Nieuwsbrief Radio Caroline

[Q_1_2_...@hotmail.nl]

Hallo iedereen. Ik vond de eerste nieuwsbrief van Radio Caroline nu in mijn e-mailbox, lees hieronder. Nico.

Radio Caroline Support Group

October 2020 Newsletter

Supply Boat

Supply Boat Ronan O'RahillySupply boat Ronan O'Rahilly is now on her new moorings in Maldon. We thought, by the way, that some better carved nameplates or engraved brass plates were required. These are being worked on, as stick on letters did not seem adequate.

After much preparation, the boat was laboriously lifted with jacks and blocks so that a yard trailer could be rolled in to place. Then the craft was towed behind a tractor and launched by crane at Burnham on Crouch. First river trials showed that it travelled and handled better than expectations until the engine turbo charger failed spectacularly, covering the stern of the boat and boatman Howard Beer with sooty black engine oil. With a new turbo fitted by Howard, the Ronan O'Rahilly was then sailed without incident down the River Crouch, across the Dengie Peninsular and up the Blackwater past the Ross to the final destination at Maldon. The trip commenced at 10.30am and ended at 5pm.

After a few more fiddly jobs and a reduction in transmitted engine noise are achieved (it is one noisy motor) she is ready to go to work. We have entered the whole purchase and transportation of the boat, the preparation and fitting out process and all the voluntary work in to a competition at National Historic Ships, in the hope of winning a cash award. If this has success, we will upgrade the navigation equipment on board and plough any balance in to funding the Ross Revenge.

Hot in the City or Cold as Ice?

Air Conditioning Being FittedAs our live studio grows with the recent addition of a second studio for Caroline Flashback, as well as housing an equipment rack feeding out to the world, it became obvious that the extra heat generated would eventually become a problem.

Keeping cool in the UK during a rare hot spell was at one time a matter of opening a window whilst knowing that the weather would soon be back to normal. However with global warming leading to hotter summers, more and more buildings are installing air-conditioning.

After many years of putting up with temperatures sometimes in the 90s, it was decided to spend some of the money kindly donated by our listeners during the August fundraiser and invest in air-conditioning to keep the racks area, and by definition the studios, at a more constant temperature. To this end quotes were sought and the job finally went to local firm City Air Conditioning who did the job over two days in mid October.

Now the equipment should stay cool and the presenters not have to strip to the waist in the summer and don their overcoats in winter!

Our picture shows one of the air-conditioning units being fitted.

New radio station launched with help from Radio Caroline

Laura Tuckey and Suzi QuatroA brand new radio station dedicated to the Maldon District of Essex launched on Monday 19th October, with a little help from Radio Caroline.

Caroline Community Radio is now live with a 24-hour mix of music and community programmes. The station will broadcast to Maldon and the surrounding towns and villages on 94.7 FM and across the UK and worldwide online at carolinecommunityradio.co.uk, on TuneIn and smart speakers.

Radio Caroline DJs Ray Clark, Johnny Lewis, Graham Bannerman and Peter Philips, who between them have more than 100 years' broadcasting experience, will be presenting music programmes during the daytime. They will also be helping to train local volunteers presenting community programmes in the evenings. From Saturday lunchtime to 6am Monday you can hear Radio Caroline's popular Flashback service.

Local community programme presenters include Owen Ward, Lucien and Kev, Josh Holmes-Bright, Kevin Briggs, Ian Crisp, Michael A, and Laura Tuckey, daughter of rock star Suzi Quatro. Full presenter profiles and the Caroline Community Radio 94.7 FM schedule are at carolinecommunityradio.co.uk.

Although Caroline Community Radio 94.7 FM is a completely independent and voluntary organisation, it will be supported by Radio Caroline staff, benefitting from our experience and expertise in areas such as programming, publicity, engineering and training.

Caroline Base Camp Salvaged

Llys HeligOver the years, many people packed their bags and headed to Radio Caroline. But as the station never was a well oiled machine and as matters of weather, availability of a supply boat and maybe a lack of money intervened, staff often found themselves in limbo. A base camp or staging post was needed which at one time was Tom Anderson's house boat MTB 476 and briefly Andy Johnson's Air Sea Rescue launch. These were replaced by the far larger ex gentleman's motor yacht Llys Helig. Built by Messrs Thorneycroft in 1922 she had been the height of luxury but had fallen on very hard times by 1988 when bought by Peter Moore. Between that date and the end of 1991, she was Caroline's semi secret base camp. Eventually the UK authorities found her and offered bribes to the owners of the boat yard where she was laying to provide damning information, Luckily the owners were East End villains, not about to 'grass up' fellow criminals, and insulted to be asked. While the officials stared at the engineless Llys Helig, the actual Caroline tenders Heltborg and Abris were floating right behind them.

When the River Medway became a compromised location, Llys Helig was moved to Essex by the tug Horton which then had a career towing Ross Revenge here and here. Again she was found and the Police swooped but to no avail. After the Ross came in to the UK, Llys Helig became a house boat and weekend retreat until 2012 when Moore and his partner Melanie found that they could not control the deterioration of the ship. She was sold, but the new owners ran up substantial debts and in 2017 they disappeared, leaving the ship to her fate. With power cut off to the bilge pumps she gradually filled with water and capsized and lay for three years filling with mud while the river commissioners and local Council argued about who should take action with the conclusion that the ship should be cut up.

At the last moment a saviour appeared, and in spite of being told that this was a hopeless case, bought Llys Helig and arranged that she be righted and then refloated. Then he had the non original upper deck structure cut away and even had the ship painted to make her less unsightly. Soon she will depart for a return trip to the Medway where owner Howard Dawber intends to put in hand essential repairs leading eventually to her reverting to her original condition and appearance, as when she left the Thorneycroft ship yard 100 years ago.

Farewell to Stuart

Stuart DobsonWe are sad to note the passing of old friend Stuart Dobson, the last man to be airlifted from the Ross when she grounded on the Goodwins. The picture shows him in his usual role working on a diesel on the ship.

He and his brother Keith were regular repair crew in the Dover days, supervised by Ernie Stevenson, also sadly missed, who held them in great affection calling them 'The Grub Hounds' due to their prodigious appetites.
Stuart had been successfully operated on for a brain tumour decades ago. Recently the problem returned requiring another operation which again he survived, but complications set in and he passed away in early October.

One endearing comment that he made will always be remembered. He was interviewed by a French TV crew who asked him why he was working in trying conditions on a ship that seemed to be quite beyond repair. He replied 'I see the ship as a beautiful lady who has fallen on hard times. It is my duty to take care of her'.


Caroline Archive Hour

Ray RobinsonRay Robinson started making and collecting recordings of the offshore stations in 1970. Since then, he has amassed an archive of many thousands of hours of broadcasts from all the offshore stations, and Radio Caroline in particular. A number of these recordings, often from momentous occasions, have been very skilfully edited by Alan Sheead to restore their music quality to modern day standards, while retaining all the original presenter links, jingles, commercials and promos.

Through these Caroline Archive Hour shows, Ray brings to you the best of these restored recordings, focusing mainly on those from the 1960's and 1970's.

By listening to shows as they were originally presented all those years ago, you will not only hear tracks that either made, or never made, the charts, but you will also be able to re-connect with former Caroline DJs who you may have listened to all those years ago.

Enjoy exploring the archive with Ray, every Saturday (and repeated on Sunday evening) at 8pm UK time on Radio Caroline Flashback. You may also be able to find his previous shows on podcast by searching for Caroline Archive Hour Podcast, but be aware that these podcasts are created independently from, and are not in any way associated with, Radio Caroline.

Originally an Essex boy, Ray now lives with his wife and family in Los Angeles, from where he presents these programmes.

Radio Caroline Frequency Changes in 1966

Mi AmigoRegarding the Caroline Archive Hour that was broadcast on the weekend of October 24/25, 2020 (which you can hear on the Caroline Flashback Listen Again facility on the Caroline Flashback website for 14 days after broadcast and on the aforementioned podcast), we have done further research on the Tony Blackburn segment featured in the Archive Hour.

In this segment, recorded on April 18, 1966, about 140 miles inland from the ship, Tony was carrying out a test transmission from the refurbished Mi Amigo with its new powerful 50kw transmitter, while performing a live link up with Graham Webb on the Cheeta 2, Caroline's temporary replacement ship, and playing for the first time the entire new Caroline "Sound of the Nation" jingle package.

Contrary to what Ray Robinson briefly described in his Archive Hour, we now think that April 18, 1966 was the very first day of transmissions from the Mi Amigo with the new high power transmitter.

The background story on the frequencies is that, on April 18, Radio Caroline South was broadcasting for the first time on a frequency of 1169 kHz (256m), which Tony announced as 259m. After a few hours on the air (which includes the Tony Blackburn segment), the high power of the new transmitter caused the insulators on the mast to fail, and the Mi Amigo went off the air for about 10 days, while Harry Spencer's rigging crew from the Isle of Wight came out to the ship to fix the problem. During this period, Caroline continued its programming on its announced wavelength of 199m from the Cheeta 2. When the Mi Amigo returned to the air on or about April 27, the frequency had been moved further down the dial to a frequency of 1187 kHz (253m), which was closer to the BBC Light Programme on 247m, and just below Radio London on 266m. While Caroline's new frequency was initially announced on air as 253m, it was soon decided to revert to announcing the frequency as 259m, to rhyme with Caroline.

When Radio Caroline North moved from its announced wavelength of 199m to 259m in December 1966, resulting in much better coverage in the North, it was using a frequency of 1169 kHz, which was the frequency which had been used just for that one day on April 18, 1966 by Radio Caroline South.

Radio Caroline and a Smarter Siri

Siri has recently become much smarter, as she (or he) will now play Radio Caroline. If you have an iPhone, an iPad or an Apple HomePod, you can say "Hey Siri, play Radio Caroline" and your favourite radio station will start playing.

Once you play Radio Caroline in this way, the station will also appear automatically on the radio section of the Apple TV (as part of the Apple Music app) and, better still, it will also appear on the Radio app on the Apple Watch. You can then leave your iPhone at home, and, provided that you have a cellular plan on your Apple Watch and a pair of wireless headphones, you can go for a walk or run, and listen to Radio Caroline live on your Apple Watch.

For listeners in North America, you can also say "Hey Siri, play Radio Caroline USA East" or "Hey Siri, play Radio Caroline USA West" and your Apple device will also play one of our streams that are synced to US local time zones.

Note that there is a band also called Radio Caroline, and, if Siri plays the band, ask Siri to "play the radio station, Radio Caroline".

This may prove particularly helpful to those of you in the UK who listen on your phone to Radio Caroline in your vehicle through a bluetooth or wired connection, in view of the fact that the law is about to change so that any motorist who is seen handling a mobile phone for any reason while driving is going to be subject to a £200 fine and a six point deduction on his or her driving licence.

This facility comes to you through a recent link up between TuneIn Radio and Apple Music.

Radio Caroline 648 Reception Reports

648 MastAs you may have read on our website during our successful August 14th fundraiser, at the beginning of August, we moved our transmissions on AM 648 from the 150 foot omni-directional mast at Orfordness, Suffolk to one of the bigger 350 foot masts at Orfordness.

This appears to have improved reception for some of our listeners, and we would like to hear your reports.

Please email us at rcsg(at)radiocaroline.co.uk and let us know to what extent reception has changed, either for the better or for the worse, on 648 since early August.

Also, let us know the location from which you listen, the time of day or night and the type of receiver that you are using.

Calling All Anoraks

For the anoraks amongst you, if you would like to sample reception of our 648 AM signal well outside our licensed area of Suffolk and North Essex, try checking out this Web SDR which is located in Grimsby, UK:

http://grimsbysdr.ddns.net:8073/?tune=648am

Make sure to select the N/S facing antenna for the best reception. You can also check out reception of our 1368 AM signal (courtesy of Manx Radio) during our Caroline North weekends by entering the 1368 frequency. Reception of this frequency is usually better at night, and if you select the E/W antenna.

If the audio is silent, then try using a Firefox browser, which should work.

As there is a limited capacity on this site, please restrict your visits to a few minutes in order to sample the signals, as opposed to making it a semi-permanent place to listen to Radio Caroline.

A Big Thank You

Ross RevengeWhether you have been contributing for 25 years of more (and some of you have), 25 months, 25 weeks or just 25 days, we would just like to say a great big thank you to each of you.

It has never been easy, but, through your contributions, you have enabled Caroline to retain its independence through decades of corporate radio mergers in order to be the uniquely independent voice in UK, European and global radio that she has now become, while at the same time retaining much of her original character and heritage.

Together, you kept the dream alive, and enabled Caroline to broadcast its unique sound for over 20 continuous years in the new digital age, and more recently with more than a little help from good old AM steam radio.

We are working hard to take that to the next level during the next decade, while at the same time maintaining our independence and our heritage, which we can only do with your continued support.

Caroline continues.

Christmas Greetings

We would like to take this opportunity to wish each of you Christmas Greetings and a very Happy New Year! We will send to you our next quarterly RCSG Newsletter in January. In the meantime, stay safe and be well. Don't forget that our Web Shop is brimming with Holiday giving ideas with our very own Caroline Christmas cards, the 2021 Caroline Calendar and a fantastic selection of books, DVDs, CDs, clothing and much more.

See you in January.

In the meantime, if you have any comments, or requests for future RCSG Newsletters, please do not to hesitate to contact us at rcsg(at)radiocaroline.co.uk



www.radiocaroline.co.uk

www.facebook.com/radiocarolineofficial

twitter.com/theradcaroline

[Nico Gouda]

...op http://radiocaroline.co.uk/#home.html staat nu dit te lezen: Nico.

RCSG News Update

We are planning to email our second RCSG Quarterly Newsletter to all current members of the Radio Caroline Support Group before the end of January.

Following the excellent response from our members to our first edition in October, this new January edition will contain a bumper 13 articles about Radio Caroline, and its related services, delving into the past, the present and the future. We hope that this will help to keep you informed and entertained about all things Radio Caroline during the remaining months of winter.

Remember that, if you are not a current member of the RCSG, you can do so by going to our Support Group Page here and join for as little as £7.50 per month, cancellable at any time. As soon as you join, you will receive our most recent Quarterly Newsletter, and then you will receive each subsequent Quarterly Newsletter until your membership is cancelled, if ever. Unless you have previously received it, you will also receive the DVD, The Great Tilbury Escape, about the Ross Revenge's dramatic departure from the Port of Tilbury and her subsequent voyage out to sea, ending at her current mooring on the River Blackwater Estuary.

For those of you who joined the RCSG by bank standing order (as opposed to PayPal), we received many of your current email addresses following our appeal for them last October. However, if you have still not sent us your address, it is still not too late to do so at rcsg(at)radiocaroline.co.uk and we will send you our most recent Newsletter and all subsequent Newsletters, while your payments continue. If you pay by PayPal (as the vast majority do), then it is not necessary to send us your address, as the Newsletter will be sent to your current PayPal email address. Just remember to check your spam box at the end of January, in case our email lands up there.

Caroline continues.

[NicouitGouda]

...het onderstaande vond ik nu in mijn e-mail box: Nico.

Radio Caroline Support Group Quarterly Newsletter - January 2021
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Radio Caroline <newsletter(at)radiocaroline.co.uk>
Wo 27-1-2021 14:31

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Radio Caroline Support Group

January 2021 Newsletter

The Caroline App

Apps 2011 and CurrentThe Caroline app (short for 'application' in case you ever wondered) is now ten years old. First released at the end of 2010 (and apart from the earlier ill-fated WorldSpace satellite radio), it was our first attempt at something resembling 'old school' radio listening like it used to be when the ubiquitous transistor radio was king.

Despite selling rather than giving it away as most other radio stations do, several thousand loyal listeners have stumped up their £1.99 (or equivalent in your country) to download our app. Any profit made (and 30% goes to Apple or Google) helps to keep our website(s) going.

The remarkable rise of modern mobile devices, led by the iPhone from 2007, and soon after joined by the rival Android platform, essentially gave us another platform, or at least tipped the balance back towards portable listening. There is also perhaps something more 'real radio' in listening in this way, untied to a larger device more obviously plugged into the internet, and, for the first time for many years, apart from the WorldSpace satellite receiver, Caroline was once again receivable outside the home, and, most importantly, in the car with the phone plugged into the car's stereo audio system, and later by Bluetooth wireless connection.

Albeit capable of performing a multitude of tasks, the modern smartphone (and now the smartwatch) is essentially a high frequency small portable radio, well capable of receiving and playing Radio Caroline in high quality stereo almost anywhere on Planet Earth.

Building an app, be it for the iOS or Android platform is no mean task, and a developer has many hoops to jump through, not least in getting an app accepted by Apple for iOS or Google for Android. Both have strict guidelines - pages of them! So even after spending many hours getting something that works in a test environment, there is no guarantee it will not fall foul of the dreaded Apple/Google 'Review' teams.

There have been several versions of the Caroline app, the first in 2010 played one audio stream and showed the programme schedule. We later added more streams, including Radio Caroline North, 'Now Playing', our 'This Day' feature, and latterly a slideshow. There is also the US version (free in US app stores), which incorporates time-shifted streams, allowing a listener to hear our programmes several hours after they are initially broadcast, time-synced to the East and West US timezones. The app uses the location services feature of the phone in order to detect in which US timezone the listener is located, and plays the appropriate stream. The US listener also has the option to hear the station live on UK time.

A new version of the Caroline (and indeed Flashback) apps has long been on the cards, but apart from bug-fixes and keeping up with iOS/Android updates (which themselves can break an app), it's been a case of what to add/change to make a user's experience better.

However, as several listeners have tested recent contenders for a new version of the Caroline app, there is something useful that people may like - our 'Listen Again' feature, as on our website, which is the ability to listen to any of our shows from the past two weeks. There are one or two other additions, but you'll have to wait to find out what they are. When? Soon...

Caroline Community Radio Update

Three months on from the opening broadcast, Caroline Community Radio is on air and in a good position, despite the huge problems faced with the Covid-19 lockdowns.

The service is based around the Ofcom community radio licence for the Maldon District on the Essex coast. It operates on 94.7FM and via carolinecommunityradio.co.uk, and is based around a music format.

The key commitments required by Ofcom are demanding, but have been achieved since the station started. These include attracting the involvement of local volunteers in the operation of the radio station, and, despite the huge difficulties in attracting and training new people to the team, this has been achieved, with a great team of volunteers getting involved.

Much of the output must be local, and it's fortunate that the daily breakfast show with Ray Clark is produced from within the coverage area, as he lives locally. Peter Philips and Johnny Lewis present their segments from remote studios, but this is allowed as part of the sustaining service, by filling all the other located hours with local output. This also enables Caroline Flashback to be broadcast at weekends.

Attracting advertisers has been a challenge in these difficult times of lockdowns, with very few businesses able to operate, but ads are now starting to come in. Fortunately, the radio station has received a grant for its contribution to the local community and has also received recognition by the local district council.

The key member of staff is Ross Revenge boatman Pete Crisp, who has been involved with the community station since it first broadcast. Ray Clark has also played a big part in getting the station on the air, but has decided that, after his years in radio, he will now start to take a step back and give way to others. Ultimately, he plans to 'retire' from the breakfast show, which, although being voice tracked, takes several hours each week to produce.

So, if you live close to the Maldon area and are a fan of Radio Caroline, here is your chance to get involved with an exciting radio project. You could become a part of Caroline Community Radio.

Caroline And Local DAB

DAB+ Logo Some years ago, a clever engineer within Ofcom devised a way of sending low power local DAB in an affordable way and with equipment he designed. He transmitted birdsong around Brighton to test the viability. Ofcom of course has a remit to extend listener choice and to use the available broadcast spectrum fully, or at least to be seen to be so doing. Thus they invited potential operators of small scale DAB multiplexes to give expressions of interest and 51 groups did so. Out of this number Ofcom selected ten. Why only ten and why that ten is an open question. Ofcom has no requirement to explain.

Radio Caroline had been invited to be part of two groups, one in the West Country and one in Kent, but neither were chosen. Successful applicants were allowed to go on air for a fixed period of time and had to consider that, at the end of that time, the experiment may cease. Expenditure was thus kept to the minimum. Due to the involvement of our man, Chris Pearson, in British Forces Broadcasting, he arranged for us to join the experiment that BFBS were running in Aldershot. Equally, our engineer Alan was involved technically with other operators, and this got us on air in Portsmouth. Lawrie Hallet an old friend of Caroline was running the experiment in Norwich, which is why we have carriage there. This process continued with more and more invitations, including our most significant addition to date, which was Central London at Easter 2018. Lawrie very much likes Caroline Flashback, and now that service is also on the Norwich DAB. His friend, who runs the Cambridge multiplex, followed suit.

As the trial period came to an end, Ofcom extended it, so that, almost by default, these became permanent services. Then further expressions of interest were sought and various potential new operators, and existing operators intending to expand, asked if we would add our name to their applications. Would we like to cover Exeter? How about Salisbury? Each time we say that we would, but adding "so long as it's cheap".

This means of broadcasting has pro's and con's of course. There is no equipment to buy, we just send our signal to be relayed. A DAB broadcast licence is available on demand for a token fee. Thereafter it is only a matter of making a commercial arrangement with the operator with a fee which may be £1000 or less for a year's transmission. When considering that it took seven years of lobbying to get 648AM, the process is immediate and delightfully simple.

Conversely, these are low power signals with modest range, sometimes interrupted by terrain and buildings. As the saying goes, "you gets what you pays for", hence our attitude, "it had better be cheap". The existing and potential operators are now lobbying, of course, for more power or infill transmitters so that when they say (for instance) "we cover Glasgow" that means all of the city and some of the suburbs, and not just a part thereof. So we watch this process with interest and we may expand even beyond the UK coast. It is our view that Radio Caroline will broadcast anywhere it can, and by any means it can.

That said, if an opportunity comes along which is superior to what we presently have but needs a budget that cannot be covered by existing funds, we may have to look at what we spend on local DAB. But another saying of course is "you have to be in it to win it" and, if this type of broadcasting becomes significant, we ought to remain part of it.

Here is a link to our current DAB coverage map, with the ability to zoom in on our coverage areas.

Let us know if you ever listen to Radio Caroline on DAB at rcsg(at)radiocaroline.co.uk and what your impressions are of low power DAB.

Web Shop News

The Radio Caroline web shop was very busy in the run-up to Christmas. It's usually a busy time for our staff of volunteers, but the general trend of people doing their Christmas shopping online at this difficult time increased orders considerably.

This was so much so that our usual quantity of 2021 calendars and new Christmas cards sold out very quickly. We were able to order more Christmas cards, but supply problems due to the pandemic meant we would be unable to order more calendars before the end of 2020. As demand usually drops off in the New Year, we decided not to risk wasting funds and being left with unsold calendars.

SnoodOur current best sellers are gift vouchers to visit Ross Revenge, the Skull & Crossbones tee shirts in both black and white, and the black Caroline Bell sweatshirt with a logo based on the Radio Caroline Roadshow logo in the late 70s, not forgetting the '5 Ships' tees, which have always been a steady seller.
From early spring 2020 onwards, we had lots of requests for Radio Caroline face coverings or masks, and we looked at a variety of designs and qualities. Then we realised - we already had one of our own! Hidden away in the web shop was the Radio Caroline Snood - a fleecy face covering, beanie hat and neck warmer combo all in one.

We promoted the item on social media and in the web shop, showing how it can be used as a face covering, and they have been flying off the shelves, so much so that our supplier is having difficulties keeping up with our orders, not helped by staff shortages and supply chain difficulties, which many companies are experiencing at this time. We currently have another batch on order, which should arrive soon.

Plans for this year include looking at ideas for the August RCSG fund-raiser incentive. The last few years, we have featured limited edition tee shirts with retro logos, which proved very popular. We will also be looking at the possibility of introducing some Caroline Flashback merchandise.

Queen's Christmas Message

The Queen with Ross RevengeRadio Caroline's decision to broadcast the Queen's Christmas Message was overwhelmingly approved by our listeners. However, a number of listeners were disappointed, and saw it as the station 'bowing down to the establishment'. Here Peter Moore addresses their concerns:

"Having worked with Ronan for 26 years, I can say for sure that he often raged against Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher, and sometimes Edward Short and Tony Benn, but never said a word against the Queen. It needs to be remembered that he would have authorised the original request to use the Queen's Christmas Message in 1964, and then, as now, it was a bit of mischief.

In truth we expected to be refused, but we were just as happy to turn the story around and thus gain a torrent of positive publicity. Another thing to remember is that the media historically could only print negative comment, due to the MOA, so, in the minds of the general public, Caroline is something that was good and fun, but ended years ago. Now a lot of people know that we are still operating and how they can listen."

Peter Moore, Station Manager

And to address any remaining concerns, we are still playing "God Save the Queen" by the Sex Pistols!

Ross Revenge Visitor Boat Trips

Ross RevengeThe pandemic situation has adversely affected trips to visit and tour Ross Revenge over the past year, with many trips being cancelled and vouchers issued to visitors for 2021.

We were able to reduce the number of people on trips and double the number of trips each day to comply with the 'rule of six' and social distancing for a couple of months. This meant less income for Radio Caroline, as we have to pay double the tender costs, but we wanted to honour as many bookings as we could.

The further tightening of restrictions made even these trips impossible, and presenters were no longer able to go out to the ship to broadcast on Radio Caroline North. Instead, land-based studios were used.

Because so many trips were cancelled over the year, we have been unable to raise funds from this source for maintenance of our radio ship. But we are optimistic that 2021 will be a better year.

We are now booking trips to the Ross during live broadcasts in 2021 from Easter onwards, in the hope that restrictions will have eased enough to enable visits and broadcasts to recommence. Bookings are currently being taken for six trips of five visitors each day over live broadcast weekends. If restrictions are sufficiently eased, we will combine the six trips into our normal three trips. The three-day Easter event is filling up, and trips over the three-day August annual fundraiser broadcast are nearly full.

Full details and 2021 dates are on our website radiocaroline.co.uk, where you can also read our current Covid-19 policy. To make a booking to visit Ross Revenge please call 07535 493501 or email boattrips(at)radiocaroline.co.uk

Christopher Moore RIP

Chris MooreWe are very sad to announce that another one of Radio Caroline's founders has passed away. Chris was born in 1940 in Washington, DC into an Irish-American family. He moved to the UK with his American mother as a child, and attended English boarding school from a young age. By the early sixties, he had become a noted London club DJ, being resident at the very fashionable Crazy E club in London's West End. Chris was also a photographer, and very much part of the early sixties London in-crowd, or "Kings Road Cowboy" scene. His flatmate at that time, Ian Ross, describes him as always wearing the latest mod fashions, and being almost impossibly cool. With his good looks, 6 foot 7 inch frame and deep bass voice, he dominated almost every situation.

He founded Radio Caroline, together with Ian Ross and Ronan O'Rahilly, in 1964. Funds having been successfully raised through Ian's father, he was the one who was best thought to know about ships, as he had worked briefly as a steward on a cruise ship! He was sent by Ronan to Scandinavia with a suitcase full of cash in 1963 to purchase the former Danish passenger ferry, MV Fredericia, which was fitted out, in secrecy, as a radio ship in Greenore, Ireland. He was the first voice to be heard on Radio Caroline on March 28, 1964, introducing "Not Fade Away" by The Rolling Stones. He was reportedly so nervous that his words had to be pre-recorded. He did not stay on the ship long, but moved ashore to become Caroline's first program director.

Later, he took up residence at Barcot Manor in rural Oxfordshire, described as a "splendid folly" and at that time a semi-commune. During that period, he became a frequent visitor to Gomera in the Canaries, during which time he spent several months living in a cave by the Valle Gran Rey.

More recently, he became a frequent visitor to Wales, enjoying the summer months there swimming, and climbing back up the cliffs into his mid-70s.

He will be very much missed by his friends and family.

648 Update

Thanks so much for the reception reports that we solicited in our October Newsletter. It appears that, almost universally, our move to the bigger tower at Orfordness last summer has resulted in better reception for you, both during daytime and also at night, there being less co-channel interference at that time from Radio Murski Val 648 in Slovenia. Our most distant reception report was from a listener located in Terlizzi, BA, Italy, who was listening on a Sangean ATS-909x radio, which is a reasonably inexpensive consumer radio, albeit using an external antenna.

Our application for an increase of transmission power from Orfordness is still being considered by Ofcom, and so fingers firmly crossed on that one...

And in the meantime, we would still like to hear your reception reports at rcsg(at)radiocaroline.co.uk telling us your location, time of day or night and the equipment that you are listening on. It does not need to be from far afield, although that is always interesting.

Caroline Archive Hour Update

In our October Newsletter, we featured the excellent Caroline Archive Hour hosted by Ray Robinson, which is broadcast every Saturday (and repeated on Sunday evening) at 8pm UK time on Radio Caroline Flashback and available via Listen Again for fourteen days on the Flashback website.

Next month, he is going to feature as world premieres two particularly interesting recordings from his extensive archive, both of which have recently been skilfully restored and re-mastered by Alan Sheead.

Tom LodgeOn the weekend of February 6th/7th, you can hear an hour of the Tom Lodge Show from Radio Caroline North between 8:00 am and 9:00 am on July 12, 1965. As many of you may know, Tom was one of the early deejays to be heard on the original Radio Caroline ship in 1964, and opted to stay on the ship later that year when she sailed around the UK coast to the Isle of Man to become Radio Caroline North. He famously grabbed the box of the current Top 50 records out of the clutches of Simon Dee, who was moving to the South ship, so that Tom would be able to keep broadcasting the Top 50 while they sailed North. He was instrumental early on in having the deejays cue their own records, instead of having a separate operator, which he had learned while starting his deejay career on a CBC outlet in Yellowknife in Canada's Northwest Territories. He was recruited in late 1965 to transfer to Caroline South, in order to oversee a revamp of Caroline South's programming to better compete with the burgeoning Radio London, which involved the hiring of new deejays such as Emperor Rosko and Tommy Vance. He also brought Mike Ahern and (for a while) Tony Prince from the North ship to the South ship. Tom instructed the deejays to abandon a rigid format, and largely go with their instinct as to what record to play next, an ideal which still lives today on Radio Caroline. He left Caroline in 1967, a few months before the coming into force of the MOA in August of that year. In March 1968, he returned to Canada to continue his broadcasting career at CHLO, St.Thomas, Ontario. After many life adventures, and always having stayed in touch with Caroline, he resumed a weekly show on Caroline in the early 2000's co-hosting with his son, Tom Lodge Jr., who later took over the show. Tom passed away in 2012 while living at the Stillpoint Zen Community, Santa Cruz, California, which Tom had founded.

Peter PhilipsOn the weekend of February 13/14th, you can hear a very dramatic recording. This features Peter Philips on Caroline 558, also doing breakfast, but under very different circumstances from Tom's show. The recording is from 6:28 am to 7:35 am on October 16, 1987, when dawn was breaking over widespread destruction in South East England and Northern France, caused by the Great Storm of 1987, and whilst the Ross Revenge was still being lashed by the hurricane force winds of that storm. The storm was so fierce that sustained winds were recorded inland of over 75 mph, for over an hour, and the strongest gusts of up to 120 mph were recorded along the Kent and Essex coasts, where the Ross Revenge was anchored about half way between the UK and France in the Falls Head . It is a tribute to the robustness of the ship and the antenna that she was able to ride out the storm and broadcast during such conditions, when all the land based radio stations in the area had been forced off air. Towards the end of the recording, you will hear Peter say that they have to go off air briefly in order to secure a loose antenna stay. This was causing lots of sparks and blue flashes as thousands of watts shorted between the cables. After going off air, it was Peter who donned waterproof gear, lashed a safety rope around his waist and crawled along the deck and to the roof of the bridge (it being impossible to stay on his feet) in order to tie off the loose stay. He then returned to the relative safety of the ship, Mike the engineer fired up the transmitter again, and Peter carried on with his show. In his inimitable way, Peter referred to it as "a seething cauldron of saline hostility". To this day, it is a huge pity that, as a result of a mix up in subsequent communications between the ship and shore, the loosened stays of the antenna were never fully repaired, and during another fierce storm in the early hours of November 25, 1987, the entire 300 foot mast (the tallest mast ever to be built on a ship) came crashing down.

Peter can currently be heard on Radio Caroline on our very popular Listener Top Fifteens every Tuesday morning, on Caroline Community Radio, and we hope once again on Radio Caroline North when Covid regulations allow us to resume broadcasts of Radio Caroline North from the Ross Revenge.

Alan Watts

Alan Watts Alan Watts is one of Radio Caroline's longest serving presenters in the digital age, having started a regular Thursday afternoon slot in the early 2000's. He then took a break from his show in 2014, for family and personal reasons. Few people ever really leave Radio Caroline, and we are pleased to say that this is true of Alan, as he returned in summer 2018 occasionally sitting in for Dave Foster on his Sunday afternoon shows. Since then, he became Caroline's "Super Sub", sitting in for almost every one of our presenters at one time or another. He has recently returned to a regular Wednesday afternoon slot from 2:00pm to 5:00pm, replacing Nigel Harris, who has moved to Friday afternoon, who in turn has replaced Ray Clark, who is currently busy with running, and presenting on, Caroline Community Radio.

Alan can also currently be heard sitting in for Johnny Lewis on Tuesdays from 10:00 am to 2:00pm. Johnny is also currently busy with CCR, but can still be heard on Caroline breakfast on Saturdays from 6:00am to 9:00pm.

Alan is passionate about both recorded and live music, as you can hear on his shows, and will no doubt return to attending as many live gigs as possible around the south of England and beyond, once the pandemic permits.

Mark Dezzani reports on Todd Rundgren

Tod Rungren and Mark DezzaniLike Radio Caroline, Todd Rundgren is a maverick, a rule breaker who has always done things his own way, innovating and breaking conventions. It was a great pleasure to have 'The Rock & Roll Wizard' guest on my Tuesday Late Show just before Christmas.

Anyone who was an avid listener to Radio Caroline in the 70s will be familiar with Todd Rundgren's music. His biggest hit 'I Saw The Light' remains a staple for many adult orientated radio stations around the world and his song 'Love Is The Answer' became one of the many Loving Awareness anthems played on Radio Caroline. Todd recorded it with his band Utopia in 1977 and it was covered by England Dan and John Ford Coley who had a hit with it in the US in 1979.

As well as writing and performing his own music as a solo artist or with his bands Nazz in the 60s and Utopia in the 70s, Todd Rundgren is also an ace record producer. The best-selling album that he produced is probably Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell. He has also produced for the likes of Badfinger, XTC, Janis Joplin, the New York Dolls, Hall & Oates, Alice Cooper, Steve Hillage, Tom Robinson, the Tubes, Patti Smith and Grand Funk Railroad. He told me that it was the money that he makes as a producer that grants him the artistic freedom to experiment and innovate with his own music.

Todd is also a bit of an anorak. Although he says he was not an 'early adopter' with digital technology, he has grasped the opportunities that technology offers to make some ground-breaking music. He says his interest in technology comes from his father, who was a scientist. He is also a bit of a radio anorak! Todd was well aware of Radio Caroline and knew that the movie 'The Boat That Rocked' (called 'Pirate Radio' in the USA) was loosely based on Radio Caroline in the 60s. Radio played a big part in his own musical education.

Born in Philadelphia in 1948, Todd grew up in the pioneering days of rock and roll. Even though commercial radio was well established in the US in the 1950s, it was not always easy to hear real rock and roll on the airwaves, "There was one radio station in particular," recalls Todd. "Most of the other stations, particularly before The Beatles, would play the standard Top 40 stuff which in those days, pre-Beatles, was very lame. It was just some handsome white kid who could carry a tune and little else. So, the best music was coming out of just one radio station. It was a white DJ but he pretended to be black and he played nothing but R&B music. He influenced a whole generation of listeners, of which I was one. Daryl Hall and John Oates were also listeners to Jerry Blavat. Anyone who knows anything about Philly R&B knows about Jerry Blavat. That's kind of the origin of R&B music in me. We were lucky that we lived in Philadelphia, because it's right on what they call the Mason-Dixon Line, the informal division between the North and the South. The further South you got, the less you would hear R&B music because white stations wouldn't play it and black stations never had enough wattage to break through. So, we were privileged to be in that location where we could get exposed to real R&B by a real station." Ring any bells?

Offshore radio fans may remember the Radio Northsea International (RNI) Programme Director & occasional DJ Larry Tremaine, who orchestrated the 'Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Wilson' campaign against the jamming of the station by the British government in 1970. During that period RNI changed its name temporarily to Radio Caroline International with the blessing of Caroline founder Ronan O'Rahilly. Larry also called himself 'The Geater With The Heater' and 'The Big Boss Of The Hot Sauce'. Well, those monikers were 'borrowed' from the pioneering US radio personality Jerry Blavat, 'The King of Philly Rock & Roll'. Blavat refused to follow a playlist saying, 'I play music from the heart, not a research chart'. A philosophy that still rings true today on Radio Caroline.

One final piece of radio trivia connected with Todd Rundgren. In 1972, he released a song from his Something/Anything? album called Wolfman Jack. A tribute to another pioneer of R&B and Rock & Roll on the American airwaves who was immortalised in the George Lucas movie 'American Graffiti'. The Wolfman Jack show was heard across the US from 1962 on the 'border blaster' station XERF based in Coahuila, Mexico. The station had a 250,000-watt RCA transmitter on a clear channel (1570kHz) and could be heard at night across the North American continent and beyond. The Wolfman Jack show was lined up for the relaunch of Radio Caroline from the Ross Revenge in the 1980s, however, delays to the launch saw some backers of the project pull out and along with them went the plans for the Wolfman Jack show to be broadcast on Radio Caroline, but that as they say, is another story.

Todd Rundgren's new album Space Force is due for release this year and includes collaborations with Neil Finn (Crowded House), Thomas Dolby (another Radio Caroline fan), Sparks, Steve Vai and Rivers Cuomo from the band Weezer amongst others. The collaboration with Rivers Cuomo is a heavily ska influenced track based on a loop from the theme tune to the original Dick Tracey TV show called 'Down With This Ship'. When I told Todd that I love the track he said, "I bet you do and I bet Radio Caroline does!"

Todd Rundgren is embarking on a virtual US local tour called the Clearly Human Virtual Tour from 14th February to 22nd March. Some tickets are available to international fans. More information here: http://toddrundgren.nocapshows.com

Mark can be heard every other Tuesday on Radio Caroline at 10:00pm presenting the Tuesday Late show.

New Flashback presenters

Gordon BathgateGordon Bathgate and Steve Jenner have joined the Radio Caroline Flashback team of presenters.

Gordon has worked for a number of radio stations and has also written a book, 'Radio Broadcasting: The History of the Airwaves', which charts the development of wireless technology from the early broadcasts, its role in WWII and radio in the 21st century. You can hear Gordon on Flashback on Mondays from 12-2pm.

Steve JernnerSteve Jenner is an experienced broadcaster and co-founder of two commercial ILR stations. He says joining Radio Caroline Flashback is the biggest accolade of his career - "It felt like I'd been asked if I'd like to join The Hollies!". Steve presents the breakfast show every Sunday from 8-10am.

Confessions of an Anorak

Have you ever done something crazy in pursuit of your obsession with watery (or even land-based) wireless, or done anything in pursuit of such obsession that you are just too plain embarrassed to admit? Well, if so, we want to hear from you.

We will take what we feel are the most worthy contributions and print them here in our next Quarterly Newsletter in April. We guarantee that all contributions will be included anonymously, unless you tell us that we can use your first name. Send us your contributions to rcsg(at)radiocaroline.co.uk

Thank You

We wish to thank each of you for your very kind contributions to the Radio Caroline Support Group. We know that it is not easy for many of you during these difficult economic times caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and your continuing financial support of this very special radio station is very much appreciated. We hope that Radio Caroline, and its related services, have brought you considerable amounts of entertainment and encouragement during what is not an easy time for many of you. We are certainly looking forward to better days to come, including getting back out there on the Ross Revenge before not too long.

If you have any comments or questions, or there are articles that you would like to see in our next Quarterly Newsletter, feel free to email us at rcsg(at)radiocaroline.co.uk

See you again in April!

www.radiocaroline.co.uk

www.facebook.com/radiocarolineofficial

twitter.com/theradcaroline

[Nico Gouda]

...op http://radiocaroline.co.uk/#home.html staat nu dit te lezen: Nico.

New Tuesday Programme

We are pleased to welcome Stephen Foster to Radio Caroline as our new Tuesday morning presenter.

You may recognise the name as Stephen has presented for BBC Radio Suffolk as well as a number of commercial stations, starting back in 1990 at Radio Orwell.

'Foz', as he's affectionately known, says he could't be happier to be joining Radio Caroline which was the station that got him hooked on music and radio : "My passion for music was ignited by the guys on the Mi Amigo in the ‘70s. DJs like Andy Archer, Tony Allan, Simon Barrett and Johnny Jason helped shape my eclectic musical tastes so I’ve got a lot to thank them for."

You can hear Stephen Foster on Tuesday's between 10:00 - 14:00 from 2nd March. Since Johnny Lewis stepped down from the slot it has been filled by the ever obliging Alan Watts.

En zie ook de foto die daaronder staat. Nico.

[Nico qwerty]

...op https://www.radiocaroline.co.uk/#home.html staat nu dit te lezen: Nico.

Early Breakfast

From Monday 5th April we extend our programming by one hour a day on weekdays to bring you Early Breakfast at 6am, presented by our latest recruit Terry Hughes.
Terry has worked for a talking newspaper, served his broadcasting 'apprenticeship' in Hospital Broadcasting and presented some shows on UK commercial stations Beacon 303 and BRMB.
But to kick off a 'proper' career Terry then knuckled down to work for GEC in Coventry during the day and used his spare time to become a nightclub DJ, as well presenting on Coventry pirates Segway Sound and City FM.
These days Terry can be heard on a number of internet radio stations, but always dreamed to present for Radio Caroline. From this Monday that is another one he can tick off his list!

En zie nu ook de foto links van deze tekst.

[Nico Gouda]

...en op http://radiocaroline.co.uk/#home.html staat nu dit te lezen:

New Station Identifications

Have you noticed the new voice on our album channel Top of the Hour ID and jock IDs? It's none other that our regular guest presenter on Radio Caroline North, Paul McKenna.
Although known these days principally as a hypnotist, Paul started as a radio presenter for a number of stations including Radio Jackie, Sovereign, Radio Caroline, Chiltern Radio, Capital London, BBC Radio 1 and TV channel Music Box.
He moved into televison in the 1990s with The Hypnotic World of Paul McKenna and Paul McKenna's Paranormal World
A successful author too he has published many self-help books on subjects such as quitting smoking and slimming.
As a former Radio Caroline presenter, Paul was first invited back as guest presenter for Radio Caroline North in 2018.

En zie nu ook de foto die daar links van deze tekst staat. Nico.

[Nico Gouda]

...lees nu ook https://groups.io/g/RadioCarolineMailinglist/topic/82161631?p=Created,,,20,2,0,0::recentpostdate/sticky,,,20,2,0,82161631 Nico.

[Nico Gouda]

...lees en zie (via een doorkliklink) nu ook https://groups.io/g/RadioCarolineMailinglist/topic/the_ross_revenge/82407226?p=,,,20,0,0,0::recentpostdate%2Fsticky,,,20,2,0,82407226 Nico.

[NicouitGouda]

Caroline App Update

A major update to the Caroline App was released earlier this month to the Apple and Android App Stores, and should have automatically updated on your smartphone, if you already have the App on your smartphone and you have the automatic update feature pre-set. Otherwise, you will need to go into your pending app updates, and download it.

As we predicted in our January RCSG Newsletter, the biggest update to the App was the addition of the Listen Again feature, already on our website, and now enabling you to listen again on your smartphone to all of our Radio Caroline shows from the previous fourteen days. In addition, there is a new Contact page, from which you can email directly the current presenter, the Caroline Web Shop and the RCSG, and also access directly the Radio Caroline website, Caroline's Facebook and Twitter pages and our Web Shop.

Other new features include the display of the Now Playing artist and track on your phone lock-screen and vehicle dashboard display, automatic re-start of the stream on termination of an incoming or outgoing phone call, and many other improvements.

The app is available from the Apple and Android App Stores. Just search for Radio Caroline. It's the one with our famous bell logo and is priced at £1.99 in the UK (or equivalent in your country). You will then receive all future updates for free.

Boat Trips

Boat Trips to Ross RevengeAt the time of writing, and unless any pandemic instructions change, the June 26/27 Radio Caroline North broadcast will be once again be coming from the studios on Ross Revenge, and we will be resuming trips to visit and tour the ship that weekend.

We had to cancel a large number of visitors last year due to restrictions, and all those who were unable to go were given vouchers to use this year. Since the announcement that all restrictions will be lifted on June 21, we have been inundated with bookings for the June - December broadcasts. Trips are currently full up to October, with a few single spaces here and there over the summer months.

We are currently booking for six smaller trips each day of the broadcast, until we are sure restrictions will be fully lifted on June 21. If that is the case, we will combine the six trips into our normal three. Everyone who has booked is aware of this and that there might be a slight time change. Financially, as well as taking a loss on trip income, running six trips means we have to pay twice the tender costs, but it is important to get people out to the ship who were disappointed last year, as well as those who wish to make a booking this year.

Listening to Caroline on Smart Speakers

Smart Speakers

Smart speakers are becoming a popular choice as a way to listen to Radio Caroline. There is a wide range to choose from, and three different virtual voice assistants. The voice assistants can be Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri or Google. These artificial intelligence voice assistants enable the speakers to be used for much more that listening to your favourite radio station. They can play music from playlists, answer questions, find recipes, read books and newspapers, give you the news, the weather forecast and control heating, lighting etc. However, here we will just talk about listening to Caroline.

The speakers, especially those with Alexa on board, come in a range of shapes and sizes. Some have screens which also display information and pictures, others display the time. Some produce a good sound on their own; others are designed to be connected to hi-fi systems, so that you get the best sound quality with added voice control.

Playing Radio Caroline is really easy. You just say the wake word(s) for the assistant followed by "play Radio Caroline", so, in the case of Alexa, you say "Alexa, play Radio Caroline". If you are a Flashback listener, you just ask for Radio Caroline Flashback. For Caroline North, ask for Manx Radio AM. If you have speakers in several rooms, you can say "Alexa, play Radio Caroline everywhere", and Caroline will play though all the devices, and they are synchronised.

Apple has recently discontinued its rather large and expensive, but high audio quality, smart speaker, the HomePod, and replaced it with the smaller and less expensive HomePod Mini. The sound is still excellent, and even better if you purchase two of the units and pair them in stereo, using the simple set up procedure on your iPhone. Apart from saying directly, "Hey Siri, play Radio Caroline", you can also use the HomePod Mini as a wireless speaker controlled by your iPhone. Just use the Airplay symbol on the player screen of the Caroline App to connect to the HomePod.

Like computers, smart speakers receive updates, and sometimes these can result in the speaker playing the wrong station. Also, being in a different country can make a difference. In these situations, using alternative commands can help. You can try "play Radio Caroline on TuneIn", "play the station Radio Caroline" or "play Radio Caroline London on TuneIn". In the UK, with Alexa devices, it is worth enabling the Radioplayer skill. You only have to do this once, just say "Alexa, enable Radioplayer". To play Caroline via Radioplayer, you can say "Alexa, ask Radioplayer to play Radio Caroline". This is a bit long winded, but once you have selected a station in Radioplayer, to listen again you only need to say "Alexa, open Radioplayer", and it will play.

If you have previously listened to Caroline on an Alexa speaker, then you can get it to play again using the Alexa phone app. Look for the 'Play' section and then 'Recently Played' and select it from there. Usually, however, the smart speakers do work well, and the straight forward command works.

If you have not tried a smart speaker, you may be thinking 'why bother?' The answer is convenience. If you are in the kitchen, you can start or stop listening while your hands are wet or touching food. If you are working and the phone rings, you can just tell the speaker to stop while you take the call. They are simpler to set up than an internet radio. You can use them as a radio alarm, and they do all those other things that we mentioned above, as well as play Radio Caroline.

Clannad Promotion

ClannadWe are currently running a Human League promotion, with a competition for tickets to see the band in December. When this competition ends in June, we will be running another promotion for multi award-winning Clannad's 'In a Lifetime' Farewell Tour. Part of this promotion is a free to enter competition to win tickets to see the Celtic quartet next year at the London Palladium and 'In a Lifetime' Anthology Book Packs, which include tracks from Clannad's 50-year career, as well as other souvenirs.

Upcoming Caroline Archive Hours

The excellent Caroline Archive Hour on Caroline Flashback is due to kick off May with restored recordings of Radio Atlanta from May, 1964 (two months before becoming Radio Caroline South), one featuring deejay, Bob Scott and the other featuring deejay, Johnny Jackson. On the weekend of May 15-16, we then flash forward precisely thirty years to May, 1994 and a restored recording of a Caroline RSL broadcast from Ross Revenge moored at Burnham-on-Crouch, featuring Tommy Rivers and no less than Johnnie Walker!

Future restored recordings coming up in May/June are likely to be Tony Blackburn on Caroline South from November, 1965, Andy Archer and Spangles Muldoon (aka Chris Cary) on Caroline International, from the Mi Amigo anchored off the Dutch coast, in 1973 and a splendid "Midnight Surf Party" with Jim "Murph the Surf" on Caroline North, anchored off the Isle of Man, from July, 1965. Also, expect a listener requested, restored, Keith Skues recording from Caroline South.

The Caroline Archive Hour, hosted by Ray Robinson, can be heard on Caroline Flashback every weekend on Saturday at 8:00pm (repeated at the same time on Sunday and available for 14 days thereafter via the Listen Again feature on the Caroline Flashback website

New Music Monday

We asked our Music Coordinator, Pat Edison, to describe what goes into the selection of the new Featured Tracks that you hear regularly on Radio Caroline:

"As you know as a regular listener, Caroline plays some great tracks from the past, but also keeps an ear on some of the 'better' music being made today. Of course. whereas most other stations would go with the flow, we have to be extremely picky about what we pick - no mean feat when so much being released is the polar opposite of the kind of music the station wishes to play.

Although Caroline presenters can play their own choice of new music, should they wish, they can also pick from our Featured Tracks, a list of 60, many of which are pre-releases off soon to be released albums. Ten new ones are chosen each week, replacing the ten from six week ago. The new list then goes live (internally) on Monday mornings.

Finding new music for Featured Tracks isn't always easy. All radio stations get targeted by record companies, pluggers, bands and individuals seeking airplay. We are no exception, and some of what gets sent may be suitable for airplay, although most won't, as rarely do these folks check what our format is, preferring a scatter-gun approach. So it's down to us to seek out what is being released that week by keeping an eye on both the music press and online music outlets.

Happily there are some real gems out there, if only one looks (and listens). And not only by known artists, as the station has always given air-time to emerging bands or artists. Just look at some of what's being played now - The Ellis Mano Band, a blues band from Switzerland, The Highlife, a Scottish duo, Takida, a Swedish rock band. Along with some 'knowns' or course such as Jakob Dylan's Wallflowers with a number from his/their comeback album due for released in July, and the return too of Canada's cheeky chappies, the Barenaked Ladies, with their 16th album Detour De Force, due later this year.

So, although you won't be hearing the latest by Justin Bieber or Katy Perry, you may just be hearing the open chords in the next phase of rock 'n' roll, blues, Americana and the many other genres that make their way onto our Featured Tracks list that make every Monday on Caroline a New Music Monday."

Thanks, Pat!

Remembrances of Ronan

Ronan in the 60sApril 20, 2021 marked the first anniversary of the sad passing of our founder, Ronan O'Rahilly. We asked Radio Caroline station manager, Peter Moore, for a few remembrances:

"As a teenager in the sixties, the matter of whether I could tune around the radio dial and hear my favourite song of the time, maybe by Cliff Bennett
and the Rebel Rousers, assumed perhaps a greater importance than it deserved. But when I saw that the Government was going to deprive me of
that enjoyment, but that one young man, Ronan O' Rahilly, was going to defy them, here was a man to be admired.

At a protest rally in 1970, there he was looking like a Guru and exhorting the substantial crowd to sing 'Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Wilson' with gusto, maybe so that it would be released as a single. But anyone listening to his speech with care will have heard that he said 'may' not 'would'. What Ronan said, and what Ronan meant, were often not the same. Conversely, we had all been carried along with his personal desire to wreak vengeance on Harold Wilson, which was a pretty bold project.

When people asked him what business he was in, he replied that he was in the business of 'why not?'. Being unconstrained by conventional thinking was a rare quality. With this attitude, grand things were achieved.

Ronan in the 70sHis language, accent and his manner of speaking was very persuasive, but never straightforward. I remember him saying, about the unfortunate Gerard Van Dam, he 'thought' he had a deal, but he did not have a 'deal'.

I colluded with him in a complex strategy, as he would see it as 'a game', to obtain a temporary mast by deception, but, when, and unusually, he did not win that game, his anger was fearful to observe. As to why we needed this item, the answer to the question 'why not' build a mast 300ft high is 'since it would fall down'.

Sometimes I sensed that Ronan was lonely, and often our meetings would last far longer than was required, as he gradually, but always guardedly, felt able to disclose anecdotes about his past. As problems built, his girlfriend of the time, Jenny, said that he changed, becoming less outgoing and finally reclusive, such that the need to face the media made him physically ill, as the pressure he was under was too much for any one man to tolerate.

We sat once on a deserted railway station platform, one of the few places, aside from in a moving car, where he would talk openly. Everything had collapsed like a house of cards, but he asked me honestly 'Hey baby would you do it all over again?' and I said I would, so long as nobody got killed. Once he called to say 'Hey baby, I think I am ready to go out and do some hustling again' but by then the behaviour which had served him so well in the past no longer worked, and Jenny said he was bewildered and bitter.

For some years, one researcher had been trying to expose Ronan as a rogue and a bounder. That came as no surprise to people who knew him, but of course he was 'our' rogue. For years he had been coaching people on what to say and how to say it 'Don't say 'ship', say 'unit'. Don't say 'Ramsgate', say 'The ram with the gate'. When his mental state was becoming poor, he told his girlfriend, Ines, that he thought he had a radio station which was in Kent and that the captain was Roger Moore. For a man who lived by his wits, that was a cruel situation. He told me that he had no strategy for old age, as he did not intend to become old. Sadly that is not a choice that a human can make.

My last contact was when Ines asked for funds to pay for their accommodation at a Dublin guest house. I sent a cheque made out to her, as Ronan did not use banks. She could have said 'thanks, got the cheque', but the message, pure Ronan to the last, said 'I need to tell you that the 'package' has arrived'."

Thank you, Peter.

More Remembrances of Ronan

We also asked RCSG coordinator, Nigel Pearson, for his remembrances of Ronan:

"I was fortunate to meet Ronan on several occasions in the 2000's, first over a couple of dinners at the Cannes Film Festival, and for the screening at the Festival of his never released documentary, entitled "King Kennedy", about the assassinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King. We subsequently met for several lunches and dinners in London at his Chelsea restaurant haunts.

For a teenager who had grown up listening to Radio Caroline in the sixties, this was a dream come true. As there was no real agenda, other than discussion of a Radio Caroline film project, Ronan was relaxed and amenable throughout. He was full of stories of the past, but, with each one taking about half an hour to tell, it was difficult not to lose the plot.

I think that my favourite story (true or not) was the one in which he saw the Ross Revenge for the first time. It had been mothballed, and was moored in a sea loch in Scotland. As he and his colleagues drove around the top of a mountain, he got his first sight of the ship in the loch a thousand feet, or more, below. His heart sank, as the Ross was moored next to a much larger ship, and it seemed way too small to be a radio ship. But then, as they slowly made their way down the mountain, he realized that the other ship was the Ark Royal aircraft carrier, also in mothballs.

His colleagues were allowed to take the Ross for a "test drive", on their own, around the loch, in order to check if she was in a good working condition. He said that he told them that, if they were able to confirm that the ship was in good nick, they should not come back, but just head straight for Santander in Spain. Which they did.

At this point, Ronan had not yet paid for the ship. I asked him if he did pay for it, and his one word reply was, 'Eventually'.

People say that Ronan had a special aura about him, so that you felt safe in his presence and that everything was going to work out . I think that I can confirm that. After one dinner in Sloane Square, I was anxious not to miss the last tube back to my brother's flat where I was staying. We hung about in the street chatting, while a passing cab driver yelled out, 'Hey, it's Ronan O'Rahilly!' Eventually, we said our goodbyes, and I made my way down the stairs to the platform. Just as I was reaching the platform, the last train came into the station and, without breaking my stride, the doors slid open and I was on my way."

Thank you, Nigel.

New presenter - Terry Hughes

Terry HughesBroadcaster Terry Hughes has joined Radio Caroline as our new weekday early breakfast show presenter. You can catch Terry between 6am and 7am, UK Monday to Fridays. Terry has been in broadcasting for more than 40 years and has presented shows on a number of radio stations. He says he has always been obsessed with pirate radio and listened to Radio Caroline and Laser 558 from afar in the early days, and always dreamed of presenting a show on Radio Caroline ... and here he is, finally fulfilling his dream!

Steve Anthony's Caroline Recollections

We asked Radio Caroline presenter, Steve Anthony, for his recollections of how he first became involved with Caroline:

"It was a good time to be a teenager in the 1960's. So much was happening, and at the centre of everything was Radio Caroline, and the other offshore radio stations. I was well and truly hooked on wanting to be 'on the radio'. I didn't make it back then, apart from a few dalliances with land based pirates and working as a mobile DJ with one or two residences thrown in.

Time passed into the 1970's, and the dream never became a reality. Life got in the way, as did marriage, having kids, a mortgage and a career in banking.

One evening in 1985, on the train, going home from work, I was reading the London Evening Standard which had a lead article about a new offshore radio station. The paper named it "Lazar Radio" - I often wondered how angry the station's management were by that mistake! But that article immediately rekindled my interest. The article included a number to call for trips out to see both the Radio Caroline and Laser 558 ships. I decided to somehow 'get involved'. And I did.

Ross Revenge with 300ft MastI took my anorak trip out to the Ross Revenge in September 1985, right in the middle of the Department of Trade & Industry's 'Eurosiege', and managed to get aboard Caroline's radio-ship, after our captain was able to obtain permission to do so from the DTI, who were monitoring both of the ships from their own vessel, the Dioptric Surveyor. The journey was about 2.5 hours from Ramsgate in a high powered fishing boat. I'll always remember coming alongside and looking up and up and up at that 300ft tower. Tears filled my eyes. The sudden upsurge of emotion of finally getting there was unbelievable.

While we did get on board the Ross, and meet the deejays, and also Caroline's radio engineer, Peter Chicago, we were only able to come alongside the MV Communicator, home of Laser 558. However, we did get the chance to speak to some of the Laser 558 deejays, including Charlie Wolf, who was on air at the time, but came out on deck to talk to us. As it turned out, it was the day before Charlie, along with deejays, Jonell and Tommy Rivers, resigned from Laser 558 and headed to shore on a fishing boat, on account of the pressure put on the station's operation by the DTI.

The trip was organised by the Caroline Movement (CM), a fan based support group, that I immediately joined and shortly afterwards became the Treasurer. My exploits as part of the CM would fill another several pages, but, save it to say that our help to the Caroline organisation was fairly key. It was during this time that I got to know Peter Moore.

After the ship was taken into Dover in 1991, there was no money and things were pretty desperate. Once again, the stories from that era are manifold, so I won't get into that, but one initiative of PM's was to set up the Ross Revenge Support Group (now renamed the Radio Caroline Support Group). The purpose of the RRSG was to seek donations from supporters so to begin the task of restoring the Ross Revenge. Peter Moore asked me to run the Group but, to my later regret, I declined the role in case my employers found out. The role was taken up by Paul Hipkiss, who ran it brilliantly.

That said, one thing that I did do was to open a bank account for the RRSG. That seemed pretty risky at the time, given we were not really clear as to the legal position of the ship, and, of course, the previous attitude of the authorities towards Radio Caroline. As it happened, I simply walked into a bank in Cheapside in the City of London and asked for some forms, got them completed and handed them in, telling the bank that it was for a group of people that were restoring a ship. Not a question was raised and the account was opened. Imagine trying to do that in today's heavily regulated world?

The ship was later released, and in 1993 taken to Bradwell, where a one month RSL broadcast was undertaken. This was repeated in 1994 when I asked Peter Moore whether, 'as a favour', I could present a show. He agreed and I was given two shifts early on a Sunday and a Monday morning during the Whit Bank Holiday weekend. So early were those shifts that I always say that I was broadcasting to 'the insomniacs and sheep of East Essex'. I went home on the Monday and the next day started a new job with another part of the bank I was working for. The career became 'full-on' and in effect I walked away from Caroline. But as they say 'you can check out but never leave'...

And, as you know, I didn't, but looking back to that trip in 1985, I certainly never had an inkling, and I don't think anyone else did, that some 36 years later Radio Caroline would still be in existence, let alone that I would still be part of it."

Thanks, Steve!

Steve can be heard each Thursday afternoon on Radio Caroline from 2:00pm to 6:00 pm, and often on Radio Caroline North (although he has recently been taking a much needed break for personal reasons).

New station identifications

Paul McKennaHave you noticed the new voice on our album channel Top of the Hour and presenter IDs? It's none other than TV hypnotist, author and regular guest presenter on Radio Caroline North, Paul McKenna. We are looking forward to Paul joining our Caroline North team again, very soon.

Advertising

We are running some great advertising deals right now to help businesses and organisations across the UK return to normality. If you own or work for a company which might be interested in advertising with us, or would like to recommend a company who might be open to an approach from our sales team, please email sales(at)radiocaroline.co.uk

Radio Caroline North sponsorship

Caroline North LogoWe are looking for companies or organisations who would like be associated with Radio Caroline by sponsoring a Radio Caroline North weekend in July, September, October or November. The cost of a weekend sponsorship is just £300, and this goes towards the expenses of the broadcast from Ross Revenge. If you know of any business who might be interested, please email sales(at)radiocaroline.co.uk

Schedule changes at Caroline Community Radio 94.7 FM

Caroline Commmunity Radio LogoRadio Caroline's Ray Clark has been presenting the breakfast show live from 7-10am each week day. Ray has decided to step back a bit to enable him to meet his other commitments. He will continue to present the Breakfast Show on Thursday, and other community presenters will present the show on the other week days.

Thank You

We wish to thank each and every one of you for your generous contributions during the last quarter to the Radio Caroline Support Group. We appreciate that it is not easy for some of you in these uncertain economic times.

However, we hope that you have been able to, or are about to, obtain your vaccination(s), and, with life opening up again, at least in some countries, you will be able to get out and about and enjoy this summer. We are certainly looking forward to getting back out to the Ross Revenge on the weekend of June 26-27 for our monthly Radio Caroline North broadcast.

We are currently planning our next RCSG annual fundraiser, live from the Ross Revenge, for the weekend of August 14, again to tie in with the coming into force of the Marine Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967, the UK Government's first legislative attempt at silencing Radio Caroline, the second being the Broadcasting Act 1990. But we are still here, loud and proud, and stronger than ever, largely as a result of your contributions. Thank you.

We would also like to say a special thanks to all of our presenters, who have worked so hard during the past year. You are our true friends on the radio.

If you have any comments or questions, or there are articles that you would like to see in our next Quarterly Newsletter, feel free to email us at rcsg(at)radiocaroline.co.uk

See you again in July!


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[Nico Gouda]

...op http://radiocaroline.co.uk/#home.html staat nu dit te lezen: Nico.

RCSG October Newsletter

The new October edition of the Quarterly RCSG Newsletter has been emailed to all members of the Radio Caroline Support Group.

It is another bumper edition, containing thirteen unique, exclusive articles, detailing all the behind-the-scenes, up the minute, information about Radio Caroline, past, present and future, which you will want to know.

It features a Wrap Up of our August Fundraiser, including a detailed report by Peter Moore on Use of Funds, the Suzy Wilde Interview, the next installment of Mark Dezzani’s amusing Confessions of a Very Young Anorak, an extensive interview with Barry Ainley (MD of Radio Caroline in the 1960s), Bug Week! (a look behind the recent issues with the Caroline App), David Cornwallis on the Radio Caroline BMW's Swiss Hill Climb, Brian Nichols’s report on the Felixstowe Pirate Radio Exhibition, upcoming Caroline Archive Hours, a look behind Putting Radio Caroline on the Air in 1964, and more.

It is not too late to receive the October Newsletter, as all new members receive the latest Quarterly Newsletter, instantly by email, on joining the RCSG. The minimum monthly donation is £7.50, cancellable at any time. You will continue to receive the Newsletter until such time as you may choose to cancel your membership. In order to join the RCSG, just go to the Support Group page here.

If you are a current subscriber to the RCSG, either by PayPal or bank standing order, and you do not appear to have received the October Newsletter, feel free to email us at rcsg(at)radiocaroline.co.uk However, please check your junk/spam folder before doing so.

[Nico qwerty]

...de april 2023 editie hiervan is nu verschenen. Nico.