Each year radio-addicted people in the Netherlands do remember April 18th. That’s a very important day in the history of radio. It was April 18th 1973 that more than 150.000 people got together on and in the surroundings of the Malieveld in the Hague for the ‘then’ biggest demonstration ever held in the country ‘behind the dykes’. During this demonstration, which was organised by people who loved the offshore radio station Veronica, the listeners were protesting against the plans of Dutch government to close down the watery radio stations, so well loved by million of listeners. From all parts of the Netherlands people came to the city where Dutch government rules Holland. Not only that, also from countries like Great Britain, Germany, Belgium and French the anoraks, as the offshore radio fans were mentioned, came to the Malieveld. From there on a walk through the Hague took place to handover petitions and signatures of all those listeners to a represantive of Dutch government. The Dutch 2nd Chamber, after a hearing, decided however that a new law had to become in action. This one became active on September 1st 1974, which seemed the end for Offshore Radio. So everyone remembers this demonstration. Hans Knot invites you to make a banner and walk with him through memory lane.
Weeks on forehand promo’s were transmitted on Radio Veronica asking the listeners to come down to the Hague together with family and friends. I can tell you that ‘play hooky’ was a common game that day. The staff and deejays on the station knew on forehand that the demonstration would be a success as we talk about the amount of people. In 1971, after the station had a very bad press due to a few people in the organisation had decided that there had to become an end to a competitor. A bomb was thrown by three divers, who were paid by the Veronica people. Deejays decided a few weeks after the bomb attack to start a campaign in which they wanted the listeners to write down that they stood behind the station. The campaign was called ‘Veronica blijft als U dat wilt’ (Veronica stays if you want it). Of course this campaign was heavily promoted on the station. 53 Hours after the campaign had started a spokesman for Veronica told the press: ‘We can announce some figures. 1 million postcards have been distributed all over Holland and already more than 200.000 have been received back by the post. The reaction of the public is fantastic. Dutch PTT (The Postmen) were so friendly to bring the cards with a special car. One of the things we asked the people the mention on the card is their age and I can tell you that the cards have been sent in by people in the age from 5 up till 93 years. But the most cards can be put in the age between 20 and 30 years.’ And very proudly the spokesman finished with the words that the next million cards would be pressed the next day.
From that point on about 15.000 people all over Holland were working (unpaid) for Radio Veronica to provide as much as possible inhabitants from the special cards. School kids brought the cards to their friends, schoolmates and family. You could pick up the cards at the petrol station. A cigarette company sponsored 20 girls who went into the big cities to distribute the cards in shop centres. Also special concerts were held; cards could be received at the gates of the football stadiums. Thursday August 19th 1971 a total amount of 1 million cards had been counted, which were signed and sent back to Veronica at the Utrechtseweg in Hilversum. Everywhere in Holland you could find back stickers with the words ‘Veronica blijft als U dat wilt’. But not everyone was happy with the campaign as there were also stickers with the words ‘Veronica Rot Op Nu’ (VRON), which could be translated nowadays with ‘Fuck off Veronica’. A smear campaign, which was organised by some people. Names never became in the publicity and lucky enough within a few weeks everyone had forgotten the anti stickers. And the tremendous success of the postcard campaign in the summer of 1971 was in 1973 reason enough to go for the biggest demonstration ever, as the organisers knew that the people of Holland wanted their favourite station in the years to come. And next to that a research had been made about the listening behaviour of the Dutch people. More than 75% tuned in to offshore radio stations. In 1973 next to Radio Veronica and Radio Northsea International. From that group 80% wanted the station continue to exist.
But were there more demonstration than the one which is remembered every year? Of course there were. Through the years several demonstrations have been held. Also several organisations were set up. The first form of protest I could find back in my archive, was a leaflet from autumn 1964. It came from the VVVRT, which stood for ‘Vereniging Voor Vrije Radio en TV’. (Society For Free Radio and Television). They asked their members to sent a letter of protest to the Dutch government against their plans to come with a special law, which should forbid the REM Radio and Television transmitting from a platform anchored off the Noordwijk Coast. In the next leaflet from de VVVRT a report could be read, in which Mr. Cobet, the chairman, wrote about the results of the campaign. ‘On the day of the first discussion in Parliament we’ve sent a letter of protest to the responsible Ministers as well as members of Parliament. This was followed by sending copies to 70 different newspapers. From 40 different cities letters were sent to members of the following political parties: VVD, PvdA, ARP, KVP, CHU. When I did attend the discussions several telegrams were brought in and the letter of protest was officially signed in as an ‘incoming item’.
Reading back after so many decades the bulletin of the VVRT, which had their address at the Herenstreet 111 in Bussum, near Hilversum, it’s very strange to read nothing at all about the contents of the discussions. Mr Cobet went on, like so many other organisations later in the history on Offshore Radio, to discuss with the readers the financial problems of the organisation and asking for as much as possible guilders to run the VVRT. For the year 1964 the foundation asked for 1 guilder a year for membership. But Mr Cobet added that it would be very nice to sent in 100 guilders instead. Also he wrote about setting up local branches, something which would happen with other organisations related to the Fight For Free Radio in later years. Members would be mentioned real members if they would bring in at least five new members. For this aim they could get free transfers (stickers) with a drawing of the TV island. The only thing to do was sent an addressed envelope including a return stamp to the earlier mentioned address in Bussum. Also the organisation asked to sent in all newspaper cuts that could be find in the press, this with the aim to get a rundown of all the publicity around Radio and TV Noordzee.
Finally about this VVRT can be mentioned that they had also some problems with journalist, who wanted to make their own turn to the story. In Dutch biggest newspaper ‘De Telegraaf’ it was mentioned that the VVRT would end all their activities as soon the Dutch Parliament would decide to bring in a special law to make an end of all activities concerning the REM Isle. Cobet mentioned the serious failure, which would be the own view of the journalist. In stead of stopping all activities there should have been printed: ‘We’re going on with our aim to make the whole system of radio and television in Netherlands different to which it is nowadays’. After bulletin number 7, early 1965, we didn’t hear anymore on this earlier fight for freedom in the air.
In England offshore radio was also often reason for conversation. The British Government came just before Christmas 1966 with the so called White Paper, in which their plans for the future of broadcasting. Next to the plan to start a National Pop Station (BBC Radio One) they also had the idea to start nine local BBC stations. Next to the introduction of a Marine Offences Bill was announced. That should also make an end to Offshore Broadcasting off the British Coast. Of course the listeners to the many offshore radio stations were not happy and on January 29th 1967 the Commercial Radio Listeners Association (CRLA) was formed to combat the Marine Offences Bill. Earlier, on October 24th 1966, The National League of Young Liberals launched their ‘Save Pop Radio’ campaign. After that nothing was heard anymore about their vague plans.
But the people of the CRLA were not alone early 1967, as another organisation was set up: The Free Radio Supporters Association. A meeting was held on February 9th 1967 to form an organisation representing all listeners of commercial radio, and which would have the full support of all the offshore stations. At the meeting most of the offshore stations had a represantive. During the meeting is was agreed that the stations should help the listeners association in every way they could, particularly by broadcasting free spots on air, to support all the organising things from the CRLA. However no representatives from the stations would get a chair within the organisation and also they would not finance them. Within weeks the two organisation became merged into The Free Radio Supporters Association. This name was dropped the next day when Ronan O’Rahilly, director and owner for Radio Caroline, announced that promotion spots for the new organisation only could be broadcast if the word ‘Supporters’ would be dropped. And from that they on The FRA could be active.
The new organisation needed a strong man, which was found in the person of Sir Ian Mactaggart. He was chairman of the National Council of the Society for Individual Freedom and also former Conservative member of the London County Council for Fulham. And for the Offshore Radio listeners the place ‘Rayleigh’ stood for Free Radio Association. Under chairmanship of Geoffrey Pearl the FRA was operated. The listeners could order, as their form of protest, all kind of small things like: stickers, leaflets, badges and petitions.
In one of the petitions could be read what the FRA was and where it stood for: ‘The Free Radio Association is fighting for free speech, free enterprise and free choice. The government is trying to crush all competition over the air by silencing the commercial stations – thereby preserving the monopoly of the BBC and depriving us of the freedom to listen to the stations of our choice. This is a step towards dictatorship. If the Marine Broadcasting Bill becomes law in its present form, free speech will be suppressed, and the Free Radio Association will be partially silenced. We have pledged that we will fight until we win. This is more than a petition. It’s a declaration that we, the British people, will fight for freedom of the air as we have fought before when our freedom has been threatened. It is a declaration that we, the undersigned, support the Free Radio Association in its fight for the right of the public to listen to the independent radio stations. And it is a declaration that we the undersigned will use our votes to remove this government from power at the first opportunity, and replace it with a government which believes in free speech, free enterprise and free choice’.
In the middle of January 1967 a four pages magazine was first published and it was free as a supplement with the National Advertiser. This magazine, called Radio News, had nine issues. Each represented a defence of a pirate station and it consistently urged the introduction of free, commercial radio in Britain. Just two month later, March 16th, the Radio News became part of the Time and Tide publication, an established news magazine. In the first combined edition they published an interview with Ronan O’Rahilly, the founder of Radio Caroline. He spoke about the plans from the Government to bring in the Marine Offences Bill: ‘Most of the thinking people in Britain are unaware of what the Marine Offences Broadcasting Bill will do to us. It will make Radio Caroline international; internationally recognised and legal. For the public however it does this: if a British shopkeeper sells cigarettes to a Radio Caroline announcer he (the shopkeeper) becomes a criminal. If the Archbishop of Canterbury or Cardinal Heenan or the Chief Rabbi gave a sermon on Radio Caroline, they would become criminals too. If a journalist writes a newscast or talks on Radio Caroline, he becomes a criminal. If a British advertiser advertises on Radio Caroline, he becomes a criminal. If, on the other hand, the Pope were to write a sermon for Radio Caroline he would not be a criminal, nor would any foreign figure who wanted to use the medium to voice publicly something he wanted to say. In other words it is stifling the freedom of speech of the British subject to speak where he likes about to speak.’
The FRA also tired to get their followers together in local branches and they organised demonstrations. One of these took place on May 28th 1967 in London. Some 2000 listeners from the radio stations came together to listen to their speakers and walk in a protest demonstration from Trafalgar Square to Fleet Street. In those hippie days there were a lot of so called ‘underground magazines’. Those were spread around from people to people and could not be bought at a newsstand. One of the Magazines was The International Times, in which a report was made about the demonstration. It was written by Frank Fuchs: ‘A sunny Sunday afternoon in Trafalgar Square, and a crowd of 2000 teeny-boppers gathered to support for Free Radio. Swaying slowly in the interval music (courtesy of Radio 390), putting their coppers in the collecting tins, giggling in the sun. Hello, what’s your name? Where’re you from? “Barbara (giggle) from Ilford. I’m fourteen.” Why have you come? “To hear what they’re saying and that”. Have you been listening to the speeches? “mmm, yes, they’re very good…”. What did they say? “….(giggle)….mmm…well, they’re very good though.” Then there was Martin a serious 17-year old, From Sutton: “I’m interested in keeping Free Radio going, as an alternative to the Home and the Third….it’s something I enjoy, and something I don’t want to be stopped’. On the question if this made him feel anti-government Martin answered to the interviewer: “Oh, it defiantly does, and I think it makes a lot of people feel like that. And they’ve taken it out in the Council Elections. My both parents listen to three-nine-oh and they both voted against Labour.”
Interesting, by reading back the report in International Times was that the interviewer made a fast conclusion about how the people listened to the speeches: ‘No one seems to be taking in what the speakers are saying: we all know we’re are here because we just like to listen to the radio. Anyway the talking is just about over and everyone is forming up to march down to Fleet Street. Think I ought to interview some of the organisers.’. Radio Caroline decided also to delegate one of the deejays. It was Rick Dane who went to Trafalgar Square and who had some special comments on his boss Ronan O’Rahilly: ‘Ronan really believes in Freedom. That’s why he started Radio Caroline. He’s serious about Freedom. He’s a Kennedy-ite. He doesn’t need to work….his old man owns shipyards.´ And about the competitor, Radio London, Dane had also his own vision: ‘Radio London is only interested in making money. They couldn’t care a stuff about Freedom, you can tell just by listening to the station.’
But who where the people who had organised the meeting? First of all there was a 17 year old guy, called Alan Clark who mentioned he was the treasurer of the FRA. Interviewer Frank Fuchs asked him if he saw any connection between the State putting down the Pirates and the State putting down smokers and trippers. The answer was: ‘Not really, no. You can look at it this way: Free Radio isn’t really harmful to health. And it’s not likely to cause… er….national…er, people sort of running round raving lunatics and this sort of thing, is it? And when people take L.S.D., it’s all you know, hallucinations and go around smashing things up and that sort of thing, but Free Radio is hardly likely to do that….it’s a bit different really.” Next to Alan there was Sir Ian Mactaggart, barony and managing director of Western Haritalbe Investment Comp. He was also at that stage chairman of the Society for Individual Freedom. He explained: “This, amongst other freedom-defending activities tries to support ‘trade unionists’ against ‘communist influence’ and ‘closed shops’. The third man of the FRA was chairman Jeffrey Pearl. The report ended with: ‘The teeny boppers in Trafalgar Square really care about Pirate Radios, and the music they broadcast. Harold Wilson and his Victor Sylvester Formation Team had better face this instead of driving them straight into the ranks of the British Free John Birchers. Or could that be perhaps the whole plan? Who owns whom?’
But there was a real problem for the FRA: next to the promotion spots on the offshore stations it was difficult to get articles in the press. Pearl: “The press is playing down the efforts of the Association. They see commercial radio as competition for their advertising revenue.” As mentioned several of the Offshore stations played special promotions for the FRA with regular intervals. In some of them the listeners were asked to write to their local MP. In spring of 1967 also they were asked to sent a letter to the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson in which they had to write down why they were disappointed that he and the Government were banning the offshore radio stations. All the letters, received at 10 Downing Street, were passed on to the Post Master General. It was Mr. Edward Short, who was on that position in those days. And he had a private secretary, Mrs E.E. Frankham. I can tell you she had a lot of work with responding all the letters.
There was a standard response letter sent to thousands of listeners all over Great Britain and even to Holland and Belgium. Here’s what was written by the Post Master General:
‘Many people have been very disappointed to hear that pirate broadcasting is to be stopped. It seems so harmless, and it is enjoyed by so many people. In fact, despite the repeated claims of the pirates, their broadcasts are far from harmless. The pirates are using wavelengths which we have undertaken to leave clear for the broadcasting services in other countries. By so doing, they prevent people in those countries from hearing their own domestic programmes. They also represent a danger – slight but ever-present to the radio services – on which safety at sea depends. Moreover, broadcasting from the high seas is forbidden, all over the world by international law, and the pirates make almost unlimited use of recorded material, threatening the livelihoods of the musicians and the other performers whose work they use, without permission or payment. To date twelve European countries have complained to the Post Master General about the pirates’ interference with their broadcasting services. And communications between ships and the shore have been seriously interfered with. If the pirates were allowed to continue unchecked, there would soon be so much interference that broadcasting as we know it would become impossible. This threat to the future of broadcasting has caused the maritime countries of the Council of Europe to agree to legislate on common lines to deal with it. The Bill, which is being considered by Parliament, carries out our obligations under the European Agreement. Many people feel that an easy solution would be to ‘bring the pirates ashore’, that is, to licence them to operate on land. That is just not possible. There are no unused wavelengths on which powerful stations like the pirate stations could operate without causing interference. In any case, if they operated within the control of the copyright laws, they could not transmit the sort of programmes that they have been transmitting. The Government’s plans for the future of sound broadcasting, which have recently been announced, are designed to match our broadcasting services more closely to our needs without interfering with other people’s rights. But the most pressing need is to silence the pirate radio stations, which are flouting international regulations, earning us such a bad name abroad, endangering shipping and threatening to make broadcasting end in chaos, not only in Britain but over most of Europe.
Most of the Offshore radio stations didn’t want to be too political. One of the exceptions on this was Radio 270, that transmitted off the coast of Scarborough from the former Oceaan 7 from Scheveningen. The station carried political messages for all parties who wanted to be on the station. Only there was one regulation, the messages were not allowed to be inspiring race hate. Owner Proudfoot even claimed that the Communist were allowed to transmit their message over the Radio 270 transmitter. The very first political party, which bought airtime with Radio 270, was The Young Conservatives at York University. It was planned that their special broadcast, with a speech from MP Patrick Wall, would be aired on May 1st 1967. This, however, didn’t happen as the recorded tape had a technical problem. It had to be rerecorded and was transmitted on another date. In the month of June, that year, another political broadcast was made by the same group. It was the same Patrick Wall who interviewed John Biggs Davidson, another Conservative MP, about the way government acted with the problems with and in Rhodesia, Israel and the Middle East.
Owner Will Proudfoot went further: not only free publicity for the political parties, he also invited MP’s. On the ship The Shadow Post-Master General, Paul Bryan one day took a visit and also other local MP’s took a day out to sea. Will also invited Mr. Short, the Post Master General, but he never showed up. After his visit to the old fishing trawler Paul Bryan, a Conservative, stated: ’20 million people have all the right to complain to the Government and protest against the plans to ban the stations without any real attempt to provide alternative programmes.’ And the ‘Fight for Free Radio’ spots on Radio 270, which were also launched on Wonderful Radio London, may not forget to be mentioned. Proudfoot decided that also a booklet had to be published, in cooperation with the Institute of Economic Affairs. It was written by Dennis Thomas. In ‘Competition in Radio’ Dennis described the development of the radio industry abroad and in Britain and he brought the conclusion that the introduction of a legal commercial radio system was needed as soon as possible. However it would take up to October 1973 before the very first commercial (Independent Local Radio Station) went on the air.
On the stations, as told before, spots were transmitted in the Fight for Free Radio. On Radio 270 one of those was as follows:
Sir, in enforcing a state controlled alternative to commercial radio in Britain has it occurred to you that the people don’t want to be forced to listen to an alternative, but they want the real thing and freedom of choice? Before offshore commercial radio in Britain, radio was dying. Are you going to hand it back to its executioner – the monopoly? Think, more than half of the population listens to commercial radio. It must be what the people want. Is Britain a free country? (a second voice came in: ‘Yes, of course it is, Don’t ask me mate, I’m not Wilson’) Well why doesn’t it act like one? It’s up to you to fight for free Conservative radio in Britain. Do not tolerate state controlled radio. Write to your Member of Parliament today.’ And this and other spots were transmitted on regular timeslots on Radio 270.
Another exception to mention is Radio Scotland. It announced in September 1966 that soon political airtime would be sold. Also Gordon Wilson, Secretary of the Scottish National Party claimed his Party would soon have airtime on ‘242’, but nothing really happened. Also promises from Scotland’s managing director, Tommy Shields, to go for a ‘place’ during a local by-election in Glasgow, came to nothing.
In April 1967 there was also some political airtime on Radio Caroline as well as Radio London. On April 13th the local elections took place in England and Wales. On forehand special spots were transmitted in which the question ‘how many of your local candidates are in favour of Free Radio. Within the Labour Party 20% was mentioned. The Conservatives 98% en the Liberals 82%. Robert Chapman, researcher in Media Studies and writer of the book ‘Selling the Sixties’ comment: ‘By pledging to close the pirates down, Labour by inference, was leading the electorate down a totalitarian road. In an increasingly hysterical campaign, the words ‘police state’ also began to enter the vocabulary of abuse. The results of the poll were featured extensively by both Caroline and London during the period leading up the elections. On polling day this coverage reached saturation point, with news bulletins making great play of the newly released monthly trade figures, which showed an overall deficit of 29 million Pounds. Caroline’s campaign was particularly efficient. It’s coverage of the election results began at midnight, as soon as the first results came in. The Conservatives did have the victory in those elections and in the morning of April 14th Caroline claimed it had some influence on the results.
But there was another organisation, which name was mentioned on a couple of offshore radio stations in the form of promotional spots. It was the Broadside Free Radio Movement, which was headed by Peter Philipson. In April 1967 he recruited students, mostly from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The latter was his home base. Radio Caroline did a lot of promotion for the BFRM and in June Philipson decided that his headquarters had to be moved to London. He did sent out a outline of what The Broadside Free Radio Movement should be:
‘Broadside Free Radio Movement’ is an independent movement, run by Peter Phillipson, objecting to the ‘Marine &c, Broadcasting, (Offences) Act, which prohibits British firms placing advertising copy with offshore radio stations, and British subjects from working on them, with the intention of forcing them to close down. In order to do this, the Act incorporates the use of methods which are completely alien to the age-old, traditional ideals of British Justice, including a reversal of the adage ‘a man is considered innocent until proven guilty’. Apart from that, this restriction on radio broadcasting which nearly half the population of the UK like to listen to, bears no resemblance to the concept of a democracy. We intend to establish a network of ‘Action Centres’, each responsible for voicing agitation is their area. This will be run by unpaid volunteers, who will hold meetings, canvass, distribute literature, and attempt to persuade people to withhold their support from Parliamentary candidates and M.P.’s who back the ‘Marine etc Act’. In this way we intend to stir up public feeling to such an extent that the ‘Act’ will fall in its objective.’
Just a month later he announced that his Broadside Free Radio Movement had a membership which has passed the amount of 80.000. He and his friends however had no idea of book keeping for in October 1967 the BFRM went bankrupt. That’s were the FRA stepped in and took over the outstanding debts of the creditors of the BFRM. Of course the members of the former club became member of the FRA, which could claim, that way, more than 100.000 members. I will come back to that later.
The Postmaster General, Edward Short, announced on June 30th 1967 that the BBC would be opening their pop service on September 30th 1967. Radio One would be the name and it would broadcast continuous music from 7 up till 7.30 AM, followed by light music and entertainment until 2.00 the following day. But the question was of all those millions of offshore listeners were happy with the new station. It did try to copy the offshore radio stations. The BBC hired a lot of the former deejays after August 14th 1967 and even the jingles were copied, although overproduced.
Paul Harris, author and publisher, had his ideas about the FRA: ‘It was too obvious that the FRA had arrived on the scene too late to exert any real or decisive pressure on events. In fact, by the time it was formed the most important reading of the Marine Offences Bill, the Second Reading in the House of Commons, had taken place and had been carried.’ Local branches were formed and in June 1967 there were 259 branches but only 1920 members, which was a very small amount compared to the listeners they offshore radio stations claimed together for the whole of Great Britain: 20 million.’
But also after the MOB became law people in Great Britain tried to remembering that Black Monday, August 14th 1967, when the last programs, excluding Radio Caroline, from the stations were transmitted. A former Radio London deejay, Mark Roman, was carried around to the marketplace of his hometown Romford in a coffin. They were commemorating the first anniversary of the death of Pirate Radio on August 14th 1968. A day later he left England to start a new career in radio in his native country Australia. The same year in August another big demonstration was held on Trafalgar Square. One of the speakers, there, was Robbie Dale. He worked for Radio Caroline and was one of the deejays who went on working for Radio Caroline after the MOB became Act. After the Caroline ships were taken away from international waters by creditors, he started to work for Radio Veronica. A year later Free Radio London, a land based pirate radio station, was on the air for the first time to remember Big L, Wonderful Radio London – a station that closed down on August 14th 1967. And in also years afterwards the offshore radio stations were and are always remembered on several radio stations in England and Holland.
As told earlier I will take you to some of the memories regarding the Fight For Free Radio. It would be too much to mention them all. Nowadays looking around for instant at railroad stations or alongside the road, you see everywhere graffiti. In the sixties the youth used real paint to express their favour for their Beat Group. Also they used the paint as a form of protest. And if they used good paint it can be found back nowadays. A few guys from my hometown Groningen took a paintbrush in 1967, when they heard that the Marine Offences Bill would become act. They painted on a shed in their fire corridor the words ‘Radio London’ and still up till to day those two words can be seen. However nowadays with higher criminality, it can only been seen from the Gorechtkade (the street where the corridor is) from behind an iron fence. Again a small but very effective way of protest and above all a token to Free Radio.
But going back to the FRA they published many leaflets in which they became for a lot of members unreliable. Let’s go to a part of the text of one of the leaflets from 1968: ‘The Marine Offences Act is almost dead. Caroline plays on. A new ‘sweet music’ station (hush hush) is coming. The members of Broadside and the Free Radio Association have come together in a big new 100.000 strong Free Radio Association. We fought and now were are winning.’ It seems with 100.000 members it should be a financial healthy organisation. But it was far from that: ‘But, as you will see, we have some problems We must not weaken now, or we’ve had it, so please help in all the ways I ask you in this newsletter. Broadside had a debt of 800 Pounds, mainly because it had no membership subscription. Much of this debt has been cleared, but we are short of money and have had to take a temporary loan. Because all Broadside members became associate members of the FRA, there are now 4.500 fullpaid members, but 95.500 Associate free members. I’m sure you can see this put a terrific strain on our finances. This won’t be a problem if you Associate members fork out five bop for Full Membership. This will give us the money which every big Association doing a big job must have! So, please, please fill in the below form.’
The above info sent out, probably to a few thousand people instead of the 100.000 mentioned, gave the supporters a lot to think about. Five bop for a membership of the FRA? What would we get back for it? Well the people of the FRA England had a quick answer: ‘Now we are so large, we only can write to members once a year. If you are a full member, and your subscription falls due any time in 1968, may I please ask you to renew now.’ So payment in advance to make more and more money. Also they promised members to be a partner in a Football Pools Syndicate. The FRA started a promotion to become ‘a FRA Seller’. In other words sell the things (books, photo’s recordings, stickers, buttons’) we’ve in stock and get our free logo in display. ‘
In those years every member was proud to be part of the FRA. Of course it was the time to protest against everything possible. Reading back the leaflets from those days, 35 years later, it gives me a big laugh. For instant the target the FRA (read Geoffrey Pearl) made for himself: ‘Now we have 100.000 members, we are setting ourselves a fantastic new target – ONE MILLION MEMBERS! Just think, suppose you, and every other member, send in the form overleaf and ask for 10 memberships forms and make 10 new members (it will be very easy), than we will become the biggest association in Britain. And the best! And the most powerful! And Free Radio will be guaranteed.
But the FRA owners had also their questions about the meaning of the word ‘Fight’?
• Fight the miserable little band of kill-joys who have tried to take away our freedom to listen to the friendly independent radio stations. All except Radio Caroline have been forced off the air. And the vicious Marine Offences Act stops anyone from giving details about Radio Caroline’s programmes. Who would have thought that free speech would be suppressed in Britain? • Fight the questionable devices used by the Government in its efforts to silence the fort based stations. When Radio City wanted help, it was refused because the station was outside British jurisdiction. But when the government decided to close the station, it suddenly became part of Britain. And why was Radio 390 prosecuted in two counties? • Fight the Government which is trying to preserve state-control over radio by crushing all competition to the BBC. And fight the government which tricks the people by delaying the Marine Offences Act until is has majority of 97, and says nothing about its proposed legislation in its Manifesto. Its scheme is to get the whole issue over as soon as it can so that everyone will have forgotten all about it by the next General Election. • Fight for the freedom of the air, as we have fought before for a free press and free speech. Remember that without these freedoms a country becomes a dictatorship. Under the Marine Offences Act, the Free Radio Association is partially silenced. This is what the Government wanted. But the Government will never silence us completely. We shall fight until we win.
It seems Pearl had some strange dreams before writing his leaflets and of course not too many were pleased to sent the five bop directly to Raleigh in Essex. In 1969 the FRA sent out their official magazine ‘Free Radio Times’ to their members and former members. In the editorial they wrote: ‘Free Radio Times is non profit motivated, our object is to build up a mass circulation so that we can make a significant contribution on the Fight for Free Radio. Als of course when we get free commercial radio F.R.T. will asusume the role of programme guide and news magazine. The policy is to report all important Free Radio events and news, with articles of general interest.’ There was, in the first issue not only news on radio but also on the music industry. Reading back the only copy in my archive it was most amusing to see the ‘news’ that Harold Wilson had send back the free T shirt he got from the FRA. The editor asked himself is probably the colour of the shirt was wrong and had to be red. In 1969 also the FRA organised, in cooperation with the FRC the National Free Radio Week, which took place starting August 10th. On this day another Free Radio Rally. On Trafalgar Square it was Ted Allbeury, former director of Radio 390, who spoke pointing out the wide variety of music and light entertainment under a free commercial system and Jason Wolf (Caroline) delivered a straight from the shoulder call for action and support.
Some days later protest took place in Newcastle. By 11.45 PM. Nearly 50 people with banners and plancards had gathered for their vigil outside the Newcastle Civic Centre. Tony Rounthwaite reported on the demonstration: ‘At 13 minutes to midnight a tape recording of the closedown of Radio 270 was played for all to hear two years after the official close down. On the last stroke of midnight, exactly two years after the Marine Offences Act had become law, the people marched through Newcastle chanting ‘Freedom died at August 14th.’The march with a suitable police escort worked their way down to the Region Press at ‘Thompson House’. Here they were interviewed by a reporter. Next stop was BBC Newcastle Broadcasting House & Tyne TV, where a letter was delivered.’
And if nothing was enough another Rally was held in London on August 17th 1969. Some 4000 people demonstrated and it was on this day the earlier mentioned t-shirt for Harold Wilson was delivered on 10 Downing Street. Speakers at Trafalgar Square included Roger Day, Andy Archer, Jason Wolfe and Sir Ian Mactaggart.
In several other countries people were asked to set up their branches of the FRC either the FRA and so it was the FRA in Holland, which was first run by J.J.L van der Meer from Rotterdam and at a later stage by Hans Verbaan. In Germany their was a local branch of the FRA, Freie Radio Assoziation in Frankfurt and a FRC, which brought out the magazine Free Radio News from 1971. In Denmark there was the FRC Denmark, run by Paul S Hansen and some other countries had their branches too.
The organisation from Mr. Edward van der Meer in Rotterdam was set up in 1967 with a lot of promises to the members. In some interviews in the newspapers a lot of goodies, against low prices, were mentioned. Next to that the aims of the organisation, in those days the Free Radio Action, were mentioned. It was an own initiative from Van der Meer, who lived at the Kromhoutstreet in Rotterdam. He was just 17 years of age and mentioned himself also Edwin Lake. In one of the interviews he knew already that he was completely addicted to offshore radio and that he had gained 500 signatures from Dutch people, which would be delivered to Harold Wilson together with a petition in which would be declared that also the Dutch people were dissatisfied with his decision to ban the Pirates.
Soon Edward came in financial problems and made contact with the people of the FRA in England. Following contacts an official letter, under the new name The Free Radio Association Department Holland, went out. It was already 1968 and Van der Meer promised again a lot of things, including each six weeks a news bulletin with real news, not the news on offshore radio which you would normally find back in the newspapers. All I can say, after paying my money for the first year to the Rotterdam giro account, is that I never ever received a bulletin.
Also Van der Meer wanted to make more money by sending out letters under the name ‘The Caroline Action’. He wanted Radio Caroline to return and wrote: ‘When this sounds returns, depends on you because we can’t do it alone, we need you. Caroline was all we wanted, it was good, and we loved her. Why did she have to go away was, and is still the question. Why???? When we, that means you too, bring Caroline back on the air it will be to prove the British Government, that we want her and it will be the only way to have Freedom. If there is no freedom in the air now, what will they do next? End freedom of Press or even freedom of Speech?’
You can guess what happened next in the letter. Yes he asked the reader for money to get as much as possible to finish his dream: restart Radio Caroline. Something he also did not succeed in. Not much later Hans Verbaan became the new represantive for the FRA/FRC in Holland. He was a very relaxed person who decided to organise not only boat trips to the offshore radio stations off the Dutch coast but also brought many nice products on the market. Next to that he organised that Radio Caroline, in 1973, presented in cooperation with the FRC the Caroline Request Show, which was presented in Dutch and English.
For me the membership for the Free Radio Association ended in 1968 and had to look for other sources in the Fight For Free Radio, which became – in 1969 – the Pirate Radio News. An English language magazine from the Netherlands which informed people about the developments in the world of Free Radio with a monthly magazine. Now and then I wrote some short articles and from 1971 on they asked me to become their final editor, which I took up until late 1976.
To give another example of protest, I want to go to 1970. Two Swiss people, who made money with selling electronically equipment all over the world, came in 1969 with the idea to start their own radio station. They had first worked for a company in Germany in helping this to rebuilt the former Radio London ship, MV Galaxy. The ship, which was moored in Hamburg, was however owned by a Greek Company which’s owners had forgotten to pay a huge bill to the harbour authorities. This project did collapse but the idea of having their own radio ship was born for Meister and Bollier. Earlier I published on this subject in Soundscapes. (Volume 5).
Radio Nordsea International, as the station was first mentioned, started test signals on January 23rd 1970 from their radio ship MEBO II. Regular programs could be heard on 102 MHz FM, 6210 kHz SW and on 1610 kHz (186 metres) AM from February 28th. It were bilingual transmissions in German and English. As soon as the transmissions started a campaign against the station started in a couple of newspapers and a day after the official start the Dutch PTT (GPO) mentioned that complaints had been received from the Norwegian Government as the broadcasts on 186 metres were interfering with distress frequencies from Norwegian Navy. The newspaper Telegraaf knew more as it was also reported that research taken by their journalist learned that also the frequencies of the pilot service in Flushing had been interfered by RNI. In the weeks after the opening it seems that there was no room for a second offshore radio station off the Dutch coast. Radio Veronica was there already since 1960, transmitting a very successful format, which attracted a lot of advertisers. RNI had also the problem that their programmes were transmitted in foreign languages, so not interesting for the Dutch advertising world.
March 23rd 1970 the MEBO II left her anchorage off the coast of Scheveningen and it was deejay Carl Mitchell telling the British listeners; ‘England, here we come’. However the transmissions on 186 metres caused severe interference to British Coastguard and different protests were sent from the Trinity House (responsible for lighthouses and light vessels, te Coast Guard Service and the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications. A few days later, March 27th, RNI ceased broadcasting on medium wave and not much later also on the other wavebands. On April 10th 1970 they were back and this time they used 1578 kHz (190 metres) for the AM output. The newspapers soon came with the message that the new frequency interfered with Italian and Norwegian Radio Stations as well as competitor Radio Veronica (192 metres). It was Minister John Stonehouse who announced that a jamming signal would be on the air soon to interfere and block the transmissions on AM from RNI. Therefore a 800c/s tone from the Beacon Hill Naval radio station, which was located in Rochester Kent, came on the air.
As a frequent listener to the programs of RNI I’ll never forget the interfering signal came on the air. In the middle of the record ‘Spirit in the sky’,from the American band Norman Greenbaum,an irritating whistle could be heard. After loosing more and more listeners RNI decided it was time for another change in frequency. First the 217 was used and later, on May 13th, the 244 metres became the new place on the medium wave band. This was very near to the frequency from BBC Radio One, the national pop station which was launched in 1967. As the 244 was official a free frequency the owners of RNI thought they would not be jammed as it was so close to the Radio One frequency. But is was false hope as the jamming transmitter blocked again the RNI signal.
Official protest spots were transmitted, on a regular base, on RNI. The very first I heard was from Larry Tremaine, an American deejay who called himself ‘The gitour with the heather’ on air: ‘RNI apologises to you, our listeners for the interference heard on our transmissions. This illegal jamming is directed by the Labour Party and organised by the Post Office. This action is meant to discourage us from providing you with our normal service. However, RNI shall make every effort to continue programmes as usual. No free western country has ever jammed a free broadcasting station before, even in times of war.’
And it was not long after the first announcements that the deejays asked the listeners to utter a form op protest. They asked them to attend a demonstration which would be held on May 31st 1970 outside the Naval premises in earlier mentioned Rochester. And around 100 people showed up, some of them trying to get on the premises but nothing serious happened. A day later it was Edwin Bollier who announced that when the General Election, which would be held on June 18th, would be won again by the Labour Party, RNI would be closed down. But that was not the only announcement to the press. He also told that the German Service would stop broadcasting.
What the listeners didn’t know at that stage was that Meister and Bollier had made a massive deal with Ronan O’Rahilly, the former director of Radio Caroline, to rename RNI during the week before the General Election into Radio Caroline. As this station was, until March 1968, so popular by the youth, it would have a better impact. The British government had reduced the voting age and so the British youth from 18 years on could vote for their favourite Party. And as it was the Labour Party who had made the MOB into Marine Offences Act is was time for the youth to go to the voting box and vote for the Conservatives. Real anti propaganda for the Labour Party was put out on the air for a few days and Free Radio spots were again transmitted. In the streets of London a special double bus could be find with Free Radio Slogans on as well as poster featuring Harold Wilson as he was the Chinese leader Mao.
At a press conference O’Rahilly later claimed that more than 5.5 million leaflets in the anti Labour Campaign were given away in the streets of London. He and former Caroline deejay of the first hour in 1964,. Simon Dee, attended the tour with the special buss. In Clacton-on-sea special equipment was installed by Meister and Bollier, so that on ultra high frequencies contact could be made with the people on the ship to bring instant information on the campaign as well as on the results on election day. And that’s were also the Free Radio Association, with Geoffrey Pearl, came round the corner again. The FRA’s phone number was open 24 hours a day for listeners to give their idea on the elections as well as getting in contact with the station. Also the listeners were asked to help the people of the FRA distributing the leaflets.
On the tune of the popular television program ‘Dad’s Army’, which was called ‘Who do you think you’re kidding Mr. Hitler’, new lyrics were written and after recording the song was played on a regular base during the days the name was changed into Radio Caroline:
Who do you think you’re kidding Mr. Wilson If you think Free Radio’s down? We are the boys who will stop your little game We are the boys who will make you think again So, who do you think you are kidding, Mr. Wilson If you think Free Radio is down? Mr. Stonehouse starts to jam at 5.21 And he goes home at 2 am, his dirty work is done So, who do you think you are kidding Mr Wilson If you think Free Radio’s down If you think you can crush us We’re afraid you’ve missed the bus So, who do you think you are kidding Mr. Wilson If you think Free Radio’s down
Together with the Campaign for Independent Broadcasting the FRA also thought it was time for another demonstration, which had gone into history as ‘the anti jamming rally’. On Sunday June 14th the March was held in London with 10 Downing Street as target. Starting point was The Hyde Park and on Radio Caroline from the MEBO II as special report was transmitted to guide the crowd through the City of London. More than 10.000 people got together and speakers at the Rally were Ronan O’Rahilly (who always showed up when news could be made), the chairman of the Campaign for Independent Broadcasting Mr. David Prewitt and others. Front man on the walk to Downing Street was Ronan. Deejays Simon Dee, Roger Day and Mark Wesley also joined the march.
And it looked like that Harold Wilson didn’t enjoy at all the big demonstration of all those Free Radio Lovers against his government as two days later he announced that he had given permission to use the most powerful transmitter (1000 kW) at the transmitter plant in Droitwich to use the RNI signal at AM. This transmitter was far more stronger than the earlier one used at the Rochester plant. With giving permission Wilson also went into illegality. He was not only jamming a broadcast from a ship in international waters, officially registrated by a foreign country, but also it was interfering with regional and local radio and television signals in greater parts of the County Essex and other parts of the South East of England. And even the signal of BBC Radio One, the national pop channel, was interfered in certain part of the South East.
On June 18th all kind of local and regional results were given through, after counting, and at the end of the day it became clear that the Conservatives had finally beaten the Labour Party. Still, after more than 30 years, it is discussed whether the propaganda broadcasts of RNI / Radio Caroline had an influence on the results of the voting, but one thing is sure. The greater London region, with the many new voters (aged was dropped from 21 to 18 years) and the South Eastern regions really had a big amount of voters for the Labour Party than in earlier years.
The day after election day Caroline’s name was dropped again in favour of RNI and the owners hoped, after winning, Labour would order to stop the jamming. As this didn’t happen and even jamming was started on the 6210 kHz, the short wave frequency of RNI, it was time for talks. A meeting took place with people from the Conservatives but in no way the wanted to stop the jamming. One of the thoughts going around were that the contacts the owners of RNI had with governments in rebellion countries like Biafra, were the reason jamming wouldn’t stop. Therefore it was decided to go back to the Dutch coast to see if the advertising market was better than earlier that year.
In the Election week on Radio Caroline the listeners were also frequently asked to write and protest to the Prime Minister and their local MP’s. A response was given with the following words in a letter from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications:
‘Following the recent change of Government the Minister has carefully considered the problems of pirate broadcasting and has stated that the Government must abide by its international obligations in combating the illicit use of wavelengths. In order to force a pirate radio station, Radio Northsea International, off the air a transmitter has been activated, but not before its interference potential was tested. Tests with ordinary domestic receivers show no interference to Radio 1 beyond the immediate vicinity of the transmitter. Our action in opposing the pirate stations has been fully accepted by the International Frequency Registration Board of the International Telecommunications Union, which is the international authority on interference and the control of frequencies. If in maintaining our stand in defence of law and order we have caused interference to the reception of Radio One to a very small number of listeners it cannot be compared with the number of listeners who are receiving interference from the pirate by his own deliberate act. I am extremely sorry for any interference you are experiencing from our transmitter but I am sure you would agree that it is essential to maintain law and order in the field of broadcasting and in the use of scarce radio frequencies and that is the sole aim of our action.’
RNI went on some other months, transmitting with ups and more downs off the Dutch coast and closed down in September 1970 for the first time.
Still in 1970 the FRA promised their members a regular magazine with news on the offshore radio stations. It was called ‘Sound Magazines’ and I don’t know with others, but I did get only three copies, although I did pay for twelve copies.
Mobilise all Dutch and Belgian Free Radio Fans, was the idea in 1971 of a young lad from The Hague. Therefore he had formed the ISFRA, which stood for International Society for the promotion of Free Radio. Together with Hans Verbaan, who lived in Scheveningen in those days and who was the Dutch chairman of the FRA and FRC in Holland, he wanted to make a front. They wanted to make clear, with a written protest to the government, whereby it would be mentioned that the ratification of the Treaty of Strasbourg would make it almost impossible for the Dutch offshore radio stations to go on with their programming. And behind this young man was the driver, who in those days picked up the people at the RNI Naarden studio, to bring them to the tender in Scheveningen harbour. He told a journalist: ‘We’ve to try to get more members. At the moment we’ve 1000 in Holland. In Germany and Belgium around 10.000 and this all has to lead to a total of 250.000 members. That would be fine.’ Just like the spokesman for the FRA in England this guy had no feeling for numbers. Reading on in the interview he told that the FRA had only one goal: ‘going on or not going on as legal stations.’ You see, he couldn’t count! Also the journalist and the young guy did chat a little about the fact that the Dutch national pop station Hilversum 3 got, in a then recent research, more listeners than Radio Veronica. It didn’t do him a thing and he made also protests about the fact that there were no commercials in the programs on Hilversum 3, as this should be a part of the cosiness of a radio program. I can reveal that the man who was the RNI driver and front man of the ISFRA was non other than Gerard van Dam, also known as Gerard van der Zee. He worked for Ronan O’Rahilly bringing back the MV Mi Amigo back to sea in 1972, for Radio 199, Radio Caroline, Radio Atlantis and brought several ships at sea for his own Radio Delmare.
One remarkable appearance Gerard van Dam made in the press in July 1971, just after the MV Fredericia and the MV Mi Amigo were sold. The later one to Gerard and he tried to fool the press. Not only several newspapers brought the following, also VPRO radio made a nice small documentary about Van Dam’s plans with the then former radio ship. Together with the late Hans Verbaan, former front man in Holland for the FRA and FRC he did sent out a leaflet, in which the plans we revealed: ‘After long talks with the owners of the former Radio Caroline South ship, the MV Mi Amigo, we have succeeded for a short time the ship going to the ship breakers yard. It will be possible during the next few months to visit the ship for as short a time as one day, or for as long a stay as is required. Food and accommodation on the ship are being arranged. Original studio guidance will come from a well known deejay. In the event that the ship is not able to pay its way during the next few months, the owner is prepared to carry out his original plans and scrap the ship. This fate has already befallen Radio Caroline North. Make the most of this unique and possible last change to visit the first and last outpost of the golden age of British Pirate Radio.’
It was followed by an extensive price list what the different stays on the Mi Amigo would cost. The fact that the Caroline North ship, Fredericia, was already scrapped, was not true. It would be on dry land for a long time at the Van Marel Ship Brokery in Ouwerkerk, before the bell was taken away and the rest would be broken up. Gerard didn’t get any paid visitor for his museum ship as the ship was towed into international water. Equipment stolen earlier from the ship in Amsterdam by Peter C and Spangles M were brought back on board. From that point on the MV Mi Amigo would bring back stations like: Radio 199, Radio Caroline, Radio Caroline 1 and 2, Radio Atlantis, Radio Seagull, Radio Joepie and Radio Mi Amigo. This all between 1972 and 1980, when the ship finally sunk.
Then there was a Club called ‘Nordsee Club’ with an address at the Krefelderstrasse 60 in Aachen Germany. It was run by Wolfgang Meures who thought that there had never been a better radio station than RNI. So his love for the station was put in a leaflet, which was put out six times. All the news he could get was mentioned and in issue number six, from November 1971 he wrote it would be better to stop publishing as it should be better in the Fight For Free Radio to work together with other people in one organisation. And so the FRC Germany started with their magazine Free Radio News (later renamed in Radio News). A beautiful magazine which came out on a regular base for many years. Then it stopped publishing in the eighties. In the nineties some other issues appeared on irregular base. The strong thing on the German magazine that they had a photographer in house who went as much as possible to the offshore radio ships and above that was a super talent. Still the name Theo Dencker is marked with the name of Martin Stevens as the two best photographers of the Offshore area. Of course there was a form of protest in the magazine, but talking about the magazines on offshore radio there will be once an invitation to read another article on this subject.
Also I would like you to remember to a more smaller demonstration held in September 1989. Yes, more than 15 years after the biggest demonstration ever in the Fight For Free Radio. First to the facts why the demonstration had to be held. Radio Caroline and the other stations on board the MV Ross Revenge, the 5th vessel the Caroline organisation used through the years, was raided on August 19th that year. People from the Dutch OCD, the company responsible for illegal broadcasting, asked for help from their British colleagues of the British DTI. The MV Landward and the Dutch vessel MV Volans went out to the ship to get most of the transmitter equipment from the ship as well as a lot of studio equipment and the record collections from Radio Caroline and the sister station Radio Monique. Of course, as I told the same evening on Dutch Radio 1, in the program ‘ Oog op Morgen’ it was the most illegal action made in order of the Dutch Government. Some 2,5 years later all the equipment was given back to the Caroline Organization and we all know that the raid in 1989 (more than 25 years after starting from the international waters) was the end as an offshore radio station for Radio Caroline.
But going back to the demonstration, which was organized by the Caroline Movement on September 17th 1989, it can be mentioned that this was held in London to show support for Radio Caroline, itself and for those members of the crew who had remained on board the crew after the raid on the Ross Revenge. In Holland and England anoraks (fans) were asked to sent in as much as possible records and equipment so the station could restart as a professional radio station. More than 600 people were attending the demonstration, which started near Victoria Railroad station at the Waterloo Bridge Road. From there it went to Westminster Bridge and House of Parliament. It ended at Lambeth Pier. Here goods were donated to Caroline deejays including foods and records and vital replacement parts. From there on also a ‘ Caroline Legal Fund’ has been organized in which the fans of the station can give a or more donation(s). So we now live in 2003 and still donations are coming in to keep the former transmission vessel of Radio Caroline in good condition as a token in the Fight For Free Radio.
It would be too much to mention every action taken in the Fight For Free Radio but I want to end with the one Jan Sundermann did a couple of months ago, when writing the next article for the Caroline News Beat Magazine.
‘All these national laws mentioned in the article are based on the ‘European Agreement for the Prevention of Broadcasts Transmitted from Stations outside National Territories’. That was signed on 26 of September 1965 by the Council of Europe, based in the City of Strasbourg. In the time since, all member countries of the council were requested to sign this agreement by introducing a national law reflecting the content of the Strassbourg treaty. In 1993, I got upon request to the council a list of the countries that have signed. At that time there were 17 countries where the treaty came into force, in between October 1967 (Denmark, Belgium and Sweden) and March 1988 (Spain). The Netherlands did this at September 27th 1974, Germany on February 28th 1970 and Great Britain on December 3rd 1967. So it was always quite a time past the national legislation against offshore radio.
A number of coastal countries did not sign yet, as Iceland, Finland and Luthenia, Malta and others. What will happen in the future. Will the new member countries of the EU have to sign that too? We now have the directly elected European Parliament. And we had non-commercial stations like Radio Brod and Offshore 98, operating from international waters. The operation of Radio Brod was even financially sponsored by the EU. And now even the Royal British Navy lost innocence when broadcasting to the Iraq during the war! All these facts show, that it could be the time to withdraw the Strassbourg treaty. Would it not be a gesture to the stations and their listeners to declare that treaty as invalid from a certain date on?
It could be done by members of the European Parliament. We all would have to tell our local candidates before the next election, to start such an initiative. It would show the public, that the EU is not an anonymous body, unwilling to move and governing over everybody’s head. Such an imitative of the Parliament would cost nothing, but strengthen the trust into our common European future by canceling a law, that has no sense anymore. A commercial offshore broadcaster can hardly compete today with onshore stations. (well not completely true as the ban of advertising for cigarettes, tobacco etc, could change that). And the argument that other radio services could be interfered is out of date, as ship to shore services on the medium to short-wave range have closed due to other modern and more reliable technologies.
And finally, weren’t it not the offshore radio stations like Caroline and RNI, that brought us all a little bit more together in Europe?’
References: Chapman, Robert (1992) Selling the sixties. The pirates and pop music radio. London, Routledge. Elliot, Chris (1997) The wonderful Radio London Story 1964-1967. The life and times of Big L. Frinton-on-sea, East Anglian Productions. Fuchs, Frank (1967) Free Radio Rally in International Times, issue number 14, London, Lovebooks Ltd. Harris, Paul (1977) Broadcasting from the High Seas. The history of Offshore Radio in Europe 1958-76. Edinburgh Paul Harris Publishing. Knot, Hans (Ed)(1989) 25 Years Radio Caroline Memories. Groningen, Freewave Media Magazine; Benfleet, Monitor Magazine. Knot, Hans (1993) Radio Noordzee Herinneringen. Groningen, Freewave Media Magazine. Knot, Hans (1996). Herinneringen aan Radio Veronica 1972-1973. Amsterdam, Stichting Media Communicatie. Knot, Hans (2002). Von der Galaxy zur MEBO 1 und von dort aus wieder zur MEBO II. Groningen, University of Groningen, Soundscapes, On line Journal for Media and Music Culture. Volume 5. Leonard, Mike (1996). From International Waters. 60 Years of Offshore Broadcasting. Heswall, Forest Press. Out, Rob (1975) Veronica één jaar later. Een logboek van 15 Veronicajaren. Zeist, De beuk d’r in BV. Skues, Keith (1994) Pop went the pirates. An illustrated history of Pirate Radio. Sheffield, Lamb’s Meadow.
Caroline’s Newsbeat, June 2003.