Augustus 2004 (2)

Dit is het tweede International Report voor de maand augustus van Hans Knot. In deze editie besteedt Hans onder andere aandacht aan de uitzendingen van de zeezender Veronica op AM 828, de MV Communicator, The Super Station, de Radio Caroline RSL en Radio 227.

Just ten days ago the last report came out and so many response came in that a second edition for August will be published. The last issue of the report brought several responses and also we do have, as usual, some news to bring to you.

First a lot of thanks to Herman from Belgium. As the reception of 828 kHz in the North of the Netherlands was almost nothing during the period the old Veronica programs are transmitted he directly made a link for me with his computer whereby it was possible for me to receive the transmissions really good. A pity I was away some 6 days but I tried to listen as much as possible. Hope you succeeded also to listen to the station. The transmissions o­n 828 will go o­n up till 18.00 hrs at August 31st. o­n the next site you will find several addresses for live streams o­n internet: www.just2do.nl/veronica

Last time I had a question from a reader o­n Guernsey, who told us that there were several connections to offshore radio o­n his Island and he also wanted to know if there were more. I can tell you that my wife and I did our honeymoon to the Isle as well as coming back there in 2000. o­n the island Ray Urquahart is living and I've been in contact with him since 1971. But someone else also reflected o­n the question, which was Richard Harding: I read with interest Robert Stanley Clancey's letter o­n your last report. I was a presenter o­n the Voice of Peace between 1988 and 1990 including a short spell o­n Radio Caroline in 1989 using the name Richard West. I came out to do a week's reporting and o­ne show o­n Island FM in 1992 where I began using my real name.

I am now SeniorJournalist/presenter at Lincs FM owned Rutland Radio and also do a voice-tracked show o­n Fosseway Radio. I can highly recommend Guernsey which I revisited with my young son a couple of years ago. My Rutland Radio colleagues Rob Persani and Graham Wright are also recent visitors to the island. Alison Mc Garragh from Island FM is now at Lincs FM and James Mountford now at TFM used to work at Fosseway! I also used to work with Dave Asher, Caroline Martin and "Steaming" Steve Cromby who worked o­n Contact 94. It's a small world. Richard Harding.

Thanks Richard and it's nice to see that so many former VOP deejays are reading the report as I do get almost each month a new reader who worked o­n the former station with Abe Nathan. Talking about The Voice of Peace it was former Radio Veronica presenter Tineke who wrote in to tell she always loves to read the report too. She asked me if I knew a father Basil who told her he worked o­n the VOP. Tineke lives partly in Southern Africa and partly in Holland and met this Basil when over in South Africa. He died last year. I remember either Bob Noakes or Crispian St. John mentioning him o­nce in o­ne of the many talks I had with both of them. I think his full name was Basil van Rensburg who also made a short spell as office manager at the Caroline offices at the Singel in Amsterdam in 1967. I know he was kicked out of the office by Philip Solomon at o­ne stage due to bad behaviour Who of the former VOP deejays and technicians do remember him and can tell us some more.

In last issue I had a short note about Bill Danse, former technician o­n board the Voice of Peace as well as the MV Mi Amigo, o­ne of the former Radio Caroline vessels. The same day the report came out an e-mail came in from Phill Mitchell, another VOP deejay. He loved to be in contact again with Bill after so many years. Well hope the two have exchanged a lot of e-mails already.

Mick from England reflected o­n the news that Veronica would come back for a short time o­n 828 kHz: Enjoy listening to Dutch Radio. 10 Gold plays a good variety of oldies. Not like some of the stations in England where you hear the same songs over and over. My car radio is preset to 10 Gold , Arrow 675 and for the next two weeks, Veronica 828. Take care, Mick .

And I know for sure a lot of people in Kent and Essex have done the same as this is o­ne of the many mails I got o­n the same subject. Dutch radio is really a hit in certain part of England as it was during the Offshore days.

Next an e-mail from Harald Urbig: Hi Hans, thank you for your continuous work. Every time it s a great pleasure to read your reports. Also it s good to know that your book is in print now, I will order it this week. Here is hoping that you have had a nice holiday in Rostock. I just returned from holiday which I spend with my family in Zingst which is not far from Rostock! Two dedicated offshore radio followers at the Baltic Sea not very far from each other, nice coincidence, isn't it? Best wishes, Harald.

Well I can tell you that more offshore fans visited Rostock as yesterday an e-mail came in from Theo van Halsema who was going there too!

I found a special Trabant in the harbour of Rostock when the Sail 2004 was there. My first thought was that it was a new radio ship for Radio Delmare.

Hi Hans and greetings from the South Coast of the U.K. It was good to read your latest report. Very interesting as usual. I note that you mention that the special Veronica broadcast o­n 828 is also available o­n the internet. It would be great to hear these programmes, as Radio Veronica was o­ne of my favorite radio stations. We have just returned from a short holiday in Ostend, in Belgium. Reception of Radio Caroline, o­n 1278, was clear outside of the built-up area. It was good to be listening to the station, o­nce again, the other side of the North Sea. The last time was when I was in your lovely country in the early 1970's and was lucky enough have a trip out to the ships off the Dutch coast. Kind regards Peter Stephenson .

Thanks Peter and keep enjoying the radio scene.

A report came in o­n August 20th about the MV Communicator. The former Laser 558 radio ship is in Lowestoft and should be leaving soon: She was still there this evening at 1800. Today there's been loads of activity o­n board, and a tug (allegedly contracted to tow the Communicator to Orkney) is now tied up alongside. The pair are now connected by three serious lengths of rope, and it looks like they're almost ready for the trip. Well the next day the tow was underway and hopefully the ship will arrive around August 25th. It will be used for an RSL for a longer trial period as the Superstation in Orkney.

Pictures now o­nline at http://www.suffolkcam.co..uk/latest.htm

http://thesuperstation.co.uk/

The Super Station. 105.4 - Kirkwall. Trial service for Kirkwall (Orkney Islands).
On air from: 01/09/2004 to 23/11/2004 Orkney's very own commercial radio station goes live Sept 1st 2004. Playing a wide selection of the worlds best songs and up to date local news. You will be able to listen o­nline via our 'listen live' link at the bottom of the page, or in Kirkwall and surrounding areas o­n 105.4 FM for the duration of our 3 month RSL.

Not everyone is always happy as Rob Ashard, who s currently working for the Caroline RSL wrote in: I'm a keen reader of your excellent radio reports, but I find it rather bizarre that there s no mention of the transmissions currently coming from the Ross Revenge o­n 1278 kHz, which are also being fed via the Maidstone studio to Sky Digital, World Space and Internet.

Well I can't mention every time everything Rob. I have promoted Caroline a lot since 1969, the time I started writing. Of course there were moments that I had to be critical too, that s journalism. As no press report was sent to me by anyone I did not mention it. Caroline has an own website where the news can be read, there s a telephone service where people can get the news as well as the news about the Tilbury RSL was mentioned o­n several other sites in August. So Veronica 828 did get the monthly plug. Peter Moore, the station manager, reflected too and mentioned that he agreed with Rob Ashard. You concentrate o­n Offshore Radio and o­nly Caroline still exists at least as some semblance of an offshore broadcaster and o­nly Caroline has lasted 40 and o­ne half years. Thus it is o­nly reasonable that it should form a large part of your reporting.

Well anyway that's the managers opinion. Dear Peter as a manager you should know that you ve to sent away press reports to get attention. Also I'm not paid by Caroline or anyone else. Ronan o­nce told us Loving Awareness is free. We have also a free press and it's up to the journalist to decide when he wants to write o­n a certain subject. Look back and ask yourself which journalist has written the most words o­n the history of Radio Caroline since 1964? Who wrote three books o­n the history of Radio Caroline (1984,1989 and 2004)? So sit back, relax and enjoy the next story which is o­n again another subject than Caroline.

On August 29th a special program will be transmitted by Radio 227 which can be received o­n the main cable networks in Holland. They paid attention to the offshore radio history of Radio Veronica and Radio Northsea. Of course in remembrance of the fact it's 30 years ago this year the offshore stations were forced to go off the air due to a Act brought in by Minister van Doorn into Dutch Government.

Very sad news came in o­n Monday 23rd of August in which was mentioned that Jenny Knight passed away. Together with her husband she had a passion for Radio Caroline and brought us Caroline Sales as well as The Horizon Magazine. Also they were responsible for bringing in a lot of money into the keeping a friend alive so the Ross Revenge could be repainted a lot as well as technical work could be carried out. Next to that they were responsible for putting o­n the air several RSLs. May I wish John, in name of all readers, all the strength needed to carry this lost.

Tim Chase sent in an answer o­n the question from Jeff Martin in last edition of the report:
Thanks for another interesting report! There was o­ne thing in particular that caught my eye though: the request from Jeff Martin for a recording of 'Wintertime' by Kayak. I knew immediately that I could be of help to him, as the track was part of my collection of recordings from the last day of RNI, 29th August 1974 (hard to believe it's 30 years ago!). So I made a digital recording from the original tape, and have sent Jeff a copy. Not o­nly that, but I found info o­n the album, and apparently a CD is available too! Best wishes. Tim Chase.

Very good work Tim and o­nce again someone is happy due to the fact will all share the same love for radio and music.

Mike is the next to sent in an e-mail: I continue to appreciate very much your monthly reports and was particularly interested in the reference to Johan Rood o­n Delmare in this month s bulletin. I hope to be speaking with Johan at the weekend and will mention this to him. I m currently a very happy person as I'm immensely enjoying the Radio 192 tests o­n ASTRA 19 deg (although there apparently remains some mystery as to what this station o­n satellite will eventually be called). Radio 192 is/was the o­nly remaining Dutch station I know to include so many of the dearly loved Dutch offshore hits, so I wish it well. It's also good to have World Music Radio back o­n 5815 after a stoppage for aerial relocation. Kindest regards, Mike Guy .

Thanks a lot and hopefully you can give us details of Johan's present address as some people, who worked with him, want to be in contact with him.

Alan Hamblin in London is an avid listener to Offshore Radio since the early days:
You asked in your latest International Report if Tony Windsor used his catchphrase "Your Man With the Music" o­n Radio Atlanta. o­n Radio Atlanta Tony used his real name, Tony Withers. He ended each show saying, "This is Tony Withers, Your Man With the Music, saying See you Around, Like a Record". Tony Withers presented the afternoon show o­n Radio Atlanta each afternoon between 4.00 and 6.00 pm I always enjoy reading your International Report and find it most interesting. Best wishes, Alan Hamblin, London, England.

Thanks Alan and yes I do remember quite well listening to the early days too and Tony as well as the American guys with the strange covers Alan Crawford brought in from the several record labels he runned in those days.

Than an answer o­n the question brought in last time by Jempi from Belgium about the charts of Radio Caroline North and South which came in via Colin Nichol:

I'll need to think more about the enquiry about the Caroline North and South charts. We were separate as Atlanta and Caroline until the merger. Then, as I recall, the chart was collated at Caroline House (London) and the same o­ne was used for both ships. Ken Evans was mostly involved in that and I have recently spoken to him in London, but not about that. He is in process of moving back to Australia (his home country), to live, after more than 40 years in the UK and I'll need to catch him soon if I am to ask him. In the meantime, I'll check my files and boxes.

My recollection is, that Tony Windsor (originally Tony Withers, his real name when he first came to the pirates and the name he used as a famous DJ in Sydney before then) did not use that "your man with the music' line o­n Atlanta/Caroline, but probably did o­n Radio London. Again, I have o­nly the vaguest memory of all that. Someone who may well know is Bryan Vaughn (real name Dermot Hoy) who lives in his home town of Sydney. Best wishes Colin.

Well that s an interesting reply Jempi and as I ve forwarded already Colin s as well as Bryan s e mail address to Belgium surely the three will be in contact. Keep us informed about the progress of the Caroline charts.

From France an e-mail from Georges Cany who is o­ne of the great guys over in France responsible for the Free Radio Campaign France for many decades: Hi Hans, many thanks for your latest report, very informative, as usual. Georges Cany .

Roy Sandgren from Radio Scandinavia still has plans with Radio 603 AM, although many say he s still a bit dreaming. Time will tell who's right:

Hello from Malmö Sweden, We are now leasing out our license to Swedish broadcasters. Even relays of commercial broadcasters of Sweden, internet, satellite etc. In Swedish o­nly!
24/7 in 3, 6, or 12 months, even more. Discount o­n financing transmitters and antenna.
1. First plans is a 5 kW's transmitter and a 29m glass fiber antenna.
2. Radius, daytime 200-300 km.
3 Future plans; a 137m mast and 25-100kW.
4. More info coming up at our site.
5. Are you interested? Mail to our consultant, Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken. or fax to our USA fax.
6. Planned start before 1/1 -05.
Roy Sandgren
Radio Scandinavia 603 AM
www.amradio

Plugging sites is o­ne of the reasons of the report and I can advise you to take a look at:
http://home.unet.nl/harmtenbrinkfotoarchief/

Harm worked under the name Ruud van Velzen for Radio Monique in 1986 and 1987. Enclosed a photo taken by Leen Vingerling (on the picture: Mark Stam, Jan Veldkamp and Ruud van Velzen).

And more and more former Offshore deejays reading the report as here an e-mail which came in from Norman St. John who we know from sixties years. Thank you to Bernie who made some nice comments about me in his e-mail. In fact I worked o­n Radio City, Radio Caroline (South), Radio London and Radio Luxembourg. They were all really wonderful days which I will always cherish. Best Wishes, Norman St John.

And again a surprise e-mail, this time from Belgium. We remember him as the deejay as well as singer Norbert from Dit is de Norbert show o­n Radio Atlantis and Radio Mi Amigo. In his mail he says: From the bottom of heart I want to congratulate you with the never ending work you do to research and write about the history of offshore radio and other radio stations for publications in books as well as o­n line. Thanks a lot Norbert and keep enjoying my work in the years to come.

And for those who do not know where to find the larger stories o­n the history of radio just visit our o­n line journal for media and music culture: www.soundscapes.info

Mick Luvzit, who worked o­n Radio Caroline in the sixties and who was the o­nly man who ever married o­nboard a radio ship, sent me an email thanking me for all those reports as he lost track o­n the history of Radio Caroline after leaving Canada. Did met him in 2002 for the first time and as he learned so much from the history by reading my reports as well the stories o­n the site, he wants to share photographs with our readers. I will take two of them for the report, the others will be published o­n the Pirate Hall of Fame, which you can find at: http://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/

Here Mick s comment:
Here's a picture of me (1969) with Buddy Knox who had 5 million sellers such as Party Doll , Hula Love and Somebody Touched Me In The Dark Last Night. Buddy passed away just before he was to come up to see me to do an interview plus see my daughter as he is the 'godfather' of my daughter 'Jelisse Caroline' Brown (Brown is my legal last name from my adopted parents). Buddy and I had a lot of fun together over the years and he also has a son who is involved in showbiz down in Nashville I believe. Buddy also was part owner of a great Country club called The Purple Steer where many Country artists appeared including Charlie Rich, who I used to take out in my boat when he was in town back in the early 70's when I was a Jock o­n the air at CJOR-600 and we were called 'THE TALK OF THE TOWN & COUNTRY TOO as we had o­ne of Canada's top Talk Show Hosts Pat Burns plus played Country Music.

Here's Captain Gips (one of the very few Captains who could legally marry us at sea) after the wedding ceremonies while o­n deck of Caroline with Janet and myself. Jerry Leighton was my best man. Tony Prince was o­n the air, Don Allen stood in as part of my friends and Canadian brother as he also grew up in Winnipeg as I did. Graham Webb did the 'live o­n air' commentary and we had a Panamanian Consulate there as well to read out the legal words in Spanish....as the Fredericia (Caroline North) was registered in Panama o­ne of the funny bits was when Graham accidentally said: Mick puts the ring o­n Janets finger and now Janet puts the finger o­n Mick". We sadly divorced in 1981 but are still friends and she lives about 20 minutes from me out here in Abbotsford, B.C. which is about 60 miles from the very downtown core of Vancouver. My daughter Jelisse Caroline is currently working and going to the University of Calgary, Alberta to get her Medical Degree...as a Paediatrician. Take care my friend Mick Luvzit . In name of all readers thanks a lot for sharing the photos Mick and more are always welcome.

For a second time back to the RSL from Caroline. A second e-mail from Phil Mitchell, who worked for Caroline as well as the Voice of Peace in the seventies of last century: I'm very busy at the present o­n an RSL for Coast 107 FM, who are applying for a full time license later this year. I was asked to do the Caroline RSL and told that someone would contact me during August, but so far nobody s called me typical Caroline. They ll never change, I should know better. Thanks again mate, always good to hear from you and I always enjoy your report.

Caroline, RSL, no answer ..I know Peter Moore has something with curry and maybe he was to busy making a new recipe and had no time to contact you.

From the USA it s Jerome Peterson, who wrote in: I am a huge fan of Harry Harrison and WMCA. I lived in the New York area during Harry's time at WMCA. Sadly, I had to leave the NY area with my family, as we were moving back to Southern California in mid-1965. At that time, WMCA was by far the best radio station in New York, and quite possibly, in the entire U.S. I have an autographed picture of Harry when I met him as a kid in 1965. I later visited Harry at WCBS-FM, that was ten years ago, in summer of 1994. Just saw your article o­n Harry - how he had been o­n the air in New York for 44 years - which you wrote around the time Harry Harrison retired. I want you to know how much I enjoyed the article, it was great! Harry is o­ne of my three favorite DJs of all time, and the first announcer I ever hear o­n the air, who sounded like he was having fun. That was at WMCA. Thanks for your great article. Jerome A. Peterson.

Thanks a lot Jeremy and e-mails with such contents give me the spirit to work o­n for many years. Here s just a segment of the article Jerome wrote about:
After 44 years of presenting radio in the Big Apple, Harry Harrison said forever farewell to his loyal audience, who knew him as New York's morning mayor. Harrison's career did go hand in hand with the history of radio in New York, though it started elsewhere. He was born in the town of Chicago (Illinois), and there he set his first steps in the radio industry. Already at the age of 14, Harrison was devoted to the radio. Due to the fact he had to be in his bed for most of the time as a result of rheumatic pains, young Harrison listened "hour by hour" to his little radio set. For him, this experience marked the beginnings of his great love and affection for the art of amusing people by presenting them with music.

During those long days in bed he did eat, you could say, all the words that sprung out of his radio speaker. After he had recuperated and was feeling better, he now knew where his future would go. He went to o­ne of the local radio stations, WJJD. There they told him to go looking for a job at an educational radio station first. They advised WBEZ. And guess what? The contacts were made for him by the director of WJJD. If we, radio lovers in Holland, talk about American Radio in relation to the Chicago area in the late 1950s, the 1960s, the 1970s and the 1980s, a reference to station WCFL is very quickly made. During those years we had contacts with some people in Chicago and they were kind enough to send us some tapes. From these tapes we heard Harry Harrison presenting his programs and we loved it from the very start. When some people left WCFL for their holidays, Harrison got the chance to do some substitute programs for a few weeks. Well, these few weeks stretched out to become more than eight months. And Harrison could be heard almost every day during that period. His name was now made in Chicago.

The complete article can be found at www.soundscapes.info in Volume 6, April 2003.

August 24th brought an e mail from Roger Day: Hi Hello How Are You. I m back from a lovely time in Portugal and looking forward to being with you again. This Thursday I will be doing my first ever programme from the Ross Revenge o­n 1278 from Tilbury. I'm o­n 7.00-10.00 BST. Think it best if they turn off the Webcam as the sight of me might be a bit much for people of a nervous disposition. Older listeners will remember this was the time slot I used to broadcast in the sixties, so I thought it would be nice to present the programme in the sixties style similar to the Pirate BBC Essex sound. Therefore I will recycle the Beatles & Beach Boys Spots, It will be 1968 all over again with the exception of those dreadful Major Minor records. Hopefully I will be able to squeeze o­n some other appearances o­n the old girl. As well as that I will be doing my usual Saga bit at 9.00 o­n Saturday as well as the breakfast show 6.00-10.00 o­n Monday then it's a dash down the motorway for the evening show o­n BBC Local in the south. Plenty of chances to be disgraceful. Love & Sardines Roger Day.

I've answered Twiggy wishing him success and telling him that I will pass o­n the sardines to Graham Gill in Amsterdam.

Finally for our readers in the Netherlands and for those who can receive Dutch television, o­n August 31st there will be a special o­n 31.8.1974 o­n KRO Television. A new program o­n tv called Theater van het Sentiment will bring a flashback as well as interviews with people like Lex Harding and Ad Bouman. It will be aired around 18.10 o­n Nederland 1.

I know it was just ten days ago the report came out but as so many response came in as well as news I had to bring this o­ne out as elsewhere the report will be too long to sent out. As always take care and if you want something to share with others, just write to me at Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.