Mei 2007
Dit is het International Radio Report van Hans Knot met het heden en verleden van de zeezenders. In deze editie onder andere herinneringen aan de zeezenders Radio 390, RNI, Radio Scotland, Radio Mi Amigo (foto) en Radio Monique. Verder in het Radio Report bijdragen van onder andere Juul Geleick, Tom Mulder, Johnnie Walker en Robbie Dale en het laatste nieuws over de Radiodag 2007 in Amsterdam.HANS KNOT INTERNATIONAL RADIO REPORT MAY(1) 2007
Welcome everybody and another thanks for many e mails with memories, questions and your photographs, which came in into my mailbox. A part of these will appear in this issue. In last issue there was a question from Frank van Heerde in Holland who wrote: ‘I’ve listened to Radio 390 and the program ‘Masters of the organ’, which had an opening tune called ‘Now is the hour’. I’m looking for this number already for years so maybe someone in your readership can help me. So here’s what Clive answered on the question:Program Schedule 390 Hans Knot Archive
‘Now is the hour’ is a Maori farewell song. I seem to recall it being popular with my parent's generation. Frank Sinatra also recorded it, so did Bing Crosby, Charlie Haden and the Quartet West, and I also located a recording by some Pacific islands band. If you use Bit Torrent you'll find many different versions. I used www.thepiratebay.org and there were quite a few, but whether any of the versions is the one you want, I can't say!’
Thanks a lot Clive and anyone knowing more on this subject please inform on Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.
Next one is from Allan Bailey who wrote: ‘Hi Hans and thanks for another interesting report. It was also interesting and good to read that interview between two friends of mine Colin Nichol and Paul Hollingdale(we're all ex 208). Just in case anyone's interested, that photo of the Swinging Blue Jeans was photographed in Studio A control room of Radio Luxembourg in Hertford Street, London (I was there at the time) and the man on the extreme left is Derek 'Eggy' Ley, who was the producer of that session and I was engineer. Eggy had a jazz band in the '50's called "Eggy ley and his Jazzmen" who were very big particularly in Germany. When he left Luxembourg he went to BFBS as producer and later went to live in Canada where he passed away after a long illness. All the very best my friend, Alan Bailey (The world famous Earl).’
And so we make together with each other the historic facts completer, thanks Allan.
Also we received an e mail from Bert Alting, who is an avid Veronica offshore lover and has more than 1200 complete hours from their offshore days in his personal archive: ‘Hi Hans, very interesting report. Especially the information on the coming Radio Day. That will become very exciting. Thanks,’
Well Bert more interesting news on the Radio Day will come later in this report. We now go to some info about a station calling herself Laser: ‘Laser is back!
Every Saturday on 6275 kHz from 9-15 hours UTC, which is about 1 (UK) or 2 (continent) hours later in some parts of Europe. New programs and old offshore tapes! Laser is back!´ Talking about Laser also on internet old recordings can be heard from the original Laser 558: ‘Up till May 12th old programs from the original Laser 558 can be downloaded at: www.laser558.nl/
In last issue we had a question from Oscar de Pater: ‘Not long ago I heard a story of problems with inhabitants living in IJsselstein very near to the transmitter mast from the AM 675. Illnesses like brain damage, leukaemia would occur more than in other places in Holland. I wonder if former deejays and technicians on radio ships, who have worked and lived in the short distance of a electromagnetic field can get health problems like those are mentioned?"
It’s former Veronica technician Juul Geleick who reflects on the question:
‘I’ve talked a long time, years ago, with Freek Simon (newsreader on the MV Norderney from Veronica); just after he heard from the doctors in hospital that he probably would not live longer than 6 other months. That was July 2001. Freek died in February 2002. It was cancer at the pancreas. He had earlier the same problems in 1971. There were under the Veronica crewmembers through the offshore years – as far a Freek and I knew at that moment – only a few guys passed away as a result of cancer. We counted three and another one became impotent! When you analyse the figure of three you couldn’t say that this is due to the living in the surrounding of the transmitter on the radio ship. Also Freek talked about the subject with his doctors. No scientific conclusion was made. That impotence is maybe more interesting, I think.’
Thanks Juul for giving your answer to us and Oscar.’
Now we go to one of the female readers of the Hans Knot International Radio Report, Mary Payne: ‘About Jan Sundermann's comments about the name Johnnie Walker the next: when Johnnie joined Radio England his name was Peter Dingley. His on-air name was adopted from a jingle that was part of a package originally from WPTR, which Larry Dean brought over in 1966 to be used on the station he was joining. Naming (or renaming) DJs to fit existing jingle packages was a common practice in the US. It was easier to change the DJ's name than to get new jingles! Johnnie Walker is now officially Johnnie Walker, because he changed his name legally by Deed Poll some years ago.’
Thanks Mary and hope to see you in a couple of months! Now we go to Glasgow and an email arrived around April 12th: ‘Hans, hello. It is John MacDonald here. 5 years on The Voice of Peace and survived it all. I am now working for Britain’s' largest community radio station. Sunny Govan Radio broadcasts to Glasgow and a fair sized area beyond the city on 103.5FM. I am here Monday-Friday from 10.00am-Midday and Saturday from 1pm-4pm so they are getting plenty of work out of me. You can catch the station at www.sunnygovan.org where we have an eclectic mix of programmes.’
Well good to see John has found us on the web. He was looking on his own name and came in the chapter of the book with memories to the Voice of Peace and saw his own diary he earlier wrote in the early nineties, during the Gulf War 1. In the meantime John and I had already a talk about the history of Voice of Peace on the radiostation in Glasgow, he’s working for.
http://www.offshore-radio.de/temp/SunnyGovanRadio-JohnMcDonald-HansKnot-27thApril2007.mp3
Look who we have here, the one who always reflects and is best known as the Emperor: Mike Pasternak wrote: ’Hi Amigo, good info as always! I will send you a picture a bit later, the worlds first deejay to broadcast via the sun! Solar! For sure the first ex pirate deejay to do so! Watch this space. EMP.’ But next day another one came in from Rosko: ‘Hi Hans, one of two pictures, I was thinking of all the old masts and antennas you frequently post. This is my "from pirate to Solar construction’ Went up January 2007. The wave of the future is here, the worlds first ex pirate radio deejay resumes Global reach but, courtesy of the sun !Emperor Rosko 2007 (Rosko archive)
News from our friends at Offshore Echos: ‘We're pleased to announce that the Radio Caroline story, now continues into the 1970's. The story now includes Caroline's brief return from the Mebo II and the 1970 UK election campaign, and the return a couple of years later from the Mi Amigo, off the Dutch coast. There's a whole lot of photo's, press cuttings, documents - many previously unseen, plus air-checks and audio clips. Click on, or copy and paste this link
www.offshoreechos.com/Caroline%2070/Radio%20Caroline%20-%20The%2070s%20Chapter%2001.htm
Next is Steve Roberts who wrote after I sent him some rare RNI Promo’s: ‘Hello Hans and many thanks for the Radio Northsea International Judge Dread promos for big 6 and big 7. You can’t believe how happy it made me to hear them again. It bought back so many happy memories of the greatest radio station of all time. (well for me it was at least). I can not thank you enough, suffice to say if you have any spare time and listen to offshore music radio you , along with many others will shortly be hearing them again. Do you have any more of these or were they the only ones? I have to confess big 6 and 7 were the only ones i remember hearing. With special thanks once again Steve Roberts www.offshoremusicradio.com Well Steve indeed these were the only two ones which were recorded by Judge Dread for RNI.
Now Tom Lodge about his last show on Caroline, which was aired with Eastern:
‘Hi Hans, not to worry Hans that you missed my last show from April 8th and 10th, because the guys at Caroline are making it into a CD for sale. It will be available at the Web Shop: http://rcsocietysales.co.uk/index.html
along with my book, "The Ship That Rocked The World, The Radio Caroline Story" Also, even though I am not doing any more shows, my son Tom Lodge Jr. has taken over the spot and he is doing a great job. He too has the pirate spirit. But then what else to expect, he was brought up with Radio Caroline always in the background and living through many of those adventures. There is a picture of him, as a boy, in the Radio Caroline days, in my book, too. Thanks, Hans and best wishes, Tom Lodge.’
From Canada to Kent in England: ‘Greetings Hans and as usual the latest Report is fascinating. Your comments on Radio London and 277 metres reminds me of a test on that frequency at 3pm one weekday by Kenny Everett. A record was played and listeners urged to re-tune to 277 metres, which I did, but nothing! At the end of the record and knowing the test failed, in true classic style he announced: "I didn't want to go onto 277 anyway." Every good wish, John Allen. Beckenham, Kent.
Thanks John and it always good to read back memories from those who listened to the Offshore stations from the sixties and have unique memories.
David Graham is the next one: Hello Hans, I have been trying to get in touch with a person called Geoff Hutton to whom I gave a couple of scrapbooks I filled in over the many years listening to offshore radio, I said at the time I had a couple of reel to reel tapes recorded straight from my old Philco radio (ahhhhhhhh memories eh.) As I am now nearing retirement and trying to declutter my home, I was wondering if you would like to have them, they consist of many, many memories held for me of Caroline, Radio 270, (as I live in Newcastle upon Tyne) Radio Scotland and RNI. I cannot vouch for the condition of them not having played them for many years. I am willing to post them to you as I have read your column for so long and am sure they will be treat with the dignity they deserve, hoping you will help me, a loyal offshore listener. David N Graham.’
Well first to you the reader: Is anyone knowing the present whereabouts of Geoff Hutton? Please if so contact me at Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken. so I can forward it to David. And secondly of course a very nice gesture from you David to give your personal recordings to the big Hans Knot Archive. In the meantime I have arranged with David that the recordings will be digitalised by Harm Koenders and that David and I get a copy on CD. Members of the Offshore Download Group can also download the recordings at a later stage.
http://offshoreradiodownloadclub.web-log.nl/
In our last issue we mentioned already some of the names of people who want to be our quests to the Radio Day. Some of the e mails we received as a reflection on the announcement of personalities joining us:
Tom Mulder aka Klaas Vaak (Veronica) who promised me to join the party too:
‘Unimaginable is this list with names. It seems to become a radio version of the Grand Gala du Disque. It’s almost an official acknowledgement for the yearly happening. Very good and very exciting. Strange that there are so many people who have marvellous memories to a period of less than 3 years, which happened 4 decades ago! It also shows that what happened in radio afterwards didn’t bring the emotion we do remember. ‘
Another one joining the gang who reflected to the invitation from the organisation: ‘Sorry to take a few days before replying. I had to check on the date of another event which is taking place about the same time. But yes I'd love to be there at the Radio Day in Amsterdam on November 10. Sounds interesting and fun. Do keep me posted as you get more info nearer the time. Meantime my wife Gill and I can build it into a pleasant late Autumn weekend break in that most pleasant city. Best wishes Phil Martin.’
Wonderful to see also, next to Johnny Walker and Roger Day another of the British deejays from Laissez Faire days is joining in. Yes you read it well: Sir Johnny is also joining in as he wrote: ‘Dear Martin, Yes, I would like to attend the day and will do my very nest to ensure that I can make it. As it is some way off, there might possibly be something that comes up that might prevent me attending but rest assured, I will do my utmost to be there. Regards, Johnnie Walker.’
When we’re mentioning Johnnie Walker and Roger Day, we’ve to mention a third one, which is Robbie Dale: ‘Dear Martin, on Sunday I returned from a visit to Holland. Before I went to NL 3 weeks ago. I remember telling Hans that I would do my utmost to attend Radio Day 2007 in Amsterdam on November the 10th. It should be an interesting gathering of like minded folk and I would like to be one of them. Please send more details as they come to hand and kindly let me know who has confirmed attendance.
From the USA also more former Swinging Boss Jocks are telling us to join in: ‘Since your invitation I have heard from my old friend Ron O'Quinn who has said he intends to join your event in Amsterdam, and expressed his hope that I would be there too. While it will require unpaid time away from my current employment, and of course extensive travel, it is a journey that I do intend to make. Please count me among those "seriously planning" to be there. Rick Randall.’JERRY SMITHWICK (Archive Pirate Hall of Fame).
In the meantime I also want to mention that Jerry Smithwick will do his utmost to come to The Annual Radio Day (29th year in a row) in Amsterdam. Let’s go on with the next one: Martin: ‘Thank you very much for the invitation and the advance notice. I will make every effort to attend, if possible, but will have to give you a definite answer at a later date. Howie Castle (Bud Ballou). And there will be another special section on the Radio Day, which is reviving the days of the International Service of Radio Atlantis. Special quest for that segment will be Steve England.
Of course we will inform you on our special information pages where you can also find information where to book a hotel, when you want to come too!
http://www.offshore-radio.de/radioday/index.html
More interesting e mails to come: ‘Hi Hans, and greetings again from Australia.
Congratulations on another very interesting newsletter, I enjoyed reading it a lot. I really appreciate both Clive & Dave who took the trouble to answer my questions about maintaining high power transmitters at sea, and selection of frequency. Antenna matching is obviously crucial, actually I do recall one of the ships (Caroline?) having a ‘capacitor hat’ atop the mast to improve transmission. It seems that an occasional technical question might be of interest to readers – or perhaps a regular item in the newsletter? Actually I have another question if you think it’s worthy of including it. Many DJs and other staff aboard the radio ships and forts mention that they watched TV (to pass the time), and also listened to the BBC or the other offshore stations to get the news (for their newsroom!) or just to hear what their competition was doing. From my experience with much lower power transmitters on MW, whenever you are close to the TX, the splatter and harmonics made it almost impossible to receive other distant stations. I wonder if anyone can explain how it was possible to receive other broadcasts in the confines of the ship. How was the filtering achieved, especially for a watchable TV picture? The Medium Wave was certainly an exciting place to tune around in the 60’s, you just never knew who or what was going to pop up. I used to secretly listen to the offshore stations in high school classes through an earpiece, and once got so excited by some unusual transmission that I yelled out to a school chum – all very embarrassing as it was clear that I was ignoring my lessons completely! My radio was confiscated but I stole it back next day. The best time was evening and night of course, when it was quite easy to hear all the UK pirates from my home in Surrey, even if they did fade out occasionally. Later, when running Radio Britannia on 254m at only around 75-100 watts, we were pleasantly surprised to get QSL’s sometimes from 50-60 miles away. Great era, great music, and great choice. Kind regards, Phil Crosby, Sydney, Australia.’
Thanks Phil for some other interesting items and for those who want to reflect on the questions feel free to sent them: Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.
Next we go to Norway and it must have been excitement in the home from Sven Martinssen when he was watching television as he wrote to me: ‘From synopsis of Heartbeat episode "Judgement Day" The police are called in to investigate when a local judge is the target of a series of mysterious attacks, but the case takes a sinister turn when the prime suspect is found dead on his own doorstep. Peggy is delighted when David's new radio starts picking up police broadcasts, but a news reporter doesn't share her enthusiasm. Comment: David Stockwell's (David Lonsdale) new radio not only starts picking up police broadcasts. Before that, there is a short incident where he picks up a "PAMS" Swinging Radio England jingle "Good Morning the world is bright and new..", (full ID, not the watered-down version used by Tony Blackburn on BBC R1) and, tuning back, he finds part of another! Episode Number: 291 Season Num: 15 First Aired in UK: Sunday January 22, 2006 Aired in Norway: April 14th, 2007.’
http://www.tv.com/heartbeat/judgement-day/episode/619758/summary.html?tag=ep_list;title;15
From Norway we go to Scotland: ‘Hi Hans. This mornings Daily Telegraph carried an article about the BBC Archives going online. You might like to mention the article in the next International Report. Best way to see it is to go to www.telegraph.co.uk and in the search box type in 'bbc archives' and it should take you right to the April 16th report. Cheers !
One of the former people working on the MEBO II recently did scan some papers which are in his archive, including the next one:On the crew list not only the crewmembers but also the deejays. one of them is the German Axel. Martin reflected and went on search. We know now that Axel’s complete name of Bosdorf and Martin found an interesting story on the internet. He’s living nowadays in Thailand:
http://www.pattayablatt.com/014/Gestatten.shtml
A few months ago a large envelope felt on the floor (with thanks to the postman). It came from Willem Krajenbrink. He had enjoyed the offshore radio period and for him it was time to say goodbye to the material, but couldn’t throw it into the dustbin. He worked for a while together with the people from Music Media International, which was involved with Radio Monique in the eighties. From the parcel I’ve scanned several things which can be find back on Media Pages:http://www.mediapages.nl/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1545&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Now some memories to Radio Scotland: ‘Hi Hans,
As always thinks for the report and the downloads. Always interesting stuff.Living around a mile from Troon I often gaze out to sea and wonder exactly where the Comet was anchored in 1966 and into 1967 before they were prosecuted. In fact Paul Graham and I did the same thing when he visited me a few months ago. I think the one thing that is beyond doubt is that the Comet WAS within UK waters when Mr Shields was prosecuted in 1967. No tricks from the government there! I was only six years old when Radio Scotland left the air, but was aware of it due to my sister who is nine years older than me. She was in the Clan and had all the stickers etc, none of which survived. (Luckily I have managed to pick up some original memorabilia via Ebay.) Her favourite deejay was Ben Healy, at least that was the name that I could always remember from that time. I recall when the station closed there was an article in one of the papers with a photo of the ship and I remember taking that into school as we always had to bring a news item in to talk about on a Monday. Assume that would have been August 14th? It was six more years before I came across Caroline now safely off the Dutch coast, but those Radio Scotland memories probably planted a seed for an interest that has spanned nearly 35 years. I know that makes me a youngster compared with some!
THE 242 RADIO SCOTLAND CLAN (Hans Knot Archive)
There appears to be no sign of the promised Radio Scotland book by Bob McLean. According to an article in the national Sunday Times newspaper it was to appear last year to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the inception of Radio Scotland. However maybe they will look to publish around the anniversary of the MOA. If any readers have recordings of the station that they would like to exchange please contact me versus the report. I am especially interested in those that id as "Radio Scotland and Ireland" during her short period off Ballywalter, Northern Ireland during her move from Troon back to the east coast. I have a few recordings of the station, as well as a few documentaries, to swap that people may find interesting. Thanks again Hans. Kind Regards, Ian.
So once again the address to write to if you want to exchange any Radio Scotland or offshore recording with Ian mail me at: Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken.
Some long time ago we had the conversation about was he or wasn’t he? one thing we all know he’s a bit of a dreamer. Someone who’s always try to slip away from us all. Another thing for sure he’s still on water, Yes, drinking it. Now I got an email from Rob in Amstelveen who advised me to look at a scan he made from an article in a Dutch Magazine called ‘Platenblad’. In the article I read that the later Graham Bond Organisation were heard on the BBC on July 16 1963 under the name ‘Graham Bond Quartet’ and their manager was O’Rahilly who also managed Blues Incorporated’, Well we know the story behind Ronan and Georgie Fame. Did he really manage Graham Bond?
Well now here’s one for all of you. My generation was a big hit for the WHO in the sixties. Wild, exciting and wonderful is also the next tip we got from Oeds who wrote: ‘have a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqfFrCUrEbY
And play it loud and enjoy!’ Well thanks Oeds wonderful and I advice everyone to have a laugh too. Just watch the video up till the end and maybe do like Radio England did in the sixties too: Instant Replay!
Someone wrote to me if it was possible to get him in contact with Erwin van der Bliek. He has worked on Radio Monique, Radio 558 and has done some shows in English on Radio Caroline in the late eighties. Afterwards he has done a lot of radio work in Holland, including some spells on the national pop station 3FRM. I’m talking about Erwin van der Bliek. Well he’s left a long time ago and thanks to his former colleague Walter Simons you can find him in the Caribbean, where he is working on Radio Dolfijn FM. www.dolfijnfm.com/djs/erwinvanderbliek.php Erwin on board the MV Ross Revenge Photo: Hans Knot
Who does remember the name Bill Scadden? I did and after receiving a wonderful interview made by Colin Nichol in the eighties, which has never been published, I thought to dive into my archive looking for several photographs as well as newspaper cuts. Also Colin sent in a lot of photographs and the interview can be read now either in English or Dutch at the following addresses. Please do enjoy them with also thanks to Martin van der Ven
http://www.hansknot.com/scadden-uk.htm
http://www.hansknot.com/scadden-nl.htm
Is there a possibility to ask you to have a look, now and then on the Journal for Media and Music Culture, which is run by Ger Tillekens and me at the university Groningen. Now more than 1000 articles can be found as well as the very big Offshore Radio Discography. www.soundscapes.info
And what will Auntie BBC do when in August it will be 40 years ago that the MOA made an end to the offshore radio stations off the British coasts, except Radio Caroline. The BBC are busy trying to re-invent the wheel as far as radio is concerned, moving good broadcasters/programmes rapidly sideways to make room for all the new brushes - the latter in the form of either kids fresh from media studies or ethnic amateurs. The result is that guys like Keith Skues (after 12 years of presenting a 4hr 'live' Sunday to Friday nightly show via the Beeb's Eastern Counties/Lincolnshire regional broadcast area), has been reduced to 1 x 4hr 'live' on Sunday nights only. We must not forget that the decision makers who stopped the popular program knew that Jictar has consistently put his audience ratings as the highest throughout the whole of the BBC's output - both regional and network!
As told August this year marks the 40th Anniversary of The Marine Offences Act and guess what? the BBC has hired a boat to be moored off Frinton on sea for a week. They will mentioning it Radio Caroline South. They are lining-up a number of original Pirate deejays to broadcast 60s pop like shows from the ship, as in days we all liked flowers and more. It will be on air from August 7th up till 14th. More later!
Next another Email: ‘Hi Hans, Thank you for the latest News Report, its always fascinating reading. Hans, I am very interested in Radio Mi Amigo, although my radio interests has always been Watery radio, I have always found Radio Mi Amigos adventures in Spain during the 1970s fascinating, from photographs I have seen over the years it looked like the presenters and staff of the station had the time of their lives and what a lovely location it was for the station. Hans, I would very much like to make contact with any of the Radio Mi Amigo presenters who worked at Playa de Aro, for many years there have been lots of questions I have wanted to ask about life at the Playa de Aro studio and maybe obtain some copies of photographs taken at that time.Michelle at studio Playa de Aro (Photo Marc Jacobs)
My email address is Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken., I loved Radio Mi Amigo and the Dutch service of Caroline which took over after Mi Amigo parted company with Caroline. These days I listen to Radio Mi Amigo 192 more than any other station, I think the Mi Amigo 192 Boys and Girls do a great job in keeping the Mi Amigo sound alive. I have attached a picture from week on board the mv Ross Revenge taken at the River Blackwater, Essex in March 1995 after I celebrated my 30th birthday on board with my girlfriend Sabine. Here you can see Sabine and myself (at the back, middle of picture along with our replacement crew Mike Regan and Donut), happy memories, amazing to think ten years later. I also celebrated my 40th birthday on board the Ross Revenge. Anyway, just before I sign off, I would like to say thanks to everyone at Radio Mi Amigo for such a wonderful station, please if any of the former Mi Amigo presenters has time, please drop me an email sometime.Best wishes Paul Johnson, Bristol UK.
From Australia Colin Nichol sent me a lot of photographs including a shot taken at a Christmas Party. It was taken aboard Radio Caroline but didn’t know which year. ‘Was it 1965 or 1964’? The studio photo must have been at Christmas one year and I recognise Paul Noble on the right, but can't recognise who he is with, who must be at the microphone. Paul had left, as I remember, before 1966, so this may have been Christmas '64 - or '65 at latest.’Lucky enough I could give Colin Nichol the answer in this by e mail: ‘Paul Noble left in 1965 to get work at Montserrat so it must have been Christmas 1964. Can't see who the other guy is, but we can asked it in the report to the readers of course, greetings, Hans
The big question is who’s on the left next to smiling Paul Noble? Archive Colin Nichol.
Colin came back to me with: ‘That's what I thought. Paul got the job because I gave it to him. I had applied and was prepared to go, then changed my mind and decided to try for Radio Luxembourg - succeeding in 1966. The job in the Antilles (or whatever it is called) was offered to me, but they took him in my place when I recommended him. I heard that, years later, he had been badly hurt in a car crash. I don't know more than that of his fate. on a private note, he gave me his girlfriend in exchange, which was a job I took on with pleasure!! We were quite friendly, after all.’
Well some research brought me in the Caribbean, where Montserrat is too. He lives already for years on Jamaica and does voice overs as well as jingles and commercials.
Bob Le Roi update for May: In this months Scrapbook its all happening at the Forts Weekend WWII Heavy Equipment, parades, displays by re-enactment groups, the Radio Forts and a look at the Castle. With an upturn in the weather it's all hands on deck with some spectacular sunset pictures across the water
Diving into the mire Big L hits an all time low with a the aftermath of Channel 4's TV programme in "One Subject one Link" We've arrived at the letter O in the A-Z of Pop & Rock & it's the Big O Roy Orbison on record & OMD on CD
Enjoy your visits: www.bobleroi.co.uk
Well I can tell you the visit I took to Bob’s site was it worth! Wonderful pictures.
Nico Steenbergen, former RNI newsreader and deejay in the seventies dived into his personal archive and decided to scan some of the photographs he made in the sixties. A few of them were taken in Amsterdam when both Mi Amigo and Magdalena, the Caroline ships, were towed in due to the fact the company hadn’t paid the money for tendering and supplying. Nico saw on the photographs that on the Mi Amigo strange enough not the word ‘Mi Amigo’ was painted but ‘Mi AmiCo’. Did we all those years pronounce the name of the famous Lady wrong?
Nico then took Gerry Bishop’s Offshore Radio from his bookshelf and on the front of the book the Mi Amigo is featured indeed with a ‘C’. Next he went to page 28 and again Mi AmiCo on a picture. And I can tell you that Gerry’s book was published way back in the mid seventies and we didn’t had a home computer at that stage. So it’s not a case of just simple photo shopping. When the message arrived I first couldn’t believe. Of course we had for many years the idea that the big other Caroline ship was mentioned ‘Frederica’ until a photograph showed us that it was indeed ‘Fredericia’. Repainting the painter had forgotten to repaint the ‘I’.
I decided to dive in my archive to and scan some material including Newspaper cuts and other material. It shows also material from Sweden and England in which some confusion can be learnt. The whole story is in Dutch. But of course all the scans are interesting enough to have a watch. I advise you to go to www.hansknot.com and scroll to ‘Naam Mi Amigo of Mi AmiCo’ and click there to find more.
On May 10th there will be an interesting program on German TV (ARD). At 20,15 CET they will have a special on ‘Freiheitsender 904’ and other things related to radio during ‘Cold War’. Info in German can be found at:
http://www.ard-digital.de/index.php?id=13833&languageid=1
http://www.ard-digital.de/index.php?id=13825&languageid=1
Next an e mail from Holland: ’Hans, compliments for your site. In one of your articles on the net I read that you and your brother were members in the seventies of the Whiskey Oscar Club, together with some other people from your hometown Groningen. Some time ago I decided to open an internet site as a nostalgic look back to the Club. You can find it at: www.whiskyoscar.com
The Whiskey Oscar Club was a club of people who wanted to take contact with each other by shortwave only talking in Dutch. Jelle and myself were early up every Sunday in a game, together with some other radio friends, to make every Sunday as much as possible radio contacts in the 11 metres band with people speaking Dutch in the world. Mostly it meant contacts with people in former Dutch colonies Surinam and Antilles. But of course there were also many immigrants in the United States and other countries we heard and speak to during that period. Due to the fact my research and writing about radio became more and more important I decided to stop transmitting in 1983. I was Whiskey Oscar 363 in those years.
One guy who’s still going strong although not getting the air play on Radio Caroline he expected to get is Nick Barnes. Early March he was part of a charity show at the Congress Theatre in Eastbourne supporting the Even Appeal (ovarian cancer) and the Cancer Vaccine Institute. Nick Barnes performed 5 songs including his specially written song ‘For Eve’ . A very good performance from Nick and more info is to find at www.nickbarnes.does.it
Well ending this edition with nice summer greetings as Holland at the end of April is like being in full summer. Tulips are in more than hundred colours and almost everyone is smiling to see the weather is so wonderful. Hope the same happens in your surroundings. More later this month with best greetings from Groningen in Holland
Hans Knot