Offshore pirate-radio station
Radio London
, also known as
Big L
and
Wonderful Radio London
, was a
top 40
(in London's case, the "
Fab 40
") offshore commercial station that operated from 23 December 1964 to 14 August 1967, from a ship anchored in the
North Sea
, three and a half miles (5.6 km) off
Frinton-on-Sea
,
Essex
, England.
The station, like other
offshore radio
operators, was dubbed a
pirate radio
station, and went off air following the introduction of the
Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967
which made it illegal to supply or assist such stations except in an emergency. The station was notable for helping to launch the careers of various disc jockeys who went on to work at
BBC Radio 1
. Its offices were in the
West End of London
at 17
Curzon Street
, just off
Park Lane
.
Origin of the station
[
edit
]
Radio London was the brainchild of
Don Pierson
, who lived in
Eastland
,
Texas
, United States. In a 1984 interview, Pierson said he got the idea in 1964, while reading a report in
The Dallas Morning News
of the start of
Radio Caroline
and
Radio Atlanta
from ships that were at that time anchored off south-east England.
Pierson said he was struck by the fact that those two
offshore stations
were the first and only all-day
commercial radio
broadcasters serving the UK. An
entrepreneur
, he compared the number of stations then serving the population of his native northwest Texas with the two stations serving the entire UK. He told
Eric Gilder
that he thought his idea would make a lot of money while bringing enjoyment to many people.
[
citation needed
]
Pierson caught the next night flight from
Love Field
in
Dallas
to the UK, where he chartered a small plane and flew over the two radio ships. After taking photographs, he returned to Texas determined to create a station bigger and better than either.
Radio London broadcast from the MV
Galaxy
, a former
Second World War
United States Navy
minesweeper
, originally named
USS
Density
. It was fitted out for radio broadcasting in
Miami
, then sailed across the Atlantic to the
Azores
, where the antenna was erected, before final positioning off the Essex coast. The operation was overseen by one of the other investors, Tom Danaher.
Owing to a disagreement with the other investors, Pierson left the Radio London consortium. His participation ended several weeks before the station went on air, although he kept a small shareholding.
Broadcasting staff
[
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]
The disc jockeys included Chuck Blair,
Tony Blackburn
,
Pete Brady
,
Tony Brandon
,
Dave Cash
(who also teamed up to present a popular
Kenny and Cash Show
),
Ian Damon
,
Chris Denning
,
Dave Dennis
,
Pete Drummond
,
John Edward
,
Kenny Everett
(co-host of the
Kenny and Cash Show
, and ultimately fired for continual on-air criticism of the religious programme,
The World Tomorrow
),
[1]
Graham Gill, Bill Hearne,
Duncan Johnson
,
Paul Kaye
(who became the main news reader), Lorne King, "Marshall" Mike Lennox,
John Peel
(see
The Perfumed Garden
),
Earl Richmond
, Mark Roman,
John Sedd
,
Keith Skues
,
Ed Stewart
, Norman St. John,
Tommy Vance
(who came to the station via
Radio Caroline South
and had been on
KHJ
Los Angeles), Richard Warner, Willy Walker, Alan West, Tony Windsor (who had begun his offshore career with
Radio Atlanta
) and John Yorke.
In August 1966,
the Beatles
began their last US concert tour. After the storm John Lennon's "
more popular than Jesus
" comment caused in the US, the group's reception was a cause for speculation ? and the Beatles' management arranged for British journalists to accompany them. Radio London's Kenny Everett (a Liverpudlian), Caroline's Jerry Leighton, and Swinging Radio England's
Ron O'Quinn
were invited. Because the UK Post Office ? at that time the country's monopoly telephone service provider ? had cut ship-to-shore communication with pirate vessels, Everett had to call a number on land.
Paul Kaye
would go ashore, take the call in Harwich and tape the conversation before heading back to the ship, where the recording was edited and music inserted to make a 30-minute programme, sponsored by
Bassett's
, whose
Jelly Babies
were allegedly the Beatles' favourite. The shows went out each evening at 7.30 for 40 days of the tour.
[2]
[3]
In 1967, Radio London got an eight-day UK exclusive on the
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
, playing it first on 12 May 1967. The album was in the shops on 1 June 1967, but Everett had left the station on 21 March that year.
Advertising sales
[
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]
A Cadillac car dealer in
Abilene
,
Texas
, who became one of the investors associated with Pierson, nominated Philip Birch, a
J. Walter Thompson
account director who had relocated from JWT's offices in the US to their offices in London. Birch became managing director, responsible for the entire management of Radio London and its sales company, Radlon (Sales). Birch was largely responsible for the station's success, tailoring the American-style format to a British audience.
The cost of the station was covered by local and national advertising and the half-hour religious commentary,
The World Tomorrow
, presented by
Herbert W. Armstrong
or his son,
Garner Ted Armstrong
. The Armstrongs'
Worldwide Church of God
sponsored the station with £50,000 a year.
The World Tomorrow
aired at 7pm, outside prime hours.
[1]
British authorities would not register a British sales company called "Radio London" because the name was "too similar" to an existing company, Commercial Radio (London), so it was registered as "Radlon (Sales) Ltd". It was owned by Philip Birch and was the name on the air for advertising sales. The investors were in Texas and used different names for interlocking companies outside the UK and USA to disguise their interests, primarily for tax reasons.
After closure of
Big L
, Birch became the founding managing director of
Piccadilly Radio
, which was awarded the UK licence for
Manchester
in 1973 and became one of Britain's most successful radio stations. He also founded Air Services, selling national advertising for stations throughout the UK. He continued as CEO of Piccadilly Radio and chairman of Air Services until his retirement in January 1984.
Station name
[
edit
]
The station was to have been called
Radio KLIF London
, using recorded programmes from the
Dallas
AM radio station,
KLIF
1190. When it was decided that the sound should be live and geared towards a British audience and culture, Pierson hired Ben Toney as Programme Director. Philip Birch was appointed CEO in charge of the radio station and advertising sales. Birch suggested calling the station Radio Galaxy, in anticipation of its star-making ability.
As a compromise the minesweeper was renamed MV
Galaxy
while the station itself became Radio London. However, the
PAMS
jingles brought a refinement of the name so that it was known as
Wonderful Radio London
and
Big L
; just as KLIF in Dallas called its hometown
Big D
.
Technical facilities
[
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]
Virtually all DJ programmes originated live from a studio located in the hold at the rear of the ship. The original studio was installed by RCA while the ship was being fitted out in Miami, but the ship's metal bulkheads presented problems with acoustics and soundproofing. That was rectified by lining the walls with mattresses and blankets from the crew's bunk beds, although that meant no-one could sleep during the daytime. In early 1966, two new studios were constructed (also below the water-line), with proper acoustics and a more ergonomic layout - the main on-air/DJ studio had a modern sound/mixing board, and a smaller one for the hourly news bulletins, production (of commercials, etc.) and as backup.
Radio London's transmitter was housed in a large purpose-built steel shed on the rear deck, because it was too large to fit in the hold. The US-manufactured
RCA
Ampliphase
transmitter was rated at 50,000
watts
(50
kW). An on-air slogan ran 'Your 50,000-watt Tower of Power', although initially it operated at 17
kW. In contrast,
Radio Caroline
, its main rival, operated with a
Continental Electronics
10
kW transmitter. In 1966, Caroline South upgraded to a 50
kW Continental transmitter and, for a time, Radio London pretended to retaliate by increasing its power to 75
kW.
The station's antenna was a vertical-guyed tubular steel mast aft of the bridge. Radio London's publicity claimed the mast was 212 ft (65 m) high, but later calculations from photographs indicated that it was approximately 170 ft (52 m),
[1]
. The positioning of the antenna was at the ship's centre of gravity and that was critical, as no cement ballast was used in the ship's hull to counteract movement caused by such a tall and heavy mast on a floating vessel.
Although the
wavelength
was announced as "266 metres", the station experimented with
frequencies
between
1133
kHz
,
1115
kHz
and
1155
kHz
, and tended to suffer night-time
heterodyne
interference from stations in
Zagreb
and elsewhere. In October 1966, a number of test transmissions took place on
1079
kHz
, announced as "277 metres", using a 10
kW standby transmitter, but it was decided not to change frequency on a permanent basis. When Radio 270 off Scarborough UK started transmissions in June 1966 on
1115
kHz
, it interfered with Big L Radio London for about 5 days, before Radio London finally made the big step from
1115
kHz
to its permanent and final
1155
kHz
that had the typical 4 and 5 kHz heterodynes caused by
1151
kHz
and
1160
kHz
. In early 1966, Radio London briefly hopped from
1133
kHz
to
1115
kHz
due to its increased strong signal, causing interference to Radio Zagreb on
1133
kHz
. In October 1966, QSL cards reported Radio London having been received in faraway places such as Illinois, USA, Kimberley and Riversdale, South Africa due to favourable atmospheric propagation conditions and the
1155
kHz
split-frequency Radio London used.
After Radio Caroline South increased power and changed its frequency to
1187
kHz
in the spring of 1966, it caused some interference to Radio London on
1133
kHz
. That seems to have been caused by resonance between the two ships' antenna masts, and possibly by the
Galaxy
'
s steel hull.
Station closedown
[
edit
]
At midnight on 14 August 1967, the
Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967
came into effect in the United Kingdom. It created a criminal offence of supplying music, commentary, advertising, fuel, food, water or other assistance except for life-saving, to any ship, offshore structure such as
a former WWII fort
, or flying platform such as an aircraft used for broadcasting without a licence from the regulatory authority in the UK. Despite initial plans to the contrary, Radio London decided not to defy the law, and closed before the Act came into effect.
It was decided to close at 3pm on 14 August 1967, partly to guarantee a large audience, as well as to enable the ship's DJs and other staff to return to shore and board a train to London. A one-hour recorded show was broadcast from 2pm to allow staff to get ready to leave. The time also described an "L" shape of the hands on a clock face, but whether that was a real consideration is unknown.
Their Final Hour
, as the programme was called, had recorded greetings of farewell and remembrance from recording stars; included were the voices of
Mick Jagger
,
Cliff Richard
,
Ringo Starr
and
Dusty Springfield
. The 2:30 news bulletin, read by Paul Kaye, was the final live segment on the station. Birch thanked DJs and staff and others involved throughout the station's life, as well as politicians and others who fought for the station ? and its 12 million listeners in the United Kingdom and four million in the Netherlands, Belgium and France'. That was followed by the last record, "A Day in the Life" by the Beatles, then Paul Kaye's final announcement: "Big L time is three o'clock, and Radio London is now closing down". Radio London's theme tune, the "PAMS Sonowaltz", popularly called
Big Lil
, was played before the transmitter was switched off by engineer Russell Tollerfield, just after 3pm.
Just after Radio London closed down,
Robbie Dale
on Radio Caroline South (previously Radio Atlanta) broadcast a brief tribute to the station, thanked its staff and DJs, and held a minute's silence. Most offshore stations had already left the air.
Radio Scotland
and
Radio 270
closed at midnight. Radio Caroline South said it and Radio Caroline North (the original Caroline) would continue. Owner
Ronan O'Rahilly
said they were defending the principle of free broadcasting, rather than being mere business assets. Caroline's offshore broadcasts continued on and off until 1990, after which the station pursued legal means of broadcasting.
Radio London staff arriving at London's
Liverpool Street station
from Harwich were greeted by large numbers of fans, some wearing black armbands and carrying placards with slogans such as "Freedom went with Radio London". They tried to storm the platform, leading to minor scuffles with police.
[4]
The MV
Galaxy
sailed initially to Hamburg,
West Germany
, where
Erwin Meister
and
Edwin Bollier
tried to buy it for what became
Radio Nordsee International
. When the deal fell through, Meister and Bollier looked for another ship. In 1979, the
Galaxy
, with its 170 ft mast still erect, was sunk in
Kiel
harbour as an artificial
reef
; but, in 1986, concerns about pollution from the ship's fuel tanks resulted in it being brought ashore and salvaged.
Further history
[
edit
]
When his second radio ship closed and the vessel returned to
Miami
,
Florida
, in 1967, Don Pierson attempted to restart
Wonderful Radio London
from there. His plan was to interest investors in restarting Radio London off-shore from New York. When that failed, he began a venture involving yet another ship which would restart
Wonderful Radio London
off
San Diego
,
California
. That, too, sank.
In 1982, Pierson helped promote a syndicated
Wonderful Radio London Show
, first aired over KVMX, a station he owned in Eastland, Texas. He promoted the show at the
National Association of Broadcasters
convention in
Las Vegas, Nevada
. When Ben Toney, the original offshore Radio London programme director, became involved, the show was on KXOL in
Fort Worth
, Texas, and as a daily show aired over 250,000-watt
XERF
in Mexico. Plans were made to extend the early morning airtime of XERF into
Wonderful Radio London
as a full service station, and to send a new ship to the UK as
Wonderful Radio London International'
(WRLI), to replicate Radio London's success of the 1960s. However, those further plans failed to materialise beyond their syndication stage.
Pierson died in 1996.
Swinging Radio England and Britain Radio
[
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]
As a result of Radio London, Pierson created
Swinging Radio England
and
Britain Radio
on another ship (the MV
Olga Patricia
; later renamed MV
Laissez Faire
) in 1965. They did not get to air until 1966 when their vessel anchored close to the MV
Galaxy
. The twin stations were not commercially successful due to their brash American radio style, technical problems, and mismanagement. Dutch station Radio Dolfijn replaced Radio England in November 1966. Radio 355 replaced Britain Radio and Dolfijn gave way to Radio Twee Twee Zeven (227) in early 1967.
In pop culture
[
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]
- Wonderful Radio London is referred to (and some of its jingles used) on
The Who
's album
The Who Sell Out
and their film
Quadrophenia
.
- The station features in the 1966 film
Dateline Diamonds
, which includes a few external shots of the
Galaxy
and a fanciful studio re-creation of its interior.
- Radio London was parodied in the film
The Boat That Rocked
.
See also
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]
References
[
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]
Other sources
[
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]
- Mass Media Moments in the United Kingdom, the USSR and the US, by Gilder, Eric. - "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu Press, Romania. 2003
ISBN
973-651-596-6
- Contains reprinted work from
The History of Pirate Radio in Britain and the End of BBC Monopoly in Radio Broadcasting in the United Kingdom
by Eric Gilder, North Texas State University, 1982. The second chapter, "London My Hometown", tells the Pierson story from his perspective and from original and exclusive archives. The chapter began as a 2000 audio-visual symposium called "Infinite Londons" sponsored in Romania by the British Council. The symposium's expanded proceedings later appeared in this book.
- The Wonderful Radio London Story, by Elliot, Chris. - Ray Anderson doing business as East Anglian Productions, Frinton-on-Sea, United Kingdom. 1997
ISBN
1-901854-00-0
- This was derived allegedly without permission from the archives Eric Gilder and Associates claim. (see note above.) The publisher was declared insolvent under UK law and it later turned out that the printer, designer and author had received no payment. The origins of this book's connection with Gilder lay in 1984's Wonderful Radio London International (WRLI) project, for which Elliot recorded the Wonderful Radio London
Fab 40
in the UK ? for KVMX and KXOL in Texas and XERF in Mexico to rebroadcast. When the WRLI venture came to an end, Elliot (born Christopher Gaydon, 1953) allegedly kept files on Pierson borrowed from Gilder ? and later arranged for their publication under his name in two publications before the book appeared. This contains photographs and some hitherto unknown information, but it is not documented and it gives no credits.
External links
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