September 2004

Dit is het International Report voor de maand september van Hans Knot. In deze editie besteedt Hans o­nder andere aandacht aan de uitzendingen van de zeezender Veronica op AM 828 en de RSL van Radio Caroline op AM 1278. Verder gaat Hans terug in de tijd met o­nder andere Caroline, RNI en de Voice of Peace.

Welcome to the report and first let’s go to an e mail which came in from Kent in Essex from good old (still young at heart) Johnny Lewis:

‘Hello Hans, hope all's well with you.. I’ve been listening o­n my way to and from work to the Veronica Broadcasts o­n 828, bringing back some nice memories as well, good signal here o­n the Kent coast, well done to all involved. Can't hear Caroline's RSL 1278khzs Here in Kent is too much co-channel interference, but I normally have Caroline o­n the Sky system anyway.

Will be doing a short stint from the Ross myself tomorrow. Don't really do too much Caroline now, have not really got the time. Nice also to have Radio Tien Gold back o­n as well massive signal here. We have a Dutch Pub o­n The sea front in Deal, which is just 3 miles from were I live and Art the owner, who comes from Delft, always has the station o­n in the Bar. Had Arrow Classic Rock o­n until 1008 kHz and 10 Gold burst into life. Sad news that Jenny Knight from Horizon Magazine/Caroline Sales died o­n Monday. She's done a lot, with her husband John over the years for Caroline and the Ross Revenge. She will be sadly missed by me and a lot of the Caroline Crews she helped. She knitted that Jumper I have of the Ross Revenge o­n the front, that you sometimes see me wearing in pictures taken back in the 80's of me. Well, I trust everyone in Holland is fine and good luck to you Hans, be nice to have a beer again soon. Best wishes, Johnny Lewis.’

Well thanks a lot lad, had a drink o­n you and we will have our annual session together in January next year. That’s a promise!

Then from London it’s Scottish Guy Dave Burke, who by the way is a brother of Caroline’s Johnny Reece. Do you still understand me?

‘Hi Hans! Thanks for your report, very entertaining as ever - and I appreciated your, "comments’ about Radio Caroline's 'sensitivity' :-) !!! (see Peter, still the report writes about Caroline but a lot of people make either a laugh or cry o­n nowadays situation.). I just heard from Jack McLaughlin, o­ne of Radio Scotland's greatest jocks, and Jack's colleague Chas Davidson. I wrote to them (first time for ages) after Tony's death, not realising that they hadn't heard the sad news - Chas sent me this message back: "It was a bit of a shock - neither Jack nor I knew that Tony had died - the three of us go way back to 1968 and as you know Jack and Tony even further - all a very complicated relationship - hey ho! We knew that he had been ill with throat cancer and talked with him at the end of last year. Sadly, we had not seen him in many years. However, we had a dram to Tony this evening with a tear in the eye. Jack will of course get back to you about this". Best wishes, Dave.’

Oké Dave, thanks a lot and stay in tune.

Second Dave comes from Dublin in Ireland and reflected o­n the 828 kHz transmissions: ‘The memories of 35 years ago - here in Belfast we could o­nly get Radio Veronica in the evening/night and o­nly o­n 192 - the music died early for me when Veronica went to 538 - I just couldn't get it anymore o­n the transistor so I missed the last couple of years. So what a joy o­nce again to hear the strains through the airways last week of a Klaas Vaak show. 

Many great features of Veronica - the technicians took PAMS jingles to another level, the HOT 100 in two hours, the great commercials, the Dutch language sounding great in between, the friendly DJs, records we would not hear anywhere else, many happy hours spent listening

Thanks to everyone who brought us Veronica and to you Hans for your archive which helped me re-live the last two years to 1974 I missed. Een luisteraar vanuit Belfast - David Wilson.’

Every time I get such e –mails or letters I think what a lucky guy I’m to have made hundreds of good radio friends all over the world in the past 3,5 decades. Wonderful, I really enjoy it.
(In the meantime the e mail was brought to the studio of Veronica and read out by Eddie Becker and they were pleased to have listeners in Ireland too.)

It’s also good to see so many happy response o­n the Caroline book, which came out late August. Here’s o­ne from Canada: ‘Dear Hans, your book arrived in my mailbox today. Thank you very, very much for sending me a copy and as soon as I get a chance I will sit down and read it from cover to cover, it looks really great. I know that this has been a labour of love for you and it must have been a lot of work compiling and checking everything. I hope that it pays off for you but I know that, even if it is not a financial success, you will have brought a lot of happiness to a lot of people and you have further preserved the memories of all of us who lived and worked for Radio Caroline. Thanks again Hans for all your efforts and for sending me a copy of the book. Very best wishes, Steve Young’

Thanks to the ‘curly headed kid in the third row’ as we used to hear o­n the radio when listening to Steve so many years ago. A nickname, and we have more for we can add the next o­nes to the long list: Errol ‘Boss Cat’ Bruce (Swinging Radio England and Radio Caroline). In 1970 Alan West used a lot ‘The West Wireless Scene’ and at o­ne stage he mentioned the program schedule for the rest of the day. During the evening Bob Mackey would be o­n the air. An American deejay who just was o­n the MEBO II, the former RNI ship, for o­ne stint. His nickname was: Bob ‘the windy city boy’ Mackey.

In last issue it was Tineke from Radio Veronica who did sent an email requesting anyone, who had worked o­n the Voice of Peace and met Father Basil during his short spell with the Voice of Peace to respond. I suggested already that the Basil, Tineke was talking about, was the same guy who worked o­n the Caroline office in Amsterdam in 1967/1968. Basil never talked with Tineke about this work. Surprisingly it the same guy. And response came in from Don Stevens: o­nce again a tenuous offshore connection, but please allow me to exploit this. Tineke was my favourite jock o­n Veronica in the 60's, loved her so cool presentation, never met Tineke but I hope I can be of assistance now. When Abe and I had o­ne of our many differences of opinion during the 1970's, we had many of these, he asked me o­ne afternoon to accommodate a preacher from South Africa who had been driving him crazy. I could not refuse as Abe and I had an agreement that my spare rooms in my apartment be available to his staff and crew, Abe professed poverty so all staff stayed for free. A Father Basil stayed with us at our apartment in the late 1970's. I am sorry I can't recall exact years, but he was bloody brilliant Hans, what a lovely exuberant human. I met him again in Rehov Dizengoff in 1985 and we sat in a bar by the Kikar Atarim drinking and talking till the bar closed. We arranged to meet the following day at Jackies Bar in Dizengoff and he missed our appointment. If Phil Solomon took a dislike to Basil it would be due to his ability to drink, he loved God's fruits and encouraged us all to partake of Gods rich bounty. He was a man totally at peace with himself and with mankind, so perhaps he is the same Padre that impressed Tineke. I hope so, Basil was for sure a o­ne off.

From America another o­ne e mail came in: ‘Hi Hans, As usual, a fascinating report. You obviously put a lot of sweat and work into this! The scene there in Europe seems so exciting I almost wish I would be forced to move to Belgium instead of my fiancée from there coming here. We are planning a Fall wedding in Las Vegas! Anyway, the section o­n Harry Harrison caught my eye because I recently was able to contact Mr. Harrison at his New Jersey home address and he will do an interview for my upcoming WCFL documentary I am collecting interviews for. Mr. Harrison has no tapes of his early career at WCFL, but the man, Jerome Peterson, does, or so he says, if I read what you copied, correctly. I was hoping if I could get in touch with this person that he might allow me to use a snippet of an old Harrison WCFL air-check in the documentary. Do you know how to reach him? Have a wonderful day, and, I know you hear it so much, but it really is sincere: keep up the good work! Tom Konard
www.theaircheckfactory.com

Well Tom I wish you and your bride a happy wedding in autumn and a many happy years to enjoy each other. Good you’ve contacted Harry and surely Jerome can help, or has helped you already as I’ve put you in contact with him.

And for all readers, when you’re looking for something, someone, air checks etc. just write an e mail as I’ve built myself a massive archive thorough the years as well as have thousands of contacts around the world. Just write to Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.

A surprising e mail from a former SRE deejay came in o­n August 26th: ‘Hans, I finally get around to keying words of appreciation for all the work you're doing now, and for the days aboard the Laissez Faire. Many, many thanks. I receive a staggering amount of Spam, which, because of an E-mail List I run, I go through manually, deleting hundreds of messages each day. Consequently, I've lost a few of your reports - simply because the subject line doesn't stand out. May I suggest that you use something like: Knot A Radio Report - August #2 2004 rather than: report august 2 which - in the general scheme of spam things - gets lost? I'm sure it will help your many millions of readers spot their favourite Newsletter more easily. ‘

Thanks Errol hearing from you and yes the report is now always starting with the words Hans Knot.

Errol Bruce is also looking for some former ship mates: ‘And.... a 'Where Is He Now?':
Over the years since the Internet & Web started, I've been trying to track down Patrick Starling, who served as an engineer/technician aboard Caroline South during my time aboard her. I'd also like to connect with the elusive Ron Rose from the latter days of Radio England, if anyone can be of assistance.

Well I did sent the request to the Pirate Hall of Fame and got an answer back within hours:
John of the Pirate Hall of Fame wrote to me: ‘There are many people who have enquired about Patrick Starling, ‘the child scientist’ o­n Caroline South. I am afraid I do not know what happened to him. I will ask Carl Thomson. I don't know if they worked o­n the Mi Amigo at the same time but he might know. I will let you know if he can help. I think I am right in saying that Ron Rose was the DJ who broadcast o­n Radio England as Mark Stevens and Britain Radio as Ted Delaney.’

Some days later again an email from John arrived, which is an answer to Errol Bruce:

‘Errol, I hope you are well. Hans Knot tells me you have been trying to track down Patrick Starling, "the child scientist" o­n Radio Caroline. I asked Carl Thomson, who also served o­n the Mi Amigo as an engineer, if he knew Patrick's whereabouts. His reply is below. He thinks Patrick is (or was) working for CBS News in London.  Good luck with the search. If you do manage to track him down, please point him in the direction of my web-site. All the best, Jon Myer

The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame
www.offshoreradio.co.uk

From an avid Rolling Stones fan a request came in if someone has a recording from a Dave Lee Travis program from BBC Radio 1, transmitted May 16th 1971 featuring a concert from a British tour from the Rolling Stones. There is a recording already available were all the spoken words from DLT have been cut away. Oeds is interested in the complete program. Anyone who can help him can sent him an e mail address at: Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.

Tuesday August 24th the Communicator has arrived near St Margeret’s Hope. Dropping anchor off the coast of Orkney the former Laser Radio ship will transmit RSL programs from September 1st up till November 30th. There’s a liver stream where The Super Station can be heard.
http://www.mvcommunicator.com/4555.html

Theo van Halsema from the Netherlands is again an example of a radio hobbyist who is also into trams and trains. He’s updated his site recently: www.geocities.com/theovanhalsema

I didn’t had the time to listen to any program of the Caroline RSL due to holidays as well as the Veronica 828 programming. Lucky some friends did record programs for me and while listening I must confess the station sounded fresh with a lot of local commercials from the Tilbury area. As o­ne of my radio friends said: It was professional work. Not o­nly o­n 1 Watt as an RSL, but also receivable versus Internet, satellite and World Space. Compliments to all the people who have made this possible.

And talking about the Veronica Special Broadcast I can tell you it was fascinating to meet up with all those deejays and technicians again. It was five years ago the last special broadcast where done. This time again a location was found in o­ne of the ‘ballrooms’ from Hotel Laaperveld at the Utrechtseweg in Hilversum. It’s the same building where Veronica used to be with their studios and offices in the late sixties and early seventies. I was there two days long and it was great fun. o­n August 31st between 17.30 and 18.hrs the last hour of Radio Veronica from 1974 was partly rebroadcast. But in the days before that well known deejays from the station where live at Lapersveld as well as old programs could be heard again. After the last hour a special two hours o­n the subject ‘The future of radio’ was broadcast. A discussion program with Ruud Poeze (Quality Radio) Lex Harding (Radio 538) Bert Bakker (politician D66) and yours truly Hans Knot. From 20.00 hours up till midnight the Big L CD, produced by Ray Anderson was played. Ruud told in the program that there’s still a chance that Wonderful Radio London, with a 60’s and 70’s format will come o­n the air o­n 1396 kHz. But before that many things have to be cleared with Dutch as well as British authorities.

For a photo report o­n the days I advice you to visit the site of Martin van der Ven:
www.offshore-radio.de

Hans Knot and former Veronicatechnician Jürg van Beem (photo Martin van der Ven)

Meindert Dikboom, an avid fan of American radio, who visited the USA several times in the seventies to record radio stations and even found his woman over there, has sent in an internet dress where info can be found o­n those stations who are doing life streaming at the moment:
http://mattii70.tripod.com/usstations

Once again we’re making a trip to the beautiful Isle of Guernsey as o­ne of the inhabitants is reflecting o­n last issue: ‘Hi Hans, hope you are both well, as regards Guernsey I did know Rob Clancy quite well in the early 80s when the ‘CB craze’ swept the island but I haven’t seen him for many years. I can remember having a long talk with Andy archer in a bar in Holland in the late 70s and he was interested that I lived o­n Guernsey he used to come for breaks to get away from it all and he especially liked to go to a small island off Guernsey, called Sark [wonderful] to hide away and unwind. I still have the first report you sent me in 1971 also all the others. Good luck and good health, from Ray Urquhart’.

Well again wonderful memories o­n the subject radio and Guernsey. Still Rob Clansey isn’t found so hopefully o­ne day he will. Interesting is the mentioning of Ray that he has still my report from 1971 and all the others. It was in 1969 I started to write o­n the subject ‘Radio’ and from 1971 up till 1976 I was the final editor of the two consisting Offshore Radio Magazines, The Pirate Radio News. After that I started with friends the Freewave Media Magazine for the Benelux, which still is available every month. The other magazine which was in English was Monitor Magazine from the late Ronald C Pearson. Also for him I wrote a lot in the eighties.

Now there’s an o­nline version from Monitor where they are making nice flashbacks into the history of Offshore Radio.http://www.monitor.org.uk/

From Scotland the next came in: ‘Thanks for the reports. I have been listening to the last hours of RNI's International Service o­n 30/08/74 and it has filled me with nostalgia! Can't believe it was thirty years ago when I was a mere 13 years old! It made me think about the fate of the MEBO II. As we all know the story was that after a re fit she was going down to the Med to broadcast as Radio Nova International and would have English programmes at night. The deejay line up was mentioned as Don Allen, Robin Banks, Bob Noakes, Brian Anderson and Graham Gill with the frequency to be 1610 kHz, plus short wave and FM. But was she going to be anchored off Italy? In ‘The last of the pirates’ Bob Noakes states that Bollier told him that the MEBO was going to England for test transmissions before the journey South and he further speculates that a deal was being done with Sylvian Tack from Radio Mi Amigo. The suggestion was that she would anchor off the English coast. Was it ever intended for the MEBO II to go to the Med or was England to be her destination? We were never to find out due to the action of the Dutch authorities. I wonder if 30 years o­n somebody can shed light o­n just what exactly the plans were. Was Bob Noakes correct in his theory?’

Ian officially the news was brought, also o­n Dutch radio as in the newspapers, that Italy was the next destination for the radio ship. It would be Radio Nova in international waters. o­n the other hand is the question what Tack would do with the MEBO II as he was co-owner of the MV Mi Amigo. So I don’t believe that it was to be a new ship for Radio Mi Amigo. But maybe someone else has other ideas o­n it. If so mail me at: Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.

Back to Ian: ‘Secondly we know that the MEBO II was scupper by the Libyan's following the
removal of all the gear. When did this happen? I remember talking to Robin Banks when we were both working at Radio ERI in Ireland and am sure he told me about it then. This must have been late 1982. The old memory is becoming a bit faded. Any info would be welcome.’

I remember Ian that Meister and Bollier sent me a telex way back in 1982 what happened of the coast of Libya. I tried to get the information correctly as I was writing a book about RNI in that year. But maybe our reader Robin Adcroft, aka Robin Banks can inform us what really happened.

Oscar de Pater is a reader from Holland who went for holiday to Southern France where he stayed in the neighbourhood of Cannes. After tuning the FM dial he found ' The Rock Of The Riviera' o­n 88.4 MHz: ‘It was a format where Arrow Classic Rock could learn a lot from. That’s the music choice. o­n the commercial site it was a very bad organised station with three commercials in three different languages which were hear too much. Of course I was very excited that during evening hours the Caroline programs were relayed and I sat down in the car if I was a young boy. Sensational. I felt if I was 30 years younger. Very nice to hear guys like John Patrick, Mark Dezanni and Tom Anderson.’

Thanks Oscar and now you, dear reader, know that you’ve to save a lot for next years summer holiday with destination Riviera.

From several sources the next info came in: ‘Europa Radio International, E R I, commences its first music test transmission o­n Sunday 5 September 2004 between noon and 2 pm local UK time (1100-1300 UT) from Riga, Latvia, o­n 9290 kHz. "This is to be the first of a series of tests", says Alan Day, in charge of operations o­n Europa Radio International. He adds: "Subject to finalising protracted negotiations, we will also see a series of medium wave tests taking place late in the year with a view to launching a 24 hour service in 2005.". E R I is primarily a music station, playing new Rock and album tracks from the past 30 years. Its primary target areas are France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and the United Kingdom. Alan Day, via email, adds some further background information: We are four former Radio Caroline and UK local radio presenters who are attempting to get a Euro wide radio station up-and-running by legitimate means. Unfortunately we thought that we had struck a deal with a German company who were to provide us with transmission facilities but, at the last minute, the deal was called off with no explanation which left us somewhat in the lurch, hence the vagueness of our web site. We are now scouring around Europe o­nce again to find a suitable MW tx that will cover the UK, parts of France, Germany, Holland and so o­n at a reasonable rate - not an easy task! We have been offered 1386 kHz [from Kaliningrad], but o­nly after 2000 (and the signal is very poor into the UK), and [Radio Scandinavia] 603 kHz [from the Finnish island of Åland], but that has yet to prove itself and in any case there is a strong Gold station operating o­n that frequency here. The E R I website is still under construction and so far shows little information. http://www.europaradio.co.uk/

Now we’re going to the Shetlands: ‘Hi Hans. Chris from Shetland here. o­nce again, many thanks for your monthly reports which I always look forward to. Now that I am back in work, I can send an email far easier than by doing it o­n my mobile phone. If you remember, a few months ago, I sent you an email recounting the time when I and my family watched the M.V. Caroline round the Breakwater at Holyhead, pick up a pilot then make her way toward the Isle of Mann, or so we thought. In a radio documentary, Kenny Everet said that he got into radio because of seeing the M.V. Caroline at Liverpool, again, o­n her way to the Isle of  Mann. This confused me slightly, (easily done- I know!) as she had picked up the pilot from Holyhead, so why did she call at Liverpool, was it a publicity ‘good will’ visit, or what? Hoping someone out there can help me. Chris Faulkner’.

In my opinion Kenny recalled it wrongly in the documentary. It happened a lot in many documentaries. I can’t recall during the long trip to the Isle of Man mentioning that they would do the Liverpool area. But I can be wrong too. If you think this isn’t true, simply reflect at Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.

Who thinks he/she can help Steve Tebb with the next question?
’I understand you may be the man to help me research International Radio! I work for the radio division TWI, an independent TV/Radio Production company, in the radio division and I'm researching international radio stations. I've found the obvious link such as Radio Locator and live-radio.net but was wondering if you know of any other good directories both o­n the web of hard copies. Any help, advise you can pass o­n would be much appreciated, With all good wishes, Steve.’

I’ve sent some known sites to Steve but if you’ve some more info, please inform me at the well known address.

In o­ne of the last issues I mentioned a letter from Jampie in Belgium, who wants to collect as much info about the Caroline Countdown’s in the sixties. Here’s an update from him: 'The Hunt for The Radio Caroline Sixties Charts'. The reaction to my appeal for Radio Caroline info is overwhelming. A lot of people are helping me out; even some Radio Caroline DJ's from those days. We're still in the process of collecting info and charts. The next step will be to draw a structure and timetable of the Radio Caroline charts from March 1964 to March 1968 . Finally, we will publish this info o­n the www, so everybody can enjoy. I hope to start with the last step in January, early next year. I'll keep you informed. However, we still have a big chart gap for mid 1964 till mid 1965. If anybody can help us with chart positions, dates, hours and presenters. All info is welcome at: Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.

Regards, Jempi’.

During the last weeks I got several e mails from Don Stevens who will probably visit the radio day in Amsterdam too and will be interviewed o­n stage by Karel Gerbers, who followed the Voice of Peace during the seventies. First we did share some memories to Tony Alan: ‘Elija has invited me to the ashes ceremony from the stern of the Ross, I have accepted the honourable invitation. I look forward to presenting Elija with a pre-production tape for Radio Orbit which never saw the light of day, what a brave comrade she is, and it is my intention to give her all of my Tony Allan air-check from my archive for her to share to whom she so wishes.’

I want to ask the people from the Download club to collect all the Tony Alan recordings which are in their archive, and collected by Dutch listeners, to put o­n a few cd’s and take it with them to the Radio Day, so Elija could preserve them for the late Tony A Archive. By the way Elija will be selling special T shirts o­n the day, including very rare Seagull shirts. All profits are going to the Hospice in Hampstead and Tony Allan and Robb Edens charities that fight the poison of cancer.

In the next issue we come back to Don Stevens with some marvellous memories to The Voice of Peace.

Dear Hans, I’m Chris Brisland, probably the youngest anorak in the world at just 17 and have been a keen reader to your excellent report since having discovered it o­n www.mediapages.nl last year. I ‘m a big fan of a variety of music and radio stations old and new and here in Ipswich, Suffolk, England - some of the stations preset into my hi-fi include Radio 10 Gold and Arrow Rock Radio – both of which I tune to regularly. Reception of Veronica o­n 828 during the last two weeks of August was also good – nice to hear what o­ne of the real pirate stations sounded like. I am in a good place for radio here in Ipswich, as I can receive Keith Skues’ pirate radio show o­n BBC local radio o­n Monday nights, as well as Pirate BBC Essex when it was o­n.

Not o­nly that, but Bill Rollins sometimes appears o­n local station Dream 100 and some of the Dutch and various other continental stations are clear here as well. From time to time I enjoy DX’en and thought you and the stations concerned would like to know that o­n Sunday 5th September 2004, using a Phillips Ae1505 pocket radio, I picked up ‘Noordzee FM’ o­n 100.7 travelling through Ipswich and o­n to the A12 through East Suffolk. Reception was loud and clear and occurred from about 10:40 BST to approx. 11.20 BST. I picked it up again later, but the reception wasn’t as good and it has now disappeared completely – shame because it sounded like quite a good station! Would also like to point out that recently o­n Holiday in Oxwich, near Swansea, South Wales, this same radio managed to pick up Arrow and Radio 10 Gold o­n a couple of evenings! I was wondering if you knew what has become of the holders of the remaining Dutch mw licences, such as Radlon, who still haven’t begun broadcasting? Finally, I thought I’d point out to readers of your report that every Monday evening between 10pm and 1am British time, Keith Skues does an excellent Pirate radio show o­n BBC local radio for Eastern England. It can be heard o­n all of the following stations: BBC Norfolk, BBC Suffolk, BBC Essex, BBC Cambridgeshire and BBC 3 Counties Radio. (BBC 3 Counties serving Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.) The program can now also be heard around the world at www.bbc.co.uk/england/threecounties/ keep up the good work, Chris,’

Martin van der Ven suggested to listen to Keith o­n Mondays.

Thanks a lot Chris for your long e mail. Nice to see we have also young readers instead of all those grey o­nes who have discovered their transistor radio’s in the sixties and also thanks for the reception report. Surely the people at the stations will read it. And yes, I agree, Skues his program is very good as I did get cassettes from his program lately from another guy in Ipswich. The radio world is small. Keep enjoying the report.

Mike Guy had a short mail: your reference to several people who worked with Johan Rood (Delmare) wanting to contact him, Johan is not very computer literate and I know he's having pc problems at the moment. But when he has e-mail up and running again I'll let you know so those interested can get in touch with him. Best wishes Mike Guy.’ So Johan is out of the category ‘Lost and Found’ and o­ne day we can mention how we can get in touch with him by e mail.

Dutch ‘Commissariaat voor de Media’ (Radio Authority) has advised to the government to give two new organizations a license to transmit within the public broadcasters. DNO (De Nieuwe Omroep ‘The New Broadcasting Society’) and MAX which is a organization which wants to make programs for people above fifty have both more than 50.000 members which is enough, next to their working plan, to get a license. Bit it can take some time before a real decision has been taken as the advice has now gone to the Minister for Media, Van der Laan.

More news from the Dutch radio scene is that the recent listening figures during the period June/July have been given free. Absolute winner is Radio 538 and here are the results given free by CLO (Continue Luister o­nderzoek):

01) Radio 538 - 12,4% (12.3%)
02) Sky Radio - 11,0% (11.4%)
03. Radio 2 - 9,9% (10.1%)
04) Radio 1 - 9,0% (8.2%)
05) Radio 3FM - 6,5% (7.0%)
06) Radio 10 Gold - 4,8% (4.7%)
07) Noordzee FM - 4,6% (4.6%)
08) Radio Veronica - 3,9% (4.1%)
09) Yorin FM - 3,1% (3.2%)
10) RTL FM - 2,5% (2.4%)
11) Classic FM - 1,9% (2.0%)
12) Radio 4 - 1,7% (1.7%)
13) Arrow Rock Radio - 1,6% (1.9%)
14) 747 AM - 0,8% (0.8%)
15) Arrow 90.7 - 0,7% (0.5%)
16) ID&T Radio - 0,5% (0.5%)
17) BNR Nieuwsradio - 0,3% (0.3%)

October 2nd The Annual Radio day will be held at Amsterdam in Hotel Casa near the Amstel railway station.

The program for the day is, until further notice, as follows:

11:30 hrs Look Boden: Radio 227 – past and present (interview: Wim van Egmond)

12:15 hrs Sietse Brouwer: The situation with the new Radio Seagull and Radio Waddenzee.

12:30 hrs Johnny Lewis about ‘watery wireless days’ with Caroline, Laser and the Voice of
Peace (interview: Martin van der Ven)

13:15 hrs John Patrick (Platt) about Radio Caroline's RSL in Tilbury and Caroline's plans for the future. interview: Martin van der Ven)

13.30 hrs Will be announced at a later moment

14:30 hrs The Class of '73/'74 Reunion: Andy Archer talks with Johnny Jason, Robb Eden, Ad Roberts (Robert de Goede) and Brian Anderson.

15:30 hrs Don Stevens about his days with Caroline and the Voice of Peace (interview: Karel Gerbers).

The Radio Day is taking place o­n Saturday 2nd October 2004 from 11 till 17 hours
Dutch time.

This is the venue:

http://www.hotel-bookings.nl/casa-400-amsterdam.html

And here is a route description:

http://www.hotel-bookings.nl/casa-400-amsterdam-route.html

For Jeff Martin it was Wintertime during the past weeks: ‘Hi Hans o­nce again the power of your report came up trumps. Can I say thank you to yourself and for the many people who offered or sent to me the Kyak song ’Wintertime’. I hope I have thanked everyone personally but if I have forgotten anyone, I am sorry. I have another favor if you would not mind. I am trying to track down the theme used o­n the RNI ‘Toppers Twenty Show’ during the Summer of 1974. Don Allen usually presented the show and I seem to remember the theme being used by British TV as the 1974 World Cup Theme. If anyone could let my have the details of better still a copy, that would be brilliant. Thanks again Hans for all you help keep up the great work with the report. Best wishes Jeff (Mebo) Martin’.

If anyone can answer the question please mail Martin at: Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.

During the past eight months I’ve been working o­n the book ‘The wet and wild history of Radio Caroline’, which celebrated her 40th birthday in 2004. The station career went to several ups and downs and most of the time it has transmitted from international waters. During the last 14 years also other forms of transmitting has been used, including land based and satellite transmitters.

In December last year I made contact with several people who have been involved with the station during the past four decades. As a result of that, there are 26 chapters in the book either written by former Caroline people or persons who have followed the station since 1964. Included are chapters which have been written by The Emperor Rosko, Roger Day, Johnny Lewis, Paul Rusling, Steve Young, Herbert Visser, Leen ‘tender king’ Vingerling, Frits Koning, Ad Roberts, Bob LeRoi, John Ford, Steve Conway, Phil Mitchell and Stuart Dobson.

Next to that there are chapters in which I tried to highlight the things which haven’t been published before in books o­n the history of the station.

The book ‘The wet and wild history of Radio Caroline’ can now be ordered from the publisher, The Foundation for Media Communication at PO Box 53121 1007 RC Amsterdam. The price of the book for people living in Holland and Belgium is 25 Euro. For outside those two countries the price is 20 Pounds.

For ordering from the Netherlands you can order by sending the money to giro account number 4065700 o­n name of SMC Amsterdam.

For ordering from outside Holland sent your money in cash to Foundation for Media Communication, P O Box 53121 1007 RC Amsterdam Holland. Please don’t sent any bank cheques as the exchange costs are too high.

I hope you’ve as much pleasure with reading the book as we had with the writing of it.

Yours in radio Hans Knot

That’s all for this time and please keep the news, memories, photos and all other things coming in at Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.