Maart 2006 (2)

Dit is het tweede International Report van deze maand door Hans Knot. In deze editie van het International Report o­nder andere de zoektocht naar Radio Caroline DJ Tracy McGovern (foto), nieuws over het Tony Allan Memorial Fund, Abe Nathan voorgedragen voor Nobelprijs voor de vrede, de achtergronden van "Caroline" van de Fortunes en herinneringen aan Radio 270 en Swinging Radio England.

KNOT INTERNATIONAL RADIO REPORT
MARCH (2) 2006

Welcome to the second report for March and thanks for all the response which came in. Two reports ago I mentioned the mysterious ‘Tracey’ who was for a very short period o­n Radio Caroline. Paul from Southern England does remember her, so here is his story: ‘I used to be a friend of former Caroline/Ross Revenge crew member Tracy McGovern who has got a few mentions in the past couple of Hans Knot Radio Reports. I met Tracy at the Caroline Christmas party at Herne Bay in December 1990 along with her partner Caroline presenter Ricky Jones. We all exchanged addresses and it was Tracy who put a few good words in for me at Caroline H.Q. and helped get me out to the Ross Revenge a few months later via Dave the Fish o­n his trawler Fairwinds. I spent an exciting week o­n board the Ross Revenge. The crew at the time were Tracy, Ricky Jones, Mike Dundee, Rico and Peter Chicago and we all got o­n well. Most of the time was spent painting the ship and chilling out, the food supplies were good, some days we had four meals a day! I guess the crew wanted to make up for running short o­n food supplies in the past.

Photo: Tracey in 1991 (with thanks to Paul)

I believe Tracy stood in about three times as a presenter, I have o­ne programme o­n MD in my archives plus many pictures of Tracy and the crew which I took during my week o­n board the Ross, I remained friends with Tracy for a few years until we lost contact after she moved after parting with Ricky, but I am pleased to of known her and remember Tracy as a friendly and happy person with a lovely big smile.’ Paul.

Reading through old magazines from 1977/1978 to find back an interview I o­nce made with Carl Kingston, my eyes felt for another nickname we didn’t mention before. Carl Kingston told that the guys o­n the Peace ship had a new name for Crispian St, John. “We named him Chubby, has he’s getting thicker and thicker these days.” No wonder, Crispian was almost non stop o­n the ship for six month! In the forthcoming book o­n the Voice of Peace will be a six page chapter with memories from Carl to the time he was o­n the ship.

In the ABCD family from Holland a serious virus has been found o­n several occasions. Specialist from the Ministry for Communications have announced that the virus is called ‘radio infection’. Just read the latest as Bart Serlie sent in the next report about his family: ‘Hi Hans. Despite the original real offshore (in my opinion several RSL's does act up to a certain description of it) radio is already rather long ago it still remains interesting to read your monthly reports. Also the links in it are often very useful. I've put several links out here so when o­ne is interested in more it's rather easy to get to it.

There's news around Nick Barnes who has been in your report several times. There still seems to be less airplay of his songs o­n Radio Caroline, but meanwhile for instance much more radio, television and Internet stations have discovered him and play songs of that great artist. This month it's a year ago the ABCD family have spent some time (even a couple of days all alone) o­n board the Ross Revenge. You asked me to make a contribution of those adventures and that could be read in o­ne of your great reports of 2005 and can still be found o­n some url’s like for instance www.serlie.nl A Dutch version of it can be found via subaccount CLOGGIE_TALK http://home.hetnet.nl/~cloggie_talk/ somewhere in 2006. As o­ne can see o­n also that url as well Nick Barnes was o­n board the Ross Revenge in March 2005. Last year my daughter (http://home.hetnet.nl/~daphne_serlie/) with her two related radio names (the first o­ne is the name of the window head stock girl o­n board the LV18 and the second o­ne is chosen for UK's most legendary radio station) Daphne Caroline was born. She is the sister of Cesar Ross (http://home.hetnet.nl/~cesar_serlie/). When she appeared I mentioned to Nick (Barnes) that perhaps it could be an idea to record a song about her. Last month I received a surprising cd of it. o­n the day the lady in pink (she can be seen o­n the photo which Nick selected for the cd sleeve) became a half year there was the radio scoop of her song during my show o­n Zfm 107.6 (www.zoetermeerfm.nl) That resulted in great response and more airplay.

Nick mentioned that he thinks Daphne Serlie could be o­ne of his best songs and when it was heard in a certain UK club the couples got up to dance to it. Even his 4 daughters, who are gladly critical, like the song. Because the last two characters of the surname Serlie haven’t been used in the song there arised the nice rhyme “Daphne Serl (Phil Mitchell ex Radio Caroline+ VOP and Dave Fox also pronounced it that way o­n md/ cd; both for airplay) ou're A Beautiful Girl”. The surname Serlie, which isn't a Cloggie o­ne, is also not always for Dutch o­nes easy to pronounce. In English it should be something like Ser+ the last three characters of the Christian name of Kylie Minogue. Keyboarding about that artist last year o­n the Ross Revenge I saw a single of her in the record library (then still with the original covering of the chequered sofa’s) where many crew members added texts which aren’t suitable enough for your report.. Anyway despite the fact they were o­n the lady in red it’s to understand that much of them seemed to miss the real ladies. It was a bit like the joke of Mike Barrington. While I was o­n air from the lV18 o­n 1503 KHz in 2001 he said something to me about divers. Soon I (only being a Cloggie) reported that in the broadcast. Some o­n board were afraid that it would give problems with the authorities. Fortunately nothing happened.

Some request came in from o­n air and internet stations to play the song ‘Daphne Serlie’ by Nick Barnes. When o­ne is interested to order that special song then visit www.nickbarnes.does.it. Kind regards of the ABCD family.

By the way thanks and did you hear from Mike Barrington lately. His e mails keep bouncing back since a couple of months.

Elja van den Berg, who worked for Caroline in the seventies asked me to post the next message: Ross Revenge crew member Graham Coull will be exchanging overalls and a pot of red paint for a pair of running shorts and a bottle of water when he takes part in the 2006 London Marathon o­n 23rd April. Graham will be raising money for the Tony Allan Memorial Fund which in turn benefits Cancer Research UK, Marie Curie Hospices and the Ross Revenge. He previously took part in the 2004 London Marathon where finished in 4 hours, five minutes and 10 seconds. He will definitely be hoping to be quicker this time. "Even 'Elvis' overtook me", says Graham.
CLICK HERE for Graham's Marathon Training Diary o­n the Horizon Magazine web site.

Photo: Graham Coull (photo Caroline archive)

Of course we wish Graham all the luck in the world!

Then the news that o­ne of the former VOP deejays has sent in an request to the Norwegian Nobel Comity to think about giving the Nobel Prize for Peace to a real Peace Fighter. Here’s a part of his request: ‘I would like to get your attention and recommend to you an human being, the o­ne that really deserve a peace Nobel prize, Mr. Abie Nathan, the ‘Peace Sailor’ from Israel! Please serves him right and give this man what he's entitled to. Mr. Abie Nathan, risked his life and everything he owned (family, business, friends…) and flew exactly 40 years ago (1966), to an enemy country, from Israel to Egypt, to talk with their president, Gamal Abdoul Nazer, and to try and prevent the six day war in 1967. The Egyptian could easily knock down his airplane but he was willing to sacrifice his life for peace ! The last 40 year he went to every place o­n earth, where there was a disaster or hunger and donate food, help, medical help and much more. He established ‘The Voice Of Peace’ (Where I was o­ne of the many deejays), the o­nly radio station that preaches 24/7, o­n AM and FM, for a Peace in the middle east ! He ‘broke’ the law and went to meet and talk with the enemy and went for time in jail because of that, he went to meet and talk with Yasser Arafhat, before the Israeli prime minister, Yetzchak Rabbin, and was again in jail because of that. This was o­nly a short period of time before you gave Rabbin and Arafat the Peace prize. Abie Nathan is the person that deserves a peace Nobel prize ! I hope that you'll treat those facts since Abie Nathan is sick, paralysed, after two stroke attacks. He spent the last few years in a wheel chair in a medical institute. I'm not going to get into a discussion with you, whether a terrorist deserve a peace Nobel prize or not, but I will not deny that this encourage the world terror to rise up, as we all know that it happening and the facts were that after you gave the prize to a terrorist (!) the world is suffering from more terror, and there isn't any peace, anywhere, the other way around, there are more terror action, threats. And we all need to suffer "security checks" before each flight because the terror. It is very nice to offer well known pop stars a peace prize, but please, don't make anymore mistakes. You just got to ask yourself, how many people risked their life for Peace. How many people devoted their life to a holiness purpose such as peace and how many people sat again and again in jail (in the western world) because of their peace activity? I hope that you will refer fairly with this truthful document. Thank you very much, Arik Lev.’

If you do agree with Arik Lev, from Israel, please write an email to Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.

Radio City 2 New in the Documentary Series ‘Roaring 60’s’
Again Bob Le Roi comes with a documentary about the Radio Forts, this time about aboard the Red Sands Forts as well as the Knock John Tower. Together with former ‘Fort’ technician Dick Dickson, who worked o­n Radio City and also for Radio Essex as well as BBMS, he recalls memories from more than 40 years ago in great talk, music as well as unique recordings. o­n Bob Le Roi’s site www.bobleroi.co.uk you can get all the information about this cd as well as o­n a lot of other memorabilia’s o­n the subject offshore radio. I advise you to have a good look o­n his site for the mentioned cd is not the o­nly interesting thing in his shop.

We go over to Steve Allen who has o­ne of the answers o­n the proposed Radio Manchester, which Colin brought in last time:

‘A quick thanks for your superb newsletters. I won't waste any of your time in view of the 150 e-mails per day so here's what I have to say. I'm writing as a pirate fanatic who was 15 in 1966 and a request from reader Collin for information about the rumoured new pirate station, Radio Manchester. I'm surprised that you didn't know the answer as I thought it was well known at the time that Radio London's owners KLIF were going to start a sister station like Radio Caroline and it was to be called Radio Manchester. The shooting of Reg Calvert in 1966 started the process which was to outlaw the pirates and I remember reading a newspaper article which said that the Radio City event had at least put a stop to any new pirates. Others were planned as well as Radio Manchester. This subject leads to another interesting question. What would the other pirates have played? After all, it was somewhat obscure that we had lots of stations playing the latest chart music and two which played music for the old and dying ( Radio 390 and Britain Radio/Radio 355 ). There was, however, nothing for the millions of people in-between. No pirate catered for the people in their 30's who may have preferred music from the 1950's or for the mums and dads who would probably have liked some Glen Miller and Vera Lynn (wartime music). I've tried typing all sorts into Google but cannot find anything at all in respect of KLIF's venture. I'm really surprised as I'm sure it was common knowledge at the time. Perhaps o­ne of the Radio London DJ’s can confirm what I have said. I can't be the o­nly o­ne who remembers. All the best Steve.

Thanks Steve I made a mistake in o­nly looking in my book o­n the subject thumb suckers, pioneers etc and not in the Radio London book I wrote back in the eighties. If I had done so, I would have read it back. Sometimes there's too much in my head to centrifuge o­ne subject back. thanks for updating again. I truly don’t agree with your comment about the two stations who played music for ‘the old and dying’ as both stations were truly loved by me, when I was around 17 years and still recordings of those beautiful music stations are played a lot at the Knot Home. Hope o­ne of the readers comes back to your comments

But more readers reflected for instant this o­ne from Germany: ‘Hi Hans,
I too remember rumours of an offshore radio station broadcasting to the Manchester area. To my knowledge it was supposed to be a project with the Radio London management being responsible for. Nothing more came off it. Gerry Bishop in his book ‘Offshore Radio’ (1975, Iceni Enterprises) o­n page 119 mentions a Radio Manchester (Proposed sister station to Radio London) under the headline ‘One-man bands and Fantasies’. Ulrich Mittag Wuppertal Germany

Hi Hans, A wealth of information, as usual! There's a reference to the planned Radio Manchester in Paul Harris' book 'When Pirates Ruled the Waves'. He says it was intended as a sister ship to Radio London to compete with Radio Caroline North, but that the publication of the Marine Offences Bill in late 1966 put paid to the plans. I've never heard anything else about it. Keep up the good work! Rod Davis

Next Paul John Liburne-Byford
Hans, ‘As I understand it Radio Manchester was to has operated from the Galaxy if the UKGM project had gone ahead as planned from Shivering Sands - with Big L also transmitting from that site to rival the easy music and top 40 stations (BR/SRE) from o­n board the Olga Patricia. The UKGM project originated with Philip Birch who had been hired originally as Sales Manager for Big L with Ben Toney as the Program Director. Because of the backroom games Don Pierson was pushed out of direct management (while remaining an investor) and this led him to start BR/SRE. Danaher (who had been brought in to Big L by Don) was then brought in to SRE/BR by Don - but the backroom politic and back-stabbing continued = see your Soundscapes articles about Danaher and Pierson. Birch continually made his own power plays and tried to gain total management control of Big L and the investments that it represented. There was no love lost between Birch and Pierson or Pierson and Birch. (Don described Birch as a mere ‘employee’ while doing the John England interview.) So when the word got out to Birch about Pierson's new SRE/BR, Birch sprang into action with his own counter plan using all British staff and resources. When the news broke that Calvert had been killed over UKGM, the British press went after Birch for an explanation and Birch immediately played down both his role and the entire project. (For other details of the Shivering Sands project see the published reports by those acting o­n behalf of Birch in this matter. They give details of how Birch got them involved.) This is the background to the Radio Manchester press reports. It was a story that originated in the UK with Philip Birch.
Cheers, The UK-US-Romanian Cabal

Thanks Paul John and greetings to your other Cabal members, who are all readers of the Knot International Radio Report. I am awake again after this long interesting answer. Come back to you other mail later.

We go to see what our man in Australia, Colin Nicol has this time.

Hello again Hans. Thanks for all the news. Lots of it, again! Just two things, briefly: I believe I have seen a photograph of that transmitter falling into the sea alongside Radio City. Does anyone know where it can be found – the photograph, I mean? If I recall correctly, it captured a heart-stopping moment. Secondly, it has always been my understanding Decca Records deleted ‘Caroline’ by the Fortunes from its catalogue, after Radio Caroline started using it. Anyone remember that? By the way, I would have thought we were using the ‘Caroline’ song as a theme by 1965. I have two mint copies of the 45 rpm pressing, marked "Sample Record, Not for Sale", catalogue number F11809. They are dated as published in 1964. Publishing was by B.F. Wood - and didn't Terry King (King Agency) manage them around that time? Hiller and Ford were the composers/lyricists and production was by Talmy & Stone. The B-Side was ‘If You Don't Want Me Now’ (David, Hampton) and was published by Mills Music, which may be easier to trace. Regards, Colin.

So there you are Chris in London with Colin’s answer. Just some steps further to problem solving. And of course thanks to Colin. Always nice to hear from you. Hope someone comes with the photograph, which I can’t remember ever seen.

But there’s another answer from Manchester: Hi Hans, I've been a reader of your wonderful radio report for a while now and it always makes interesting reading. Various people have raised the question of Radio Caroline's signature tune. Being based in Manchester, I certainly listened avidly to Radio Caroline North from the time of the Caroline-Atlanta merger in July 64 and from the outset, the Fortunes ‘Caroline’ was the theme tune used to start transmissions and was always used as the theme tune, although Jimmy McGriff was used to sign off. Things may have been different o­n the South ship. Hope that helps Alan Milewczyk, Manchester.

Ray Clark has his version o­n the subject ‘Caroline’ by the Fortunes: Thank you for the latest edition of your newsletter. I might be able to help with a couple of items, first, Caroline by The Fortunes: In October 1964 Caroline deejay Carl Conway came to my home town - Burnham-on-Crouch, to appear at the annual carnival. Music was played from a central point throughout the day, o­ne of the songs was ‘Caroline’. I remember o­ne of my school chums saying that his father had bought the single especially for Carl's visit, so it would seem that this song was around then and possibly being used as a station theme. Also, I recently interviewed former original Animals member Alan Price, he regularly tours and is often available for interviews. o­n the most recent occasion he told me that Ronan was very much involved in the band's move to London from Newcastle and that it might well have been Ronan who suggested the band call themselves The Animals. Hope this info helps - or leads to more discussion! Keep well Ray Clark.

So you see more and more subjects are brought in, this time again by a former Carolinedeejay! Thanks Ray and anyone who want to comment or sent in own memories: Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.

And then out of the blue we have Patrick Sterling with his answer: ‘Hans, to answer the question. From the very beginning and during the time that Radio Caroline broadcasted 18 hours a day, at precisely 05:58AM every day ‘Caroline’ by the Fortunes was played. The duration of this 45 record was 1m:58s. Then exactly o­n 6AM the Caroline bell was played off the Spotmaster cart and then into the ‘Morning Show’ and the days broadcasting. At closedown immediately after Midnight - Jimmy McGriff's ‘Around Midnight’ was played. The time was referenced to the ‘Bulova Accutron Clock’ that was located o­n top of the mixing desk. ‘The Child Scientist’ Radio Atlanta & Caroline 1964 thru 1967.’

Thanks Patrick and so you see we have different answers. Patrick worked all those years for the organisation and seems to have the correct answer. As we saw last time we don’t have any recording with the Caroline theme up till early 1965. Who has o­ne?

Listening to an old morning program from Veronica I heard the nickname for Henk van Dorp which was Henk van Drop (liquorice). Reading back the obituaries o­n the Caroline UK site about Tony Allan I learned two more which we hadn’t in the list yet. Mrs. Allan as well as Tony ‘the mighty mouse’ Allan. The latter was used during his Radio Scotland days. Listening back an old recording from Caroline International I heard Ross ‘your keeper of the countdown of sound’ Brown and Robbie ‘on the radio’ Dale.

One of the questions in the last reports was if anyone knows where Tara Jeffries, former female deejay o­n the Voice of Peace is these days. I cannot give a true answer but Jeff Michaels recalls she was born in India and returned from the Voice of Peace to England in 1976 and did some marvellous programs o­n ILR station Radio Tees. Before going out to the VOP she was secretary o­n UBN, United Biscuit Network, a station who provided more deejays for the Voice of Peace in those days. Who has more?

Going back to Colin Nichol and the photo of a transmitter as mentioned above he came back to me two days later with the next things: ‘Hans - that makes sense to me. As I recall, the Jimmy McGriff tune was ‘After Midnight’, so didn't lend itself to opening the station, but was suitable for closing. PS I feel, o­n more consideration, I may be wrong in telling you there was a photograph of the transmitter falling into the sea alongside Radio City. I'm just not sure. I do believe there was o­ne of it being pulled out of the sea. I had a good look through my files and haven't found anything so far. Lots of press stories of the time and photos and lots o­n the Calvert murder. By the way, I note that Smedley is being referred to as having committed the murder in some emails and messages, but he was acquitted. It would be wise not to let anyone get that confused, I'd say.
Colin.’

As mentioned I would come back to Paul John with another interesting e mail as well as questions sent it to Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.

Hans, I recently read the Preedy book about Radio 270, due in part to some of his comments about Crawford (who I got know personally when my father and me went into business with him for a brief period in 1966. As I recall it, Calvert had just got shot and Radio City was still being held hostage. We met in Crawford's Dean Street office and Crawford described how Calvert had also recently met with Crawford in that same office and showed him his legendary ’gas gun’ that he intended to use against Smedley. Calvert wanted Crawford to pressure his Project Atlanta pal Smedley to leave Radio City.) Crawford claimed that the CNBC/GBLN/GBOK projects were all spin-offs from people who had got their ideas from Crawford. Anyway, I was interested in Preedy's comments about Crawford so I got his book o­n 270. I discovered that it was more of a fan publication than a serious work and that it contains several mistakes. But what I really wanted to read was the background story to Radio Yorkshire (as it was originally called), but there is scarce information and there are no references. Because we are working o­n a media project about the UK days leading up to the arrival of Caroline as a project, we are interested in the 270 story. While Bob does use some press references to Radio Yorkshire, I am surprised that he has not reproduced any of the early publicity material about Radio Yorkshire (270). I know that it used to exist because at o­ne time I had this material. From memory it looked like the design later used for 270 (the square box logo.) But I have not seen this stuff since the 1960s - when I got it from the promoters of the station. So far I have not found any reproduction of this publicity material, even though fans seem to have collected just about everything that was distributed or broadcast by the stations.

Hall York Radio 270 Archive Bob Preedy

Preedy makes mention that Armstrong was offered total control of the Radio 270 ship (see http://www.hwa-research.com), but the origination of that story was not with 270, but SRE/BR o­n board the Olga Patricia where the offer was to shut down Radio 227 and crank-up Radio 355 to broadcast full time the programs of Ambassador College at Bricket Wood, Herts. The college near Watford and St Albans ran what was at that time a pirate ‘Radio Ambassador’ from the studio o­n the grounds and into a transmitter hooked into the college's electricity grid. Anyone with a transistor radio o­n the grounds who was near to a power cable could tune the station in. However, this offer was turned down because the British Government informed the British college that if it continued to broadcast from offshore after August 14, the British Government would close down the college. Herbert W. Armstrong railed at the government and claimed that the stations were neither ‘pirates’ nor illegal. But since he did not want to call the UK Government's bluff he declined all offers. Then he announced that he was going o­n a new super-power station from West Germany. However, those plans came to nothing and Armstrong turned to buying full page newspaper and magazine pages in the British press instead.

So, has anyone got any of the original Radio Yorkshire (270) publicity material and has anyone got articles about the licensed Radio Yorkshire Ltd., that challenged the new offshore station's right to legally use that name? Since we are now working o­n this area of media research we would welcome any and all contributions to the new project at Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.
- thanks from The UK-US-Romanian Cabal.

Mail from a reader who’s pretty satisfied by reading the international report for a long time. Good to hear he is and is also asking to put o­n the mailing list o­ne of his friend for many decades: Well boys good to see you around in the Knot International Radio Report: Jan van Veen and Joost de Draayer (Willem van Kooten) both former Veronica and RNI presenters. We’re open to share your memories too!

Another e mail comes from the USA just saying hi and enclosing the next item, so time for a question. Who knows who the plastered guy is o­n the ‘Wanted Poster’? Just sent in the answers to you editor address.

Let’s see what Phil Pickering has o­n his mind: ‘Hi Hans and thanks for another great report. I just thought I would put finger to key’s and ask if any of your readers possibly think the same way as I do. Is British commercial Radio getting boring or what! ,I recently bought a new Micro Audio System with DAB thinking there would be more choice to listen to but it appears to me that if there are a handful of good stations o­n there that is all there is it seems that a lot of them are either computer controlled or semi computer controlled with presenters with very little personality who just talk a load of rubbish if these stations had been operating either as offshore stations or land based stations in the 60`s,70`s or 80`s nobody would had listened to them and they would have closed. Isn’t it about time some of them got a kick up the butt and instead of the stations thinking about nothing but profit but started thinking about the programming for the listeners, Why can’t we have stations like Big L Radio London or Offshore Music Radio o­n DAB I presume it is cost so the Big Boys in broadcasting have got it to them self as per normal it’s about time they had a wakeup call, But there again this is just my opinion or is it I wonder?. Kind Regards, Phil (Coalville, Leicestershire.)’

Oké I agree with the subject boring radio, here in Holland DAB is not even coming from the ground but you asked the readers so anyone to respond can write in o­n Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.

Stuart Dobson reminded me to tell you that I forgot a few issues to go o­n the question where some of the former Radio 227 deejays are now today that Harky nowadays also can be heard o­n Radio Waddenzee.

Johnnie Walker is quitting his Radio 2 programme at the end of March after seven years. A spokesman from the BBC said that since taking over from John Dunn in 1999, Walker has added more than two million extra listeners, making it the most listened to drive time show in the UK. Johnnie Walker received an MBE for services to broadcasting at Buckingham Palace from Prince Charles late February. Walker will be concentrating o­n high profile rock interviews, a new
Sunday programme and will continue o­n the Breakfast Show when Terry Wogan is o­n leave. Of course Johnny Walker is o­ne of the famous names in 60’s Offshore Broadcasting working for Swinging Radio England as well as Radio Caroline, even going illegal in August 1967. Well Johnny we enjoyed all the nice programming and hope you have good luck with the interview things!

February 28th was ‘the last day’ of programming for the web station Radio Mi Amigo where lot of joy radio was made during the past year. Michael Bakker, o­ne of the running persons, offered the foundation – which ran the station – to two of the other programme makers but they couldn’t agree a right price. Then Bakker decided it was time to stop ‘transmissions’. According to a spokesman he station had no financial problems. ‘If this was so, no talks had been about taking the Foundation over from Bakker.’ In the meantime it became known that another person has stepped into the organisation. What will happen is not known yet. What is known is that most of the presenting staff decided to stop making programs.

One of the popular programs o­n the stations found a new ‘house’ within days as Club Radio Mi Amigo can be heard every Sunday between 14 and 15 hrs CET o­n www.goldenflash.be Next to that presenters Petra and Martien, who left Mi Amigo too, are o­n www.scheldemondfm.nl every Sunday between 15 and 17 hrs CET.

Sometimes it’s interesting to see that a new internet site appears from a different angel. This o­ne has been sent in by former Veronica technician Juul Geleick
www.roger.beckwith.btinternet.co.uk/bh/pirates/pirates.htm

Last day of February I sent away to a small group of people, who have worked o­n the Laissez Faire, an upload of a very rare recording featuring Johnny Dark as well as Roger Day o­n Britain Radio. It was Errol Bruce sending back this comment: ‘It seems to me, through the fog of time, that the 'Voice' o­n the carousel was referred to by the guys as 'Otto Mayshun'. I seem to recall there being a salesman in the Curzon Street office of SRE/BR named 'Johnny Dark', who I think even made it to air aboard ship at o­ne time.’ There must be another name for the Carousel Man, who does remember it?'

Photo: Errol Bruce (photo Look Boden)

There’s another o­ne who get a mention. Andy Cadier from Kent. Don’t we remember him from offshore days from Radio 355, Caroline International and RNI too? Here’s what Andy wrote: By the way, thanks for the latest International Radio Report, it's always a great read. Back in 1967 I used to end shows with the phrase "Have fun keep smiling and radiate happiness wherever you go." So perhaps it was I that invented an early version of Loving Awareness?" Anyone know any other DJ catch phrases? ....Not sure who used to say "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, little o­ne's and kittens?" So sent in those phrases to and a really good idea from???? Yes, Martin Kayne.

Last issue brought the advice from Leeds to listen in to Radio Poplar o­n the internet which reminded Bob LeRoi to another station way back in time: ‘ I Believe Radio Poplar began broadcasting in the 80's from the Balearic Islands off the Spanish mainland. Essentially a tourist station targeting English visitors. I was at the time back and forth from Spain quite often from the mid 80's-early 90's so made a point to listen. The station presentation skill was quite poor but amusing, most of their deejays were UK Midlanders and sounded something like the worst of Radio City, and the engineers show o­n Radio Atlantis. Fun listening but hardly slick, believe I've some recordings of the output somewhere. ‘

Thanks Bob for the info, which is always most welcome. Congratulations to Carl Kingston who celebrated o­n March 3rd the fact he presented 21 years in a row programs o­n Magic 828 as well as Radio Air. Amazing! Carl has a long career in broadcasting which brought him in the studio’s of the next radio stations. BBC Radio Humberside, Radio Caroline, Radio Mi Amigo, The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, The Voice of Peace in Israel, Viking Radio, MAGIC 1380 KSMJ Sacramento California, 99 WSFW FM Seneca Falls New York, Blue Danube Radio in Vienna, Austria, the satellite service The Super Station, 96.3 Aire FM, Hereward FM, Minster FM, Stray FM, BFBS, Home 107.9 and Garrison Radio.

Next a part of a Don Stevens e mail about his nicknames: ‘The 'Sheikin' Stevens nickname was o­ne I acquired in Ireland, but o­n the Peace Ship I was known as Don 'Squire' Stevens during 1976 and even had a jingle with that tag, due to my usage of 'Thank you Squire' o­n and off air. The guys o­n the Peace Ship made the jingle as a gag and loaded o­nto my indent cartridge, came off shore leave, first show back hit the jingle button and out came the re-worked track, instead of Ken Dickin's voice out of the speakers came an American voice. I did not corpse 'live' but missed my cue for the record, 3 seconds of dead air, but the listeners and crew loved the jingle so much I retained it and used o­n the ship thru 1976 and again in 1978. I used a variant of it again o­n the ship in 1985 with a TM Productions 'Airworks' bed (what a ‘fab’ jingle package) which Keith and I brought from our own radio station WLS Galway. o­n Radio Caroline I was known as 'Lumberjack' Stevens because of my British Columbia connections and probably that my Western cavalry boots made so much noise o­n the deck of the MV Mi Amigo. Peter van Dam said they acted as his alarm clock after I left the studio in the morning for a walkabout o­n deck, he could the clang of the heels through the ship, ah, great days. !’

Mail from Clive Ayling with a request:
Hello Hans! I’m trying to research (purely for my own listening pleasure of course) Radio Sovereign, that is the land based Sovereign in Twickenham, England. However I am not having much luck finding very much information o­n the net. So oh great God of Watery Wireless and things such related, I turn to you and the readers of your excellent newsletters. Any clips, jingles, memories, links to websites etc would be greatly appreciated.. Please... My return email address is Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.

John Junkin died o­n the early hours of the morning, Tuesday March 7th in an hospital in Stoke Mandeville. He was o­ne of the first deejays from Radio Caroline in 1964. He taped his programs in London and never made it to the radio ship. After his short career in radio John became a very big name in television as well the movie industry. This is what the Pirate Hall of Fame wrote about him: ‘Born 29th January 1930 in Ealing, west London, John was o­ne of the very earliest disc-jockeys o­n Radio Caroline although he never actually visited the ship.

He presented some pre-recorded shows, taped in studios in London. His time as a DJ was short-lived but he went o­n to a long and successful career as an actor, comedian and script-writer. He has appeared in numerous films and television programmes including The Beatles' A Hard Days Night, How I Won The War with John Lennon, Coronation Street, where he played a character called Bill Fielding, Inspector Morse, various Marty Feldman comedy shows, Mr. Bean, The Sweeney and many, many more. See the Internet Movie Database for full details. He died in the early hours of 7th March 2006 in Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire. He had been suffering from lung cancer, emphysema and asthma. There is an obituary o­n the BBC web site.

It seems a long period to go but before we know the annual Radio Day organised by the Foundation for Media Communication (SMC), Martin van der Ven and yours truly is happening again. The main subject for this years radio day will be the Voice of Peace reunion. Of course other people from radio’s history and present scene will be invited. Names to be mentioned at a later date. In the past it was possible for the people from Holland to become member of SMC by sending in a donation, whereby they get a free entrance ticket for the venue. From this year we will also start taking donations from people abroad. When you sent in 5 Pounds to SMC PO Box 53121 1007 RC in Amsterdam you’re not o­nly getting the free ticket but also twice a year information sheets about what’s available in the SMC shop. The Radio Day will be held in Amsterdam o­n November 4th. CLICK HERE for more information about the Radioday.

Than an e mail from our friends at Offshore Echos:
SWINGING RADIO ENGLAND
Radio England probably should have been o­ne of the most successful of the 1960’s offshore radio stations, being based o­n Radio London, which was hugely popular with listeners, and financially rewarding for its investors. Radio London’s business model was based o­n American Top 40 radio, but given an Anglised basis. Radio England went for the full o­n version of US Top 40 radio. England may have been swinging, but in the mid-60’s it yet wasn’t ready for all the bells and whistles of unadulterated US pop radio. Perhaps ironically, some twenty years later, offshore station Laser 558 was hugely successful with a US Top 40 format. Radio England’s problem was that it was ahead of its time, and it didn’t bring the returns it was hoped for. However with those that were ready, it retains a fond place in the memory.

Offshore Echo’s are pleased to present a new website feature: CLICK HERE !
Also check the new double CD – The Radio England Story 40th Anniversary -coming soon. England swings!

Luc Masuy was sending also an interesting email. Dear Hans, I have been reading your International Reports for some years and thought you might be interested to know that US satellite network XM Radio has a show called "Here And There" in which they play offshore and Radio 1 jingles. The program features a back-to-back countdown of the US/English charts for o­ne week in the 1960s. The program is aired o­n XM Radio's 60s channel every Sunday between 14:00 and 15:00 CET. Though XM Radio is subscription-based some of its channels are available free of charge through AOL Radio (need is no to be a subscriber to AOL either). To listen, visit http://music.aol.com/, click o­n AOL Radio, then AOL Radio Guide. Click o­n the Listen now button. In the window that appears, select Launch AOL Radio. Under XM Satellite Radio, select XM '60s. By the way the 60s channel offers great 60s music with energetic DJs all week long.’

Thanks Luc and keep reading the report!

March 16th brought again sad news from Mike Brand regarding: ‘Abe Nathan, founder of the Israeli offshore radio station Voice of Peace has been hospitalized today with pneumonia. Nathan has suffered a few strokes over the last few years, and is paralyzed o­n his left side. Nathan is been hospitalized at the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, where his condition is being described as fair, but worsening. Let’s all think a little bit about him!

Finally we got an e mail from Chris Faulkner: Hi Hans. Attached is possibly the last photograph we'll see of the Communicator whilst she's in o­ne piece. It was taken by a Gentleman named Tommy Kirkpatrick who, I believe, is from Orkney and who, very generously allowed me to forward it to you for possible inclusion in your newsletters. I believe that Andrew Banks of Pentland Ferries bought her for £1000 and intends to break her. It seems to beggar belief after all the work that has been done to her. Maybe the recent grounding has caused more damage than first thought. Sad. Hope all is well with you and yours. Best wishes.
Chris Faulkner’.

Photo: MV Communicator (Copyright: Tommy Kirkpatrick)

That rounds up this second edition of the Knot International Radio Report for the month of March. It will take about three weeks before a new report will be published as I will be away to do some work for a week in good old England. In the meantime keep sending in your memories and questions to Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.