Mei 2006
Dit is het nieuwe International Report van Hans Knot. Met in deze editie onder andere herinneringen aan Klaas Vaak (foto), Carl Mitchell, de Voice of Peace, Swinging Radio England, Britain Radio en de Europarade. Verder onder andere Marc Jacobs en zijn verhaal over een geredde zeemeeuw aan boord van de MV Mi Amigo en een wespenplaag op het zendschip. En zeezender fans op 31 augustus 1974 in de problemen.Knot international radio report May 2006(1)
Thank you all for the wonderful amount of e mails and sharing your memories during the past few weeks. As always I’ve selected the mails and bring a part of them in this issue starting with birds.
Dear Hans, The last item in your recent Report on sea birds encountered on the radio ships reminded me of a more domestic episode which I think I must have heard during 1967 on Caroline South. one of the Caroline DJs announced over the air that a budgerigar had landed on the Mi Amigo, and if any listener knew who had lost one - presumably in the Frinton area - to let them know it was on board! They described the colours of the budgie on air, but I don't remember if it survived!
I also noticed that Graham Gill has his birthday on August 15th. Mine is August 14th - two very significant days in Offshore Radio history. My birthday present in August 1967 was a transistor radio - and the first programmes I listened to seriously were the closedown of 'Big L' at 3 pm, and the transition into 'outlaw' status of Caroline at midnight. I've been hooked on 'free radio' ever since! Keep up with the Reports! Graham Dyer.
Thanks Graham and Graham Gill’s birthday wasn’t August 15th as you mentioned but April 15th.
Next we go over to more memories to Carl Mitchell from one of the readers, Ron Davis: ‘Hi Hans! Your International Radio Report April (2) 2006 has triggered some memories of mine concerning Carl Mitchell, Mark Wesley and the flat in Prinsengracht. My first ever holiday outside of UK was to Holland in June 1970, largely as a result of listening to RNI. No-one has ever mentioned the benefit of the offshore stations to the Dutch tourist industry, but I for one would never have chosen Holland as a holiday destination if it hadn't been for Caroline and RNI - mind you Caroline North's contribution to the Isle of Man tourist business in the 60s is well known, I myself holidayed on the island in 1967. As it happens, my photo album from that holiday has quite comprehensive notes, enabling me to pin down my memories. Anyway, I met a number of RNI jocks in the Grand Hotel and on the tender MEBO I in Scheveningen on 24/25 June 1970 including Andy Archer and (my notes say) Chicago, presumably the famous engineer Peter Chicago. I was given a number of addresses, including that of Radio Veronica in Hilversum and the flat the jocks shared in Prinsengracht, Amsterdam.
The next day I went to the Veronica studios in Hilversum and met Klaas Vaak (Tom Mulder) who, like me, was a member of the Free Radio Association at the time. We had quite a natter (two anoraks together, though the word hadn't been coined then). My notes shed a little light on the way Radio Veronica recorded their programmes, since they note that at the time I was there (26 June) programmes for transmission on 2/3 July were being recorded - so they were just over a week ahead.Photo: Klaas Vaak (Hans Knot Archive)
On 29th June I went to Amsterdam for the first time, called on Carl Mitchell and arranged to go back there later in the week. It was on this day that I found my way to the Westerdok and the Houthaven, where I found the two Caroline ships, the Fredericia and the Mi Amigo, lying side by side and looking rather decrepit after 2 years. Regrettably, I took no photos - a pity, since they would have had considerable historic value nowadays - it's clear from the way in my notes I talk about 'former Radio Caroline ships' that I didn't expect Caroline to return. How wrong I was!
It was on Friday 3 July 1970 that I visited the flat in Prinsengracht and was made most welcome. I seem to have spent most of the afternoon there. The notes recall the names Carl Mitchell (then still RNI's 'Weird Beard'), Mark Wesley, someone called Stevie and a variety of girlfriends - I describe it as 'quite a happy little gathering'. Maybe others of your correspondents can identify who was there, or possibly even somebody who was there on that day remembers a shy young Englishman (I was only 25 at the time) who was fast becoming a classic anorak. Robbie Dale clearly wasn't there on that day, as I'm sure I would have mentioned him in my notes if he had been. Clearly, though, he's right - it must have been a fun flat to live in! And the history you've now got access too - remarkable! All offshore radio fans owe a debt of gratitude to Hoodle van Leeuwen for the preservation of all this valuable material.Photo: Alan Clark, Carl Mitchell and Steve Gee (Hans Knot archive)
My own part in all this is very minor - nonetheless, I can say 'I was there'.
Well thanks a lot for sending this memory and as you see the mentioned Steve is on the above photograph too! But Ron has more:
‘Two other points - as I write this I'm listening to the Tom Lodge repeat on Caroline that you mention. I think it actually sits better in the Caroline schedule as a mid-morning programme than it does late on Saturday night. The other thing I might mention is the amount of work being put in on board the good ship Ross Revenge by the restoration team (of whom I'm one) led by Alan Beech. He's determined to make the most of the time the ship is in secure dock at Tilbury to spruce it up ready for when we are next able to receive public visitors. Last year we repainted one side of the hull; this Easter weekend (Caroline's 42nd birthday) we've been working on the other side - taking it down virtually to bare metal (very noisy work with needle grinders!) and then giving it several coats of good primer before finishing off with a nice bright red top coat. Lots of other work has been going over the winter on the mess room, the cabins and elsewhere on the ship with some of the guys (Alan and Lee, for example) being there virtually every other weekend. A labour of love indeed, but with the future of the Laser ship 'Communicator' being very uncertain, the Ross Revenge must be preserved as the only surviving radioship of the 'pirate' era. I know the 'Norderney' is still around in Holland, but it's not preserved as a radioship, whereas with a suitable ADSL telephone link to the Maidstone studios the Ross Revenge can be a live radioship open to the public whilst actually generating programmes for Radio Caroline. Many thanks for your fascinating radio reports - keep up the good work! regards, Ron Davis.’
Wonderful to get these memories from your visit to Holland now almost 36 years ago. Also keep up the good work on the Ross Revenge and thanks for the update on the work.
Anyone who want to share memories can sent them to Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.
Then last issue had an e mail from Elaine in Canada but the e mail wasn’t complete as the family of the mentioned Roger missed out. So here once again mail from Elaine Parks from Canada: ‘Dear Hans, I was reading your website recently and was so sad to hear the news about Roger Gomez (also known as Roger Keene) (via Steve Young's letter). I met him here in Toronto and always wished I had gotten to know him better. I am doing a bit of research on pirate radio and would like to chat more with anyone who knew him...and those early, crazy days in the UK. Please write me back or pass my address on to anyone whom you think might want to correspond about this. Regards, Elaine.’
Elaine can be reached at Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.
Vincent van Schriel updates his lists with presenters, who have worked in offshore radio, with the help of a lot of people. April 19th he did sent in a long new list and I found there some female deejays we haven’t mentioned before. They all can be put into the category ‘Radio Veronica’ and have worked there between 1960 and 1964. Even one time presenters are in this list like singer Eydie Gormé. Others are Maria Casella, Anneke van Hooff, Miep Koopman, Denise Maes, Louise Reeder and Ria Vrolijk.
In the last report I brought the story about the many birds who visited the MV Mi Amigo in 1976 and 1977. one of them was seagull who was totally ‘in oil’ and was treated well by several care takers on the radio ship. Well one of them was Marc Jacobs and he reflected: ‘Hi Hans nice story about the seagull. Indeed we cleaned it a lot with soap suds and cloths and afterwards we took a very old style toaster to dry the bird and I can show you that he liked it very much. After a few days of coddles he flew away forever. Photo: Seagull in Messroom Mi Amigo (Copyright: Marc Jacobs)
I remember that we had also a plague of wasps on the Mi Amigo. We thought that those small animals were brought to the Mi Amigo by one of the many fishing vessels, which visited us in those days and that the wasps had built their own nest on our ship. It became so busy with wasps that we had to walk on the ship while waving with our towels. We had to close our portholes to avoid to get them in the cabins. As it was summer it was horrible to stay inside. We asked the boys on shore several times to bring out insecticide. As they didn’t we had to show them we were serious so Herman de Graaf and I recorded the ‘all wasps song’ and played it a lot in the programs. It was like a form of protest as the tender didn’t bring out insecticide. Well it helped as a lot of spray cans arrived and we succeeded to get lost of all those wasps. If we did found the nest I don’t recall. Marc Jacobs.’
Last issue there was a long a mail with several subjects from Don Stevens and one of them was about the work from Mary and Chris Payne. Mary is now reflecting on this letter as well as another subject from this mentioned Stevens e mail:
Hi Hans, ‘Regarding your very interesting newsletter, would you please thank Don Stevens for writing such kind comments? I don't have an address for him. It was very nice of Don and extremely flattering. I don't think Chuck Blair used '..cats and kittens' as a catch-phrase. I'm sure it was Mike Lennox. I'm sure the first DJ I heard use the phrase 'Hi cats and kittens' was the late Kent Walton, on Radio Luxembourg back in the Fifties. Kent presented shows called 'Honey Hit Parade' ('Honey' was a teen magazine) and 'Cool for Cats', which was eventually turned into a TV show transmitted between late-1956 and 1961. Chuck liked to refer to his female audience as 'honey bunnies'. The Radio London website has a transcript of his final show.
www.radiolondon.co.uk/jocks/chuck/chuckshow.html where he uses the term a couple of times. Mark Roman ended his shows with 'From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night, good Lord deliver us."(Lorne King tells me he also used that sign-off at one time.) Mark still uses "ghoulies and ghosties" every Sunday (repeated Wednesday evening) to sign off the Big L Fab Forty on Oldies Project.
www.oldiesproject.com/ Bye for now, Mary.
Who has ever heard from a ship called the ‘Robbedoes’ which came in problems on August 31st 1974? Till Sunday April 23rd 2006 I didn’t. But let’s see what I found in box full of newspaper cuts about this ship. The small article was from the Dutch rescue companies which mention all their salvages in their magazine. Under number 4751 from 31st of August 1974 the following was mentioned: ‘Six supporters from RNI and Radio Veronica loved to bring a bunch of flowers to both radio ships. With a speedboat called ‘Robbedoes’ they left the beach of Katwijk heading to the west. The weather was quiet, wind power southwest 4. Hours later skipper Den Heyer from the MV Bernard van Leer got the message that a small vessel was lost. The MV Bernard van Leer left Scheveningen harbour at 16.30 hrs to search for the speedboat. In the meantime also a reconnaissance flight was carried out by an airplane from airfield Valkenburg. After some time the pilot from the plane mentioned he had located the missing vessel 8 miles north of Scheveningen. So from that moment the Bernard van Leer was directed to the point. It seemed that the speedboat became out of control due to the fact the motor broke down. The six shipwrecked persons were taken aboard the Bernhard van Leer and the speedboat became a tow. It was half past eight in the evening the Bernard van Leer arrived safely in Scheveningen.’ It is not known if the flowers were brought to the crew of both radio ships.
Rajar is the common name in Britain. Luistercijfers the same in Holland and it was Dutchman Fred Mollink who reflected on an earlier mentioning about listening figures in the sixties. It was mentioned that the figures published in the sixties were not reality but fake as the more than 10 millions listeners were impossible. Fred goes back to 1985 to one of the research polls of Dutch NOS where 8% of the requested people admitted he/she was listening to Offshore Radio (Caroline/Laser/Monique in those days. 58% of them was listening to Caroline, 25% to Radio Monique (Leen Vingerling the tender king must be laughing reading this) and 7% of the Dutchmen were addicted to Laser 558. I was lucky in that year to be part of the latter group. What do you recall from that period and where you addicted to one of the stations and why was it. Just sent in the remarks to Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.
We go to Mexico and an e mail from former Caroline deejay Clive Warner, who is starting a radio station and needs some help: ‘Dear Hans, I thought you might be interested to know, a very kind organisation has donated to me a Collins Band II transmitter for my charitable radio station project here in Mexico. If you could pass the word for me, I am looking urgently for donations of feeder (7/8 foam), a 1KW load, connectors, and a 1KW band II antenna, don't care what type! Best wishes. Clive Warner’.
Thanks Clive, good to hear you got the tx. Now time to think for my readers, who are working at a radio station (and that are a lot) if the technical man at the station has some spare wanted parts to sent to you. Anyone who wants to donate a thing, or maybe can finance this ideal work, can reach Clive at: Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.
Again a former Voice of Peace deejay has been found as I got this e mail: ‘Hi Hans. Can you please add me to your VOP event mailing list. I was on board around 1976. My fellow broadcasters at the time included Tom Hardy, Norman Lloyd, Steve Gordon, Allen Roberts, Richard Jackson, Mark Hurrell, Crispian St. John, and Kelvin O'Shea. Our engineer was Bill Danse. They were great times that I will always remember. With kindest regards, Gavin (McCoy). Recently Head of Presentation Saga Digital/PrimeTime Radio. Sadly the owner Roger DeHaan decided to close these stations. Now BBC Radio Wiltshire and Smooth FM, London.’
Welcome to the club Gavin and in the meantime you’ve got the invitation for the VOP reunion in November. And which counts for every reader of the Knot International Report: feel always free to reflect, sending in memories and or photographs and so on to: Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.
Talking about VOP Noam Tal from Israel also wrote in and told me: The film about Abie was broadcast in Israel on Saturday April 29th at 22:30hrs for the first time. The press wrote about it. They all agreed that its an emotional film about an amazing person that was forgotten and did not get the write response from the Israeli society. Abe’s birthday will be celebrated hopefully, in Tel Aviv with some old friends but with no big ceremonies. I'll write about it with some pictures for your report.
Thanks Noam and of course we will publish it in one of the next issues. Keep up the good work. More info about the documentary about Abe Nathan can be found here: http://www.hansknot.com/dec2005b.htm
Most interesting is the latest update at Pirate Hall of Fame, which was brought in an e mail: ‘Forty years ago two powerful new radio stations dropped anchor four and a half miles off the Frinton, Essex, coast. Swinging Radio England and Britain Radio brought some American professionalism and glamour to the British offshore radio scene and, for many of us in the UK, SRE was our first taste of genuine US-style Top 40 radio. This month The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame looks back to May 1966 with a six page special about the two stations, packed with photos, recordings and stories from the early days of the two stations. www.offshoreradio.co. Publicity photo appeared in many
newspapers May 1966 (archive Pirate Hall of Fame)
Ah, another nickname came in. This time for a technician who worked for Radio Northsea International Dutch Service in the early seventies: Erik ‘Big Erik’ Post. on the same station as well as on Radio Caroline Bob Noakes was working in the seventies. Just had him on the phone and he told me that he got the nick name ‘Ethel’ from Tony Allan.
This month it is 30 years ago the Europarade was first broadcast on Dutch Radio by TROS on Hilversum 3. It was the brainchild of Ad Roland, who we also know as Ad Petersen from Radio Caroline as well as Radio Mi Amigo. The idea was to bring a weekly chart in which the sales from records in different countries would bring the Europarade. Still the Europarade is produced by Ad Roland Media Services and is presented in five different languages.
http://www.eurohit40.com/eurohit40/index1.htm
A lot of people are starting their own web radio station; even there are people who run a station from which the internet address is only known to those in the house. This time one came in, which has really sour problems as the microphone connection is a bad one but gave me a laugh when I heard the first jingle, after tuning in for the first time: ‘stronger than Ronan’s grandmother’. Well have a listen yourself at: http://82.34.43.82/radiodestiny.html
Mike Brand reports from Israel: News is that Arutz (Channel) 7 TV are in negotiations with the Israeli Cable Company HOT to join their Video. on. Demand service. The Arutz 7 Internet site has two short TV news broadcasts a day, one in Hebrew and one in English. Arutz 7 TV manager Eran Sternberg, who was spokesman for the Gaza Municipality before Israel left Gaza last year, said that we are aiming to get to as many people as possible, people who are looking to hear both sides of the story, and not just what they see on Israel’s Channel 1,2, and 10. The negotiations are only in their first stages.
Next month it’s 30 years ago that we heard for the first time a track of an album which would be heavily plugged on Radio Caroline being a product of the New Beatles. In Holland was the official launch of this Album and still Caroline is playing a lot of tracks from this LP, as it was re-released years ago by the Foundation for Media Communication. The absolute first was Tony Allan playing it on June 23rd as ‘The Album of the morning’ with the track ‘Let us go to know you’, which was track number one of side one on the LP. It was the very first time ever on a radio station anywhere in the world a track of Loving Awareness was played, on the BBC, some days later in the last Johnny Walker show before heading to the USA, also a track of the Album was heard. Other offshore radio stations also paid attention for the new release, which wasn’t a big seller, by making it their album of the week. First Radio Veronica in the second week of July, followed by Radio Mi Amigo a week later.Scan: Advertisement for the album in 1976 (Archive Hans Knot)
If it was ever done the way it was promised, is not sure to me, but the official report on Radio Caroline from 30 years ago mentioned the next lines: ‘In the Amsterdam Hilton today, at a Press Conference that was simultaneously transmitted by satellite to New York, the world first saw and heard a new group with the philosophy which you, the Caroline listeners have become conscious of during the last two years – Loving Awareness. Loving Awareness it’s now an album. The Caroline listeners are the first to hear this amazing record. The songs are a profound expression of the group’s inner vision, as well as a heartfelt plea to all of us to adopt the positivity of Loving Awareness. A lot of people talk about it, but they haven’t lived it; and it won’t work, it can’t work unless we all really live it. Loving Awareness reflects a clear and moving philosophy of Love, as old as time and as new as sunrise. Can you imagine the amazing things that would happen if everyone on Earth got into Loving Awareness? With the coming of this spectacular new album, popular music takes a quantum leap into the present, perhaps beckoning a new age of revelation – the age of Loving Awareness.’
The launch was a big event as not only room in the Amsterdam Hilton but also the 107th Floor of the World Trade Centre in New York were hired for the presentation of the group. About 180 journalist were invited. Specially for the presentation one of Caroline’s first deejays, Simon Dee, was flown to Amsterdam. Also an open letter to the Beatles was read out. Loving Awareness, the band, asked in the letter to John, Paul, George and Ringo to do one of two things; either to get together and start doing it all over again, which would be the best of the lot, or if not ‘would you mind if we got straight up there and tried to carry on where you left off?’
In the Amsterdam Hilton there was no live performance for the new Group, just a film was shown in which the four where playing. And of course they and the groups management expected big response from the journalist, even when a large board appeared behind the group stating ‘Meet the Beatles’. However the main part of the journalists felt they were insulted. So a bad press report followed. Some, however, were influenced by the letter or by the organisation. Ronan O’Rahilly, Caroline’s founder, of course was the big man behind the band. More, than he ever claimed to be the manager for Georgie Fame, he was the person who discovered the unique blend of Loving Awareness and so he was seen on the press conference as well as inside the cover of the LP.
John. Mick, Norman and Charles, as the ‘New Fab Four’ were mentioned got a very good press coverage in Holland most read pop magazine from those days, Muziek Express. An article of two pages, a review in another part of the magazine as well as an advertisement for the LP on More Love Records were printed. The article as well as the review were written by a guy called Lion Keezer, who worked at the time at the editorial staff of the magazine, but was a Radio Caroline deejay in 1972/1973. Next to the open letter all kind of other ‘facts’ were mentioned. For instance the fact that Ringo Starr had given his exercise music room for free to the four and had given them special advice. Or the mentioning of the fact that George Harrison had produced the main part of the album and even had played on some of the songs, which were recorded in several places in Los Angeles and surroundings in 1975 and early 1976. Also Stevie Wonder had written two songs. All facts no one could ever prove.
Keezer, in those days, must have been a dedicated follower of O’Rahilly, as he wrote: ‘Ronan O’Rahilly is a person you won’t forget easily. He’s a look a like of Jesus Christ, a sort of a positive Charles Mason. He has the power to strongly influence people and give them his ideas how to live a better life.’ In the next issue of the Knot International Radio Report we will see what Lion Keezer thinks anno 2006 about the project, which happened 30 years ago.
Reflecting on that day, the playing of the LP and the Beatles only one thing can be concluded: The Loving Awareness LP, although it never made the charts, has got more airplay through the years than any other LP on Radio Caroline. The group made only one LP and still get, after 30 years, airplay on a very regularly basis, on Radio Caroline. Photo: Three of the four Loving Awareness members as published by Muziek Express in 1976
A couple of years ago the album was re-released on CD. After that the lost tapes were found and still the cd, which rights are now in hands of the Foundation for Media Communication, is available. By the way, the Foundation got grip on the rights after the first and only pressing of the official LP in 1976 was never paid by More Love Records. The recording tape stayed at the Polydor Archive, where it was pressed and Foundation for Media Communication bought the tapes years and years later, fully in thoughts of Loving Awareness.
In 1992 the Foundation for Media Communication released the analogue version of the Loving Awareness CD
In 2005 the Digital version was released with some bonus tracks too:
I love you to know instrumental version
No other high instrumental version
Close the gate instrumental version
Existence instrumental version
Some LA talk from Ronan O’Rahilly
Radio Caroline jingle
Price including packing and postage 6 Euro or 5 Pounds
You send the money to Foundation for Media Communication, PO Box 53121 1007 RC Amsterdam Holland. Dutch Giro account 4065700 on the name of SMC Amsterdam or bank account 988040301.
May 3rd, 2006 an email came in from Norway: ‘Dear fellow radio people / journalists / essayists / historians / radio news editors / tape collectors / fans who might be interested in the story of the "5 on the "Olga Patricia" radio ship 1966-1967, Radio England, Britain Radio, Radio Dolfijn, Radio 227 and Radio 355! The "Radio Rose of Texas" essay has now been completed, is over 100 pages long and is published on the web 40 years after the radio ship Olga Patricia started transmitting off the Frinton Essex coast. The reference is http://www.northernstar.no/olgapatricia5.htm
Many thanks to everybody that has participated in the project so far! The first effort of 2004, "Pickin' up "Boss" Vibrations" was recently updated and is still on the web at http://www.northernstar.no/sre.htm
Distinguished reader, if you know of any story, anecdote, biography or event, or if you have any photographs that you feel should be presented to the world through later editions of this essay, or if you know someone we should interview to get more information on this piece of radio history, please feel free to contact us. If you worked with or on these stations in any respect, or have information from other sources, you are invited to give your input in text or pictures so that it may fit the outline in the essay. Contrasting views to those presented by the editor are welcomed, as they will add color and depth to the story, but the presentation will be balanced. If you find mistakes of any sort, please notify the editor. svennam in Norway on behalf of "Derek Burroughs, jr." editor of "The Radio Rose of Texas".
And talking about the station it was Johnny Walker who played on BBC Radio 2 some air-checks from Swinging Radio England and other stations he worked for on May 3rd. This was the exact day Johnny was for the first time on the radio as he started his career on Swinging Radio England, sometimes also doing news and a program on Britain Radio, October 1966 he went to Caroline. Congratulations Johnny! Johnny was sitting in on Radio 2 early May for Terry Wogan, who was on holiday.
This year's Radio Day will be held in Amsterdam on Saturday November 4th from 11.00 until 5.00 C.E.T. (which is Dutch local time) in Amsterdam's Hotel Casa 400 near the Amstel railway station (James Wattstraat 75).
For more than 25 years, the Dutch ‘Radio Day’ is a yearly attraction for all (offshore) radio enthusiasts. About 250 people are normally attending the event. The 2004 Radio Day saw the ‘Radio Caroline 1973/74 reunion’ with many former deejays, technicians and crew members, and in 2005 ‘RNI in 1970’ attracted several former RNI employees who had a magnificent discussion on the podium.
Hans Knot, Rob Olthof and Martin van der Ven are now busily planning this year's event – the 28th year in a row - , which will see the big Voice of Peace reunion as the main attraction. So far Johnny Lewis, Bob Noakes, Don Stevens, Steve Marshall, Dave Asher, Robbie Owen, Noam Tal, Chris Pearson, Dave Shearer and Rob Charles have signaled to take part in the event. And are awaiting many more well known names... There are plans for two main sessions with round table discussions of people who have worked for the Israeli offshore station in the years from 1973 to 1990. At 14.00 hours we will have a session called ‘The Voice of Peace in the Seventies’ headed by Bob Noakes. An hour later it will be ‘The Voice of Peace in the Eighties’ hopefully headed by Johnny Lewis. There will be a presentation of unique video footage of slides as well. So that's something you can look forward to.
Of course, there will be several other special guests as well. one of them is Tom Edwards who has worked for Radio City from the Shivering Sands fort and for Radio Caroline South from the MV Mi Amigo. And we have approached three former RNI deejays who might tell us about the 1971 period in addition to last year's ‘RNI in 1970’ reunion. Last but not least we hope to welcome Juul Geleick, the well-known Radio Veronica technician. He will without doubt tell us interesting stories about the watery wireless years of his former employer.
So look out for this year's Radio Day which seems to become another highlight. We will be glad to meet you there. In the past, radio enthusiast from the Netherlands could become a member of the Stichting Media Communicatie by sending in a donation enabling them to receive a free ticket for the event. With the beginning of this year, we also take donations from people abroad. If you sent five Pound Sterling to Stichting Media Communicatie (SMC), P.O. Box 53121, NL-1007 RC Amsterdam you'll be getting the free ticket as well as twice a year a suitable information sheet about what's available in the SMC shop.
Look for more info about the Radio Day at: http://www.offshoreradio.de/radioday
Inhabitant from Holland since 1967 and former Aussie Graham Gill, I talked to on the phone early May about several things and he told me that soon he will go on internet. Graham is 70 years of age and a new world will open for him too. He wondered if there are still reunions of people who’ve worked on Radio 390 and I recalled that those were the first but strange enough I didn’t hear of any reunion during, let’s say, the last past 10 years. I promised him to sent an e mail out to his former colleague John Ross Barnard and so I did. JBR reflected in an unique as well as fast way: ‘What a splendid idea from Graham. I am up for it. Radio 390 was a unique station - Peter James (Joe Corrie) might fly in from Oz. I'd like to see Sheldon Jay again and of course Mark Hammerton. Sadly Edward Cole has departed this life, as I believe has Paul Beresford. Stephen Uden is still about I believe fresh from his Anglian career of which we were all admirers. What of Brian Cullingford? Roger Gomez .. Bruce Holland gone I fear .. Eddie Jerrold in Canada still but ... Ed Moreno departed. Others ...? Mandy Raven ...Patrick McGoohan could make a starring come-back - I see they going to do a remake of the Prisoner series, why not? We would have to make it an Invicta/K.I.N.G./390 reunion of course. Then there were the splendid engineers John & Tony, was there also a Frank - The ex RAF TXM man from Scampton, who hated anyone sitting on his bed - good bloke though. Sadly Jack Dobson died right in front of me on the catwalk between the forts, he was carrying a heavy car battery and had a heart condition; much missed and very fondly remembered... He worked in Yugoslavia during the 2nd World War as a radio man. He told me never to go there but come the 1990s and another Balkan war I forgot his advice and suffered for it in Bosnia. I believe the fishermen Vick Davies & Brian are still about, they ran the tender ... F19 from Whitstable ... and Douglas and Maureen arrested on the shore by the Post Office Security division for using ship-to-shore radios etc etc - the London Office ... so many more Bob Le Roi probably knows all of them and more. So ..... to make it happen answers on an E-card to ... "Eve the much older woman's magazine of the air"
BCM British Monomarks London JRB.’
Reading the long e mail form JRB the same evening on the phone to Graham he came back with: ‘I add some other names like Roger Scott - who we both met in 2002 at the London Reunion in a Hotel near Black Friars Bridge London. Also do ask John Ross if he does remember Laurance Bean, a very good technician. Not forgetting Jeff the Cook who made 'Savoy Hotel Meals' and Bacons and Eggs each day. ‘
And like a good old boomerang JRB came back with: ‘remember Laurance Bean, a very good technician ...indeed I do and indeed he was - I recall him dropping a chunk of metal on his foot and my rushing off to get some ice for him to control the bruising - when the doctor arrived he was full of praise for the initiative, Laurence said dryly: "I just thought he was panicking!" But he had the good grace to apologies. Funny the things you remember. I also recall that he had a sister who played the harp and Laurence had a car that was too small to accommodate it without propping open the door - highly illegal! I gather that he is now a rather well-heeled (i.e. rich!) property entrepreneur. I look forward to Graham's email when set-up. Thank you for being such a good catalyst Hans.’
I hope Bob Le Roi can get me on the track a bit with addresses. Well this years Radio Day has the Voice of Peace reunion and who knows 2007 will be the year for the Radio 390 (and KING/Invicta) people to get together at the Radio Day. Anyone who was there and is interested to come can e mail me at
Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.
I think that’s all for this time, I hope you’ve enjoyed all the memories and goodies as well as the information for the radio day, with just 5,5 month to go before we meet up together again.
Greetings
Hans Knot