freewave Media Magazine will be held at Hotel Casa 400
in Amsterdam, very near to the Amstel railroad station. Also we told
that former Radio 227 deejay Look Boden will be interviewed about Radio
227 in the past and at present. Probably Jessie Brandon will come over
from the States to talk about her career on Laser 558 and afterwards and
now we can tell you that also the class of 1973/1974 is joining in. Andy
Archer, Elija van den Berg, Brian Anderson and Teun Visser are working
in getting together as much people as possible, who worked on Radio
Caroline in 1973/1974. A part of this group will be sitting around the
table to talk to the public about their memories, whereby Andy Archer
will be the anchorman.
I can tell you some of the names already of the people who will be
seeing each other again most of them haven t seen each other since 1974:
Here is the list of definites (so far):
Elija, Brian Anderson, Teun and Andy Archer (the so called organizing
committee!), Captain Jaap Taal. (now 84), Captain Aad Meyer, Charlotte
Ribbelink (Charlotte was the office manager), Johnny Jason, Robert de
Goede or Ad Roberts as most of the people know him. Further more Bob
Noakes, Dennis King, Graeme Gill, Will van der Steen, Peter van Dam,
Bert Bennett, Jaap de Haan (engineer, and has a wonderful film which he
is bringing with him), Peter and Koos van Dijken (crew members), Leon
Keezer and Robb Eden.
Other contacts which are made are with Norman Barrington, Mike Hagler,
Peter Chicago, Jeremy Bender and Steve England. They will decide on a
later stage if they will join in.
On May 19th an e-mail comes in with answers on the question who are the
people on the photo, which was in the last issue of the report and
taken onboard the Voice of Peace. Lucky there a lot of crew members and
former deejays of the station reading this report and the mail comes
from Scandinavia where Stevie Gordon is living nowadays:
Dear Hans. the man with the moustache standing by the deck rail is
Charly, the ship's famous French chef. In the background, the fellow
with the curly hair is an Englishman called Maurice who was employed as
a helper. The person in the foreground with his back to the camera is
probably Reuven Levi, the station's long serving Israeli DJ. Sorry, I
can't remember the name of the man standing next to Charly, but I am
fairly certain that he was one of the English DJs. Also, can't identify
the person looking over Reuven's shoulder. By the way, there was another
lady, a rather attractive young lady, who worked on the VOP around the
same time. Her name was Else (I hope that is the correct spelling) and
she was on Dutch. She was onboard together with her boyfriend (who I
think was called Wilhelm), and like Maurice they worked as helpers -
doing a bit of everything apart from going on the air! I am sure you
will be able to make it down the road to Harlingen when Sietse and the
team find the time and energy for a 1602 launch party. I am looking
forward to meeting you again, then.
Thanks Stevie, and yes I will come to the Party whenever it will be held
and it fits in my agenda as it will be good to see you again too!
As Stevie was mentioning the name of the Dutch lady I was looking on my
consisting list of female offshore deejays and she wasn't there yet. So
we can add Else to it. On Mi Amigo can be added on the same list that
Haike Dubois also presented programs under the name Loes . And she had a
nickname too: Roodborstje (Red Breast).
While listening to some very old jingles produced in the sixties
including station KLAK and performed by Anita Kerr and her Singers (Thanks
to J.B) a message comes in from Mark de Haan that the decision to take
the site Marine Broadcasters from
the internet last August, has
been withdrawn by the management and after long waiting the site can be
find back at:
www.marinebroadcasters.tk
Which is slightly different to the one used earlier on.
Then again a female presenter can be added to our list. I was preparing
an article about media and music memories regarding the year 1964 and
during the research work I found an article about Annie M.G. Schmidt, a
very famous author of books for children who died a couple of years ago.
In 1964 she was working on writing a musical and in the interview to a
magazine she told that during the past 14 months she had worked with
many pleasure for both Radio Luxemburg as well as Radio Veronica.
Peter van Dam, who started his radio career in 1972 as Peter Brian on
Radio 199 has worked for a couple of offshore radio stations like Radio
Caroline, Radio Joepie, Radio Atlantis and Radio Mi Amigo. Also he
worked through the years for several public radio stations in the
Netherlands like the KRO, AVRO and TROS. There we the commercial radio
stations in Holland who had him on the pay role too like Radio 10 and
Radio 192. The later didn't pay him and other deejays anymore and so
earlier this year he decided to quit the station. Since the end of May
Peter, who originates from Belgium, is programme director or the Belgium
radio chain Radio Contact. Next to making the program schedule he will
work on training the presenters for the station.
The latest listening figures on radio in Holland (March/April) still
give a number 1 place for the Sky Radio with 11.3% but they re steady
followed by youth station Radio 538, which reached up till 11,2%. Third
in the ranking is Radio 2, the public station, with 10.8%. Radio 1 has
5.8% on place 4, followed by 3FM, the national pop station at place 5
with 8%. Radio 10 is at 7 withy 4.7% and Arrow Rock at 13 with 1,8%. A
pity for the two last stations is that the enormous amount of British
listeners, they both have, are not counted.
In the last week of May thousands of school kids in the Netherlands had
to do their examinations. The VWO, the schools who have the kids who are
planning to go to the University in the future, had to write an article
for the final editor of the Veronica Magazine which could be published
next year when the organization is 45 years old. Well they got some
newspaper cuts, some backside info and so they could write and
historical article.
I don t know what will happen when these future students have to do
proper scientific research as several mistakes where in the paper: the
organization was established in 1959 and not 1960. That was the year the
first broadcast was. A further mistake was given with an newspaper cut
in which the demonstration in The Hague (18-4-1973) was mentioned. Above
the newspaper article the date April 18th 1972 was mentioned. Also the
slogan which was used was totally wrong in the paper. When talking about
the very first official program Veronica did as public broadcaster the
paper mentioned the year 1976 and as stations Hilversum 3. Well it was
December 27th 1975 on Hilversum 4. By the way a very historical day as
Hilversum 4 was on the air for the very first time in the Netherlands as
classical station and it was the honor for Radio Veronica not only
opening their very first broadcast as public station but also opening
the new classical station. Another case of rewriting the history.
And then a message from Tel Aviv which came in on May 31st and which
made me laughing while reading: A mole has been discovered in the
Israeli Ministry of Communications. The person was warning land based pirate radio stations of imminent raids,
therefore giving them time to dismantle the equipment and flee, before
the authorities reached them. Suspicion was aroused, when the ministries
successes in the past few months grew less and less. An undercover
operation was set up to trace and track the person tipping off the
stations, and after a few weeks, the person was found, fired, and legal
proceedings started against him.
Thanks Mike and keep us informed!
The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame has been updated and you can see the June
update now. The webmaster marks the fortieth anniversary of the first broadcasts
from Radio Invicta, Britain's fourth offshore station, with some
exclusive photos once owned by the station boss, the late Tom Pepper.
Also there is part three of Roger Scott's photo album - this time
pictures dating from his time on Radio 390. There are also some more recent
pictures of Red Sands Fort, the home of both these stations. There are
some extra bits of memorabilia, more information, a couple of audio
clips, the news that Tommy Vance is set to rocks the airwaves again.....and
more. Go and have a long look, but don t forget to come back to the
international radio report: www.offshoreradio.co.uk
A lot of questions came in during the last week regarding the licenses
given away to all kind of organizations to start their own medium wave
station, starting at last at June 1st 2004. Those licenses were given
away early last year and of course we heard some test transmissions of
some stations, including the test programs from Wonderful Radio London
last July. Well all the organizations which have got the license and are
not on the air yet, have got a three month extension so they still have
the time to start with their programs before September 1st this year.
Also in the letter it was mentioned that this will be the only extension
and so the stations which are not on the air on September 1st will loose
their license.
A long e-mail came in regarding the early land based pirate stations,
which came on the air in England after the MOB became act in 1967. It
was written by Freek Jonkers and a small part I want to publish in the
international report: It s not too long ago I read an article in which
was claimed that Radio Free London was the very first station which came
illegally on air from land after the Marine Offences Act came in. I
think it was early 1968 the station could be heard and after a short
period they became bigger and had really a success during the Free Radio
Rally in 1968. RFL could be heard on 255 metres on the AM and I do
recall the deejays Michael Christian, Andy Archer and Spangles Maldoon.
Internal problems meant that the station crew fall into pieces, but it
was not the end for RFL. There came two stations RFL East and RFL South.
When they were on the air they mostly transmitted programs after each
other. In the early seventies they left the AM for the FM frequency of
92.3 MHz. In the eighties they even used the 819 kHz during the days
after the raid took place on the Ross Revenge in August 1989. I cannot
attend the radio day but I would love to see what they do recall from
those days with RFL.
Thanks a lot Freek for sharing this memories and up to Peter and Andy to
put their memories in an e-mail.
The wet and wild history of Radio Caroline
Like in the last report we do have a pre publication of one of the
chapters for the forthcoming publication, which will be out in autumn.
This time it s one of the chapters from my own memories
THE TIME IN BETWEEN MARCH 1968 AND SEPTEMBER 1972
Next to the thousands of newspaper cuts I ve an enormous amount of diary
notes, which I ve started to make since 1964. Let s see in this chapter
some of the notes I did make in the period between 1969 and 1972 a
period Radio Caroline wasn t on the air from her own ship(s). The Sound
of the nation only could be heard twice. First a one hours show on a
foreign radio station and after that during the famous campaign backing
the Conservatives in 1970, when they used the transmitters from the MEBO
II. There was only made a station name change from RNI into Radio
Caroline as this station name was more familiar to the listeners in
Great Britain. In an earlier book, 25 Years Radio Caroline Memories you
can find back my memories from 1968, when there were some plans,
including trying to get the former Radio 270 vessel for a restart of
Radio Caroline off the South East coast of Britain.
Here s what I did wrote down in March 1969: The Caroline Revival Hour
was transmitted on Radio Andorra on 428 meters, which is 701 kHz. It
happened on March 2nd from midnight up till 10 minutes past one. The
program was a commemoration for Radio Caroline, that went of the air a
year ago, when both ships were towed away from international waters by
tugs which had been hired by the tender company Wijsmüller. Reason was
that the station owners didn t pay their bills for tendering the
Fredericia anchored off the West Coast of England as well as the MV Mi
Amigo off the Eastern Coast. I ve also heard that the program was a test
for eventual further programmes as such. It was first announced in
Spanish and later the microphone was taken over by Caroline deejays. I
heard the voices of Don Allen, Bob Stewart, Bud Bullou, Bobby Dee an
Steve Merike. The reception was very poor during the first 20 minutes in
the Netherlands. There was interference from a German radio station, but
afterwards the reception became better. The deejays led us back to the
earlier days of Radio Caroline and many well known records of those
years were played. Also an air-check of the August 15th broadcast from
Radio Caroline South was played. I did hear some adverts for the Free
Radio Association and music papers. I read in Disc and Music Echoes that
this kind of programs can be expected soon between midnight and four in
the morning soon on Radio Andorra.
It didn t happen and it would take some other years before Radio
Caroline came back. Strange to see my own writing back, it looked like
the station had already a long history. Of course they were on the air
for almost four years, in which happened a lot. But this period was only
10% of the period we re now talking about as the station is 40 years of
age in 2004.
In the diary from the month April 1969 I do rewrite the next item: The
Sunday Telegraph announced that there s a plan for a Beatles plane. John
Lennon and Yoko Ono have agreed to appear in a colour programme for a
television station which will be broadcasting to Britain from an
aircraft over the Irish Sea. Mr .Ronan O Rahilly is the initiator and
the station will be called Radio Caroline Television . A lot of show
business people have agreed to take part, when the station gets on the
air. And strange enough the station won t break any law. The broadcasts
will be between 6 in the evening and 3 in the night the following day
and Ronan has bought two Super Constellations, which will be
transmitting in turn. I did read in the newspaper that the organisation
is discussing with a number of agency people about large contracts for
advertising. Most of it will be bought and paid for outside Great
Britain. Three countries have agreed to let the airplanes take off and
land. The station s policy will be mainly light entertainment with the
accent on old films. There will be also a serious program with reporters
interviewing people in the streets. Swear words will not be censored.
At the moment I m writing this part of this chapter it s December 29th
2003 and Simon Dee makes his return to television today at Channel Four.
And I do read back in my personal notes from September 1969: I am
extremely flattered about the invitation to do a program on Caroline TV
and will consider joining Caroline TV very seriously. At the end of the
year I will be a completely free agent. If Caroline TV has a normal,
mature format, I see no reason why we should not be involved. I ve heard
it will be financed by overseas advertisements and the nerve centre will
be in New York. But also offices will be opened in Switzerland and
Holland. In the Bahamas is a co backer, called George Drummond, who is
only 26 years of age. Ronan told me that the prices for advertisements
will be 300 Pounds for 30 seconds compared to the 5500 Pound on
ITV.
We re now 35 years later and I ve written some articles on this ill
fated projects through the years in some magazines. And of course we
know by know that all the plans for this television project was just one
of the many dreams our Irishman had and made up to stay in publicity.
Going back to my diary in 1969 I did found some lines in the agenda from
September of that year: The Caroline ships Mi Amigo and Fredericia are
still in Amsterdam and have been plundered by thieves and corrode from
the influence of water and weather. Four tape machines and a television
set have disappeared. The water police, so I did read in a newspaper, is
now guarding the ships. It was stated that the owners of the ships are
Kernan Corporation and Tesman Investments Inc. from Panama with an
address too in Liechtenstein. This company do not react on this. It has
been reported in the newspaper that Ronan has visited the ships in
Amsterdam at least three times and rumours are going that he want to
bring at least one of the two on the air again with Dutch and English
programs. It has also been told that Mr. Nathan could buy the complete
equipment of the MV Mi Amigo for 450.000 dollars, but the Peace ship
left for New York, without the equipment.
Abe, in the meantime had already bought his own ship, the MV Cito, which
was lying along the quayside of the Oosterhamrikkade, in Groningen. Just
away 150 meters from my home at that time. With help from volunteers the
ship was partly repainted in Groningen and later in Amsterdam. With help
of inhabitants of the Netherlands who bought shares from the Peace
company, the ship set sail to New York. What has happened to the VOP is
another story, where many Caroline people including Bob Noakes, Tony
Allen en Chrispian St. John were involved too.
But going back to my agenda from 1969, when I was 21 years of age, there
must have been a strong believe in Ronan s power as I did wrote down at
the end of December: On December 25th there should have been a
testransmissions of twenty minutes duration form Caroline Television on
the UHF channel 25-30. Regular programs will commence during spring 1970
at some 20.000 feet altitude above the North Sea.
In the meantime it became 1970 and two people from Switzerland, the then
33 year old Edwin Bollier and 32 year young Erwin Meister, both from
Switzerland, had brought their own radio ship on the North sea. Much has
been written about this station through the past three years in the
section RNI memories , including the Caroline participation, on the
online Journal for Media and Music Culture www.soundscapes.info
After the period RNI was renamed into Radio Caroline it did take a long
time before I did use my diary again for writing down the word Caroline
. It was on December 18th 1970 that I found back the following: The
formerly Radio Caroline radio ship MV Mi Amigo, now in Amsterdam
Houthaven (wood harbour), was sinking today as a result of sabotage. A
tap in the engine room was open and the ship listed. Crewmembers of a
tug of the Amsterdam port authority saved the famous pirate by getting
some pumps aboard .
The British guard on the MV Mi Amigo, Dave Fletcher told me a few days
later that Ronan O Rahilly had come to Amsterdam to see if the ships
were still suitable for broadcasting. He also told me that Ronan has
plans to restart Radio Caroline when the rumours, that RNI is coming on
the air again, are true. RNI closed down at the end of September 1970 to
come back on the air in February next year. It would however take up
till September 1972 before Ronan did it again, or should I write Chicago
and Spangles did it again?
In the last week of May 1972 I ve written some lines again on both
Caroline ships: The two Caroline vessels which were in Holland since
March 1968 have been sold. To go into detail I can tell that the Monday
afternoon May 29th it was the shipbroker Frank Rijsdijk, from Hendrik
Ido Ambacht, who bought the Caroline vessel, we all know as the MV
Fredericia, for an amount of 26.500 Dutch guilders. This amount was not
only paid for the ship but also for what had left of the inventory of
the Fredericia. The MV Mi Amigo was bought by ships agency Hofman for an
amount of 20.000 guilders. He could not tell for whom he did buy the
former Caroline South ship. The paid money was only a small fraction of
what the ships and their inventory were worth, when entering Holland way
back in 1968.
About the MV Fredericia I can be very short. Frank Rijsdijk resold the
ship to Rinus van der Marel in Ouwerkerk in the province of Zeeland and
so her final destination would be the broker in a small place near
Zierikzee. The arial mast was already taken down in Amsterdam harbour
and on own power the Fredericia made her way through the canals of the
Netherlands to a sand-bank near Ouwerkerk, called Het Keeten . The 1350
hp motor seemed to be in good condition. During the month of July the
Fredericia was still at the mud flat and the new owner had to wait until
a period of very high tide would come so the ship could be going into
one of the small channels near the broker s place. Early August 1972 the
first work on the Fredericia had been done by breaking down the upper
decks of the ship, were once the studio s were situated. It soon came
out that it would be a heavy work to break down the Fredericia
completely, as it has been a very strong built ship. It was formerly
used as a ferry in Scandinavia, where during wintertime there s a lot of
ice.
After the upper deck had gone the people decided, as they had seen that
everywhere in the ship insulation material could be found, to set the
ship on fire to get rid of the materials. What Van Marel didn t know by
then, was that on this ship as ballast heavy anchor chains where used.
Strange enough the work on the ship stopped after it had been set on
fire and through the many years, that followed, Ouwerkerk became a new
pilgrimage place for Anoraks who wanted to make photo s of the former
radio ship. I must admit I did too.
I did take some visits to Ouwerkerk and on one occasion the owner showed
the bell from the MV Fredericia. Rinus van der Marel was very proud he
had this bell hanging in his office. It would take up till late 1980
that the Fredericia had been completely broken up. Later we heard the
bell went to an African country as the old man had decided to emigrate
from Holland. Since a couple of years he s back, as well as the bell. On
the place where formerly the broker was nowadays a museum on the history
of ships can be found. Lucky enough the MV Mi Amigo got another destiny
and soon after the auction it came out in the small world of Anoraks, a
word which wasn t used in those days yet, that it was Gerard van Dam and
a certain Rob Vermaat, who had asked Hofman Shipping Agency to buy the
MV Mi Amigo.
Gerard van Dam was already known from his other activities: While Radio
Veronica was busy distributing and collecting postcards for the Veronica
stays ... campaign in 1971, some Dutch offshore radio fans were trying
to organize the fan base. Mobilise all Dutch and Belgian Free Radio
fans, was the idea of a young lad from The Hague in 1971. To this end,
he formed the ISFRA, the International Society for the Promotion of Free
Radio. Together with Hans Verbaan, who in those days lived in nearby
Scheveningen and who was the chairman of the Dutch FRA and FRC branches,
he wanted to make a front. By a written protest to the government, they
wanted to make clear, that the ratification of the Treaty of Strasbourg
would make it almost impossible for the Dutch offshore radio stations to
continue their programming. This young man was also the driver of the
car that in those days picked up the people of the RNI at their Naarden
studio to bring them to the tender in Scheveningen harbour. He told a
journalist: We simply have to try to get more members. At the moment,
we've 1,000 members in Holland. In Germany and Belgium, we now have
around 10,000 members and we hope that this all eventually leads to a
total of 250,000 members. That would be fine.
It is clear, that just like the spokesman for the FRA in England this
guy really had not a good sense for numbers, though, he certainly had a
good sense for drama. In the interview he said that the FRA stood for
answering just this one question about Free Radio: "Going on or not
going on as legal stations." The journalist and this young guy next
discussed the fact that the Dutch national pop station Hilversum 3 in
the meantime, according to the results of recent polls, had recruited
more listeners than Radio Veronica. These facts, though, didn't impress
him at all. He even made some critical comments about the fact that the
programmes of Hilversum 3 were not interrupted by commercials, by saying
that commercials were an essential part of the attractiveness of any
radio program. This man, who was the RNI driver and front man of the
ISFRA, I can now reveal, was no other than Gerard van Dam, also known as
Gerard van der Zee. Moreover, in many ways he proved successful in his
love for Free Radio. He worked for Ronan O'Rahilly, bringing back the MV
Mi Amigo to sea in 1972, next for Radio 199, Radio Caroline and Radio
Atlantis. For his own station Radio Delmare, he brought several ships to
sea in the late seventies of last century.
Gerard van Dam made a remarkable appearance in the press in July 1971,
just after the MV Fredericia and the MV Mi Amigo were sold. The buyer of
MV Amigo was Van Dam himself, and he successfully tried to fool the
press. Together with Hans Verbaan, he did sent out a leaflet, revealing
their plans with the ship as a temporary resort for nostalgic anoraks:
After long talks with the owners of the former Radio Caroline South
ship, the MV Mi Amigo, we have succeeded in making an agreement. For a
short period of time, the ship will be kept away from the ship breakers
yard. During the next few months, everyone will be enabled to visit the
ship for as short a time as one day, or for as long a stay as is
required. Food and accommodation on the ship are being arranged.
Original studio guidance will come from a well-known deejay. In case the
costs of ship are not being covered by the profits for next few months,
the owner will carry out his original plans and scrap the ship. This
fate has already befallen Radio Caroline North. So, make the most of
this unique offer and use what possibly is your last chance to visit the
first and last outpost of the golden age of British Pirate Radio.
This evocative appeal was followed by an extensive price list, stating
the costs of different arrangements for stays on the Mi Amigo. The
leaflet was taken serious by several newspapers, which uncritically
brought the news. The VPRO radio also made a nice small documentary
about Van Dam's plans with the former radio ship. In fact, the leaflet
contained an error. The MV Fredericia, the ship of Radio Caroline North,
was not yet scrapped. It would be on dry land for a long time at the Van
Marel Ship Brokery in Ouwerkerk, before the bell was taken away and the
rest would be broken up. More important, though, was that Gerard van Dam
was not really on the lookout for any paid visitors for his museum ship
at all. Instead, the ship was towed into international waters.
Equipment, stolen earlier from the ship in Amsterdam by Peter C. and
Spangles M., were brought back on board.
Unexpected on Friday afternoon, September 1st 1972, the MV Mi Amigo was
towed by a tug of the Iskes Company from Amsterdam through the
Noordzeekanaal (North Sea Canal) to the harbour of IJmuiden and after
passing the locks of the harbour the Mi Amigo was towed to a position 4
miles northwest of the Northern Pier. By returning to the harbour the
skipper of the towing vessel told to a journalist that he thought it
very strange that the guys wanted to go out with the Mi Amigo as it was
so unstable. And still the same afternoon it was Gerard van Dam in a
newspaper telling everyone that the ship would go to England to be a
pirate museum. During the night from 2nd to 3rd of September it was the
towing vessel from Koos van Laar which towed the Mi Amigo to a new
position. The next morning people on the MEBO II off the coast of
Scheveningen suddenly saw the Mi Amigo anchored on a position 500 metres
on the north side of the RNI vessel.
It was in the Sky Line program the next evening on RNI that Tony Allan
told the listeners that another ship was anchored near the MEBO II
whereby he told that the ship was empty and had no transmitters onboard.
Also mentioning the radio ship was on the news reports on Sunday
afternoon on Radio Veronica and the Dutch NOS Journaal (News on the
Public Broadcasters). The camera crew had taken a skipper with them to
the Mi Amigo and this guy told that the people on the MV Mi Amigo were
big amateurs and that the ship was anchored in the wrong way whereby
drifting could be expected. Also the Mi Amigo had no position lights on.
An official warning was brought out to the captain by a vessel of the
Dutch Navy, the same afternoon a pilot boat came out and brought a
penalty to the captain. Some lights were brought on the vessel the same
afternoon.
Confusion started with an article in the biggest newspaper of the
Netherlands, Telegraaf, on September 4th 1972. They wrote that the Bell
Broadcasting Company Ltd had bought the MV Mi Amigo and that a radio
station would start at the end of that year or early 1973. The 259 as
well as the 270 kHz were mentioned as well the power of the two
transmitters (50 and 100 kW). The 259 spot was planned for an
international edition for Radio Caroline and the 270 spot for a Dutch
language version. Only the international service should carry
commercials. It was Rutger van den Berg who came forward as spokesman
for the BBC Ltd in another newspaper. He mentioned that the station
would start on September 6th, which was a totally different date than
earlier mentioned in the Telegraaf. Soon after the second publication it
came out that the Journalist of the Telegraaf was trapped by two
practical jokers, Roel Koenders and Henk Meeuwis. Both from Amsterdam
and radio addicted. Later on Roel Koenders became a well known producer
at VARA Radio and Henk Meeuwis became news reader for Radio Caroline on
.the MV Mi Amigo.
Strange enough it was Gerard van Dam who came, in the second week of
September 1972, with the news in the Algemeen Dagblad, that the Mi Amigo
would become again a radio ship. He couldn t mention a name for the
station or a frequency to be used in the then future. But more confusion
came in when Dutch Telegraaf brought a big article on the front page on
September 15th. Three days earlier they brought a photo on the front
page on which the reader could see that the Mi Amigo was tendered by the
MV Dolfijn, a tender from the Jacques Vrolijk tender company from
Scheveningen. The strange ship off the coast of Scheveningen, according
the article on September 15th, would not become a radio ship but an
illegal casino. People visiting the ship could go ahead with gambling as
it was planned in international waters and no action could be taken by
Dutch authorities. A spokesman for the Casino company who told that he
had already worked as a technician for Radio Veronica and RNI was Anton
Rabeljee from Groningen city. He told to the journalist of the Telegraaf
Bert Voorthuijzen that all the transmitter equipment and other technical
gear was taken off the MV Mi Amigo when it was still in Zaandam harbour.
That this was not true would become known very soon afterwards.
Some days later, on September 18th 1972, it was RNI deejay Spangles
Muldoon who mentioned in his program that he would soon leave the
station to cross the street to another ship. And for those who didn t
understand he told on RNI: Just count 39 and 220 (the RNI spot)
together. We then knew that from the MV Mi Amigo the transmitter would
be used on 259 metres medium wave band. And so it was on September 29th
1972 in the late evening that for the very first time since March 1968 a
signal could be heard from a transmitter on the MV Mi Amigo; this time
on 252.7 metres (1187 kHz) with non stop music.
Subsequently, the MV Mi Amigo would host a whole range of stations like
Radio 199, Radio Caroline, Radio Caroline 1 and 2, Radio Atlantis, Radio
Seagull, Radio Joepie and Radio Mi Amigo. Those stations were all active
somewhere between 1972 and 1980, the year in which the ship finally sank
down beneath the waves.
AND FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO BE INFORMED WHEN THE BOOK COMES OUT, LATER
THIS YEAR, JUST SENT AN E MAIL TO HKNOT@HOME.NL
That s all for this time and I will be back before the end of this
month. Let your memories and questions coming in and greetings to you
all.
Hans Knot
Read Hans Knot's
former report