News Round-up for September and October 2002
(August's is here...)

OTWAY COMES HOME TO THE MARKET SQUARE
Stoke Mandeville Hospital Radio is currently running a fund-raising RSL in Aylesbury. (Tune to 1575 am)

On November 2nd and 3rd, Stoke Mandeville Hospital Radio staged a telephone auction. A £50 bid secured a pair of tickets to the Homecoming gig at Aylesbury Civic Centre, donated by local hero John Otway, plus a couple of copies of his upcoming Greatest Hits CD.

A huge array of donated items included a gold disc of the Pet Shop Boys' album 'Please', framed, autographed photos of Tom Jones, Chris Tarrant, Kylie and Chris Eubank and a Terry Wogan sweatshirt! There's also a silver disc of the Bee Gees film sound track album 'Saturday Night Fever' – that's the film containing a track called 'Disco Inferno' which we suspect will be extremely familiar to Otway fans!

The station phone number is: 01296 331575
Radio City seems to be the station of the moment!

Paul and Mark de Haan's latest update to the Marine-Broadcasters site features the Borkum Riff, and one of the less-familiar offshore stations to UK enthusiasts, Radio Delmare. During 1978/1979 three attempts were made to launch Radio Delmare, which means 'Radio From the Sea', as a new station off the Dutch coast.

Paul and Mark's previous update was a comprehensive feature on the fort-based stations. It includes fascinating information and photos of the marine forts and their construction, their wartime history and their new roles as radio stations. It is most amusing to read the 'company memo' from Dorothy Calvert to Radio City PD Tom Edwards, with his instructions as to what was and was not musically acceptable to be aired the station!

Bob Le-Roi has added Part 2 of Radio Sutch and City in Pictures, to his Scrapbook section, and there's also a collection of Ross Revenge photos and audio clips.

Jonathan has more Radio City info on the The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame, having received contributions from Paul Elvey and Phil Jay. There is also a great story from a lucky Big L listener who won a competition prize of a trip out to the Galaxy.

Look Boden has also updated his Radio 227 site.

This is Radio London
Hans Knot has drawn our attention to a recording of a Canadian rock band called Great Wide Open, titled This is Radio London! So far, there is no information as to why the band should have chosen to sing about our favourite station, but we'll keep you posted! Hans also mentions that Dutch-language speakers will be interested to read his interview in London with Keith Hampshire. Visit 'Autumn Edition' and the interview is the first item in Volume Five.
...still talking of CDs...
On October 8th, Keefers sent us a scan of an article from the Toronto Star called Radio Days Are Over, with the comment, "Isn't this what we've been talking about?" The article, by Antonia Zerbisias, which tells of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' album, The Last DJ, will strike a note with all lovers of real radio, worldwide. The lyrics of the title track speak about the last Dj, "who plays what he wants to play/and says what he wants to say."
While Norm's in the UK, Tony's in Oz!

Norman St John, who trod the decks of both the Mi Amigo and the Galaxy, was in London for a flying visit from Australia early in September, but was kind enough to find the time to treat the Radio London Webmasters to a meal.

Ironically, while Norm was in the UK, his good friend Tony Blackburn was in Oz, winning 'I'm a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here!'

Following the Real Tony, it's The Real Arnold!

Following Channel 4's TV documentary, 'The Real Tony Blackburn', the Offshore Echoes Offshore Themes site is proud to have unmasked 'The Real Arnold'! Their canine spokesperson told the Radio London website:

"Many people will remember Tony Blackburn's dog Arnold, who barked during the quieter parts of Tony's theme tune – 'Beefeaters' by Johnny Dankworth. It was always assumed that Arnold originated from an obscure sound effects LP, or perhaps from PAMS mythical series K9 jingle package.

Actually Arnold's barking comes from an Australian single 'Ringo's Dog', by the Jack Dorsey Big Band, according to André de Raaij.

Arnold can also be heard "singing", 'How Much is that Doggie in the Window' on the LP 'Pops for Tiny Tots'. {Contour 2870 438 (1975)}. Arnold is introduced by Tony, and is accompanied by the late Wally Whyton.

Thanks to Chris Cortez for the Arnold picture and 'How Much is that Doggie in the Window' track."

 
Offshore Echoes 128
The new edition of Offshore Echoes features full colour front and back covers of the MV Mi Amigo. Features include Euroradio 2002 with interviews with Paul Rusling and Steve England. Offshore Echoes 128 is available for £5.00, from PO Box 1514, London W7 2LL England Email oem@offshoreechos.com,Web www.offshoreechos.com
Hot Water Aboard the Kneebo III – Tony Currie reports from LV18

Tony Currie was sorry not to have had a visit from us during a watery weekend spent on the LV18 for the Radio Mi Amigo RSL. Tony says:

Sharon (Smith) and I missed you. We missed Victor Hartman as well. But we managed to produce another (live) episode of THE BARNACLES which was fun, and Sharon Elizabeth Smith and Mark (the chef from the Yeoman Rose) made their wireless debut (in their own right) on the SHARON E AND THE COOK show on Sunday night.

Despite there being no format whatsoever and freedom to play anything that could be considered Classic Rock (from 1950 - 2002) there were still rather a lot of nostalgic tracks floating around - like Smoke's "My Friend Jack", and Sharon played "Let's go to San Francisco".

A fun weekend. Plus the fact that the studio actually had decent kit that worked properly, the hot water now works on board (so do the showers!). We also had a decent (and very quiet) generator for the first time, and the ship was showing signs of being properly looked after, with even the brasses freshly polished!

But it would have been more fun if you'd been there too!

(Oohhh, shucks...!)
News Round-up
Chris Dannatt writes:

I've just read Hans Knot's September Report and was shocked to see that Peter Tait had passed away. I first met him at 'Communicate 88' in Blackpool. My old mate Carl Kingston did the introductions, and it transpired that Peter was 'Peter Clarke' on Caroline, when Carl did his stint there on the return in 1983. I met him several times after that, and he even voiced a couple of things for me at Viking, when I was in charge of the Com Prod studio.

Thanks to several people who have sent contact details for Carl for us to pass on to Chris.
The October issue of Ian MacRae's online newsletter, The Radio Wave (already up to Issue #10) includes 'The I.Q. Test for Radio' which takes only fifteen minutes to complete, but assists stations and DJs in assessing how 'different' their product is.

Subscribe: The-Radio-Newsletter-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
And finally...
Seventy-eight percent of broadband Internet users polled in a US survey said they would rather give up their daily newspaper than live without broadband. Asked to choose between their high-speed connection and their morning coffee, sixty-three percent of respondents said they would prefer to forego the coffee. (A shame they haven't hgot Radio London to listen to during their breakfast coffee break!)
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