A visit to the MEBO II

During the past 32 years I have been writing on the history of radio with a special interest in offshore radio, or radio from international waters. The offshore radio stations made their programmes without governmental influence and without the strict rules which at that time were current within the public and commercial radio industry in Europe. So these stations could adapt their broadcasts to the changing preferences of the public in a more flexible way. They were innovative in their choice of music and their style of presentation. In this respect they often lead the way for their listeners. Moreover, a strong feeling of romance and adventure was clinging to the life on board of the ships. With a lively interest in these matters I followed the events around RNI in the seventies on a regular base and wrote them down in my diaries. The next fragment describes my first visit to the station's ship MEBO II on Sunday, February 21st, 1971.

Those lines open the account in my diary about the trip to the MEBO II. Meister was on the trip along with his business partner Bollier. In those days they ran a telecommunication company in Zurich, Switzerland. Other people on the ship were Willem van Kooten (alias Joost den Draayer), Jan van Veen, John de Mol senior (director of the Dutch service), John de Mol junior, who later became a technician on Radio Noordzee, and nowadays is the biggest TV producer in Europe, and of course about ten journalists who were invited to promote the station in their newspapers or magazines. That was also the reason for my presence, as I was the editor of the offshore radio magazine "Pirate Radio News" at that time. Let's go on with the story in the diary:

Of course I had seen many photographs of the MEBO II in the British and Dutch newspapers in 1970, but had never visited the radio ship before. It was beautiful to see the ship with all its colours, appearing on the horizon after some 35 minutes. It really was something special. No other station, after the closedown of Swinging Radio England and Radio London, had attracted me so much as RNI whith its programmes from 1970. An almost tragic year, 1970, when the ship was nearly hijacked and taken away by the Veronica organisation. RNI sounded to me like a very professional radio station, which in my opinion, was due to the very good balance of qualities in the presentation team.

Directly after we went on board the MEBO II, Jan van Veen said some words about the massive ship: "As we look at the black radio ship on the other side of the MEBO II," pointing at the Norderney, Veronica's vessel, "we see our one is really big; it makes that one look like a rowing boat." He added that it was only a joke, so the journalists would not write bad things about his former bosses, for Van Veen also left Veronica after a quarrel with the Verweij Brothers, one of them being his father-in-law.

After visiting other areas of the ship, like the engine and generator room, I followed Joost to the deck of the ship to talk about the plans for the Dutch service: "We will be bringing the hits from today, yesterday and tomorrow, relaxing music, not too heavy and progressive. We will try to serve a wide audience. Especially the group who have passed their teens and are now in their twenties. That's the group of interest to our advertisers." Although the Dutch service wasn't on the air yet, Den Draayer was sure that Radio Noordzee 220 would become a big hit: "Of course it's very difficult to sell a station to an advertiser when it isn't on air. But our people at the sales department have had talks with several companies and things really look good for the future. In no time, you can count on that, there will be more hours of Dutch programming, our own news service, live programming and many more surprises." After a drink in the studio, everybody went back to the Elisabeth 4. Meister shouting with hands cupped to his face: "I forgot, within a few weeks, I promise you guys, we will be on the air 24 hours a day on shortwave, medium wave and FM!"