Robin Westhof

Er waren wel een paar (mislukte) pogingen. Radio LN ( Radio Ellen) : '' First amongst these was journalist John Thompson, who together with business associate Robert Collier (a wholesale newsagent) and Peter Duffy (another journalist and News Director of the planned station) formed a company - The Voice of Slough Ltd and planned to launch Radio LN, (or Radio Ellen after the name of the ship they were said to have purchased) A 70 ton former Admiralty vessel Ellen (previously known as Anti Cyclone)was said to have been purchased and fitted out at a secret location in Scotland (subsequently identified as Leith Harbour) with an on-air date for the station planned for 1st December 1961. The project's radio ship was to be anchored not far from the Nore lightship off the Essex coast near Southend and broadcasts were to be on 980kHz (306m) using an RCA transmitter with a power of between 1Kw and 5Kw. All programmes were to be pre-recorded in 'studios' (which had been built by electronics engineer, Roy Barrett) located in two wooden huts at the rear of a cottage in Aylesbury Keith Martin, an announcer who had worked with Paul Hollingdale and Doug Stanley at the short-lived Radio Veronica English service, CNBC (and who later went on to become involved with Radio Atlanta and Radio Caroline,) together with DJ Roger Gomez (who later became involved with KING Radio and Radio 270 (using the name Roger Keene) recorded programmes for the proposed station in the Aylesbury studios. Some press reports also named Victor Vicary as the station’s studio engineer and Barry Beresford as an electronics specialist advising the station. Despite initial press publicity in October 1961 the proposed starting date of 1st December 1961 came and went with nothing being heard on the airwaves. The project reportedly foundered when record companies refused to allow the station to infringe copyright restrictions by tape recording discs for later broadcast.'' ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GBOK (Great Britain OK) : '' Arnold Swanson, who had been technical adviser to the Voice of Slough project. After splitting from the Voice of Slough project Swanson announced in 1962 even more elaborate plans to launch a station - GBOK (Great Britain OK) from a former lightship, the Lady Dixon Announcer Ed Moreno (who was later to work for several offshore radio stations) spent four days a week for several months recording GBOK programmes at the Notley Abbey studios, which had been built by Roy Barrett (who had also previously been involved with the Voice of Slough project). Two ‘retired’ BBC engineers - John Gilman and A N Thomas were also said to be involved in advising on technical aspects of the project. Both these ‘retired’ ex-BBC engineers were later to become involved with preparation work for Radio Atlanta and Radio Caroline. American Evangelist Ted Armstrong (whose programme The World Tomorrow - was heard on many later British offshore stations) reportedly bought airtime on GBOK and even publicised the station's forthcoming launch in some of his literature. First actual press reports of GBOK appeared in the Southend Standard on 15th February 1962, indicating that the station would be broadcasting music, features and advertising 24 hours a day from a former lightship anchored near The Nore, the same location as had been planned for the Voice of Slough's broadcasting vessel, starting on 28th February 1962. The station planned to broadcast on 773kHz (388m) using a 5Kw Marconi transmitter and hoped to reach a potential audience of 11 million listeners within a 150 mile radius covering the south east and Midlands. Places as far away as Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, Birmingham and Bristol were planned to be within the station's primary coverage area and a "bonus French audience" across the English Channel was also offered for the benefit of advertisers. At the beginning of March 1962 the station encountered an unexpected problem, the Lady Dixon (which some press reports suggested had been renamed The Bucaneer) was moored at a wharf in a muddy Essex creek at Pitsea in the Thames Estuary. Sailing the vessel from this mooring depended on high spring tides reaching Pitsea and flooding the creek. Unfortunately for GBOK the first spring tide did not prove to be high enough to float the Lady Dixon, which became stuck on a mudbank. Attempts by two tugs to release the ship failed because only one end could be raised from what was fast becoming a mud cradle around the ex-lightship's wooden hull. It was decided therefore to wait for the next high tide on 6th March 1962 and the station's on-air date was postponed. It was not until 9th March 1962 that the Lady Dixon was successfully re floated and towed to Sheerness for final fitting out. National publicity for the proposed station appeared in an article in The Times on 10th March 1962 which reported that once machinery and transmitting equipment had been installed the vessel would be towed to her position in international waters and broadcasting would commence "within two weeks". The vessel did indeed arrive at Sheerness on 12th March 1962 for fitting out as a floating radio station, however, it is unclear whether this was ever achieved although there are reports of an unofficial test transmission having been made from the Lady Dixon whilst in port, resulting in a raid by Post Office officials who seized the station’s transmitter.'' Meer te lezen via de volgende links: http://www.offshoreradiomuseum.co.uk/page1217.html http://www.offshoreradiomuseum.co.uk/page1218.html