Robin Westhof

Veel 'normale' luisteraars waren al lang afgehaakt, vanwege het met hoger vermogen uitzendende Finse radiostation, dat vanaf ongeveer 15.30 uur een fijne beluistering van de uitzendingen van Radio Monique, zo goed als onmogelijk maakte via de 963 kHz . Ik vond het (persoonlijk!) een vrij zwakke bedoening, had veel beter gekund met een andere aanpak.

´´ Toen de zender in 2012 van start ging, bestond de programmering voornamelijk uit non-stop funk, soul en jazz. ´´ Was dat (zeker overdag) maar zo gebleven. ´´ Vanaf 2018 werd er meer geïnvesteerd in liveprogramma’s en uitgebreider, positief nieuws.´´ Voor het eventueel opkrikken van de luistercijfers heeft dat weinig geholpen en dat nieuws van de ´achterruitgang´ is een echte tune out factor. ´´ Op Sublime draait het om positiviteit´´ Is er (trouwens) in Nederland een (muziek) radiostation waar het om de negativiteit draait?

En vandaag precies 50 jaar geleden, brak tijdens een zeer zware storm, de originele jaren 60 (zend)mast af. ''in the early hours of 13th November Holland was struck by the worst storm for fifty years. The Mi Amigo was thrown adrift as her anchor chain parted under the strain of a force 11 wind and, to make matters worse, the aerial mast snapped. It came crashing down - a total write-off. The crew dropped a couple of emergency anchors and the ship was saved, but now there was no antenna.'' https://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/car71.htm https://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/audio/rnistorm.mp3 '' Mike Ross and Don Allen talking about the storm on Radio Northsea International, 13th November 1972. Don mentions that the Mi Amigo has lost her mast.'' (Opname Vincent) Martin van der Ven/ Noord-Hollands Archief, collectie Fotopersbureau De Boer - 1966-04-05 - MV Mi Amigo (Radio Caroline)

Klopt, je hebt gelijk Henk. :-) En daarna duurde het nog enige maanden (slecht weer) voordat de volgende zendmast klaar was in december. (https://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/album90a.htm)

( https://www.mediapages.nl/zeezenders/radio-caroline/162-zendschip-mi-amigo-in-problemen)

Mooi te zien op deze foto. ( Martin van der Ven/ Noord-Hollands Archief, collectie Fotopersbureau De Boer - 1973 - MV Mi Amigo (Radio Caroline) - NL-)

Gekkigheid

Op het einde van de opname is het MFSB met Freddies Dead.

Lijkt mij iets van AFN?

Geloof ik niets van, mensen (dj's) zijn ijdel. Alleen een rot klinkende stem doet mij (tegenwoordig) al afhaken. Maar echt goede oldies zenders te weinig. Inderdaad, loopt vrijwel altijd achter de feiten aan en stopt (vooral) ook de flow van een goed non stop muziek programma, met leuke flitsende jingles en mooie reclames.

Geen CrispianSt John maar Steve Merike en de (eerste) RNI Top 50 is met Tony Allan. Peter en Werner Hartwig.

Van de vijf Engels sprekende stemmen, herken ik er vier: Peter Chigaco, Norman Barrington, Andy Archer en Paul Alexander.

Ron Dolman Geen Peter Zonneveld maar Peter van Dam (Brian)

'' On Tuesday 24th October 1972 a crisis hit the International Service of RNI. With no prior warning, the English-language service was dissolved and the disc-jockeys sacked. At 7pm, when the listeners expected to hear Tony Allan, in his place was Dutch DJ Nico Steenbergen. Dutch programmes then continued until closedown. A dispute between the English DJs and the Dutch management had resulted in John de Mol, boss of the company, firing them all. Without consulting his partners, Mebo Ltd., he unilaterally decided to replace the International Service with his own programmes. Although the evening output had millions of listeners, it had very few advertisers and he knew that Dutch programmes would be less trouble and probably make more money. The parent company Mebo Ltd. was not at all happy with this decision. Station founders Erwin Meister and Edwin Bollier had visions of RNI becoming an important international voice and they were aware that English was more widely understood than Dutch. Mebo over-ruled Mr de Mol and, on 3rd November, the International Service was reinstated. DJs Brian McKenzie and Mike Ross were brought back and ex-Caroline North DJ Don Allen came in as Senior DJ/Programme Controller. Mr Bollier's secretary, Eva Pfister, became station manager and DJ Robb Eden moved onto the administration side. Now the evening service was run by Mebo itself, not by the Dutch production company. On 12th November the Sunday ‘World Service’ was brought back too and on the 20th the evening shows were extended to run 7pm-3am GMT.'' https://www.offshoreradio.co.uk/rni8.htm

Vroeger bekend van Erwin's radio weblog ehhh... ik bedoel Ron's radio weblog. 😉

Hier ook, maar de diverse 'zenderbazen' kicken er ongetwijfeld op.

Yes.

'' End of the long waves of RTL Luxembourg 234 kHz on December 31, 2022. The decision has just been taken: Faced with the energy crisis, the M6 Group, RTL will stop broadcasting on the long waves from next January 1st. A measure that should save more than 6,000 Mwh per year.'' https://mediumwave.info/news/

Vandaar ook de link naar de rest van het (uitgebreide) verhaal op Woodleynet, zodat je daar alles zelf kan lezen. Maar goed het gaat dus om dit citaat: '' so we may find that if the other 4 masts put a 20dB notch or null into Holland or Germany so we may get a 3dB increase in signal in the UK but if we lose 20dB in Holland or Belgium, then would have to decide what is the best option to go for.'' En ga er maar vanuit, dat ze dan gewoon gaan voor de 'goede' ontvangst, aan onze kant van de Noordzee.

Een van de zwaarste stormen in de lange zeezender geschiedenis. Steve Conway verteld: '' the whole of South-East England was being devastated by hurricane force winds, with immense destruction to property, injury and loss of life. Thousands of trees were being uprooted, roofs torn off, electricity cables and TV transmitter masts felled, ships were being blown aground high onto beaches — and we were 18 miles out at sea, unaware that all shipping had headed for safe ports, and we were the only ones still out there. '' Everything was white. Flying foam filled the air higher than the top of the ships bridge, and through every window all you could see was white foam, flying through the air at more than a hundred miles an hour. Visibility was about three yards. We couldn't even see the tower from the bridge, just blue flashes through the white, as the foam caused the thousands of watts of broadcast power to arc and flash with the unexpected wetness. The tower was only a few feet from the bridge window, but if it hadn't been for those flashes you wouldn't even have known it was there. Incredibly, both Caroline on 558 and Monique on 963 were on the air as usual, as the arcing didn't seem to be doing any damage to the equipment.'' Hoe het verder ging die (moeilijke) dag en de vele (technische) problemen die opgelost moesten worden door Peter Philips, Mike Watts en Steve Conway, lees je via de volgende link. https://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/CAR/car17.shtml

... over de 648 kHz, Flashback op 765 kHz, antennes (+ onderhoud) en bereik, toekomstige experimenten, vermogen, zonnepanelen, DAB, SDR ontvangers ect... Bereik: '' we are the most popular station in Calais and they don't speak English in Calais then in places like Rotterdam or places on the Dutch and Belgium coast where English is spoken - so we get emails from people in Dusseldorf in Germany saying that we are the strongest station on the dial, and in some places in northern Germany Caroline can still stop the search tune on car radios when driving along the autobahn, and that's with the signal travelling all across Holland and Belgium into northern Germany, and it will still stop the search and tune on a car radio and that's at 4KW ERP - so its mind boggling what we can do.'' Ontvangst zuid Engeland: '' Another question and comment from the audience was that the signal does not come travel well towards the south coast, Alan confirmed that fact given that we are only 170 miles from the Transmitter, but if you’re a 170 miles away in Holland it seems to be much better then in Hampshire so it may be due to the South Downs attenuating the signal or the chalk not too conductive enough Alan admitted he did not know why.'' Caroline Flashback op 765 kHz: '' since BBC Radio Essex switched of its MW transmissions on 765 about two years ago, a Pirate has appeared broadcasting Caroline Flashback on 765, we don't know who it is but it’s been on air for about a year '' De antennes: '' Another question from the audience asked if you got the 360ft aerial working would it be somewhat better performance over the 200ft aerial? Alan's reply was - in this part of the world when Caroline went from the short mast to (which we are now back on) to the full size mast Caroline's signal actually went down by about 3dBs, and that Peter Chicago in Margate measured it has a 3dB increase in Margate but when Alan was at Orfordness and used his SDR receiver at home in Southampton (which he accessed remotely) and they had a big jump lead to connect from one aerial to the other and when we went from the 360ft mast to the 200ft mast the signal was dropping by 3dBs in Hampshire on the big mast compared to the short mast. So the big 360ft mast due to some re-radiation from the other 4 masts has some very sharp nulls, so that's why we would like to try the in-land mast on its own rather than the centre mast, but because the in-land mast is not tuned to be stand alone at 50 ohms as its tuned to be part of radiating centre mast in the phase array with all the impedance and mutual coupling between the 5 masts, and its tuned to be an out of phase reflector, at the back of the mast and it would require a new Aerial Tuning Unit (ATU) building. '' Onderhoud: '' one of the conditions that Cobra Mist have put on us having access to the site is that we got a competent aerial mast maintenance company to carry out the inspection of the masts , because the BBC last did an inspection in 2010 then the BBC switched off in 2012, and then the site was sold off in 2015, so the last thorough inspection that the masts had was in 2010. The new owners of Cobra Mist have made the condition that we have the masts inspected every year or two years, so we have to get a mast company in to climb the mast to inspect and make sure the masts are both safe to energize (apply power) to the masts which is part of the site rental costs. '' https://www.woodleynet.co.uk/caroline/soton_caroline.htm ( Dank aan Mike Barraclough)

Met de betreffende lijst van twee weken eerder. https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/1975-10-11/

Noem het maar een fragment een opname van ruim 7 uren. Kijk ook even hier:

Ik had eerst een Puch en een paar jaar later een Kreidler, dus van 'geen echte vent' naar 'buikschuiver'. :-)