INTRO
I have spent some years at sea, not as a sailor but making radio programs as a disc jockey for several "Offshore" stations. Looking back at this time I can say "I wouldn't. have missed it for the world"
Radio in those days was kind'f playful.. still an adventure. Nowadays the computer will decide what format to play and it will play the music. 
The stations I worked for: Caroline, Monique, 558, 819 and Paradise could be well received in most off Western Europe, but than again there were some arias where reception of Medium wave signals was not so good. This had to do with the propagation of the signal; in soil with a lot of iron the signal degrades a lot.
During the week I did the breakfast show from 7:00 to 9:00 hr. (CET) then one hour off till 10:00 than I started producing the news broadcasts until 14:00, two hours off until 16:00 for the drive time slot called "Windkracht 4-6"(windforce 4 to 6) On Sundays form  05:00 tot 09:00 I presented the "International




This picture was taken from the British government "spy ship" Dioptric Surveyor that you see below
(© RCD/DTI)



The Ross was flying the Panamanian Flag


 


 Ross Revenge here at Goodwin Sands in 1991
 is fighting the elements ©fotoflight


 

breakfast "(Het Internationaal Ontbijt), where we tried to speak to most our listeners in their own language. Extremes in requests happened, like in the International Breakfast ® program, one had to play a request from someone in the north of Morocco to somebody in Turkü, Finland. Or for the man who sent us tapes form Canada, were he recorded how our signal was to be heard over there. At first we didn't believe it, but the man had hundreds of yards in antennae. 

Most jocks  presented some life shows and also rewrote and presented news. The news was copied from stations abroad like; BBC, BRT (Belgium) en ANP (Netherlands) and the  World Services from these countries. Sometimes even the TV news.


D.J. Peter de Groot (Cobus Boscha)


Here I am on the Laser 558 ship the Communicator
 1985 (© photo Hans Knot) 


Our daily event, passing of the Olou line. 
Below, Good morning Europe.

Here I am in the Monique studio doing the bizz. As you can see from this thumbnail size, its a click able picture, but most of them are so check out if you can blow them up.                

Why were to stations operating from internatio-nal waters?
Most governments in Europe liked to control the output from the pirate stations, whereas we were able to "do as we pleased "There are enough pages dedicated to the history and background of Offshore Radio then and now, simply follow this "link" to see more on this subject.
Life at sea wasn't always big fun, when the storm periods hit us, it could be weeks before the staff was relieved. In those weeks, cigarettes and coffee would run out and even essentials like milk and water could run out. 

In the summer it was one big party, with frequent visits from our listeners. We always used to look out for those visits, were we came in contact with "the rest of the world". Sometimes the jocks from the other stations, would visit us as well and we'd have a big party at the "poopdeck" of the "Ross". 



De Caroline D.J.'s in late 1986 doing a pose!

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this page update 18 Jan 2001 


UPDATE 14-04-2006