COLOFON - Freewave Media...

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COLOFONExploitatie: Stichting Media CommunicatieHoofdredacteur: Hans KnotLay Out: Jan van HeerenDruk: EPC

Vaste Medewerkers:Walter du Bateau, Michel van Hooff (Neder-land); Rene Burcksen, Jan Hendrik Kruidenier(VS); Jelle Knot (Internationaal); Eric Wiltshire(Satelliet); Ingo Paternoster (Duitsland); Gijs vander Heuvel (Caribisch Gebied); Radio Magazine(Engeland); Etienne Kerremans (België)

Verantwoordelijke UitgeverStichting Media CommunicatiePostbus 531211007 RC Amsterdam

Correspondentieadres:Hans Knot, Postbus 102, 9700 AC Groningen

Lidmaatschap:Nederland: Euro 23,-Europa: Euro 28,-Rest v/d wereld: Euro 34,50

Einde abonnement?Op de adresband staat de datum waarop hetabonnement afloopt. Vernieuw dit tijdig!Voortaan a.u.b uw eigen adres vermelden on-der mededelingen van uw overschrijving (zo-wel via een overschrijvingskaart als elektro-nisch).U kunt evenueel uw adresgegevens doormailen/ opstu-ren met verwijzing naar de overschrijving.

Transacties:Postgiro 4065700t.n.v. Stichting Media Communicatie, Amsterdam(met vermelding eigen adresgegevens)

Verzending:Eventuele klachten inzake verzending, onregel-matige ontvangst en adreswijziging ten alletijden richten aan: Stichting Media Communica-tie, Postbus 53121, 1007 RC Amsterdam

Advertentietarieven:eenmalig tweemalig

1/1 pagina: Euro 23,- Euro 34,501/2 pagina: Euro 14,- Euro 23,-1/4 pagina: Euro 10,- Euro 16,-Kleinere advertenties zijn niet mogelijk.

ISSN NR. 1381-8562

Elke auteur en adverteerder is verantwoordelijkvoor zijn/haar eigen publicatie. Zonder toestem-ming van de redactie is gehele of gedeeltelijkeovername, in welke vorm dan ook, uit dezeFreewave niet toegestaan.

INHOUDHeden en verleden 3Perikelen 7Nieuws de wereld rond 9Nieuws uit Duitsland 9De Gwin Box 10The Fight for Free Radio 11

OMSLAGFoto’s van boven naar beneden:1. Engelse politie escorteert demonstratie in 19732. Demonstratie in Den Haag, 18 april 19733. Trafalgar Square 19714. Merchandise van de Free Radio Association, 19705. Ronan O’Rahilly tijdens de Election Campaign 1970

VOORWOORD

Beste Lezers en Lezeressen van Freewave,

In de afgelopen 25 jaar hebben we veel met el-kaar gedeeld in het Nederlands. En ik moet U ver-tellen dat onder onze abonnees een aantal En-gelsen is dat de Nederlandse taal grotendeelsmachtig is geworden via de radio. Dus door hetluisteren naar de zenders vanaf de internatio-nale wateren die in onze taal hebben uitgezon-den. Hulde daarvoor. Als blijk van dank dat zeonze taal zijn blijven volgen in dit nummer eenma-lig een Engelstalig verhaal. Wij hebben deze taalallemaal geleerd op school en bovenal hebbenwe het bijgespijkerd via het luisteren naar de zee-zenders, die in de Engelse taal hun programma’sverspreid hebben. Ik weet zeker dat U het betref-fende verhaal met veel plezier zult beleven ge-zien het iets beschrijft dat in de afgelopen veertigjaar nog nooit is beschreven. En laten we éénding met elkaar afspreken: Keep it going in ourfight for free radio!

Hans Knotdie Hans Not heet in het Engels

FOTO'SIndien niet anders vermeld zijn alle foto's uit hetFreewave archief.

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DiscografieDI 1 JULI: Een nieuwe maand, die meteen be-

gon met het door Martin ontdekken van een jingledie ik nog nooit had gehoord. Waarschijnlijk heelkort of misschien wel slechts één keer gedraaid.Het begin van ‘She flies on strange wings’ van TheGolden Earring werd gebruikt op Radio Veronicaals een promo voor ‘Muziek Express’.

BijnaamDI 1 JULI: Tijdens het maken vanhet ontbijt had ik in de keukendeze ochtend een oude opnameopstaan van Radio Scotland. Eendeejay, waarvan slechts 45 mi-nuten bewaard is gebleven isJohn Kerr (foto). Bij herhaling steldehij: ‘My name is Kerr and music is

my game’. Maar er is er ook één die liefst tweetoevoegingen had: Shaun Taylor. Hij werkte bijCaroline 558 als ‘Young’ Shaun Taylor. Op Lasergebruikte hij ‘Young Shaun in the morning’.

Weer actief in radioWO 2 JULI: Tijdens de reünie van mensen die ac-tief waren in de zeezenderwereld in de jaren zes-tig en zeventig van de vorige eeuw, zoals vorigjaar in Londen gehouden, was onder meer TommyVance aanwezig. Ik had hem daarvoor voor hetlaatst gezien tijdens de opening van Virgin Radio,alweer 10 jaar geleden. Hij maakte toen bekendnaar Spanje te emigreren, hetgeen inmiddels is ge-beurd. Tommy, die zowel voor Radio Caroline alsRadio London actief was, werkt ook weer binnende Spaanse radiowereld en wel bij Spectrum FM.Hij is daar iedere zaterdagavond te beluisteren enhet programma is uiteraard Engelstalig.

Heel ver wegDO 3 JULI: Hadden we een paar maanden geledenFrits Mulder die in Azië ging wonen, en vorige maandFergie McNeal die in dat werelddeel al lange tijdbleek te wonen, deze keer andermaal een voorma-lige zeezenderdeejay die in Singapore blijkt te wo-nen. Paul Lek, destijds bij Cable One actief en eer-der als Maarten de Jong op Radio Monique is daarvertegenwoordiger van de onderneming die deMusic Sceduling Software Selector op de marktbrengt.

Leuke herinneringVR 4 JULI: Andermaal een herinnering aan de glorie-

dagen van RNI, ditmaal van Hans ten Hoge: ‘Inde loop van 1971 kreeg RNI er weer nieuwsle-zers bij. Gerard Smit en Marc van ZinderenBakker, zoals hij bij de ziekenomroep in Zaandamen omgeving bekend was (alias Klaas), ston-den in een fikse bries op het achterdek van deTrip Tender. Die was toen nog groen/grijs/zwartgeschilderd. Gerard kreeg een van zijn veleinvallen. “Zeg, Marc, dat kan eigenlijk echt niet,hoor, die naam van jou”. “Oh nee? Hoezo?”“Nou, dat moeten wij straks allemaal maar aan-kondigen - Marc-van-Zinderen-Bakker, daar gaje je tong toch over breken? En die zendtijd! Enals dat in een jingle ingezongen moet worden?Want je wordt ook deejay. Stel je dat koor eensvoor tussen al die korte namen van ons: Marc-van-Zinderen-Bakker. Dat moet helemaal op-nieuw geschreven worden”. “Ja, maar hoemoet het dan?”. “Ah joh, we bedenken weliets. Je vertelde toch dat die vriend van je inAmsterdam woont, in zo’n grachtenpand? Nou,wat dacht je van: Marc van Amstel?” Even la-ter beklommen ze de touwladder en maaktende opvarenden kennis met: Marc van Amstel.Wat later in dat jaar tipte Graham Gill Marc overeen vacature voor freelance nieuwslezers bij

Maarten de Jong en schipper Danny aan boord van de Ross

Revenge © Leendert Vingerling

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Marc van Amstel vaart langs de Trip Tender (2002) © Jan van Heeren

de Wereldomroep. Hij ging langs, en kon meteen beginnen. Ik hebhet nooit geweten, maar Marc was de ene week te horen op midden-golf, FM en Korte Golf, en de andere week, aan land, alleen op kortegolf. Kortgeleden heeft hij tijdens één van zijn diensten bij de Wereld-omroep (doorgaans op zondag) zijn dertigjarig jubileum gevierd.

Roger Day in 1970

Onbepaalde tijdMA 7 JULI: Roger Daymaakt zelf bekend dat metingang van morgen er eendagelijks programma opwerkdagen zal zijn viaRadio Caroline, door hemgepresenteerd. Het zalworden uitgezonden tus-sen 11 uur in de ochtenden 1 uur in de middag, En-gelse tijd. Het is niet dui-delijk voor welke periodehet geldt daar Roger hetzelf heeft over een nietnader te beduiden pe-riode. Toch heeft de man zijn gevoel voor humor niet verloren wantin een tweede mail meldt hij dat het zal zijn totdat een Nederlandsetender de ‘old lady’; zal wegtrekken. Tevens hoorden we vandaagdat Tom Anderson voorlopig geen tijd meer heeft voor het opnemenvan zijn programma’s. En nu we het toch over vertrekken hebben isFerry Maat verdwenen uit de programmering van Radio 10FM. Re-den is alsnog onbekend.

CommunicatorDI 8 JULI: De afgelopen week zijn er verschillende personen aanboord van de Communicator geweest waarbij één hele grote fanme meldde er direct weer te zijn afgegaan daar het een enorme

vuilnisbelt was en het ver-schrikkelijk stonk. Het schipzal, voordat het vertrekt naarEngeland, nog naar eendroogdok moeten en wordengekeurd voor de oversteek.Het zal niet als schip maar alssleepobject worden gekeurddoor de scheepvaartinspectie.Daarna zal het ergens in Essexworden afgemeerd voor ver-der onderhoud.

Nog meer aanvullingenWO 9 JULI: Zo, daar gaan

we weer met een aantalnieuwe titels voor dediscografielijst: The NewOrleans Syncopaters met hetnummer ‘Hup Holland Hup’

werd gebruikt voor het inzingenvan de jingle ‘Hup Holland Huplaat de leeuw niet in zijn hempjestaan, vecht voor Veronica’svoortbestaan’ in 1973. Dan deformatie SWAT met ‘Themefrom Heritage’ werd gebruiktdoor Radio Delmare en het pro-gramma ‘De muziekfabriek’.Ronald Bakker gebruikte voorzijn programma ‘Wakker metBakker’ op Radio Delmare‘Scotts on the Rocks’ van ForceTen. Dan Jan Olienoot ofwelLeen Vingerling. Hij gebruikteAndré Brasseur met het num-mer ‘Joy’ als tune op Radio Del-mare. Tenslotte Kayak met hetnummer ‘Royal Bed Bouncer’.Dit werd gebruikt door RadioMi Amigo voor een jingle.

2000ste uitzendingMA 14 JULI: Deze week is heteen opmerkelijke week voor deluisteraars van BBC EasternCounties Radio omdat KeithSkues zijn 2000ste afleveringvan zijn avondprogramma pre-senteert. Eigenlijk is iedereavond dat Skues te beluiste-ren is een feest. Hij is namelijkde enige programmamaker diegeheel aan de luisterwensenvan de luisteraars voldoet.Skues kennen we allemaal van

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zijn tijd op Radio Caroline en Radio London. Ook diegenen die laterzijn geboren kennen de verhalen van Cardboard Shoes. Zijn pro-gramma is trouwens het meest beluisterde programma op de lokalestations van de BBC.

De bemanning van de Aegir (waaronder René de Leeuw) wordt gearresteerd nadat het schipternauwernood gered was van de ondergang (12-11-1978\)

Jaren ‘80DI 15 JULI: RTL4 brengt andermaal een aflevering over de jarentachtig met Reinout Oerlemans, In deze aflevering onder meer aan-dacht aan Radio Decibel waar met vele bekende radiomakers terugwordt gegaan naar de goede tijden van weleer. En zowaar zien weopeens René de Leeuw in beeld. ‘Mayday mayday we slaan op derotsen’ was een paniekzin die hij via Radio Delmare meerdere malenuitriep en die bij de aanhang in het geheugen zit vastgekoppeld aanzijn naam.

BijnamenWO 16 JULI: E-mail uit Canada van Mick Luvzit. Onder meer doet hijeen opsomming van de bijnamen die door hem zijn gebruikt: ‘YourPrez the Wild one’, ‘Your boss jock’, ‘Your Soul Brother’ en ‘Yourmad dad with the groovy turntables dripping wax all over yourradio’.

v.l.n.r. Mick Luvzitt,Johnny Walker,Tommy Vance enRonan O’Rahilly opeen reunie in 2002© Martin van der Ven

Ronan an-dermaal inhet schot-veldDO 17 JULI:Zelf heb ik aleen aantal ma-len neergezetdat Ronan al-

leen dan in de schijnwerpers staat als Radio Caroline op de een ofandere manier ‘gered’ moet worden en voor de rest een ieder die inzijn omgeving komt, gewoon om de tuin leidt dan wel oplicht. LeenVingerling is deze keer aan de beurt om zijn ongenoegen neer tepennen.

HerschrijvenDe waarheid komt altijd bovenwater. Ik vrees dat het ‘Ge-nootschap der Grijze Goeroes’(de heerschappen Knot enOlthof voor niet-ingewijden)binnenkort veel ‘herdrukken’ of‘herpersingen’ zullen moetengaan uitgeven. Laten weRonan eens kort onder de loepnemen. Ronan zorgde er altijdvoor dat bij alle besprekingen,vergaderingen of bijeenkom-sten de ‘andere partij’ de re-kening betaalde. Of hij nuwerd uitgenodigd of zelf men-sen uitnodigde, Ronan zorgdealtijd voor een smoes om niette betalen. Daarnaast don-eerden ‘radiogeile’ investeer-ders veel geld voor bijvoor-beeld de huur van zendtijd. Datgeld kwam nooit ten goede aanhet schip, maar verdweenbijna altijd in Ronan’s binnen-zak. Een voorbeeld:

Koffer met heel veel geldFred Bolland trekt nog steedsde haren uit zijn hoofd van degrootste vergissing die hij ooitheeft begaan. Hij overhandigdein 1984 Ronan een koffertje met400.000 gulden cash als voor-schot op de huur van RadioMonique. In die huur was ookbevoorrading etc inbegrepen.Ronan accepteerde met vol-doening het geld, maar voegdeer aan toe dat er helaas ‘geen’geld meer over was om te be-voorraden omdat er eerst al-lerlei ‘rekeningen’ betaald dien-den te worden. Een leugendus en Fred moest dus we-derom de geldbuidel trekken.

BetrokkenheidDan de werkelijke betrokken-heid van Ronan aan Caroline.Dat was eigenlijk éénrichtings-verkeer. Ronan kon niet zon-der Caroline, omdat het hemeen zekere status of imagoverschafte en een platform omideeën te spuien (Loving

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Awareness). Ronan was het symbool van Caroline. Met camera’sin de buurt was hij de ‘gevierde’ man. Voor de buitenwacht is ‘Ronan’bijna een God. Andersom kon Caroline wel degelijk zonder de Ier. Ophet organisatorische vlak was hij een absoluut dieptepunt. Maaraltijd stonden zijn ‘waterdragers’ klaar om de organisatie op zich tenemen (Tom Anderson, Simon Barrett, Peter Philips, Peter Mooreetc).

Eigen herinneringenVoor Caroline had het beter geweest als de ‘levende mythe’ O’Rahillyer niet was geweest. Het station zou dan zeker beter ‘gemanaged’zijn. Ik vertel dit alles naar eer en geweten en uit eigen ervaringomdat ik Ronan diverse malen heb ontmoet en nog veel meer kerenaan de telefoon heb gehad. Een gesprek van twee uur ‘bullshit’ waseerder regel, dan uitzondering.’

Veronica pakt weer uit met oude zeezenderdeejaysDO 17 JULI: Bart van Leeuwen, FerryMaat, Kas van Iersel, Rob van Somerenen Peter Teekamp zullen vanaf 31 au-gustus dagelijks te horen zijn op RadioVeronica. Via de etherzenders en de kabeldekking van Radio 103zal Radio Veronica al vanaf 1 augustus starten met veel muziek uitde jaren ’80 en ’90. Vanaf 31 augustus volgt de definitieve gepre-senteerde programmering. Het is die dag exact 29 jaar geleden datRadio Veronica als zeezender haar uitzendingen moest beëindigen.Hiermee maakt Veronica een keiharde come back op de Neder-landse radio en is zij voor het eerst sinds 29 jaar weer 24 uur perdag in geheel Nederland te beluisteren! Bart, Ferry, Kas en Peterhebben een zeezenderverleden.

Peter Teekamp en Ferry Maat © Jan van Heeren

AanvullingDO 17 JULI: Zijn we er weer klaar voor? Manfred Mann en zijn

uitvoering van ‘I got you babe’ werd gebruikt op Radio London doorPete ‘Dum Dum’ Drummond. Mood Mosaic kan worden aangevuldmet het gegeven dat ‘A touch of velvet’ ook door Rob Hudson werdgebruikt op Radio Mi Amigo als ‘filler’. De Marinierskapel kan wordengenoemd met het nummer dat als eerste officiële plaat (Stars andStripes) ooit door Capital Radio werd uitgezonden in 1970.

Nog tweeVR 18 JULI: Vrijdag is

sinds deze maand mijn defini-tieve vrije dag gezien ik gebruikmaak van de 53+ regeling. Ont-bijtje, krantje en muziekje en zokom ik het eerste uur van deochtend door. Vandaag stonder een oud programma op vanRadio Caroline International metGlenn Adams en Herb OscarAnderson. Glenn gebruikte inzijn show ‘Long live love’ vanKen Woodman als tune, terwijlHerb zijn tune ‘Rocking Goose’van Johnny and theHurricanes was.

Gert Jan SmitVR 18 JULI: We kennen hemals één van de lieden achterde schermen van RadioCaroline in 1979/1980. Hijzorgde onder meer voor deenorme vloed aan religieuzeprogramma’s. Wel streek hijzelf de nodige procenten opalvorens het geld naar de or-ganisatie ging, maar hij haaldehet wel binnen. Verder heefthij hier en daar zeer zwaarkwaad bloed gezet. Heden tendagen werkt deze man, zohoorden we vandaag van zijnvoormalige partner uit Antwer-pen, als beursmakelaar. Als hijdan maar niet zo slecht spe-culeert als destijds met RadioCaroline.

Nog meer titelsZA 19 JULI: Te warm bui-

ten en dus binnen luisteren isvoor sommigen beter vandaag.Derhalve enkele ontdekkingen.Op Radio London was er opeen bepaald moment eengesponsord half uur met Beat-les muziek op de vrijdagavond.Kenny Everett maakte er eenprachtige promo voor en ge-bruikte er 6 muziekstukkenvoor, waarvan we er alle zeshebben ontcijferd: 1 ‘I want tohold your hand’, 2 ‘I’m down’, 3‘This boy’.4 ‘Things we said

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today , 5 ‘You can’t dothat’, 6 einde van eenPAMS Beatles jingle.Dan werd op RadioCaroline in 1977 re-clame gemaakt voorde Radio CarolineRock Record Col-lectors Guide, eenspot ingesprokendoor Stuart Russell,Kraftwerk werd ge-bruikt met het nummer‘Ruck Zuck’.

TestuitzendingDI 22 JULI: Raakvlak met deze rubriek is dathet pretendeert het aloude geluid van Londonbijgesteld op de 21ste eeuw te gaan brengen.Wonderful Radio London werd als test-programma uitgezonden vandaag doorNozema en meer dan 180 e-mails kwamen bijme binnen. Van Noorwegen tot Duitsland, vanNoord Engeland tot Frankrijk. Overal, uitgezon-derd probleemgebieden Zeeland, deel vanVlaanderen en Londen, was iedereen tevre-den.

Andermaal Roger DayWO 23 JULI: Hij blijft maar gastprogramma’spresenteren. Vandaag wordt bekend dat RogerDay zowel op zondag 27 juli als 3 augustus alsinvaller zal zijn te beluisteren op Radio Maldwynin Mid Wales. Hij zal daar de oldieshow gaanpresenteren.

Parlementslid overledenDO 24 JULI: Op het eiland Man is vandaag SirCharles Kerruish overleden. Pas recentelijk trokSir Charles zich terug uit de Tynewald, het par-lement van het eiland Man. Hij was het die hetParlement van het eiland opriep tegen het Britseregeringsbesluit te stemmen, waardoor hetaannemen van de Marine Offences Act nietvoor het eiland van kracht zou kunnen wor-den. Het afzetten tegen de Britse overheid zettedestijds de internationale pers in beweging inde richting van het eiland. De Marine OffencesAct kwam dan ook niet eerder dan begin sep-tember 1967 van kracht op Man. Dit kon door-dat de Britse koningin zelf ingreep en een nood-wet invoerde.

Dank aan: Rob Olthof, Martin van der Ven,Herbert Visser, Hans Hogendoorn, JanFré Vos, Leen Vingerling en Paul Rusling

Samenstelling: HANS KNOT

DI 1 JULI: De Raad van Toezicht van RTV Noord-Holland heeft Robert Zaal per 15 september be-noemd tot directeur van de omroep. Zaal, die sinds1997 directeur is van ROOS, het samenwerkings-orgaan van de regionale omroepen, is de opvolgervan Huub Elzerman die aan het eind van het jaarwegens het bereiken van de pensioengerechtigdeleeftijd RTV Noord-Holland zal verlaten. Zaal werktena zijn studie fiscale economie en het vervullenvan de dienstplicht (waarbij hij enige tijd voorzitterwas van de vakbond voordienstplichtigen VVDM) van1990 tot 1997 als secretaris vande Nederlandse Vereniging vanJournalisten. Daarna werd hijdirecteur van de StichtingROOS.

DI 1 JULI: Presentator Adam Curry stopt per directbij BNN. Hij wil met zijn ontslag een eerste bijdrageleveren aan de bezuinigingsplannen voor de pu-blieke omroep. Curry stelde in een verklaring dat hij90.000 euro per jaar ontving.Voor dit salaris maaktehij eenmaal per week een twee uur durende radio-uitzending met medepresentator Jeroen Kijk in deVegte. Curry zegt met zijn daad de vicieuze cirkelvan de publieke omroep te willen doorbreken:“Waarschijnlijk zullen de gemakkelijke oplossingen

als het ophef-fen van hetMetropole Or-kest en 747AMwel doorgangvinden. Maar ik

heb nog niemand met een kapmes bij de voordeurvan de directie gezien.’’

WO 2 JULI: In het geheim waren de laatste dagenvertegenwoordigers van twee stations aan hetonderhandelen over een eventuele samenwerking.Vandaag werd bekend dat de samenwerking nietdoorgaat en Radio Nationaal geheel zal wordenstopgezet. De andere onderhandelaar was Radio192, dat nu andermaal op zoek moet naar een even-tuele partner.

DO 3 JULI: De rechter die de zaak verdeling ether-frequenties in behandeling heeft in Rotterdam heeftde betreffende directies van de radiostations dui-delijk gemaakt dat de overwegende bezwaren zijnverworpen en dat hij over een week nader in zalgaan op de redenen waarom. Verder het goede

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nieuws vandaag dat Radio 192 een nieuwe financier heeft gevon-den en wel een bedrijf uit de gezondheidsbranche. En dan nu opzoek naar een partner voor een AM frequentie.

Bruno de Vos presenteert ‘Sangria’ op een warme zondagmiddag (13-7-2003) © Hans Marijs

VR 4 JULI: Op de tweede verjaardag van Radio 192 ook het nieuwsdat per 15 oktober Dink Binnendijk (44) benoemd is als directeur vanRadio TV West. Binnendijk, die sinds 1999 directeur/hoofdredac-teur is bij Omroep Flevoland, is de opvolger van Jeroen Soer die per1 augustus directeur wordt van de VARA. Dink Binnendijk werkte,voordat hij bij Omroep Flevoland aan de slag ging, als programma-leider televisie bij Omroep Limburg waar hij in 1997 verantwoordelijkwas voor de start en ontwikkeling van publieke regionale televisie inLimburg. Vanaf 1995 werkte Binnendijk in Hilversum, achtereenvol-gens bij Studio Sport en Endemol Sports (Sport 7 en SBS 6).

MA 7 JULI: Slim is het van Ruud Hendriks om met RTL in zee te gaanvoor de verkoop van de kabelfrequenties in Nederland voor 103 FM.En uiteraard zullen zijn voormalige collega’s bij Veronica daar ook blijmee zijn als men straks van naam gaat veranderen in Veronica.

DO 10 JULI: Op advertenties, radiospotjes en televisiereclame komtin 2004 waarschijnlijk een kleine heffing. Met die heffing kan voortaande Reclame Code Commissie worden betaald. Dat heeft directeur P.Ancion van de Reclame Code Comissie gezegd. Betrokken instan-ties, zoals de organisaties voor reclamebureaus en adverteerders,werken het voorstel momenteel uit. De heffing moet circa 900.000euro per jaar opleveren. Het voortbestaan van de Reclame CodeCommissie was dit voorjaar onzeker geworden. De stichting kreegsteeds moeizamer geld van brancheorganisaties, zoals het Neder-lands Uitgeversverbond (NUV), de Consumentenbond, de StichtingEther Reclame (Ster) en de koepelorganisaties voor lokale en regio-nale omroepen. De financiering van de Reclame Code Commissie isgestoeld op vrijwillige bijdragen van allerlei organisaties. Als heteconomisch slechter gaat, komt dat systeem onder druk te staan.De nieuwe reclameheffing moet het voortbestaan zekerder maken.

VR 11 JULI: Wat een genot vanavond ademloos te kunnen luisteren

naar twee presentatoren diewe al decennia geleden metplezier beluisterden. Ze warenvoor even terug op Radio 2 inverband met het NPS pro-gramma over het North SeaJazz Festival: Vincent van En-gelen (foto) en Co de Kloet. Wateen vaklieden, iets dat hedenten dage op de radio, quamuziekkennis, niet vaak meervoorkomt.

ZA 12 JULI: Hennie Stoelneemt afscheid van de kijkersen van het NOS - Journaal. Zeheeft 39 jaar voor de publiekeomroep gewerkt, waarvan 18jaar bij het Journaal. Ze beslootzelf eerder te stoppen om meertijd te kunnen besteden aanhaar privé-leven. Sacha deBoer gaat Henny’s plek bij hetAcht Uur - Journaal innemen.Samen met Philip Freriks zal DeBoer verantwoordelijk zijn voorde presentatie van het ‘belang-rijkste nieuwsbulletin van het

Sacha de Boer © Leendert Jansen

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NOS - Journaal.

MA 14 JULI: Roeland Stekelenburg is per 1 de-cember benoemd tot adjunct-hoofdredacteur bijhet lokale Amsterdamse televisiestation AT5. Hijmoet een belangrijke rol gaan spelen in de uitbrei-dingsplannen van het station. Men wil de komendejaren ook in de regio buiten de hoofdstad gaanuitzenden. De 39-jarige Stekelenburg was de af-gelopen vier jaar correspondent in Afrika voor deactualiteitenrubriek NOVA. Daarvoor werkte hijals verslaggever voor NOVA, RVU en de VPRO.

DI 15 JULI: Toch wel enigszins tegenslag bij deactie Etherflits van Telecom. Men maakt zelf be-kend dat een aantal slimme piraten in het oostenvan het land hun heil hebben gezocht aan deandere kant van de grens. Er dient nu overleg tekomen tussen vertegenwoordigers van de Duitsedienst en de Nederlandse collega’s om te komentot een soort van samenwerking om alsnog dezepiraten te kunnen oppakken.

ZO 20 JULI: Zoals iedere zondag vandaag eentop 10 op Radio10 FM. Voormalig minister en he-den ten dage commissaris van de koningin voorde provincie Friesland, Ed Nijpels, brengt zijn top10 ten gehore. Vorige week was het Jan de Hoop,dan wel Frank van der Mast, die aan de beurt

was.

WO 23 JULI: Zeer jammer ishet te horen dat Talpa Radio, dan wel de organi-satie achter onder meer Radio 10FM, heeft be-sloten de organisatie drastisch in te krimpen. OpAmerikaanse wijze werd men op straat gezet.Slechts 10 personen blijven in dienst van de on-derneming. Men zal rond deze tijd gaan verhui-zen van Amsterdam naar een studio in het com-plex van de Wereldomroep. Op een later momentkomt er andermaal een nieuwe verhuizing naareen gebouw dat Talpa voor al haar activiteitenwil gaan gebruiken. Ontslag was natuurlijk eenlogisch gevolg van het verliezen van de FM fre-quentie en de daarop volgende enorme terug-loop in adverteerders.

HANS KNOT EN MICHEL VAN HOOFF

De knop omMeestal wordt de knop definitief omgedraaidwanneer een station dermate grote verliezen lijdtdat het daardoor niet langer kan bestaan. Maarhet kan soms ook een andere reden zijn. SAC-FMin Saint Andrew op Granada was onlangs plot-seling uit de ether toen de huurbaas ingreep. Hetstuk land, waarop de gebouwen van het stationstaan, werd geconvisceerd door de eigenaarwaardoor niemand anders het grondstuk meermocht betrreden. De reden was dat de huur alenige tijd niet meer door de eigenaar van SAC-FMwas betaald.

Andere licentie is weldoorgaan waardEnkele maanden geledenmaakte ik bekend dat het

bestaande commerciële radionet in Noorwegen,dat gerund wordt door P4 Radio Hele Norge SA,haar licentie gaat verliezen per 1 januari aan-staande aan Kanal 4. Direct nadat dit bekend werdis er een tweede inschrijving geopend voor eennieuw commercieel net. Op dit tweede net heeftde eigenaar van P4 Radio geboden en gewon-nen en dus zal men ondanks alles in de etherblijven en alleen van frequenties gaan verande-ren.

JELLE KNOT

Lokale radioEen recent onderzoek wees uit dat in Beieren degezamenlijke lokale omroepen de luisteraars bo-ven de 14 jaar het meeste bereiken. Het bere-kende daggemiddelde kwam uit op 28% hetgeenneerkomt op 2,629 miljoen. Bayern 1 volgde met24,6% hetgeen staat voor 2,307 miljoen. AntenneBayern kwam op de derde plaats met 23,7% of-wel 2,226 miljoen.

INGO PATERNOSTER

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Het bedrijf is aanzienlijk minder bekend dan PAMS, delegendarische jinglefabriek uit Dallas, maar creatiefgezien toch op hetzelfde niveau. Gwinsound, eeneenmansmaatschappijtje van drummer Tom Gwin. Hijbegon in 1965 zonder één dollarcent in de jingles. Deeerste klant moest zelfs vooruit betalen, zodat TomGwin er een studio mee kon huren, en muzikanten eneen koortje. Een hele gok, maar die pakte goed uit -ten eerste door de muzikaliteit van Tom Gwin, die aljaren een veelgevraagde sessiemuzikant was bijPAMS en de andere jinglemaatschappijen: hij had dusin de keuken kunnen kijken.

En ten tweede door zijn hechte en zakelijke verbondmet jinglecomponist Tom Merriman, de duizendpootdie al sinds 1952 jingles schrijft. En nu -51 jaar later-trouwens nog steeds. De Veronica-jingles uit ThePower zijn van zijn hand, en de jingles van RadioExpress en Winning Score, die de TROS zo’n mas-saal geluid gaven. Deze veteraan was het geheimachter het strakke geluid van Gwinsound. TomMerriman schreef 27 van de 28 Gwin - pakketten (de28ste werd gedaan door Euel Box, de schrijver vande Sonowaltz, die onder meer op Wonderful RadioLondon zo’n grote faam kreeg). Het wordt allemaalonthuld op de Gwinbox: maar liefst 12 CD’s met daaropalle Gwin-pakketten, veel van de resings, despecialities, instrumentale backing tracks encommercials.

Ze werden uitgebracht doorBen Freedman (zelf ook eenhartstochtelijk verzamelaar énde man achter de JingleUniversity). Ben Freedman zitinmiddels ook alweer 30 jaarin het vak. Hij maakte ondermeer jingles voor RadioLuxemburg. Een man dus meteen goed ontwikkeldproduceroor. Buitengewooninteressant is ook het inter-view dat Ben deed met TomGwin, naamgever en grond-legger van de firma, die nugepensioneerd zijn dagen slijtonder de warme zon inArizona. Drummen lukt allangniet meer - zegt Gwin: de reu-matiek heeft zonder mededo-

gen toegeslagen.

Eigenlijk biedt de Gwinsound-box twee voorde prijs van één: want behalve Gwin zijn erook 4 CD’s met CRC pakketten in de box op-genomen. Dat is niet zo vreemd, want TomMerriman was oprichter van de maatschap-pij, het enige bedrijf dat er in slaagde om PAMSin z’n hoogtijdagen concurrentie aan te doen.En Tom Gwin drumde letterlijk op alle pakket-ten mee, en was ook nog CRC technicus enproducer. De box is opgedragen aan TomMerriman (79) - en dat is terecht ook. Want bijGwinsound blijkt Merriman - de naamgeveren grote man achter het legendarische TM)dus ook nog eens verantwoordelijk te zijnvoor de jingles waarmee Radio Noordzee vlakna de start in 1970 zo’n goede sier maakte.

Eigenlijk waren ze gemaakt voor WLOF inOrlando, maar op het demobandje vanGwinsound (ze gingen als series 9 het levendoor) werd de stationsnaam eruit geknipt enliet Robbie Dale als gelegenheidsproducer eenkoortje van Nederlanders op de lege plek-ken ‘Radio Northsea’ inzingen. ‘Dat dedenze niet slecht ook’, vinden Ben en Tom Gwin,die pas dit jaar van het bestaan van dit roem-ruchte pakket hoorden. Vroeger kwam je metdit soort jatwerk mooi weg. Maar tegenwoor-dig is de wereld ‘the global village’ gewor-den, die Marshal McLuhan destijds voorspelde‘De wereld heeft nu veel betere jingle orengekregen’, zeggen ze.

v.l.n.r.: Marvin Montgomery, Tom Merriman, Clark Gassmannen achter de drums Tom Gwin (1958) - www.gwinsound.com

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Uiteraard staan ook de RNI- versies opde Cd’s, net als het echte uit het origi-neel: op topkwaliteit allemaal.Verder ishet genieten geblazen: het geluid vanGwinsound was zo strak als maar we-zen kon: geoliede trompetpartijen, voor-treffelijke zang, goed drumwerk, na-tuurlijk verzorgd door Tom Gwin zelf,die destijds gold als een van de bestedrummers in Dallas en ommelanden. Opalle paukenjingles die ooit door dejinglemaatschappijen werden gemaaktis hij te horen, want hij werd op z’n 18eal paukenist bij het gerenommeerde Dal-las Symphony Orchestra.

Dat Gwinsoundhet niveau vanPAMS kon evena-ren had nog eenandere reden:Gwin huurde debeste zangers alsMarv Shaw, Brian

Beck, Jim Clancy en Abby Holmes in, dieook bij PAMS elke dag in koortjes zon-gen. Op het Radio Noordzee pakket isbijvoorbeeld Trella Hart te horen (bijPAMS bekend van haar snerpende stemin de Swiszle en Fun-n-n-n jingles). En soulman Peyton Park: een blanke man,die kon klinken als Ray Charles in zijnhoogtijdagen. Wie van de ‘classic jingles’houdt die in de jaren zestig en zeventigvanuit Dallas de wereld in werden ge-slingerd, doet voor zichzelf een goededaad door deze prachtbox te kopen.Goedkoop is de box niet, maar in prijswel te rechtvaardigen, gezien het ab-solute topwerk uit Dallas dat er op isverzameld.

Wie nog nooit werk van Gwinsoundheeft gehoord doet zichzelf beslist te-kort. Bovendien, wie naar deze pracht-opnamen luistert, moet onder de indrukkomen van de liefde voor jingles en detoewijding waarmee het allemaal is ge-maakt. Te vergelijken met de PAMS boxvan Jon Wolfert, die vijf jaar geledenmet algemeen genoegen werd ontvan-gen. De Gwinbox kost buiten de USA130 dollar. Voor bestelinformatie en veelmooie Gwinsound-foto’s:

www.gwinsound.com

JELLE BOONSTRA

R a d i oVeronica:April 18thWeeks onf o r e h a n dp r o m o ’ sw e r etransmittedon RadioV e r o n i c aasking thelisteners tocome downto the Haguet o g e t h e rwith familyand friends.I can tell youthat ‘playhooky’ wasa commongame thatday. Thestaff and

18 april 1973:people demonstratingat the “Binnenhof”,where the Dutchgovernment wasaccomodated

Each year radio-addicted people in the Netherlands doremember April 18th. That’s a very important day in thehistory of radio. It was April 18th 1973 that more than150.000 people got together on and in the surroundings ofthe Malieveld in the Hague for the ‘then’ biggestdemonstration ever held in the country ‘behind the dykes’.During this demonstration, which was organised by peoplewho loved the offshore radio station Veronica, thelisteners were protesting against the plans of Dutchgovernment to close down the watery radio stations, sowell loved by million of listeners. From all parts of theNetherlands people came to the city where Dutchgovernment rules Holland. Not only that, also from countrieslike Great Britain, Germany, Belgium and France theanoraks, as the offshore radio fans were mentioned, cameto the Malieveld. From there on a walk through the Haguetook place to handover petitions and signatures of all thoselisteners to a represantive of Dutch government. The Dutch2nd Chamber, after a hearing, decided however that a newlaw had to become in action. This one became active onSeptember 1st 1974, which seemed the end for OffshoreRadio. So everyone remembers this de-monstration. HansKnot invites you to make a banner and walk with himthrough memory lane.

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deejays on the station knew on forehand that thedemonstration would be a success as we talkabout the amount of people. In 1971, after thestation had a very bad press due to a few peoplein the organisation had decided that there had tobecome an end to a competitor. A bomb wasthrown by three divers, who were paid by theVeronica people. Deejays decided a few weeksafter the bomb attack to start a campaign in whichthey wanted the listeners to write down that theystood behind the station. The campaign wascalled ‘Veronica blijft als U dat wilt’ (Veronicastays if you want it). Of course this campaignwas heavily promoted on the station. 53 Hoursafter the campaign had started a spokesman forVeronica told the press: ‘We can announce somefigures. 1 million postcards have been distributedall over Holland and already more than 200.000have been received back by the post. Thereaction of the public is fantastic. Dutch PTT (ThePostmen) were so friendly to bring the cards witha special car. One of the things we asked thepeople to mention on the card is their age and Ican tell you that the cards have been sent in bypeople in the age from 5 up till 93 years. But themost cards can be put in the age between 20 and30 years.’ And very proudly the spokesmanfinished with the words that the next million cardswould be pressed the next day.

From that point on about 15.000 people all overHolland were working (unpaid) for Radio Veronicato provide as much as possible inhabitants fromthe special cards. School kids brought the cardsto their friends, schoolmates and family. You couldpick up the cards at the petrol station. A cigarette

companysponsored20 girlswho wentinto the bigcities todistributethe cardsin shopc e n t r e s .

Also special concerts were held; cards could bereceived at the gates of the football stadiums.Thursday August 19th 1971 a total amount of 1million cards had been counted, which weresigned and sent back to Veronica at theUtrechtseweg in Hilversum. Everywhere inHolland you could find back stickers with thewords ‘Veronica blijft als U dat wilt’. But noteveryone was happy with the campaign as therewere also stickers with the words ‘Veronica RotOp Nu’ (VRON), which could be translatednowadays with ‘Fuck off Veronica’. A smearcampaign, which was organised by some people.Names never became in the publicityand lucky enough within a few weeks everyonehad forgotten the anti-stickers. And thetremendous success of the postcard campaignin the summer of 1971 was in 1973 reasonenough to go for the biggest demonstration ever,as the organisers knew that the people of Hollandwanted their favourite station in the years to come.And next to that a research had been made aboutthe listening behaviour of the Dutch people. Morethan 75% tuned in to offshore radio stations. In1973 next to Radio Veronica and Radio NorthseaInternational. From that group 80% wanted the

station continue to exist.

Early protestBut were there moredemonstrations than theone which is rememberedevery year? Of coursethere were. Through theyears severaldemonstrations have beenheld. Also severalorganisations were setup. The first form ofprotest I could find back inmy archive, was a leafletfrom autumn 1964. It camefrom the VVRT, whichstood for ‘Vereniging voorVrije Radio en TV’.(Society For Free Radio

Campaigning at the entry of thePier in Scheveningen, June 1973

© W. van Heeren-de Geus

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and Television). They asked theirmembers to sent a letter of protest to theDutch government against their plans tocome with a special law, which shouldforbid the REM Radio and Televisiontransmitting from a platform anchored offthe Noordwijk Coast. In the next leafletfrom de VVRT a report could be read, inwhich Mr. Cobet, thechairman, wrote about the results of thecampaign. ‘On the day of the firstdiscussion in Parliament we’ve sent aletter of protest to the responsibleMinisters as well as members ofParliament. This was followed bysending copies to 70 differentnewspapers. From 40 different citiesletters were sent to members of thefollowing political parties: VVD, PvdA,ARP, KVP, CHU. When I did attend thediscussions several telegrams werebrought in and the letter of protest wasofficially signed in as an ‘incoming item’.

Police boarding the REM island

Reading back after so many decadesthe bulletin of the VVRT, which had theiraddress at the Herenstreet 111 inBussum, near Hilversum, it’s verystrange to read nothing at all about thecontents of the discussions. Mr Cobetwent on, like so many otherorganisations later in the history onOffshore Radio, to discuss with thereaders the financial problems of theorganisation and asking for as much aspossible guilders to run the VVRT. Forthe year 1964 the foundation asked for1 guilder a year for membership. But Mr

Cobet added that it would be very nice to sent in 100guilders instead. Also he wrote about setting up localbranches, something which would happen with otherorganisations related to the Fight For Free Radio in lateryears. Members would be mentioned real members if theywould bring in at least five new members. For this aimthey could get free transfers (stickers) with a drawing ofthe TV island. The only thing to do was sent an addressedenvelope including a return stamp to the earlier mentionedaddress in Bussum. Also the organisation asked to sentin all newspaper cuts that could be find in the press, thiswith the aim to get a rundown of all the publicity aroundRadio and TV Noordzee.

Finally about this VVRT can be mentioned that they hadalso some problems with journalists, who wanted to maketheir own turn to the story. In Dutch biggest newspaper‘De Telegraaf’ it was mentioned that the VVRT would endall their activities as soon the Dutch Parliament woulddecide to bring in a special law to make an end of allactivities concerning the REM Isle. Cobet mentioned theserious failure, which would be the own view of thejournalist. Instead of stopping all activities there shouldhave been printed: ‘We’re going on with our aim to makethe whole system of radio and television in Netherlandsdifferent to which it is nowadays’. After bulletin number7, early 1965, we didn’t hear anymore on this earlier fightfor freedom in the air.

Marine Offences BillIn England offshore radio was also often reason forconversation. The British Government came just beforeChristmas 1966 with the so called White Paper, in whichtheir plans for the future of broadcasting. Next to the planto start a National Pop Station (BBC Radio One) they alsohad the idea to start nine local BBC stations. Next theintroduction of a Marine Offences Bill was announced.That should also make an end to Offshore Broadcastingoff the British Coast. Of course the listeners of the manyoffshore radio stations were not happy and on January29th 1967 the Commercial Radio Listeners Association(CRLA) was formed by Miss Catherine Baker to combatthe Marine Offences Bill. Earlier, on October 24th 1966,The National League of Young Liberalslaunched their ‘Save Pop Radio’ campaign.After that nothing was heard anymoreabout their vague plans.

Free Radio AssociationBut the people of the CRLA were not aloneearly 1967, as another organisation wasset up: The Free Radio SupportersAssociation. A meeting was held onFebruary 19th 1967 to form an organisation representingall listeners of commercial radio, and which would havethe full support of all the offshore stations. At the meetingmost of the offshore stations had a represantive. During

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Sir Ian Mactaggart at FRA demonstration in 1967 © Franko Rosso

the meeting it was agreed that the stations should helpthe listeners association in every way they could,particularly by broadcasting free spots on air, to supportall the organising things from the CRLA. However norepresentatives from the stations would get a chair withinthe organisation and also they wouldnot finance them. Within weeks the two organisationsbecame merged into The Free Radio SupportersAssociation. This name was dropped the next day whenRonan O’Rahilly, director and owner for Radio Caroline,announced that promotion spots for the new organisationonly could be broadcast if the word ‘Supporters’ wouldbe dropped. And from that day on the FRA could beactive.

The new organisation needed a strong man, which wasfound in the person of Sir Ian Mactaggart. He waschairman of the National Council of the Society forIndividual Freedom and also former Conservative memberof the London County Council for Fulham. And for theOffshore Radio listeners the place ‘Rayleigh’ stood forFree Radio Association. Under chairmanship of GeoffreyPearl 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 wasand where it stood for: ‘The Free Radio Association isfighting for free speech, free enterprise and free choice.The government is trying to crush all competition overthe air by silencing the commercial stations – therebypreserving the monopoly of the BBC and depriving us ofthe freedom to listen to the stations of our choice. This isa step towards dictatorship. If the Marine BroadcastingBill becomes law in its present form, free speech will besuppressed, and the Free Radio Association will bepartially silenced. We have pledged that we will fightuntil we win. This is more than a petition. It’s a declaration

that we, the British people, will fight forfreedom of the air as we have foughtbefore when our freedom has beenthreatened. It is a declaration that we, theundersigned, support the Free RadioAssociation in its fight for the right of thepublic to listen to the independent radiostations. And it is a declaration that wethe undersigned will use our votes toremove this government from power atthe first opportunity, and replace it with agovernment which believes in freespeech, free enterprise and free choice’.

Radio NewsIn the middle of January 1967 a four pagesmagazine was first published and it wasfree as a supplement with the NationalAdvertiser. This magazine, called RadioNews, had nine issues. Each representeda defence of a pirate station and itconsistently urged the introduction of free,commercial radio in Britain. Just twomonths later, March 16th, the Radio Newsbecame part of the Time and Tidepublication, an established newsmagazine. In the first combined editionthey published an interview with RonanO’Rahilly, the founder of Radio Caroline.He spoke about the plans from theGovernment to bring in the MarineOffences Bill: ‘Most of the thinking people

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in Britain are unaware of what the MarineOffences Broadcasting Bill will do to us. Itwill make Radio Caroline international;internationally recognised and legal. Forthe public however it does this: if a Britishshopkeeper sells cigarettes to a RadioCaroline announcer he (the shopkeeper)becomes a criminal. If the Archbishop ofCanterbury or Cardinal Heenan or the ChiefRabbi gave a sermon on Radio Caroline,they would become criminals too. If ajournalist writes a newscast or talks onRadio Caroline, he becomes a criminal. If aBritish advertiser advertises on RadioCaroline, he becomes a criminal. If, on theother hand, the Pope were to write asermon for Radio Caroline he would notbe a criminal, nor would any foreign figurewho wanted to use the medium to voicepublicly something he wanted to say. Inother words it is stifling the freedom ofspeech of the British subject to speakwhere he likes about to speak.’

FRA demonstration in 1967 © Franko Rosso

Local branchesThe FRA also tried to get their followerstogether in local branches and theyorganised demonstrations. One of thesetook place on May 28th 1967 in London.Some 2000 listeners from the radio stationscame together to listen to their speakersand walk in a protest demonstration fromTrafalgar Square to Fleet Street. In thosehippie days there were a lot of so called‘underground magazines’. Those were

Rick Dane

© Keith Hampshire

spread aroundfrom people topeople and couldnot be bought ata newsstand.One of theMagazines wasThe InternationalTimes, in whicha report wasmade about thedemonstration. Itwas written byFrank Fuchs: ‘A sunny Sunday afternoon in TrafalgarSquare, and a crowd of 2000 teeny-boppers gatheredto support for Free Radio. Swaying slowly in the intervalmusic (courtesy of Radio 390), putting their coppers inthe collecting tins, giggling in the sun. Hello, what’s yourname? Where’re you from? “Barbara (giggle) from Ilford.I’m fourteen.” Why have you come? “To hear whatthey’re saying and that”. Have you been listening to thespeeches? “mmm, yes, they’re very good…”. What didthey say? “….(giggle)….mmm…well, they’re very goodthough.” 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’ssomething I enjoy, and something I don’t want to bestopped’. On the question if this made him feel anti-government Martin answered to the interviewer: “Oh, itdefiantly does, and I think it makes a lot of people feellike that. And they’ve taken it out in the Council Elections.My both parents listen to three-nine-oh and they bothvoted against Labour.”

Interesting, by reading back the report in InternationalTimes was that the interviewer made a fast conclusionabout how the people listened to the speeches: ‘No oneseems to be taking in what the speakers are saying:we all know we’re are here because we just like tolisten to the radio. Anyway the talking is just about overand everyone is forming up to march down to FleetStreet. Think I ought to interview some of the organisers.’.Radio Caroline decided also to delegate one of thedeejays. It was Rick Dane who went to Trafalgar Squareand who had some special comments on his boss RonanO’Rahilly: ‘Ronan really believes in Freedom. That’s whyhe started Radio Caroline. He’s serious about Freedom.He’s a Kennedy-ite. He doesn’t need to work….his oldman owns shipyards.´ And about the competitor, RadioLondon, Dane had also his own vision: ‘Radio London isonly interested in making money. They couldn’t care astuff about Freedom, you can tell just by listening to thestation.’

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But who where the people who had organisedthe meeting? First of all there was a 17 year oldguy, called Alan Clark who mentioned he wasthe treasurer of the FRA. Interviewer FrankFuchs asked him if he saw any connectionbetween the State putting down the Pirates andthe State putting down smokers and trippers. Theanswer was: ‘Not really, no. You can look at itthis 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 andthis sort of thing, is it? And when people takeL.S.D., it’s all you know, hallucinations and goaround smashing things up and that sort of thing,but Free Radio is hardly likely to do that….it’s a bitdifferent really.”

FRA demonstration in 1967 © Franko Rosso

Next to Alan there was Sir Ian Mactaggart, baronyand managing director of Western HaritalbeInvestment Comp. He was also at that stagechairman of the Society for Individual Freedom.He explained: “This, amongst other freedom-defending activities tries to support ‘tradeunionists’ against ‘communist influence’ and‘closed shops’. The third man of the FRA waschairman Jeffrey Pearl. The report ended with:‘The teeny boppers in Trafalgar Square reallycare about Pirate Radios, and the music theybroadcast. Harold Wilson and his Victor SylvesterFormation Team had better face this instead ofdriving them straight into the ranks of the BritishFree John Birchers. Or could that be perhaps thewhole plan? Who owns whom?’ Not much laterthe FRA claimed herself that the demonstrationwas visited by 4000 people instead of the 2000mentioned in the above report.

EffortsBut there was a real problem for the FRA: next tothe promotion spots on the offshore stations itwas difficult to get articles in the press. Pearl:“The press is playing down the efforts of theAssociation. They see commercial radio ascompetition for their advertising revenue.” Asmentioned several of the Offshore stations playedspecial promotions for the FRA with regularintervals. In some of them the listeners were askedto write to their local MP. In spring of 1967 theywere also asked to sent a letter to the PrimeMinister, Harold Wilson in which they had to writedown why they were disappointed that he andthe Government were banning the offshore radiostations. All the letters, received at 10 DowningStreet, were passed on to the Post MasterGeneral. It was Mr. Edward Short, who was onthat position in those days. And he had a privatesecretary, Mrs E.E. Frankham. I can tell you shehad a lot of work with responding all the letters.

There was a standard response letter sent tothousands of listeners all over Great Britain andeven to Holland and Belgium. Here’s what waswritten by the Post Master General: ‘Many peoplehave been very disappointed to hear that piratebroadcasting is to be stopped. It seems soharmless, and it is enjoyed by so many people. Infact, despite the repeated claims of the pirates,their broadcasts are far from harmless. Thepirates are using wavelengths which we haveundertaken to leave clear for the broadcastingservices in other countries. By so doing, theyprevent people in those countries from hearingtheir own domestic programmes. They alsorepresent a danger – slight but ever-present tothe radio services – on which safety at seadepends. Moreover, broadcasting from the highseas is forbidden, all over the world byinternational law, and the pirates make almost

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unlimited use of recorded material, threateningthe livelihoods of the musicians and the otherperformers whose work they use, withoutpermission or payment. To date twelve Europeancountries have complained to the Post MasterGeneral about the pirates’ interference with theirbroadcasting services. And communicationsbetween ships and the shore have been seriouslyinterfered with. If the pirates were allowed tocontinue unchecked, there would soon be somuch interference that broadcasting as we knowit would become impossible. This threat to thefuture of broadcasting has caused the maritimecountries of the Council of Europe to agree tolegislate on common lines to deal with it. The Bill,which is being considered by Parliament, carriesout our obligations under the EuropeanAgreement. Many people feel that an easy solutionwould be to ‘bring the pirates ashore’, that is, tolicence them to operate on land. That is just notpossible. There are no unused wavelengths onwhich powerful stations like the pirate stationscould operate without causing interference. Inany case, if they operated within the control ofthe copyright laws, they could not transmit thesort of programmes that they have beentransmitting. The Government’s plans for the futureof sound broadcasting, which have recently beenannounced, are designed to match ourbroadcasting services more closely to our needswithout interfering with other people’s rights. Butthe most pressing need is to silence the pirateradio stations, which are flouting internationalregulations, earning us such a bad name abroad,endangering shipping and threatening to makebroadcasting end in chaos, not only in Britain butover most of Europe.

Radio 270Most of theOffshore radiostations didn’twant to be toopolitical. One ofthe exceptionson this was Radio270, whichtransmitted offthe coast ofS c a r b o r o u g hfrom the formerOceaan 7 fromScheveningen.

The station carried political messages for allparties who wanted to be on the station. Therewas only one regulation, the messages were not

allowed to be inspiring race hate. OwnerProudfoot even claimed that the Communist wereallowed to transmit their message over the Radio270 transmitter. The very first political party, whichbought airtime with Radio 270, was The YoungConservatives at York University. It was plannedthat their special broadcast, with a speech fromMP Patrick Wall, would be aired on May 1st 1967.This, however, didn’t happen as the recordedtape had a technical problem. It had to bererecorded and was transmitted on another date.In the month of June, that year, another politicalbroadcast was made by the same group. It wasthe same Patrick Wall who interviewed John BiggsDavidson, another Conservative MP, about theway government acted with the problems withand in Rhodesia, Israel and the Middle East.

Owner Will Proudfoot (photo)

went further: not only freepublicity for the politicalparties, he also invited MP’s.On the ship The ShadowPost-Master General, PaulBryan one day took a visitand also other local MP’stook a day out to sea. Willalso invited Mr. Short, thePost Master General, but henever showed up. After his visit to the old fishingtrawler Paul Bryan, a Conservative, stated: ’20million people have all the right to complain to theGovernment and protest against the plans to banthe stations without any real attempt to providealternative programmes.’ And the ‘Fight for FreeRadio’ spots on Radio 270, which were alsolaunched on Wonderful Radio London, may notforget to be mentioned. Proudfoot decided thatalso a booklet had to be published, in cooperationwith the Institute of Economic Affairs. It waswritten by Dennis Thomas. In ‘Competition in Radio’Dennis described the development of the radioindustry abroad and in Britain and he brought theconclusion that the introduction of a legalcommercial radio system was needed as soonas possible. However it would take up to October1973 before the very first commercial(Independent Local Radio Station) went on theair.

On the stations, as told before, spots weretransmitted in the Fight for Free Radio. On Radio270 one of those was as follows: “Sir, inenforcing a state controlled alternative tocommercial radio in Britain has it occurred to youthat the people don’t want to be forced to listen to

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copy with offshore radio stations,and British subjects from workingon them, with the intention offorcing them to close down. Inorder to do this, the Actincorporates the use of methodswhich are completely alien to theage-old, traditional ideals of BritishJustice, including a reversal of theadage ‘a man is consideredinnocent until proven guilty’. Apartfrom that, this restriction on radiobroadcasting which nearly half thepopulation of the UK like to listento, bears no resemblance to theconcept of a democracy. Weintend to establish a network of‘Action Centres’, each responsiblefor voicing agitation is their area.This will be run by unpaidvolunteers, who will hold

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 commercialradio. 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 tofight for free Conservative radio in Britain. Do not tolerate statecontrolled radio. Write to your Member of Parliament today.” Andthis and other spots were transmitted on regular timeslots onRadio 270.

More political airtimeAnother exception to mention is Radio Scotland. It announced inSeptember 1966 that soon political airtime would be sold. AlsoGordon Wilson, Secretary of the Scottish National Party claimedhis Party would soon have airtime on ‘242’, but nothing reallyhappened. Also promises from Scotland’s managing director,Tommy Shields, to go for a ‘place’ during a local by-election inGlasgow, came to nothing.

In April 1967 there was also some political airtime on RadioCaroline as well as Radio London. On April 13th the local electionstook place in England and Wales. On forehand special spotswere transmitted in which the question ‘how many of your localcandidates are in favour of Free Radio. Within the Labour Party20% was mentioned. The Conservatives 98% en the Liberals82%. Robert Chapman, researcher in Media Studies and writerof the book ‘Selling the Sixties’ comment: ‘By pledging to closethe pirates down, Labour by inference, was leading the electoratedown a totalitarian road. In an increasingly hysterical campaign,the words ‘police state’ also began to enter the vocabulary ofabuse. The results of the poll were featured extensively by bothCaroline and London during the period leading up the elections.On polling day this coverage reached saturation point, with newsbulletins making great play of the newly released monthly tradefigures, which showed an overall deficit of 29 million Pounds.Caroline’s campaign was particularly efficient. It’s coverage ofthe election results began at midnight, as soon as the first resultscame in. The Conservatives did have the victory in those electionsand in the morning of April 14th Caroline claimed it had someinfluence on the results.

Broadside Free Radio MovementBut there was another organisation, which name was mentionedon a couple of offshore radio stations in the form of promotionalspots. It was the Broadside Free Radio Movement, which washeaded by Peter Philipson. In April 1967 he recruited students,mostly from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The latterwas his home base. Radio Caroline did a lot of promotion for theBFRM and in June Philipson decided that his headquarters hadto be moved to London. He did sent out a outline of what TheBroadside 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

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meetings, canvass, distribute literature, andattempt to persuade people to withhold theirsupport from Parliamentary candidates andM.P.’s who back the ‘Marine etc Act’. In thisway we intend to stir up public feeling to suchan extent that the ‘Act’ will fall in its objective.’The Broadside Free Radio Movement also didsent out a leaflet to the members claiming theorganisation had some aims:

1* To give a coherent and visible organisationto the many millions of people in this countrywho are directly opposed to the Government’sMarine Broadcasting Offence Bill.2* To give to these people a framework withinwhich their protest can take on a more unitary,and united form, and thus, it is hoped, a moreeffective one.3* To expose what the movement considersto be the completely inadequate argumentsthat the Government has put forward toaccount for the action that hey have taken,and are still in the process of taking againstthe pioneers of independent broadcasting inthis country.4* To support the whole concept of a freeand completely independent system of soundbroadcasting here, both on a national and alocal scale, and thus by implication, to opposeany attempt to return to the air networks ofthis country to a monopoly control.

Just a month later he announced that hisBroadside Free Radio Movement had amembership which has passed the amountof 80.000. He and his friends however hadno idea of book keeping for in October 1967the BFRM went bankrupt. That’s were theFRA stepped in and took over the outstandingdebts of the creditors of the BFRM. Of coursethe members of the former club becamemember of the FRA, which could claim, thatway, more than 100.000 members. I will comeback to that later.

Radio 1The Postmaster General, Edward Short, announcedon June 30th 1967 that the BBC would be openingtheir pop service on September 30th 1967. Radio Onewould be the name and it would broadcast continuousmusic from 7 up till 7.30 AM, followed by light musicand entertainment until 2.00 the following day. But thequestion was if all those millions of offshore listenerswere happy with the new station. It did try to copythe offshore radio stations. The BBC hired a lot of theformer deejays after August 14th 1967 and even thejingles were copied, although overproduced.

Paul Harris, author and publisher, had his ideas aboutthe FRA: ‘It was too obvious that the FRA had arrivedon the scene too late to exert any real or decisivepressure on events. In fact, by the time it was formedthe most important reading of the Marine OffencesBill, the Second Reading in the House of Commons,had taken place and had been carried.’

Local branches were formed and in June 1967 therewere 259 branches but only 1920 members, whichwas a very small amount compared to the listenersthe offshore radio stations claimed together for thewhole of Great Britain: 20 million.’

The FRA did organise in the summer of 1967, justbefore the MOA became law, ’The Free Radio Ball ofthe Year’ at Alexandra Palace in London. Around 3000people came to see ‘The Move’ and other groups.Deejays Johnnie Walker and Robbie Dale – both fromRadio Caroline – hosted the show.

But also after the MOB became law people in GreatBritain tried to remember that Black Monday, August14th 1967, when the last programs, excluding RadioCaroline, from the stations were transmitted. A formerRadio London deejay, Mark Roman, was carriedaround to the marketplace of his hometown Romfordin a coffin. They were commemorating the firstanniversary of the death of Pirate Radio on August

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14th 1968. Aday later heleft Englandto start anew careerin radio inhis nativec o u n t r yAus t ra l i a .The sameyear inA u g u s tanother bigdemonstrationwas held onT r a f a l g a rS q u a r e .One of thespeakers ,

there, was Robbie Dale (see above). He worked forRadio Caroline and was one of the deejays whowent on working for Radio Caroline after the MOBbecame Act. After the Caroline ships were takenaway from international waters by creditors, hestarted to work for Radio Veronica. A year laterFree Radio London, a land based pirate radiostation, was on the air for the first time toremember Big L, Wonderful Radio London – astation that closed down on August 14th 1967.And also in years afterwards the offshore radiostations were and are always remembered onseveral radio stations in England and Holland.

London inGroningenAs told earlierI will take youto some of them e m o r i e sregarding theFight For FreeRadio. Itwould be toomuch tomention themall. Nowadaysl o o k i n garound forinstant atr a i l r o a dstations oralongside theroad, you seeeverywheregraffiti. In thesixties the

youth used real paint to express their favour fortheir Beat Group. Also they used the paint as aform of protest. And if they used good paint it canbe found back nowadays. A few guys from myhometown Groningen took a paintbrush in 1967,when they heard that the Marine Offences Billwould become act. They painted on a shed intheir fire corridor the words ‘Radio London’ andstill up till today those two words can be seen.However nowadays with higher criminality, it canonly been seen from the Gorechtkade (the streetwhere the corridor is) from behind an iron fence.Again a small but very effective way of protestand above all a token to Free Radio.

FRA’s LeafletsBut going back to the FRA they published manyleaflets in which they became for a lot of membersunreliable. Let’s go to a part of the text of one ofthe leaflets from 1968: ‘The Marine Offences Actis almost dead. Caroline plays on. A new ‘sweetmusic’ station (hush hush) is coming. Themembers of Broadside and the Free RadioAssociation have come together in a big new100.000 strong Free Radio Association. We foughtand now were are winning.’ It seems with100.000 members it should be a financial healthyorganisation. But it was far from that: ‘But, asyou will see, we have some problems We mustnot weaken now, or we’ve had it, so please helpin all the ways I ask you in this newsletter.Broadside had a debt of 800 Pounds, mainlybecause it had no membership subscription. Muchof this debt has been cleared, but we are shortof money and have had to take a temporary loan.Because all Broadside members becameassociate members of the FRA, there are now4.500 fullpaid members, but 95.500 Associate freemembers. I’m sure you can see this put a terrificstrain on our finances. This won’t be a problem ifyou Associate members fork out five bop for FullMembership. This will give us the money whichevery big Association doing a big job must have!So, please, please fill in the below form.’

The above info sent out, probably to a fewthousand people instead of the 100.000mentioned, gave the supporters a lot to think about.Five bop for a membership of the FRA? Whatwould we get back for it? Well, the people of theFRA England had a quick answer: ‘Now we areso large, we only can write to members once ayear. If you are a full member, and yoursubscription falls due any time in 1968, may Iplease ask you to renew now.’ So payment inadvance to make more and more money. Also

© Jana Knot-Dickscheit

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they promised members to be apartner in a Football Pools Syndicate.The FRA started a promotion tobecome ‘a FRA Seller’. In other wordssell the things (books, photo’srecordings, stickers, buttons’) we’vein stock and get our free logo indisplay. ‘

FRA into difficultiesYears later it was Geoffrey Pearlwho did write his own ‘history onthe FRA’ and about the organisation,directly after August 14th 1967 hewrote: ‘Almost immediately, theAssociation ran into difficulties. Thesubscription rate was adequatewhen free advertisements werebeing broadcast, but did not covermore than a fraction of the expensewhen this facility was no longeravailable. The FRA found itself losingmoney at the ratio of 30 Pounds aweek. Unfortunately, the Committeehad been infiltrated by an elementwho did not have the interests of theFree Radio Association at heart. Theynow seized their opportunity to strikewhen the Association was at itweakest. By disrupting Committeemeetings, they prevented thedecisions being taken which wouldhave enabled the serious financialsituation to have been dealt with. Asthe only possible means of saving

the Association , the Chairman personally made the necessarydecisions. The disruptive element, who had by then gainedthe support of other members of the Committee , then formedan opposing group which made every effort to smash theAssociation. They persuaded the Association’s bankers thata dispute existed, which resulted in a complete freeze of theAssociation’s bank accounts. A bank freeze at a time whenthe Association was running a very heavy weekly deficitcould have been expected to bankrupt the FRA within threeweeks.’

The Association was saved by a merger and a loan from abank. Pearl himself about the moves: “We were saved bytwo bold moves which the opposing group had not bargainedfor. Firstly, a large loan was made to tide it over the bankfreeze. Secondly, animmediate merger wasarranged with thesuccessor organisation toBroadside Free RadioMovement. Backing upthese moves was a totalrefusal to accept the defeatby those whose job it wasto run the Association.”However, Pearl forgot tomention that he steppedinto the Broadside FreeRadio Movement at themoment this company wentbankrupt. He also forgot tosay that the other membersof his FRA stated that heused large sums of moneyfrom members of the FRAto finance other sourcesthan where the FRA stoodfor.

Geoffrey Pearl at a Rally in 1970

The opposing party however claimed also representing theFRA and tried to attack every move of the Pearl’s Group.However in March 1968 both Groups came together andworked the problems out and the frozen bank account wasre-opened. Outside the FRA the members of Committee stilltried to make trouble to each other. This happened not only inwords but also in written leaflets in which the members orformer members wrote their own story of what did reallyhappen within the FRA. It would be too much to write downas the title of this article surely would become reality. Onething is for sure that from all those so called ‘members’ a lotwere non members as they had only written in for someinformation and even some had written in to get a free radio!

Big laughIn those years we were young and every member was proudto be part of the FRA. Of course it was the time to protest

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against everything possible. Reading back theleaflets from those days, 35 years later, it givesme a big laugh. For instant the target the FRA(read Geoffrey Pearl) made for himself: ‘Now wehave 100.000 members, we are setting ourselvesa fantastic new target – ONE MILLION MEMBERS!Just think, suppose you, and every other member,send in the form overleaf and ask for 10memberships forms and make 10 new members(it will be very easy), than we will become thebiggest association in Britain. And the best! Andthe most powerful! And Free Radio will beguaranteed.’

But the FRA owners had also their questionsabout the meaning of the word ‘Fight’?* Fight the miserable little band of kill-joys whohave tried to take away our freedom to listen tothe friendly independent radio stations. All exceptRadio Caroline have been forced off the air. Andthe vicious Marine Offences Act stops anyonefrom giving details about Radio Caroline’sprogrammes. Who would have thought that freespeech would be suppressed in Britain?* Fight the questionable devices used by theGovernment in its efforts to silence the fort basedstations. When Radio City wanted help, it wasrefused because the station was outside Britishjurisdiction. But when the government decided toclose the station, it suddenly became part ofBritain. And why was Radio 390 prosecuted intwo counties?* Fight the Government which is trying to preservestate-control over radio by crushing all competitionto the BBC. And fight the government which tricksthe people by delaying the Marine Offences Actuntil it has majority of 97, and says nothing aboutits proposed legislation in its Manifesto. Its schemeis to get the whole issue over as soon as it canso that everyone will have forgotten all about itby the next General Election.* Fight for the freedom of the air, as we havefought before for a free press and free speech.

Remember that without these freedoms a countrybecomes a dictatorship. Under the MarineOffences Act, the Free Radio Association ispartially silenced. This is what the Governmentwanted. But the Government will never silenceus completely. We shall fight until we win.

1969: Free Radio Times & RallysIt seems Pearl had some strange dreams beforewriting his leaflets and of course not too manywere pleased to sent the five bop directly toRaleigh in Essex. In 1969 the FRA sent out theirofficial magazine ‘Free Radio Times’ to theirmembers and former members. In the editorialthey wrote: ‘Free Radio Times is non profitmotivated, our object is to build up a masscirculation so that we can make a significantcontribution on the Fight for Free Radio. Also ofcourse when we get free commercial radio F.R.T.will assume the role of programme guide andnews magazine. The policy is to report all importantFree Radio events and news, with articles ofgeneral interest.’ There was, in the first issue notonly news on radio but also on the music industry.Reading back the only copy in my archive it wasmost amusing to see the ‘news’ that Harold Wilsonhad send back the free T-shirt he got from theFRA. The editor asked himself if probably thecolour of the shirt was wrong and had to be red.In 1969 also the FRA organised, in cooperationwith the FRC the National Free Radio Week, whichtook place starting August 10th. On this day anotherFree Radio Rally. On Trafalgar Square it was TedAllbeury, former director of Radio 390, who spokepointing out the wide variety of music and lightentertainment under a free commercial systemand JasonW o l f(Ca ro l i ne )delivered astraight fromthe shouldercall foraction andsupport.

Some days later protest took place in Newcastle.By 11.45 PM nearly 50 people with banners andplan cards had gathered for their vigil outside theNewcastle Civic Centre. Tony Rounthwaitereported on the demonstration: ‘At 13 minutes tomidnight a tape recording of the closedown ofRadio 270 was played for all to hear two yearsafter the official close down. On the last strokeof midnight, exactly two years after the MarineOffences Act had become law, the people

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marched through Newcastle chanting‘Freedom died at August 14th.’The march witha suitable police escort worked their way downto the Region Press at ‘Thompson House’. Herethey were interviewed by a reporter. Next stopwas BBC Newcastle Broadcasting House &Tyne TV, where a letter was delivered.’

And if nothing was enough another Rally washeld in London on August 17th 1969. Some4000 people demonstrated and it was on thisday the earlier mentioned t-shirt for HaroldWilson was delivered on 10 Downing Street.Speakers at Trafalgar Square included RogerDay, Andy Archer, Jason Wolfe and Sir IanMactaggart.

FRC branches abroadIn 1969 the FRA claimed to have members in23 countries, including Czechoslovakia,Denmark, Eire, India and Luxembourg. Inseveral other countries people were asked toset up their branches of the FRC either theFRA and so it was the FRA in Holland, whichwas first run by J.J.L van der Meer fromRotterdam and at a later stage by HansVerbaan. In Germany there was a local branchof the FRA, Freie Radio Assoziation, inFrankfurt and a FRC, which brought out themagazine Free Radio News from 1971. InDenmark there was the FRC Denmark, run byPaul S Hansen. Also in France there was abranch from which grew the France RadioClub which started the Offshore Echo’sMagazine in the seventies of last century, amagazine that still consists. In the seventies

up till the early nineties there was another

Headed by the late Roland C. Pearson this magazinewas grown out of the local Southend branch of theFRC England.

The Dutch sceneThe organisation from Mr. Edwardvan der Meer in Rotterdam was setup in 1967 with a lot of promises tothe members. In some interviewsin the newspapers a lot of goodies,at low prices, were mentioned. Next to that theaims of the organisation, in those days the FreeRadio Action, were mentioned. It was an owninitiative from Van der Meer, who lived at theKromhoutstreet in Rotterdam. He was just 17 yearsof age and mentioned himself also Edwin Lake. Inone of the interviews he already knew that he wascompletely addicted to offshore radio and that hehad gained 500 signatures from Dutch people. Thosewould be delivered to Harold Wilson together with apetition in which would be declared that also theDutch people were dissatisfied with his decision toban the Pirates.

Soon Edward came in financial problems and madecontact with the people of the FRA in England.Following contacts an official letter, under the newname The Free Radio Association DepartmentHolland, went out. It was already 1968 and Van derMeer promised again a lot of things, including eachsix weeks a news bulletin with real news, not thenews on offshore radio which you would normallyfind back in the newspapers. All I can say, afterpaying my money for the first year to the Rotterdamgiro account, is that I never ever received a bulletin.

Also Van der Meer wanted to make more money bysending out letters under the name ‘The CarolineAction’. He wanted Radio Caroline to return andwrote: ‘When this sound returns, depends on youbecause we can’t do it alone, we need you. Carolinewas all we wanted, it was good, and we loved her.Why did she have to go away was, and is still thequestion. Why???? When we, that means you too,bring Caroline back on the air it will be to prove theBritish Government, that we want her and it will bethe only way to have Freedom. If there is no freedomin the air now, what will they do next? End freedomof Press or even freedom of Speech?’

free radio magazine,called The Monitor

Magazine.

You can guess what happened nextin the letter. Yes, he asked the readerfor money to get as much as possibleto finish his dream: restart RadioCaroline. Something he also did not

Caroline Music Bus with Mike Baron © Kyp Kuomi

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succeed in. Not much later Hans Verbaan becamethe new represantive for the FRA/FRC in Holland.He was a very relaxed person who decided toorganise not only boat trips to the offshore radiostations off the Dutch coast but also brought many niceproducts on the market. Next to that he organised thatRadio Caroline, in 1973, brought in cooperation with theFRC the Caroline Request Show, which was presentedin Dutch and English.

For me the membership for the Free Radio Associationended in 1968 and had to look for other sources in theFight For Free Radio, which became – in 1969 – the PirateRadio News. It was an English language magazine fromthe Netherlands which informed people about thedevelopments in the world of Free Radio with a monthlymagazine. Now and then I wrote some short articles andfrom 1971 on they asked me to become their final editor,which I took up until late 1976.

RNI shows upTo give another example of protest, I’d like to go to 1970.Two Swiss people, who made money with sellingelectronically equipment all over the world, came in 1969with the idea to start their own radio station. They hadfirst worked for a company in Germany in helping this torebuild the former Radio London ship, MV Galaxy. Theship, which was moored in Hamburg, was ownedhowever by a Greek Company which’s owners hadforgotten to pay a huge bill to the harbour authorities.This project did collapse but the idea of having their ownradio ship was born for Meister and Bollier. Earlier Ipublished on this subject in Soundscapes. (Volume 5).

Radio Nordsea International, as the station was firstmentioned, started test signals on January 23rd 1970 fromtheir radio ship MEBO II. Regular programs could be heardon 102 MHz FM, 6210 kHz SW and on 1610 kHz (186metres) AM from February 28th. They were bilingualtransmissions in German and English. As soon as thetransmissions started a campaign against the stationstarted in a couple of newspapers. And a day after the

official start the Dutch PTT (GPO)mentioned that complaints had beenreceived from the Norwegian Governmentas the broadcasts on 186 metres wereinterfering with distress frequencies fromNorwegian Navy. The newspaperTelegraaf knew more as it was alsoreported that research taken by theirjournalist learned that also the frequenciesof the pilot service in Flushing had beeninterfered by RNI. In the weeks after theopening it seems that there was no roomfor a second offshore radio station offthe Dutch coast. Radio Veronica wasthere already since 1960, transmitting avery successful format, which attracteda lot of advertisers. RNI also had theproblem that their programmes weretransmitted in foreign languages, so notinteresting for the Dutch advertising world.

March 23 rd 1970 the MEBO II left heranchorage off the coast of Scheveningenand it was deejay Carl Mitchell telling theBritish listeners; ‘England, here we come’.However the transmissions on 186 metrescaused severe interference to BritishCoastguard and different protests weresent from the Trinity House (responsiblefor lighthouses and light vessels), theCoast Guard Service and the Ministry ofPost and Telecommunications. A few dayslater, March 27th, RNI ceased broadcastingon medium wave and not much later alsoon the other wavebands. On April 10th

1970 they were back and this time theyused 1578 kHz (190 metres) for the AMoutput. The newspapers soon came withthe message that the new frequencyinterfered with Italian and NorwegianRadio Stations as well as competitor RadioVeronica (192 metres). It was MinisterJohn Stonehouse who announced that ajamming signal would be on the air soonto interfere and block the transmissionson AM from RNI. Therefore a 800c/s tonefrom the Beacon Hill Naval radio station,which was located in Rochester Kent,came on the air.

As a frequent listener to the programs ofRNI I’ll never forget the interfering signal

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mentioned Rochester. And around 100 people showed up, someof them trying to get on the premises but nothing serious happened.A day later it was Edwin Bollier who announced that when theGeneral Election, which would be held on June 18th, would be wonagain by the Labour Party, RNI would be closed down. But thatwas not the only announcement to the press. He also told that theGerman Service would stop broadcasting.

Radio Caroline returnsWhat the listeners didn’t know at that stage was that Meister andBollier had made a massive deal with Ronan O’Rahilly, the formerdirector of Radio Caroline, to rename RNI during the week beforethe General Election into Radio Caroline. As this station was, untilMarch 1968, so popular by the youth, it would have a better impact.The British government had reduced the voting age and so theBritish youth from 18 years on could vote for their favourite Party.And as it was the Labour Party who had made the MOB intoMarine Offences Act it was time for the youth to go to the votingbox and vote for the Conservatives. Real anti propaganda for theLabour Party was put out on the air for a few days and Free Radiospots were again transmitted. In the streets of London a specialdouble bus could be find with Free Radio Slogans on as well asposters featuring Harold Wilson as he was the Chinese leaderMao.

At a pressc o n f e r e n c eO’Rahilly laterclaimed that more

than 5.5 million leaflets in the anti Labour Campaign were givenaway in the streets of London. He and former Caroline deejay ofthe first hour in 1964, Simon Dee, attended the tour with the specialbuss. In Clacton-on-sea Meister and Bollier installed specialequipment, so that on ultra high frequencies contact could bemade with the people on the ship to bring instant information on thecampaign as well as on the results on Election Day. And that’swhere also the Free Radio Association, with Geoffrey Pearl, cameround the corner again. The FRA’s phone number was open 24hours a day for listeners to give their idea on the elections as wellas getting in contact with the station. Also the listeners were

Election Campaign Bus 1970

came on the air. In the middle ofthe record ‘Spirit in the sky’, fromthe American band NormanGreenbaum, an irritating whistlecould be heard. After loosingmore and more listeners RNIdecided it was time for anotherchange in frequency. First the217 was used and later, on May13th, the 244 metres became thenew place on the mediumwave band. This was very nearto the frequency from BBCRadio One, the national popstation that was launched in1967. As the 244 was official afree frequency the owners ofRNI thought they would not bejammed as it was so close tothe Radio One frequency. But itwas false hope as the jammingtransmitter blocked again theRNI signal.

Official protest spots weretransmitted, on a regular base,on RNI. The very first I heardwas from Larry Tremaine, anAmerican deejay who calledhimself ‘The gitour with theheather’ on air: ‘RNI apologisesto you, our listeners for theinterference heard on ourtransmissions. This illegaljamming is directed by theLabour Party and organised bythe Post Office. This action ismeant to discourage us fromproviding you with our normalservice. However, RNI shallmake every effort to continueprogrammes as usual. No freewestern country has everjammed a free broadcastingstation before, even in times ofwar.’

And it was not long after thefirst announcements that thedeejays asked the listeners toutter a form op protest. Theyasked them to attend ademonstration which would beheld on May 31st 1970 outsidethe Naval premises in earlier

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on the walk to Downing Street was Ronan.Deejays Simon Dee, Roger Day and MarkWesley also joined the march.

And it looked like that Harold Wilson didn’t enjoyat all the big demonstration of all those FreeRadio Lovers against his government. Twodays later he announced that he had givenpermission to use the most powerfultransmitter (1000 kW) at the transmitter plantin Droitwich to use against the RNI signal onAM. This transmitter was far more strongerthan the earlier one used at the Rochesterplant. With giving permission Wilson alsowent into illegality. He was not only jamminga broadcast from a ship in internationalwaters, officially registrated by a foreigncountry, but also it was interfering withregional and local radio and television signalsin greater parts of the County Essex and otherparts of the South East of England. And eventhe signal of BBC Radio One, the national popchannel, was interfered in certain part of theSouth East.

On June 18th all kind of local and regionalresults were given through, after counting,and at the end of the day it became clear thatthe Conservatives had finally beaten theLabour Party. Still, after more than 30 years, itis discussed whether the propagandabroadcasts of RNI / Radio Caroline had aninfluence on the results of the voting, but onething is sure. The greater London region, withthe many new voters (aged was droppedfrom 21 to 18 years) and the South Easternregions really had a bigger amount of votersfor the Labour Party than in earlier years.

The day after Election Day Caroline’s namewas dropped again in favour of RNI and theowners hoped, after winning, Labour wouldorder to stop the jamming. As this didn’t happenand even jamming was started on the 6210kHz, the short wave frequency of RNI, it wastime for talks. A meeting took place with peoplefrom the Conservatives but in no way thewanted to stop the jamming. One of thethoughts going around was that the contactsthe owners of RNI had with governments inrebellion countries like Biafra, were the reasonjamming wouldn’t stop. Therefore it wasdecided to go back to the Dutch coast to seeif the advertising market was better thanearlier that year.

In the Election week on Radio Caroline the

asked to help the people of the FRA distributing theleaflets.

On the tune of the popular television program ‘Dad’sArmy’, which was called ‘Who do you think you’rekidding Mr. Hitler’, new lyrics were written and afterrecording the song was played on a regular baseduring the days the name RNI was changed intoRadio Caroline:

photo: Harold Wilson on board HMS Fearless

Together with the Campaign for IndependentBroadcasting the FRA also thought it was time foranother demonstration, which had gone into historyas ‘the Anti Jamming Rally’. On Sunday June 14th theMarch was held in London with 10 Downing Streetas target. Starting point was The Hyde Park and onRadio Caroline from the MEBO II a special report wastransmitted to guide the crowd through the City ofLondon. More than 10.000 people got together andspeakers at the Rally were Ronan O’Rahilly (whoalways showed up when news could be made), thechairman of the Campaign for IndependentBroadcasting Mr. David Prewitt and others. Front man

Who do you think you’re kidding Mr. WilsonIf you think Free Radio’s down?

We are the boys who will stop your little gameWe are the boys who will make you think again

So, who do you think you are kidding, Mr. WilsonIf you think Free Radio is down?

Mr. Stonehouse starts to jam at 5.21And he goes home at 2 am, his dirty work is doneSo, who do you think you are kidding Mr Wilson

If you think Free Radio’s downIf you think you can crush us

We’re afraid you’ve missed the busSo, who do you think you are kidding Mr. Wilson

If you think Free Radio’s down

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listeners were also frequently asked to write andprotest to the Prime Minister and their local MP’s. Aresponse was given with the following words in aletter from the Ministry of Posts andTelecommunications:

‘Following the recent change of Government theMinister has carefully considered the problems ofpirate broadcasting and has stated that theGovernment must abide by its internationalobligations in combating the illicit use ofwavelengths. In order to force a pirate radio station,Radio Northsea International, off the air a transmitterhas been activated, but not before its interferencepotential was tested. Tests with ordinary domesticreceivers show no interference to Radio 1 beyondthe immediate vicinity of the transmitter. Our actionin opposing the pirate stations has been fullyaccepted by the International FrequencyRegistration Board of the InternationalTelecommunications Union, which is the internationalauthority on interference and the control offrequencies. If in maintaining our stand in defenceof law and order we have caused interference tothe reception of Radio One to a very small numberof listeners it cannot be compared with the numberof listeners who are receiving interference fromthe pirate by his own deliberate act. I am extremelysorry for any interference you are experiencingfrom our transmitter. But I am sure you would agreethat it is essential to maintain law and order in thefield of broadcasting and in the use of scarce radiofrequencies and that is the sole aim of our action.’

RNI went on some other months, transmitting withups and more downs off the Dutch coast andclosed down in September 1970 for the first time.

Still in 1970 theFRA promisedtheir members aregular magazinewith news on theoffshore radiostations. It wascalled ‘SoundMagazines’ and Idon’t know withothers, but I did getonly three copies,although I did payfor twelve copies.

Simon Dee and RonanO’Rahilly in front of theCampaign Bus withposters of Harold Wilsonin Mao style (1970)

A young lad from The HagueMobilise all Dutch and Belgian Free Radio Fans,was the idea in 1971 of a young lad from TheHague. Therefore he had formed the ISFRA,which stood for International Society for thepromotion of Free Radio. Together with HansVerbaan, who lived in Scheveningen in thosedays and who was the Dutch chairman of theFRA and FRC in Holland, he wanted to make afront. They wanted to make clear, with a writtenprotest to the government, whereby it wouldbe mentioned that the ratification of the Treatyof Strasbourg would make it almost impossiblefor the Dutch offshore radio stations to go onwith their programming. And behind this youngman was the driver, who in those days pickedup the people at the RNI Naarden studio, to bringthem to the tender in Scheveningen harbour. Hetold a journalist: ‘We’ve to try to get moremembers. At the moment we’ve 1000 in Holland.In Germany and Belgium around 10.000 and thisall has to lead to a total of 250.000 members.That would be fine.’ Just like the spokesman forthe FRA in England this guy had no feeling fornumbers. Reading on in the interview he toldthat the FRA had only one goal: ‘going on or notgoing on as legal stations.’ You see, he couldn’tcount! Also the journalist and the young guy didchat a little about the fact that the Dutch nationalpop station Hilversum 3 got, in a then recentresearch, more listeners than Radio Veronica.It didn’t do him a thing and he made also protestsabout the fact that there were no commercialsin the programs on Hilversum 3, as this shouldbe a part of the cosiness of a radio program. Ican reveal that the man who was the RNI driver

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and front man of the ISFRA was non other thanGerard van Dam, also known as Gerard van derZee. He worked for Ronan O’Rahilly bringing backthe MV Mi Amigo back to sea in 1972, for Radio199, Radio Caroline, Radio Atlantis and broughtseveral ships at sea for his own Radio Delmare.

One remarkable appearance Gerard van Dammade in the press in July 1971, just after the MVFredericia and the MV Mi Amigo were sold. Thelater one to Gerard and he tried to fool the press.Not only several newspapers brought thefollowing, also VPRO radio made a nice smalldocumentary about Van Dam’s plans with the thenformer radio ship. Together with the late HansVerbaan, former front man in Holland for the FRAand FRC, he did sent out a leaflet, in which theplans were revealed: ‘After long talks with theowners of the former Radio Caroline South ship,the MV Mi Amigo, we have succeeded for a shorttime the ship is not going to the ship breakersyard. It will be possible during the next fewmonths to visit the ship for as short a time as oneday, or for as long a stay as is required. Food andaccommodation on the ship are being arranged.Original studio guidance will come from a well-known deejay. In the event that the ship is notable to pay its way during the next few months,the owner is prepared to carry out his originalplans and scrap the ship. This fate has alreadybefallen Radio Caroline North. Make the most ofthis unique and possible last change to visit thefirst and last outpost of the golden age of British

Pirate Radio.’

It was followed by an extensive price list whatthe different stays on the Mi Amigo would cost.The fact that the Caroline North ship, Fredericia,was already scrapped, was not true. It would beon dry land for a long time at the Van Marel ShipBrokery in Ouwerkerk, before the bell was takenaway and the rest would be broken up. Gerarddidn’t get any paid visitor for his museum ship asthe ship was towed into international water.Equipment stolen earlier from the ship inAmsterdam by Peter C and Spangles M werebrought back on board. From that point on the MVMi Amigo would bring back stations like: Radio199, Radio Caroline, Radio Caroline 1 and 2, RadioAtlantis, Radio Seagull, Radio Joepie and RadioMi Amigo. Those stations were all activesomewhere between 1972 and 1980, when theship finally sunk.

German’s Fight for Free RadioThen there was a Club called ‘Nordsee Club’ withan address at the Krefelderstrasse 60 in AachenGermany. Wolfgang Meures, who thought thatthere had never been a better radio station thanRNI, ran it. So his love for the station was put in aleaflet, which was put out six times. All the newshe could get was mentioned and in issue numbersix, from November 1971 he wrote it would bebetter to stop publishing as it should be better inthe Fight For Free Radio to work together withother people in one organisation. And so the FRCGermany started with their magazine Free RadioNews (later renamed in Radio News). A beautifulmagazine, which came out on a regular base formany years. Then it stopped publishing in theeighties. In the nineties some other issuesappeared on irregular base. The strong thing onthe German magazine that they had aphotographer in house who went as much aspossible to the offshore radio ships and abovethat was a super talent. Still the name Theo Denckeris marked with the name of Martin Stevens as thetwo best photographers of the offshore area. Ofcourse there was a form of protest in themagazine, but talking about the magazines onoffshore radio there will be once an invitation toread another article on this subject.

Fighting in the eightiesAlso I’d like you to remember to a smallerdemonstration held in September 1989. Yes, morethan 15 years after the biggest demonstrationever in the Fight For Free Radio. Let’s go first tothe facts why the demonstration had to be held.

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Gerard van Dam

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station. More than 600 people were attending thedemonstration, which started near VictoriaRailroad Station at the Waterloo Bridge Road. Fromthere it went to Westminster Bridge and House ofParliament. It ended at Lambeth Pier. Here goodswere donated to Caroline deejays including foodsand records and vital replacement parts. Fromthere on also a ‘Caroline Legal Fund’ has beenorganized in which the fans of the station couldgive one or more donation(s). So we now live in2003 and still donations are coming in to keep theformer transmission vessel of Radio Caroline ingood condition as a token in the Fight For FreeRadio.

No more offshore radio???It would be too much to mention every actiontaken in the Fight For Free Radio but I want to endwith the one Jan Sundermann did a couple ofmonths ago, when writing the next article for theCaroline News Beat Magazine. Jan Sundermannreplied on an article called ‘no more offshore radiostations from international waters’, which waspublished in an earlier edition of Caroline’sNewsbeat.

‘All these national laws mentioned in the articleare based on the ‘European Agreement for thePrevention of Broadcasts Transmitted fromStations outside National Territories’. The Councilof Europe, based in the City of Strasbourg signed

Demonstration September 17th 1989 © Chris Edwards/ OEM

Radio Caroline and the other stations on boardthe MV Ross Revenge, the 5th vessel the Carolineorganisation used through the years was raidedon August 19th that year. People from the DutchOCD, the authority responsible for acting againstillegal broadcasting, asked for help from theirBritish colleagues of the British DTI. The MVLandward and the Dutch vessel MV Volans wentout to the ship to get most of the transmitterequipment from the ship as well as a lot of studioequipment and the record collections from RadioCaroline and the sister station Radio Monique. Ofcourse, as I told the same evening on Dutch Radio1, in the program ‘ Met het Oog op Morgen’ it wasthe most illegal action made in order of the DutchGovernment. Some 2,5 years later all theequipment was given back to the CarolineOrganization and we all know that the raid in1989 (more than 25 years after starting from theinternational waters) was the end as an offshoreradio station for Radio Caroline.

But going back to the demonstration, which wasorganized by the Caroline Movement onSeptember 17th 1989, it can be mentioned thatthis was held in London. Reason was to showsupport for Radio Caroline, itself and for thosemembers of the crew who had remained on boardafter the raid on the Ross Revenge. In Hollandand England anoraks (fans) were asked to sendin as much as possible records and equipmentso the station could restart as a professional radio

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convention will be trashed. I am not reallysure, if the parliament has the power totrash that, or if it needs a summit of all ourpresidents to decide: this is trash!’

And finally, weren’t it not the offshore radiostations like Caroline and RNI, that broughtus all a little bit more together in Europe?’

HANS KNOT

References:Chapman, Robert (1992) Selling the sixties. The pirates andpop 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 AnglianProductions.Fuchs, Frank (1967) Free Radio Rally in International Times,issue number 14, London, Lovebooks Ltd.Harris, Paul (1977) Broadcasting from the High Seas. Thehistory of Offshore Radio in Europe 1958-76. Edinburgh PaulHarris Publishing.Knot, Hans (Ed)(1989) 25 Years Radio Caroline Memories.Groningen, Freewave Media Magazine; Benfleet, MonitorMagazine.Knot, Hans (1993) Radio Noordzee Herinneringen. Gronin-gen, 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 dortaus 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 ofOffshore Broadcasting. Heswall, Forest Press.Out, Rob (1975) Veronica één jaar later. Een logboek van 15Veronicajaren. Zeist, De beuk d’r in BV.Shoffield, Barry (1969) F.R.A. Rise & Fall of a misguidedassociation. Nottingham.Skues, Keith (1994) Pop went the pirates. An illustrated historyof Pirate Radio. Sheffield, Lamb’s Meadow.Caroline’s Newsbeat, June 2003. Harlingen, CarolineNederland.

of Europe, based in the City of Strasbourg signedthat on 26 of September 1965. In the time since, allmember countries of the council were requested tosign this agreement by introducing a national lawreflecting the content of the Strassbourg treaty. In 1993,I got upon request to the council a list of the countriesthat have signed. At that time there were 17 countrieswhere the treaty came into force, in between October1967 (Denmark, Belgium and Sweden) and March 1988(Spain). The Netherlands did this at September 27th 1974,Germany on February 28th 1970 and Great Britain onDecember 3rd 1967. So it was always quite a time pastthe national legislation against offshore radio.

A number of coastal countries did not sign yet, asIceland, Finland and Luthenia, Malta and others. Whatwill happen in the future. Will the new member countriesof the EU have to sign that too? We now have thedirectly elected European Parliament. And we had non-commercial stations like Radio Brod and Offshore 98,operating from international waters. The EU evenfinancially sponsored the operation of Radio Brod. Andnow, in 2003, even the Royal British Navy lost innocencewhen broadcasting to the Iraq during the war! All thesefacts show that it could be the time to withdraw theStrassbourg treaty. Would it not be a gesture to thestations and their listeners to declare that treaty asinvalid from a certain date on?

Members of the European Parliament could do it. We allwould have to tell our local candidates before the nextelection, to start such an initiative. It would show thepublic, that the EU is not an anonymous body, unwillingto move and governing over everybody’s head. Suchan imitative of the Parliament would cost nothing, butstrengthen the trust into our common European futureby canceling a law, that has no sense anymore. Acommercial offshore broadcaster can hardly competetoday with onshore stations. (Well not completely trueas the ban of advertising for cigarettes, tobacco etc,could change that). And the argument that other radioservices could be interfered is out of date, as ship toshore services on the medium to short-wave rangehave closed due to other modern and more reliabletechnologies.’

Sundermann worked several years in a committeeresponsible for some new European standards forproducts made from special steel: ‘ So, I mean it reallyserious with the European idea. And I think, that limitingthe “lifetime” of law forces to think at a certain timeabout its real value or no-need-of. Now laws areproduced like eggs, and it needs people to administratethem. The Strassbourg convention is only an examplefor a complete useless paper, and be sure, it even nowcosts the taxpayers money to administrate that. So wehave a very easy win-win situation, when this

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