The sea is moderate, the
visibility is good, now more music!
No landbased radiostation
mentioned these circumstances from their broadcast location
These magic words came from
the legendary radio ships broadcasting from international waters of the
Northsea between 1958 and 1990.
Although most of these
stations claimed to be commercial radiostations forced to broadcast from the
high seas many of them developed a unique sound and format never to be copied
by any landbased commercial radiostation. The best example is Radio Caroline,
created and staffed by people with a great dedication and passion for
broadcasting from ships, they were the mavericks of the airwaves, many of them
still working in radio and by listening to them you will notice their Marine
broadcasting background.
This phenomenon, we call
Marine broadcasting, started on July 15 of 1958 from a 107 brt Dutch build
cargo ship called Cheeta and the last true offshore broadcast came from a
former 1000brt German trawler called Ross Revenge on November 5, 1990.
In those 32 years these radio
pioneers introduced all kinds of new elements of radio programming, for example
the first produced jingles were aired on Swedish Radio Nord in 1961.
Not by using reel to reel tape
recorders in their studios on land and at sea but via a clever machine called
Spotmaster cartmachine, introduced on US top 40 radio stations in the late 50s.
Marine broadcasters also
introduced a new way of producing and presenting radio programmes, instead of
having about 10 people working in a radio studio,each with an individual task
like the record cue, tape cue, clockwatch, panel operating, cleaning the
deejays nose, no ,none of al this onboard the radio ship in the mid 60s, the
deejay was in control of all this and hosted a programme for about three hours.
The true magic of the offshore
radio stations was, without doubt ,the live programmes from the radioship,
there was always this maritime flavour that made it great to listen to compared
to in landbased studios produced programmes. In the 60s the UK offshorestations
were always programmed for live shows, the 70s and 80s was a mixture of Dutch
or Flemish pre recorded programmes during daytime and live English programmes
from the ship at night. What a difference it made.
This became very clear during
the daytime live hours of the Dutch and Flemish stations like RNI, Radio Mi
Amigo, Monique-558-819.
So, these Marine broadcasters
used ships to broadcast from, radio ships in many variations like luxurious
former Baltic ferries, lightships, former trawlers and cargo ships of the Dutch
coastertype. These ships were rebuilt into floating radio stations without
losing their original characteristic. All but one, the Lady of all radio ships,
the MV Mi Amigo. Ofcourse, the Lady started as a cargovessel, but in 1960 she
was totally rebuilt into a radio ship with a stunning and clever design like a
new wheelhouse, deckhouse and boatdeck, all for one purpose: a floating
radiostation.
What about these strange
looking objects in the Thames Estuary, no, it’s not Harold Wilson and Ronan
O’Rahilly having a cup of tea on the GoodwinSands but the famous Worldwar 2
seaforts,home to legendary stations like City, 390 and Essex. What a great
place to broadcast from, no need to invest in a ship or crew. There were even
working generators on these unique structures and central heating too! What a
pitty they were within UK waters as proved in late 1966, early 1967.
Broadcasting from radio ships
or seaforts means your ship our fort had to be equiped with a radio studio.
Some stations invested in state of the art equipment like Gates mixers and
turntables, Spotmaster cartmachines and Ampex reel to reel tape recorders.
Others used home made mixers,
the cheaper Garrard turntables and Vortexion tape recorders.
But who cares, these Marine
broadcasters were unique between 1958 and 1990, after all, we have not
forgotten the words from the man from Ireland in August 1983 and I quote:
,, There is only one place
where you can say: Hi folks, this is Radio Caroline. That place is the
international waters off the North Sea´´.
Groningen, the Netherlands,
November 2001.
Paul and Mark de
Haan.