Hans Knot's International Radio Report 
June 2010

Hi and welcome to another edition of the Radio Report. Thanks to all the people who wished me well before the operation and as you see my hands are working again. Well I must be honest; the main part of this report was ready before going into surgery. So let’s see what we have this time in the report. Just when the last report went out a few minutes later the news arrived that Tom Ravenscroft, son of one of the most important deejays in the British radio and music industry, signed a contract with 6 Music, one of the BBC Radio Channels. John Peel is the deejay name his father used first in 1967 when he arrived back in Britain after a period of working in the United States , including in radio. He died in 2004 and had prestigious influence on the music during the past decades. His son Tom will work on BBC 6 Music next to persons like Guy Garvey (Elbow), Jarvis Cocker (Pulp) and more. Like his father Tom has a big nose for musical talent. Last year Ravenscroft junior, 30 years of age, was sitting in for Tom Robinson. June 4^th 2010 is the official date for starting with his contract for the BBC and will be heard every Friday for three hours on 6 Music. His father worked at the BBC for 37 years so Tom Ravenscroft has a long way to go, hopefully.

It was Martin who reminded me to mention the fact that it was Ronan O’Rahilly’s 70^th birthday in May. So, many happy returns to Ronan and who would have thought that after so many years since 1964 the name ‘Caroline’ is still be used for a radio station? Also a big ‘happy birthday’ to Ian Damon who had his 75^th birthday on June 5^th.

Last month it was gold for The Emperor Rosko, as he was the first to reflect on the radio report. I have to mention that this month he once again hit the buttons very fast and was the first reader. I think he sits in his studio 24 hours a day watching his computer screen. Mostly it is  around the last days of each month he has taken with him all he needs during a day, including food and drinks, to get his monthly kick to read his name and see his photos again in the report. Well here’s what he wrote: ‘I wanted to wish via you your queen a happy birthday for Friday, I will sing to her on air! Now that I covered my butt, I shall read the whole report, but I must get rations first as it takes  awhile!  Emp.’

Oh, I was wrong; he didn’t take any rations with him. Well Rosko our queen is not on my mailing list, but surely secret service will scan the internet and see your wishes. Of course I’ve a photo showing you and more. This time we go back to the days of Radio Luxembourg and EMP connections. With thanks this time to Francois Lhote.

‘Request jingle time’ next from Cees in the Netherlands . He wrote: ‘Hans maybe you can help me for I don’t know to find it anywhere. I’ve searched a lot on internet for the written text of the complete ‘Loving Awareness’ message. When Radio Caroline was on the air in the second part of the seventies this jingle could be heard in English (probably Mike Hagler) and in Dutch (Hugo Meulenhof). The English text started with: ‘Are you suffering from the routines life of DA (Defensic Awareness) the problems and frustrations are negative around you. Try Loving Awareness because LA put you out of you run and take you back to the maintreets of humanity.. ‘ I hope anyone can help me with the complete jingles or text. Dearest greetings from an offshore radio freak, Cees Ouwerling. ‘

Well anyone who can help please send the jingles or the text to HKnot@home.nl

Two items, which appear regularly in the report, are radio related cars as well as t shirt from radio stations. The cars much have a promotional sticker for a radio station and the shirts, well they have to promote a radio station or an activity related to the station. In a small place near my hometown Groningen a village called ‘Haren’ is located. It was in the seventies the place where one of the drivers from the RNI racing team was living: Rob van der Dong. In those days the racing team used Japanese cars from the Datsun Company. And so the RNI racing team was called the ‘RNI Datsun Racing Team’. Well let’s have two in one with the next photograph as the lady is wearing a Datsun RNI t-shirt and is sitting next to a racing car from Radio Noordzee (Northsea) in 1973. If you have one of the items: a photo of a radio t shirt or a radio sticker on a car please let me know at HKnot@home.nl

By the way, on the photo is the car from another driver for the team, Rob Janssen. Nice to sea also the caravan from the team is shown. But the question came up if the lady in the door of the caravan is interested in speed driving at all!

Last time we had more about the replay of old Veronica Top 40 whereby producer Rick van Dijk responded why his name was not mentioned by one of the readers in an earlier edition of the report. So we gave Rick a plug. Now another response came in from Alan in Manchester : ‘As a response on this I got the next e-mail: ‘Why is Rick van Dijk not mentioned as producer of the weekly Top 40 (39 years ago) on Radio Veronica 192?’ Well, it was me who wrote the original e-mail. I certainly didn't mean to cause offence by omitting Rick's name. The fact is that Dutch is not my mother tongue and my knowledge of the personalities involved in Veronica 192 is much weaker than that of the Dutch fans. For example, I've seen lots of photos of the recent Veronicadag and there aren't many people whose faces (of today) I know, really only Adje, Juul and Tineke for the others, I've had to look up the photos where people have been named. In my original e-mail, I tried to use the phrase "and the team" to include people whom I hadn't named. No offence was intended.’

The question came to me why Rick was working at the team and so he responded with: ‘Ad Bouman once needed a record cover, which was a Veronica ‘Alarmschijf’ in the past and he lent this from my internet site. From that point on we exchanged e mails. I asked him if I could do some work for the Norderney Foundation and so Ad Bouman asked me if could produce the weekly Top 40 and Tipparade. The first one was and is no problem to me, to do it on a weekly basis. I can get the 40 songs from my own archive and from friends very easily. So, since July 2009 I produce the Top 40 non stop. For me it’s very difficult to connect a microphone to a mixer and so it’s just record after record till we reach the number one spot. It cost me three hours a week to get it all together. It’s very nice to do and I try to produce the show three weeks on forehand.’

And Alan went on with: ‘Please tell Rick how much I appreciate the work he does - as I said in my earlier e-mail, it's a ‘must listen’ programme for me! These last few weeks, I've started reading www.mediapages.nl that has lots of offshore-related news. As a result, I've started listening to Radio Popular who have a daily ‘Offshore radio hour’ plus a couple of other similar shows ‘Free Radio Hour’ and ‘De Radio van Toen’ (‘Radio from Yesteryear’). In addition, the internet station MMR (More Music Radio) has recently run a few special (long) weekends, the first at Easter to commemorate the Caroline anniversary and the second, 23-25th April to commemorate Veronica's 50th anniversary. Both weekends had 18 hours a day of archival programming that made great listening. I managed to record most of the output, but haven't yet sorted through it all. I've tried to publicise those specials through a number of mailing lists, but it struck me that it might make sense for me to keep my ear to the ground and also to co-ordinate those notifications through my website. So I've decided to start a regularly updated page that can be accessed through my website at www.soulman1949.com/offshoreradio.html - by the time this appears on your next report, hopefully, this will be up and running. With all the best greetings, from Manchester , Alan.

DUTCH T SHIRT EXHIBITION OFFSHORE RADIO 1994

I was very shocked seeing this photo, which is from the summer of 1994. It show an anorak from Holland wearing a t shirt which was specially produced for the exhibition ‘Nederlandse Zeezenders’ (Dutch Offshore Radio Stations), which was held at Dutch Broadcasting Museum. The logo on the shirt was also attached on several windows on the building. The shirt was printed in a limited edition and was on sale in the museum shop. I heard that this shirt is still with the original owner after 16 years. By the way he was, together with organiser Arno Weltens of the Museum, the co-organiser of the exhibition. If you also have a picture of you of someone else in a radio t shirt don’t hesitate to send it to the then bald headed HKnot@home.nl

Now we go to the very south of our mother earth and let’s see what one of our readers in Australia has to mention: ‘Hi Hans, it's Enda Caldwell from Radio Luxembourg (ex UK DRM’er) now... freelance and loving it! G’day from Down Under. I'm touring around Australia for a few months and heading to New Zealand and Dubai soon. I am making some appearances at various radio stations like WSFM Sydney, Melbourne 's own 3AW and many more. On St. Patrick's Day March 17th I was special guest on Keith McGowan's Overnighters on 3AW Melbourne where we paid tribute to St. Patrick and added a Celtic Flavour to the show. Also I appeared on 35 stations on St. Patrick's Day on ARN's Gold Network, including WSFM Sydney and Gold 104.3 Melbourne Live from The Celtic Club in downtown Melbourne .  I hope you are keeping well and thank you for your great reports. They really are a wonderful read. I've attached a photo taken by Keith Mc Gowan in the very inner hub of 3AW the number 1 talk station in Melbourne . They all recall the Offshore Pirates here and revere the sound that came from those magical ships, and Radio Luxembourg is well known over here too. Best regards, Enda Caldwell.’

Enda Caldwell Photo: Keith Mc Gowan

Thanks a lot of sharing this with us Enda. Far from Australia it’s good to see you enjoy your trip. Make some more radio appearances there and good luck in Dubai too. Hope we see each other once again on one of the radio days in Amsterdam . Take care!

Update time again starting with two for the Pirate Hall of Fame:

New in the May edition: we have another batch of City Sixty charts, taking us to mid-March 1966; we have added some additional Radio 270 audio and we hear from former 270 DJ Robin Best; there is news of some ex-pirates who are running for Parliament in the imminent General Election; a correspondent remembers being wished good luck in her O-levels by her favourite disc-jockey and we congratulate said disc-jockey as he celebrates his 70th birthday.

For the month of June another update: as the dust settles after the British General Election, we look back forty years to the election of 1970 and the part played in it by Radio Northsea International; also forty years ago, the press reported that pirate television was about to start broadcasting from a plane circling above the North Sea. We have newspaper cuttings on the abortive launch of Caroline Television; Radio Seagull, the progressive rock station, returned to its sea-borne roots recently when it broadcast from it ship, the Jenni Baynton, eight miles off the Dutch coast. We link to some great photos and a fan's video of a visit to the station; during the Radio Seagull broadcasts Norman Barrington included a specially recorded segment featuring former Swinging Radio England Programme Director Ron O'Quinn. We hear what Ron had to say; and we add another batch of City Sixty charts, this time from April 1966. More next time. All the best, Jon

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

And what about a new update from Mary and Chris Payne’s memorial site to Wonderful Radio London?

http://www.radiolondon.co.uk/

From London to Veronica is a little step and it’s Alex van den Hoek who sent in a link to a you tube item on 50 years Veronica. It was held on a Saturday in April in Hilversum , so let’s have a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvc0N82tMZI

One of the readers in Holland has a new idea to make a list. He wrote: ‘Hi Hans, I always read your monthly report with most interest and I know you’re sharp on making lists, as for instant the female deejays and more interesting subjects. I’m a fully licensed radio amateur and it seems to me interesting to making a list of people inside the offshore radio world who also are a licensed radio amateur. I’ve added some names known to me:
Pe0gjg Juul Geleick (Radio Veronica)
Pa1em Ellie van Amstel (Radio Monique / Radio 819)
Pa0nhs Nico Steenbergen (Radio Noordzee Internationaal)
G3wzg Peter Chicago (Radio Northsea International and Radio Caroline)
Hb9afu Edwin Bollier (Owner Radio Northsea internationaal )
Pa3ezm Arie Swaneveld lent his transmitters to Radio Atlantis

With 73 Andre Schokker ph5c

Really a great ides Andre and as Juul Geleick was mentioned on top of your list forwarded your idea and he reflected with: ‘Yes a funny idea. But don’t forget to mention PA2RNI Frans de Feber. He was transmitter technician aboard the MEBO II. Frans died in 1999.’

Thanks to the both of you. So to all readers who have been working in offshore radio since the early sixties let us know when you have an official license, so we can update this new list. You can send the info to HKnot@home.nl

Once again I go back to the Graham Gill files. As you know later this year the book ‘Way back home the Graham Gill Story’ will be published. On the sideline I worked together with him and got access to a lot of letters Graham saved after his time on the radio. Let’s go to a letter I found and which was written by a German listener. It was 1974 and especially during the months of July and August several trips were made by fans of the radiostations off the Dutch coast. Most of those trips were made from Scheveningen harbour. These trips were either organised by Rob Olthof or Hans Verbaan (FRC Holland). In that way hundreds of fans from several countries in Western and Northern Europe had a last look at the radio ships before closing down due to a new Dutch law. It was just sailing around the ships but they could cheer to the guys on the radio ship and make some photographs. For some of the listeners it became possible to make a tender trip to the Mi Amigo or the MEBO II, when the ships were tendered for food, water, oil and fresh crew and deejays. It could take some weeks to get permission and than you had to go to the 2^nd Inner harbour to get on the tender. Sometimes the weather was to bad and the special fan couldn’t get on the ship. In the mail bag I found a letter written by Wolf Brundtke on July 16^th 1974. He wrote to Graham: ‘

When reading the letter it came to me that Wolf nowadays is a reader of the Hans Knot International Radio Report and decided to send him an e mail:

‘Hi Wolf. Since a couple of months I've a large bag with letters and other memories at home which have been in a cellar for more than 35 years in Amsterdam at Graham Gills place. In the bag I also found an interesting letter which was written by you. A scan is enclosed. Do you have any memories on this letter? Greetings, Hans Knot’.

Within hours there was a reply from Germany : ‘That's really a big, big surprise! I wrote that short letter on the tender while going out to the Mi Amigo that day, a day a little bit on the rough side, too rough to climb over on board the old lady. So we stayed on the tender. The supplies were pulled over by a rope in plastic bags; also this letter was between the tapes (still reel to reel in those days, for the Mi Amigo Programmes. Peter van Dam took that letter and put it between the tapes as I remember. What a lot of memories are coming up! Unbelievable! I must look for the pictures I took and scan them in soon for you! Additionally I had been recording the Graham Gill Show that night with him reading my letter. Many, many thanks! I thought it must have gone over board. So, thanks also to Graham, saving such old objects of listeners!’

And to my surprise Wolf is nowadays in contact with Graham: ‘Last year he came along on his trip to Prag and stayed with us here in Berlin for a few days at the end of April 2009. There will be pictures with him in the attachment. They were taken here on top of the house were we live in. It is our "Dachterrasse" and the weather was so pretty last year! One shows Graham together with me. I must write Graham that you found this letter; he will be surprised as well I think. Well Hans, have a good time and best wishes to your wife! We still remember the dinner in the China restaurant in Amsterdam after the Radio Day 2008! This year we must visit the radio day again!

WOLF AND GRAHAM

COLLECTION WOLF BRUNDTKE

Regarding this year's Radio Day on Saturday 13th November 2010, Rob
Olthof, our technician Jörg Krips and I have been visiting the all new
Hotel Casa 400 on 14th May. We were quite impressed by the modern
congress hall which is equipped with sophisticated technology. And be
assured that the bar (being situated on the same floor) will please all
our thirsty visitors.

What about this year's guests? Well we are still in conversation with
several potential guests which we won't reveal at this particular time.
But we can tell you right now that there will be a Radio Mi Amigo panel
with Hugo Meulenhof, Ferry Eden, Will van der Steen and hopefully Bert
Bennett. The discussion will be moderated by Marc Jacobs.

One of this year's highlights will be a "Radio 390 Reunion". Up to now
the following people have been gladly accepting our invitation: Graham
Gill, Jack McLaughlin, Brian Cullingford, Roger Scott (Arnold Layne),
Mark Hammerton (Mark Sloane), John Stewart (John Aston) and Ben E.
Nurdin (son of the late Sheldon Jay). And many more will be there if we
keep our fingers crossed: John Ross-Barnard, Woolf Byrne, Christopher
Clarke, Mandy Raven, Lee Gilbert and Dominic LeFoe have been showing
their interest. Trevor Adams and hopefully Robin Adcroft (Robin Banks)
from Project Redsand will moderate the Radio 390 panel.

We are planning a superb "RNI is 40" reunion as well, but cannot reveal
any details right now. And we hope to welcome several guests from Sweden
who have worked for the Scandinavian offshore radio pioneer Radio Nord.
Last but not least Tom Edwards ( Radio City and Radio Caroline) has told
us that he will be proud to be our special guest this year. So let's
hope that Tom will make it to Amsterdam .

More news as it happens. Make sure to constantly watch
http://www.radioday.nl for more details. Best wishes from Martin van der Ven.

Next one is also from Germany : ‘Hallo Hans, I do have a great wish, because I’m working on a private homepage for me. I like to have some photos from the MEBO II for the site. Right now I’m working on my Website. There is only a trial version online, just to find out how it works. You can have a look at: www.rni-hardy.de I like to put in some Jingles and my weekly radio show for RNI which is broadcasted every Saturday and Sunday Morning between 05.00 and 06.00 German-time (CET). I became an RNI-Freak since somebody around 1968 asked me, if I would like to be a DJ in the German-project of the old RNI.

Due to the fact that I was in the German Air force at that time and supposed to go to the USA I couldn’t even dream of doing so. Later in 1971 I went to the Oud Bussum Studios and had a close look around. After that I found myself on the ‘Trip-Tender’ on the way to the beautiful colored radio ship MEBO II.

Since the fall of 2009 I’m part of the German service and I’m so in love with it. It gives me a great reason to live. An old man must do something which gives sense and pleasure. This I find here in that gorgeous RNI family, I’m so grateful to Steve that I can do radio again, after I almost died in 2008. I crawled around like an old dog, but in 2009 came the offer to work for RNI. I’m glad that I said yes within half an hour. Compliment for all the good work you’re doing! Kind regards Hardy Schrake.’

Well Hardy thanks a lot for your mail. I’ve put you on the way to the photographs already and good to see you do like working within the nowadays RNI team after struggling a lot in 2008.

Hardy Schrake way back in the seventies

News from Red Sands Radio: ‘The governing radio watchdog Ofcom has awarded Red Sands Radio a licence to broadcast to the Coastal Towns throughout July on 87.7 FM. The station has legs firmly planted on the seabed from the pioneering days of Offshore Pirate Radio broadcasting from the Sea Forts off The Whitstable, Herne Bay coast. Now in its 4th year Red Sands Radio’s studios are at the centre of the Community in Whitstable Harbour . Providing a balanced blend of ‘feel good music’, topical information, news and local guests, which people locally and worldwide really enjoy. Programme Director Bob Le-Roi said: “The phenomenal reaction to our broadcasts spurs us on; we’re excited to serve the area with the local radio service it deserves” Radio Red Sands launches on 3rd July 2010.

87.7FM & on-line at www.redsandsradio.co.uk

Red Sands Radio, PO Box 299, Whitstable, Kent , CT5 2YA

07961 601 893

Bob Le-Roi – Founder & Programme Director

For the third year in a row, Radio Waddenzee and Radio Seagull went offshore from 30th April to 16th May 2010. Both stations broadcast from the radio ship Jenni Baynton, which was again moored 8 miles off Harlingen in the northwest of the Netherlands . The final offshore weekend on 15th and 16th May saw nostalgic Radio Seagull live broadcasts 24 hours per day with former offshore radio presenters Norman Barrington (Radio Seagull and Radio Caroline in 1973/74 from the MV Mi Amigo), Stevie Gordon (one of those having been rescued from the sinking Mi Amigo in March 1980), Chris Kennedy (a Radio Caroline mainstay on the Ross Revenge during the 1980s), Dave Foster (Caroline from the Ross Revenge and until today via satellite and Internet) who were supported by Mandy Morton and Andy Brooks. Besides station manager Sietse Brouwer there were radio technicians Walter Galle from Belgium and Alan Beech from the UK . Twice a day, the tender boat ‘Ome Cor’ went out from Harlingen harbour enabling radio enthusiasts to visit the watery wireless vessel. Like in 2008 and 2009, the broadcasts become a major success definitely transporting a real offshore radio feeling. Everyone on board was in a superb mood. Well done Sietse and friends, congratulations to you all! Martin van der Ven.

For more than 135 photos see: www.offshore-radio.de

NORMAN BARRINGTON ARRIVING

Photo Collection Norman Barrington

Let’s go back 25 years; it was 1985 and Laser 558 was in the second year of broadcasting. Millions of people in Western Europe seemed to like the output of the station, transmitting from international waters off the Kent coast. One of them was Phil Hilton who wrote to me: ‘Here we go Hans, I've been having a spring tidy up just recently prior to moving to New York for a few months and came across press cuttings which make interesting reading. I also found a postcard of the Communicator sent to me by Chris Carson, looks I got lucky too as Chris marked the position of her 'bedroom' on the side of the ship. Sadly I never got to test if this was the case or not!

Cheers and thanks for your great updates. Phil Hilton

Well thanks a lot Phil, a pity you couldn’t test the bedroom but lucky you I’ve a photo from her with two of the other Laserettes.

LIZ WEST, ERIN KELLY AND CHRIS CARSON

PHOTO: OEM

Next to the Hans Knot International Radio Report I do a lot of research and writing for several magazines and internet sites. One of the regular series is ‘Music Media and other Memories’, in which I go back to a certain year. This series started in the late nineties of last century and each issue has some 20 pages full of memories and is published 3 up till 4 times a year. In the articles I look back on the news of that certain year, the radio and other media memories I’ve and my own personal memories. Of course I make use of my own personal archive as well as of the newspaper and magazine archive, I’ve collected and stored through the past decades. Now and then suddenly there’s the opportunity to buy a complete year edition of a magazine. This also happened early May when I got hold on the Dutch ‘Panorama’, a weekly magazine since 1913. I bought 52 issues from 1968 and decided to trip through some of the issues, starting with number 47, from November 23^rd, that year. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a photograph which brought my memories back to 1987 when I visited Roy and Joan Bates in their home in White Cliff on Sea to talk about the finishing touch of a book called ‘The Dream of Sealand’. In the 1968 Panorama a beautiful picture from Joan taken on the Rough Sands Fort, seven miles from the Suffolk Coast in then international waters. It was mentioned that they had some weeks earlier declared their ‘island’ to an independent state. The photo shown was in black and white but the accompanied words mentioned that the flag was black white red. ‘Black for Piracy’, ‘White for Honesty’ and ‘Red for Roy ’. Roy Bates was Joan’s husband and Prince of Sealand.

JOAN BATES ARCHIVE PANORAMA

Next it’s time for our regular comments from Ian Godfrey: ‘The General Election campaign in Britain kept me very occupied; I managed to see all  the television coverage, except one programme, where I made a slight error with the 'video plus' code.   Radio coverage was obviously more difficult to keep abreast of but I found the most interesting station was Sun Talk, which wasn't bound by the restrictions affecting other stations and even on Election Day was quite forthright and a great relief!

Although I was fairly politically aware in the lead-up to the MOA in 1967 it wasn't sustained for long, probably not that surprising as I was only 16 at the time. The 'jamming' of RNI and the election campaign and the sudden switch to Caroline International, really sharpened my awareness and  although ideologically there has been far less apparent difference between the two main parties over the past 13 years I've always had an aversion to the Labour Party.  In 1970 I was much more attracted to the Tories' philosophy of free enterprise than state-control and apparent dislike of profit.  For me RNI really was the catalyst, I've never found that I can identify with MPs from any particular party and It suddenly occurred to, me only a few weeks ago, that without the radio interest - and particularly the RNI factor -  I probably wouldn't be anywhere near as interested in elections or possibly not sufficiently motivated to vote.  I listened to RNI on election night in 1970 and heard a few of the results coming through but fell asleep with the radio on (something which hasn't changed over the years!)

Every weekday I watch a BBC2 programme called 'The Daily Politics,' fronted by Andrew Neil, my all-time favourite interviewer, who applies sufficient pressure to get answers out of politicians to the point that their avoidance looks ridiculous. He also injects a good deal of humour. Today his special guest was Michael Heseltine, who spent a few minutes recalling his introduction, as a new MP, to the House of Commons after the March, 1966 Election. Patrick Jenkin, another Tory MP who'd been elected in October, 1964, offered to show him round. As he was the only one of eleven new Tories elected in 1966, and without a great deal else to do at that time, this seemed a good time-filler.  Patrick Jenkin asked him if he would say something in the Commons about the pirate radio stations but he declined, probably not being sufficiently qualified.  At this point Andrew Neil said:  "Oh Michael, I wouldn't like to think you had anything to do with the closing down of our wonderful pirate radio stations!" Whether there was any irony here is impossible to know, although I’d be interested to know his opinions.

Apart from the Radio City episode I'm sure that, being returned with a majority of 98, as opposed to 4, 18 months earlier, the March, 1966 Election gave the Labour Government an extra boost to silence the stations.

I was quite moved by the emails in last issue about Veronica 192. Soon after the start of 'gold' radio in the UK it occurred to me that it may be a good idea if technology would allow some of the original charts to be re-broadcast so it was a breath of fresh air to hear the announcement, almost exactly a year ago, that the original Top 40s and 'Tipparades' would be re-run on Saturday afternoons. The 'Tipparades' are of more interest to me as they include many lesser-known or obscure tracks, very rarely heard these days.   I prefer the presented shows, for the wealth of information about the music played.  The 'oldies' show from 12.00-13.00 BST is also now presented.  Last week's featured part of Alan West's announcement of the 'fire-bombing, which seemed a very surprising item to be aired on Veronica 192!  Eric had already mentioned a new offshore radio CD, so I assumed it must have been connected with that but then it occurred to me that it was the exact 39th anniversary of this horrific act. I marginally preferred the 're-mastered' Rob Out shows, although repetition was becoming a bit irritating. Saturday afternoons have become quite congested over the past few months!  Mi Amigo 192 airs their own version of the Veronica Top 40, from a different year, plus the 'Flashback Party' on Waddenzee , all in the same time-slot. Bert van der Laan seems to be everywhere! He's on at least three shows simultaneously and also gives the weather at the top of the hour on Caroline 319.  'Big L Goes Dutch' follows at 18.00 BST.  When looking at the Radio London website a couple of days ago I discovered there is yet another show, running from 16.00-18.00 BST on Saturdays, from a station called Enschede FM. Best Wishes, Ian Godfrey.’

Well Ian thanks a lot for this mix with memories and today’s facts. Till next time my friend!

Next we go to France from where tenderking Leen Vingerling sent a message: ‘Hi Hans, during this weekend former Caroline deejay Kevin Turner celebrated his 50^th birthday for his European friends in a restaurant in Serborga. Marjo and I were invited to. Serboga is a small village just over the French border in Italy . Kevin worked there, after his time on Caroline, for Radio Sovereign: www.bobleroi.co.uk/ScrapBook/Sovereign_Italy/Sovereign_Italy.html

Some known faces from offshore radio days were present too like Grant Benson and technicians David Finn and Pyers Easton. Also Mark Dezzani from todays Caroline South was there.

Grant Bentson, Leendert Vingerling, Kevin Turner

With thanks to Leendert

A short update about what those gentlemen are doing these days:

Kevin (real name is Peter MacFarlane) is working for BFBS Radio and Television, mainly as a voice over on television: http://www.bfbs.com/tv/

Grant Bentson is still active in our radio world.

http://www.grantbenson.com/home.htm

Pyers Easton has an own company for wireless communication for the media:

http://www.raycom.co.uk/

David Finn works as a technician for British Railroads and finally Mark Dezanni, who has a movie and production company:

http://www.europaproductions.com/

Thanks Leen for all the information

I was also listening to an old program on Radio Atlantis, which was presented by Dave Rodgers. Halfway the program he presented himself with a nickname: Dave ‘Your friendly loo’ Rodgers. Probably he did so as he was talking far too much between the records. A very early one from 1964 and Radio Caroline South, which came into my ears, is Garry ‘Super’ Kemp, as he was mentioned by Errol Bruce.

Talking about Errol Bruce, he was working on Radio Caroline South, Radio Caroline North and on Swinging Radio England (as we talk about offshore radio only). I mentioned that many hundreds of hours from my archive were digitalised and came back in April. And to my surprise I found out, on June 1^st, that there was a very rare recording from Errol together with Garry Kemp. Just 11 minutes long it was, but as far as I know the only recording from Errol Bruce during his Caroline days. It was from 1964, yes 46 odd years ago. I decided to send it to Errol in Canada and he came back with the next e mail: ‘Many, many thanks for the lead to the clip, what a memory jogger. To be truthful I'd forgotten that Garry and I had ever worked together on-air. I've not had any recordings of myself on Caroline until downloading it! Again, my deep gratitude for letting me know. Warmly, Errol Bruce.’

It made me very happy to make someone else happy after more than 4,5 decades! I’ve put the recording on line and it will be there up till late June:

http://hypershare.de/538147

Next we go to another regular contributor: Ian Anderson from the Shetland Islands . ‘Hans, If you ever wondered what happened to the Ocean Defender as in: http://www.offshore-radio.de/fleet/defender.htm

One of the crew of the Ocean Defender at the time (1997) was Charles Smith, who comes from Shetland. He was in my class at high school 1959-1961, and for the last 17 or so years he has been an officer at Shetland Coastguard - in fact I spoke to him at 0500 hours this morning while (as usual) looking for news stories (we phone the emergency services a couple of times a day, or when we know something has happened). This morning Charles commented that he wondered what had happened to the Ocean Defender after Earthkind had decommissioned it. Half an hour later he phoned to tell me that they (at the coastguard station) had traced the new name in Lloyds and found the web site.   

Charles was a volunteer crewmember (chief engineer I think) of the Ocean Defender during his holidays and the Big L RSL in St Katherine’s dock in the late nineties of last century.

This is what it is now...
http://globalcharters.homestead.com/

http://www.warsailors.com/singleships/bjerk.html
Only 160+ views (see bottom of page) but I bet that increases when the word gets around. Ian Anderson SIBC

Another interesting link leads us to the world of shortwave and DX’ing but also interesting downloads to shortwave broadcasts from Radio Caroline and others, as well as on the bottom of the download page very exclusive recordings from Radio Scotland .

http://www.ayrshirehistory.eu/tadx/downloads_offshore_radio.html

Talking about shortwave. I don’t know if you found the special download site from Jonathan Marks, who worked many years for Radio Netherlands and was responsible for Media Network. Well on his site several very good documentaries can be found including a few on offshore radio. A must to visit!

http://jonathanmarks.libsyn.com/

Herman from Belgium sent us ‘73’s and a link to a book on shortwave history released in 2008 and now complete to read on the Internet

http://books.google.be/books?id=Ux9fZj6izuEC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

And here’s another update, this time from Bob Le-Roi: ‘Update time with a King Sized Summer Spectacular and it’s 'Free' just like radio! In 'ScrapBook' to coincide with Red Sands Radio return to air Radio 390 with rare material from the Glendinning family. Part two of Radio Sealand brought to you in association with Prince Michael. The 'Personal Pages' goes back to the beginning with 'Radio Foreland'. Our popular 'One Subject One Link' talks about music sweeps. Plus more Albums, CD's listed and a very nice Altron Versatower. Enjoy your visits. www.bobleroi.co.uk

Well it’s t shirt time again and so let’s dive in the archive to find a black and white photograph taken probably in 1966 on the high seas. It features Tony Blackburn wearing a Big L Radio London t-shirt, one of the many produced. Maybe Mary Payne can tell us something more about the several Radio London t shirts in one of the forthcoming issues of the Hans Knot International Radio Report.

TONY BLACKBURN

PHOTO: ARCHIVE FREEWAVE MEDIA MAGAZINE

If you have a photograph from yourself or another wearing a classic t shirt regarding radio, please don’t hesitate to send it to HKnot@home.nl

When I was searching in my archive for some RNI material from 1970 my eyes also fell on a letter which came from the Capital Radio Headquarters in Bussum Holland. Insiders know that the International Broadcasters Society was behind this ill fated project off the Noordwijk coast in 1970 from the MV King David, formerly the MV Zeevaart – a coaster built in Groningen .

It is a letter dated November 1^st 1970 and that was just 9 days before the radio ship became in trouble again and broke the anchor chain. After that the radio ship beached and was towed away into Amsterdam harbour at November 26^th that year. The reason for that was that there wasn’t anymore money and the organisation went bankrupt!

The letter was signed by Berthe A. Beydels, Secretary General and than wife of director Timothy Thomasson. She wrote: ‘Thank you so much for your spontaneous reflection on our request for financial and moral support to Capital Radio. Your 5 guilders contribution is accepted with many thanks. To our surprise and quicker than expected enormous amounts have flooded to us, something we had never hoped. Therefore we are a bit too late to send all the things promised to our financial supporters. In a very short time we will inform you all about the ‘Friends of Free Radio’. Thanks once again for your interest and support.’ Enormous amounts of money and a bankrupt within 10 days?

Yes, it is almost 40 years ago that this letter was send away to Amsterdam and probably to hundreds of other persons sending in money to save the station and to get info about the ‘Friends of Free Radio’. They finally got a very nice booklet, some of them very nice stickers too and a photo postcard, with a picture of the radio ship. So although they had very big problems with the ship and no money to pay the salvation, the money they got from the listeners was used for the purpose of promoting the ‘Friends of Free Radio.’

In total there were five different stickers published and I got them too in those days, put them on the wall of my bedroom and years later decided to redecorate the wall and put the stickers into a photo album where they still are. 

Of course there were more requests for money done by several offshore radio stations, which were in problem. Who does recall such an action and can tell us more: HKnot@home.nl

Well that’s all folks, more next month with all best greetings from Groningen in the Netherlands .