The fight for free radio

Thirty years ago ... Quite a lot of people in the Netherlands still love the style of radio and radio music that developed in the 1960s and 1970s. As a consequence, for most of them April 18th is an important date to commemorate. On that day, now thirty years ago, over 150,000 people overflowed the city of The Hague for what — at the time — was the biggest demonstration ever held in the country "behind the dykes." The demonstration of 1973 was organised by people who loved the offshore radio station Veronica, a notable frontrunner in the new style of pop radio. The organisation committee had asked the listeners to come out in the open to protest against the Dutch government because of its plans to close down the beloved offshore radio station.

The Dutch were rather late to do so. Already on September 26th, 1965, the European Council had signed the Strasbourg Treaty, or fully: the "European Agreement for the Prevention of Broadcasts Transmitted from Stations outside National Territories." In October 1967, Denmark, Belgium and Sweden had ratified the agreement, followed by Great Britain on December 3rd, 1967. Germany followed track on February 28th, 1970. The Netherlands would do it on September 27th, 1974. But even before signing the treaty, national legislation would have to be passed to act effectively against the offshore radio stations. In 1973, that was about to happen in the Netherlands. To show that they did not agree with such a decision, on April 18th, 1973, from all over the country people gathered in the Dutch government capital. People even came from neighbouring countries like Great Britain, Germany, Belgium and France. All the "anoraks," as the offshore radio fans were called, assembled on the Malieveld — a large city park near the Central Station. From there, together, they walked through the city to the Dutch Parliament Building at the Binnenhof to hand over a huge load of petitions and signatures to a representative of the Dutch government.

Sending postcards. Of course, the campaign was heavily promoted on the station and proved to be succesful from the very start. Only 53 hours after the campaign had started, a spokesman of Veronica told the press:

"We now can give you some more figures. One million postcards have been distributed all over Holland and already more than 200,000 of those have been returned by mail. The response of the public is really fantastic. The Dutch PTT (The Post Office) was so kind to deliver the cards with a special car. For one thing, we asked the people to mention their age on the card. By this, we know that the cards have been sent in by people in the ages from 5 up until 93 years. The majority of cards, though, was sent by people in the age between 20 and 30 years."

Beaming with pride, the spokesman finished his account by saying that yet another million cards would be rolling from the presses the very next day. From that moment on, all over Holland, about 15,000 people were volunteering to provide as many citizens as they could reach with the special Veronica-cards. School kids furnished the cards to their friends, schoolmates and families. Petrol stations had them on their counters. The cards were distributed at the gates of the football stadiums and for the occasion, also special concerts were held. A cigarette company even sponsored twenty girls to distribute the cards in the shopping centres of the big cities. On every Dutch road, you could see cars driving by with stickers on the back saying, "Veronica blijft als U dat wilt." The result was striking. On Thursday, August 19th, 1971, a total number of one million cards had been counted, which were signed and sent back to Veronica at the Utrechtseweg in Hilversum.

A leaflet from autumn 1964. Of course, there were more demonstrations than the one that now is remembered every year. Over the years, several demonstrations have been held. Next to that, several organisations were set up to organize actions on behalf of offshore radio. The first form of protest I could retrace in my archive was a leaflet dating back to autumn 1964. It was produced by the VVRT, short for "Vereniging Voor Vrije Radio en TV" — the Society For Free Radio and Television. With this leaflet, the organisation asked their members to sent a letter of protest to the Dutch government against its plans to issue a special law, forbidding the REM Radio and Television to transmit its programmes from a platform anchored off the Noordwijk Coast. The next leaflet from the VVRT provided a report of the results of this campaign, written by the chairman of the organisation, Mr. Cobet:

"On the day of the first discussion in Parliament, we've sent a letter of protest to the responsible Ministers as well as the members of Parliament. This action was followed by sending copies to 70 different newspapers. From 40 different cities, letters were sent to members of the following political parties: VVD, PvdA, ARP, KVP, CHU. While I attended the discussions, several telegrams were brought in and the letter of protest was officially signed in as an "incoming item"."

Reviewing the bulletin of the VVRT after so many decades, it's very strange to read nothing at all about the contents of the discussions. Instead Cobet went on, like so many other organisations would do later on in the history of offshore radio, to discuss the financial problems of his organisation, asking his readers for as much money as possible to sustain the good cause of the VVRT. For membership, the foundation asked an annual donation of one Dutch guilder. Cobet, however, was so bold to add that it would be very nice if the readers did send in a hundred guilders instead. He also wrote about setting up local branches, something that in later years would happen with other organisations related to the Fight For Free Radio. Members would be called "real members" if they would bring in at least five new ones. To this end, they could get free transfers (stickers) with a drawing of the offshore platform with its impressive television tower. The only thing they would have to do, was to send an envelope including a return stamp to the address of the organisation, the Herenstreet 111 in Bussum, near Hilversum. Next to that, the organisation asked to send in all newspaper cuts that could be found in the press, as they wanted to get a complete rundown of all the publicity around Radio and TV Noordzee.

The "Free Radio Association". In England, offshore radio also gave ample reason for debate and demonstrations. On May 28th, 1967, there were about 2,000 people marching from Trafalgar Square to Fleet Street to sustain their favourite stations. The summer of 1967 saw the "Free Radio Ball." In August 1968, the first of a series of annual meetings was held to commemorate the end of offshore radio. In 1969, from June 10th till 17th, the Free Radio Week was held. The event started and ended with a massive meeting, again on Trafalgar Square. In June 1970, the offshore radio bunch even took a turn into politics with the Anti-jamming Rally of Radio Caroline. And, in between there were many local actions, for instance in Newcastle.

The main reason for all these activities was what has become known as Black Monday, August 14th, 1967. Just before Christmas 1966, the British Government published a so-called "White Paper," revealing its plans for the future of broadcasting. Next to the plan to start a National Pop Station (BBC Radio One), they also had the idea to start nine local BBC stations. As a consequence, the introduction of a Marine Offences Bill was announced, meant to end offshore broadcasting off of the British Coast. Of course, the loyal following of the many offshore radio stations was not happy about these plans and on January 29th, 1967, the "Commercial Radio Listeners Association" (CRLA) was formed by Miss Catherine Baker to prevent the passing of the Marine Offences Bill. The CRLA was not the first to protest the legal threats to the offshore stations nor the only one. Even earlier, on October 24th 1966, the National League of Young Liberals launched their "Save Pop Radio" campaign. However, after that announcement, nothing was heard anymore about their vague plans. Another organisation would lead a longer life, be it after it had merged with the CRLA: the "Free Radio Supporters Association" (FRSA).

On February 19th, 1967, a meeting was held by the CRLA, the FRSA and all concerned to form an organisation that would represent all listeners of commercial radio, and also have the full support of all the offshore stations. And indeed, most of the offshore stations had a representative attending the meeting. During this meeting, the participants agreed that the stations would help the listeners association in every way they could, particularly by broadcasting free spots on air, to support all the organising matters from the CRLA. However, to guarantee the neutral stance of the organisation, no representatives of the stations would take a chair within the organisation, nor would the stations one way or another finance the listeners' organisation. This decision gave birth to another one. In the wake of this meeting, the CRLA and the FRSA merged into one organisation within a few weeks. Initially the organisation went by the name of the "Free Radio Supporters Association." This name, though, was dropped the very next day, as Ronan O'Rahilly, director and owner of Radio Caroline, announced that promotion spots for the new organisation only could be broadcast if the word "supporters" was dropped. From that day on, the organisation would be known as the "Free Radio Association" (FRA) and prove its existence to the outside world by organising a demonstration on Trafalgar Square.

Marching Trafalgar Square (1967). The FRA was quick to organise some actions. Already in the middle of January 1967, still some weeks before the merger with the CRLA, a four-page magazine was published. This publication was a free supplement to the National Advertiser. Of this magazine, called Radio News, nine issues would be published. Each issue presented a defence of a specific pirate station and the magazine consistently pleaded for the introduction of free, commercial radio in Britain. Just two months later, on March 16th, 1967, the Radio News became part of the Time and Tide publication, an established news magazine. The first combined edition of the magazines included an interview with Ronan O'Rahilly, the founder of Radio Caroline. O'Rahilly commented on the plans of the Government to bring the Marine Offences Bill to the Parliament and thus turn it into an Act:

"Most of the thinking people in Britain are unaware of what the Marine Offences Broadcasting Bill will do to us. It will make Radio Caroline international — internationally recognised and legal. For the public however it does this: if a British shopkeeper sells cigarettes to a Radio Caroline announcer, he [the shopkeeper] becomes a criminal. If the Archbishop of Canterbury or Cardinal Heenan or the Chief Rabbi gave a sermon on Radio Caroline, they would become criminals too. If a journalist writes a newscast or talks on Radio Caroline, he becomes a criminal. If a British advertiser advertises on Radio Caroline, he becomes a criminal. If, on the other hand, the Pope were to write a sermon for Radio Caroline, he would not be a criminal, nor would any foreign figure who wanted to use the medium to voice publicly something he wanted to say. In other words it is stifling the freedom of speech of the British subject to speak where he likes about to speak."

The FRA also tried to assemble its followers in local branches and the association organised some rather big demonstrations too. One of the latter took place on May 28th 1967 in London. Some 2,000 listeners of the radio stations came together to listen to a number of speakers and subsequently walked in a protest demonstration from Trafalgar Square to Fleet Street. In those days, the Free Radio coalition was a curious mixture of leftist and right-wing groups. By that time, Labour had been in government for three years, with Harold Wilson serving as Prime Minister. Therefore, the Free Radio movement had attracted some right-wing opponents of Labour. Most listeners, on the other hand, adored the music, they saw as the core of their new-won freedom within their own youth culture — and that culture had a strong leftist tendency. By 1967, this tendency had even become stronger. In those days of pop art and psychedelics, pop music even tended to be judged as "commercial" compared with the "artistic" accomplishments of "alternative" rock music. In those hippie days, there were a lot of so-called "underground" magazines, which were distributed unofficially in the pop scene and could not be bought at a newsstand. One of the more famous magazines was The International Times, which brought a report about the demonstration. It was written by Frank Fuchs, who had interviewed some of the participants for the occasion. As could be expected, Fuchs proved sceptic of the event, declaring it to be a festival of young adolescent "teeny-boppers", some more and some less serious about their reasons to attend the happening. This is what he wrote:

"A sunny Sunday afternoon in Trafalgar Square, and a crowd of 2,000 teeny-boppers gathered to support for Free Radio. Swaying slowly in the interval music (courtesy of Radio 390), putting their coppers in the collecting tins, giggling in the sun."

Who owns whom? In his report for the International Times, Frank Fuchs clearly was trying to set the motives of the organizers apart from those of their audience. According to him, this is how the people listened to the speeches:

"No one seems to be taking in what the speakers are saying: "We all know we're are here, because we just like to listen to the radio." Anyway, the talking is just about over and everyone is forming up to march down to Fleet Street. Think I ought to interview some of the organisers."

Luckily for Fuchs, Radio Caroline had decided to delegate one of the deejays to the meeting. It was Rick Dane, who did his best to recommend his station and his boss Ronan O'Rahilly in terms of freedom:

Apart from Dane, Fuchs also spoke with some of the people who had organised the meeting. First of all, there was a 17-year-old guy, called Alan Clark, who professed to be the treasurer of the FRA. Trying him out, interviewer Frank Fuchs asked him if he saw any connection between the State putting down the Pirates and the State putting down smokers and trippers. The answer could scarcely have been more wrong:

"Not really, no. You can look at it this way: Free Radio isn't really harmful to health. And it's not likely to cause ... er ... national ... er, people sort of running round raving lunatics and this sort of thing, is it? And when people take LSD, it's all you know, hallucinations and go around smashing things up and that sort of thing, but Free Radio is hardly likely to do that ... it's a bit different really."

Letters to 10 Downing Street. We don't know for sure how many people participated in the march of 1967. The estimates differed. Where the International Times mentioned the number of 2,000 participants, the FRA itself soon after the demonstration claimed that the demonstration was visited by 4,000 people. They may have been right, but it proved difficult for them to make themselves heard in the newspapers. Apart from the promotion spots on the offshore stations, they had no easy access to the press. Chairman Geoffrey Pearl duly complained:

"The press is playing down the efforts of the association. They see commercial radio as competition for their advertising revenue."

The special promotions for the FRA, played on the offshore stations with regular intervals, however were rather effective — as is shown by the next example. In some of the promos the listeners were asked to write to their local MP. In spring 1967, they were also asked to send a letter to the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson. In the letter the listeners had to voice the reason why they were disappointed about Wilson and his Government banning the offshore radio stations. All the letters, received at 10 Downing Street, were passed on to the Post Master General. At that time that office was taken by Mr. Edward Short, who let his private secretary, Mrs E.E. Frankham handle all the letters. I can tell you she had a lot of work with responding to all of them. A standard response letter was sent to thousands of listeners all over Great Britain and even to Holland and Belgium. This is what the Post Master General wrote:

On a boat trip to Radio 270. Though their fate was at stake, most of the offshore radio stations kept far from politics, as they always had done. One of the exceptions to this rule was the short-lived Radio 270, a station transmitting off the coast of Scarborough from the former "Oceaan 7," a former fishing trawler from Scheveningen. The station declared itself prepared to carry free political messages for all parties, who wanted to be on the station. There was only one restriction: the messages were not allowed to be inspiring race hate. Managing Director Wilf Proudfoot even claimed that the Communists were allowed to transmit their message over the Radio 270 transmitter. The very first political party, which bought airtime with Radio 270, were the Young Conservatives at York University. Their special broadcast, with a speech from MP Patrick Wall, was planned to be aired on May 1st, 1967. This, however, didn't happen as the recorded tape had a technical problem. The message had to be rerecorded and was transmitted on another date. In the month of June, that year, another political broadcast was made by the same group. It was the same Patrick Wall, who interviewed John Biggs Davidson, another Conservative MP, about the way government handled the problems with and in Rhodesia, Israel and the Middle East.

The local elections of April 1967. Another exception to the rule of political abstinence was Radio Scotland. In September 1966, the station announced that political airtime would be sold in the near future. In the same vein, Gordon Wilson, Secretary of the Scottish National Party claimed his Party could soon be heard on "242," but actually nothing happened. Promises, made by Radio Scotland's Managing Director, Tommy Shields, to go for a "place" during a local by-election in Glasgow, too came to nothing.

The bigger stations, yet, were slowly becoming involved politically. The process had already started before the meeting on Trafalgar Square of May 1967. One month before, in April 1967, Radio Caroline as well as Radio London had spent some airtime on political issues. On April 13th, there were local elections in England and Wales. Both stations intervened in the previous days by airing special spots in which the question was raised: "How many of your local candidates are in favour of Free Radio?" The spots answered this question suggestively by giving figures of 20% for the Labour Party, 98% for the Conservatives and 82% for the Liberals. Robert Chapman, a researcher in Media Studies and writer of the book Selling the Sixties comments:

The "Broadside Free Radio Movement". In the Fight for Free Radio there were some other notable organisations, all carrying colourful names such as the UDAS — the "United DJ's Appreciation Society" — look for a leaflet in Appendix 1 — and the "Broadside Free Radio Movement." The name of the latter was mentioned on a couple of offshore radio stations in the form of promotional spots. The "Broadside Free Radio Movement" was headed by Peter Philipson, a Cambridge student. In April 1967, he recruited a number of students, mostly from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Radio Caroline did a lot of promotion for the BFRM and in June 1967, Philipson decided that his headquarters had to be moved from Cambridge to London. At the same time, he sent out an outline of what the "Broadside Free Radio Movement" should be:

""Broadside Free Radio Movement" is an independent movement, run by Peter Phillipson, objecting to the "Marine &c, Broadcasting, (Offences) Act, which prohibits British firms placing advertising copy with offshore radio stations, and British subjects from working on them, with the intention of forcing them to close down. In order to do this, the Act incorporates the use of methods which are completely alien to the age-old, traditional ideals of British Justice, including a reversal of the adage "a man is considered innocent until proven guilty." Apart from that, this restriction on radio broadcasting which nearly half the population of the UK like to listen to, bears no resemblance to the concept of a democracy."

"We intend to establish a network of "Action Centres," each responsible for voicing agitation is their area. This will be run by unpaid volunteers, who will hold meetings, canvass, distribute literature, and attempt to persuade people to withhold their support from Parliamentary candidates and MP's who back the "Marine etc. Act". In this way we intend to stir up public feeling to such an extent that the "Act" will fall in its objective."

1. To give a coherent and visible organisation to the many millions of people in this country who are directly opposed to the Government's Marine Broadcasting Offence Bill.
2. To give to these people a framework within which their protest can take on a more unitary, and united form, and thus, it is hoped, a more effective one.
3. To expose what the movement considers to be the completely inadequate arguments that the Government has put forward to account for the action that hey have taken, and are still in the process of taking against the pioneers of independent broadcasting in this country.
4. To support the whole concept of a free and completely independent system of sound broadcasting here, both on a national and a local scale, and thus by implication, to oppose any attempt to return to the air networks of this country to a monopoly control.

The political defeat of British offshore radio. The FRA kept busy organizing its following. Local FRA-branches were formed and in June 1967, the organisation had no less than 259 branches. All in all, though, memberships counted up to only 1,920 members — a very small number compared with the 20 million listeners the offshore radio stations claimed as their audience over the whole of Great Britain. Not hindered by this, the FRA organised a huge manifestation during the summer of 1967, just before the MOA was passed in parliament. The meeting at Alexandra Palace in London was called the "Free Radio Ball of the Year." About 3,000 people came to see "The Move" and other groups. Deejays Johnnie Walker and Robbie Dale — both from Radio Caroline — hosted the show.

On August 14th, 1967, the Marine Offences Bill was passed. This, however, did not mean the end of it all. Radio Caroline, for one thing, continued its transmissions for almost seven months. Radio One also did not fill the gap the offshore stations had left, though the BBC hired a lot of the former deejays right after August 14th, 1967. Radio One did try to copy the offshore radio stations. Even the jingles were copied, although overproduced. Still, the loyal audience was not particularly happy with the new station. So, they kept on reviving the memory of that Black Monday, August 14th 1967, when the last programs were transmitted. On August 14th, 1968, the first meetings were held, commemorating the end of Pirate Radio. In his hometown Romford former Radio London deejay Mark Roman was carried around in a coffin that was delivered at the marketplace. It was also his farewell to Great Britain. A day later, he left England to restart his radio career in his native country Australia.

FRA-leaflets. Meanwhile the FRA kept trying to keep its organisation alive. To this end, the organisation published loads of leaflets — see for instance Appendix 2 and Appendix 3. However, it did choose an approach, which threatened to estrange its membership. In the eyes of a lot of its loyal members, the association even became greedy and unreliable. A quick look at the text of one of the leaflets, published in 1968, shows why. The leaflet opens optimistically:

"The Marine Offences Act is almost dead. Caroline plays on. A new "sweet music" station (hush hush) is coming. The members of "Broadside" and the "Free Radio Association" have come together in a big new 100,000 strong "Free Radio Association." We fought and now were are winning."

Now, with its 100,000 members the FRA should have enjoyed a fine financial condition. In fact, the organisation professed to have some serious financial problems:

""But, as you will see, we have some problems. We must not weaken now, or we've had it, so please help in all the ways I ask you in this newsletter. "Broadside" had a debt of 800 Pounds, mainly because it had no membership subscription. Much of this debt has been cleared, but we are short of money and have had to take a temporary loan. Because all "Broadside" members became associate members of the FRA, there are now 4,500 full-paid members, but 95,500 associate free members. I'm sure you can see this puts a terrific strain on our finances. This won't be a problem if you, associate members, fork out five bop for Full Membership. This will give us the money, which every big association doing a big job must have! So, please, please fill in the below form."

Dark clouds gathering above the FRA. Because of this, many people lost their faith and confidence in the FRA. Years later Geoffrey Pearl himself wrote his personal "history on the FRA." This is how he described the situation in the months directly after August 14th 1967:

"Almost immediately, the "Free Radio Association" ran into difficulties. The subscription rate was adequate when free advertisements were being broadcast, but did not cover more than a fraction of the expense when this facility was no longer available. The FRA found itself losing money at the ratio of 30 Pounds a week. Unfortunately, the Committee had been infiltrated by an element who did not have the interests of the "Free Radio Association" at heart. They now seized their opportunity to strike when the association was at it weakest. By disrupting Committee meetings, they prevented the decisions being taken which would have enabled the serious financial situation to have been dealt with."

"As the only possible means of saving the association, the Chairman personally made the necessary decisions. The disruptive element, who had by then gained the support of other members of the Committee, then formed an opposing group, which made every effort to smash the association. The persuaded the association's bankers that a dispute existed, which resulted in a complete freeze of the association's bank accounts. A bank freeze at a time when the association was running a very heavy weekly deficit could have been expected to bankrupt the FRA within three weeks."

High expectations. Thirty-five years now have gone by and, looking back at the FRA and its leaflets at that safe distance in time, we can only smile at its ambitions and expectations. Remember, though, that we were young in those years and that every active member was really proud to be part of the FRA. Of course, in these years, being young, one had to protest, no matter against what. On the other hand, youth had democratic ideals and actively believed that their actions would further these. The same goes for the FRA. And, paging through its leaflets, one can see that the expectations were rather high. Look, for instance, at the membership targets of the FRA — written down by Geoffrey Pearl in capital letters:

"Now we have 100,000 members, we are setting ourselves a fantastic new target — ONE MILLION MEMBERS! Just think, suppose you, and every other member, send in the form overleaf and ask for 10 memberships forms and make 10 new members (it will be very easy), then we will become the biggest association in Britain. And the best! And the most powerful! And Free Radio will be guaranteed."

Moreover, it becomes clear, that the FRA knew whom to fight but not how:

• Fight the miserable little band of kill-joys who have tried to take away our freedom to listen to the friendly independent radio stations. All except Radio Caroline have been forced off the air. And the vicious Marine Offences Act stops anyone from giving details about Radio Caroline's programmes. Who would have thought that free speech would be suppressed in Britain?
• Fight the questionable devices used by the Government in its efforts to silence the fort based stations. When Radio City wanted help, it was refused because the station was outside British jurisdiction. But when the government decided to close the station, it suddenly became part of Britain. And why was Radio 390 prosecuted in two counties?
• Fight the Government which is trying to preserve state-control over radio by crushing all competition to the BBC. And fight the government which tricks the people by delaying the Marine Offences Act until is has majority of 97, and says nothing about its proposed legislation in its Manifesto. Its scheme is to get the whole issue over as soon as it can so that everyone will have forgotten all about it by the next General Election.
• Fight for the freedom of the air, as we have fought before for a free press and free speech. Remember that without these freedoms a country becomes a dictatorship. Under the Marine Offences Act, the "Free Radio Association" is partially silenced. This is what the Government wanted. But the Government will never silence us completely. We shall fight until we win.

The National Free Radio Week (1969). Geoffrey Pearl may have overestimated the following of the FRA in respect to numbers and motivation. Yet, the organization succeeded in organising, in cooperation with the FRC, the "National Free Radio Week", which took place starting August 10th, 1969. On this day, another "Free Radio Rally" was held. On Trafalgar Square, this time it was Ted Allbeury, former director of Radio 390, who spoke to the public, pointing out the wide variety of music and light entertainment that could be offered by a free commercial system. Jason Wolf (Radio Caroline) next delivered a call, straight from the shoulder, for action and support. And if that was not enough, yet another Rally was held in London on August 17th 1969. Now some 4,000 people were demonstrating. At the occasion, an FRA-T-shirt was delivered at 10 Downing Street for Harold Wilson. Speakers at Trafalgar Square included Roger Day, Andy Archer, Jason Wolfe and Sir Ian Mactaggart.

The Dutch scene. Apart from activities like these, the FRC organised branches abroad. In 1969, the association claimed to have members in 23 countries, including Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Eire, Luxembourg and even India. People in a range of countries were asked to set up branches of the FRC or the FRA. The Dutch preferred a branch of the FRA, which initially was run by J.J.L van der Meer from Rotterdam and at a later stage by Hans Verbaan. Germany also had a local branch of the FRA, the "Freie Radio Assoziation," in Frankfurt and, next to that, there was a branch of the FRC, that from 1971 on was publishing the magazine Free Radio News. Denmark had the FRC Denmark, run by Paul S. Hansen. France also had its branch, which during the 1970s evolved into the "France Radio Club" with its excellent Offshore Echo's Magazine. This magazine is still alive and kicking. Speaking of magazines: from the 1970s up till the early 1990s there was yet another Free Radio magazine, titled The Monitor Magazine. Headed by the late Roland C. Pearson, this magazine was an offspring of the local Southend branch of the FRC England.

The Dutch FRA-branch had been started by Edward van der Meer in 1967. Initially the organisation, called the "Free Radio Action," was just a private initiative and not yet related to the British FRA. Future members were attracted by promising perspectives. Interviewed by the press, Van der Meer summed up in the newspapers a whole range of things the members could acquire for low prices. Next to that, the lofty aims of the organisation were spanned out extensively. The organisation was a private initiative of Van der Meer, who used to present himself also as Edwin Lake, with his last name translated in English. At the time, he was only 17 years old and he had his address at the Kromhoutstraat in Rotterdam. In one of the interviews, he confessed that he was completely addicted to offshore radio and that he had enlisted five hundred signatures of his countrymen for the cause. These, he said, would be delivered to Harold Wilson, attached to a petition declaring that not only the British people, also the Dutch were deeply disappointed by his decision to ban the Pirates.

Just like his British predecessors, Van der Meer soon came in financial problems and then contacted the people of the FRA in England. They made an agreement and Van der Meer subsequently posted an official letter to his supporters, indicating that the organisation had adopted the new name of "Free Radio Association, Department Holland." By then, it was already 1968 and, again, Van der Meer promised his members a lot of things, including a news bulletin with news every six weeks — real interesting news for the fans, not the usual dreary things about offshore radio normally to be found on the subject in the newspapers. I don't know if someone ever saw or even touched a copy. All I can say, after having paid my subscription for the first year to the Rotterdam banc account, is that I never received a single bulletin.

RNI shows up. In 1970, three years after the passing of the Marine Offences Act, the Fight for Free Radio again became actual in Great Britain. In 1969, two Swiss business men — Edwin Bollier and Erwin Meister — who had made their money by selling electronic equipment all over the world, conceived the plan to start their own radio station. Both men first had worked for a company in Germany, helping to rebuild the former Radio London ship, the MV Galaxy. The ship lay moored in Hamburg and was owned by a Greek Company. The owners, though, had forgotten to pay a huge bill to the harbour authorities and so the project did collapse. Still, in the minds of Meister and Bollier the idea was born of having their own radio ship (Knot, 2002). They were quick to realise their plan by acquiring and equipping their own radio ship.

Radio Northsea International, as the station was initially called, started airing test signals on January 23rd, 1970, from the radio ship MEBO II. Regular programming could be heard on 102 MHz FM, 6210 kHz SW and on 1610 kHz (186 metres) AM from February 28th on. The programming was bilingual with an English as well as a German Service. As soon as the transmissions had started, some Dutch newspapers ranted and raved against the new station. Only one day after the official start, the Dutch PTT (GPO) indicated that it had received some serious complaints from the Norwegian Government. The broadcasts on the 186 metres, according to the Norwegian Government, were interfering with distress frequencies of the Norwegian Navy. A journalist of the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, moreover, added that his research proved that the frequencies of the pilot service in Flushing also were hindered by interference from the RNI-signals. RNI was having other problems too. Shortly after the opening, it became clear that few Dutch people were attracted by the station. There seemed to be no need for a second offshore radio station off the Dutch coast next to Radio Veronica that had been there since 1960. Radio veronica was transmitting a very successful format, which attracted a lot of advertisers. RNI had also the problem that its programmes were transmitted in foreign languages, and thus were not that interesting for the Dutch world of advertising.

A jamming protest in Rochester. In those days, I was listening to the programs of RNI on a daily base and, I'll never forget how the jamming signal of the British Government came on the air. Right in the middle of the record "Spirit In The Sky," a song by the American band Norman Greenbaum, a whistling sound could be heard, beeping noisily through the music. No wonder, that many listeners were put off by this irritating noise. After loosing a considerable part of its audience, RNI decided that the frequency had to be changed again. First, the station switched over to 217 metres and later, on May 13th, the 244 metres became the station's new place on the medium wave band. This frequency, though, was very close to the frequency of BBC Radio One, the public pop station that was launched in 1967. As the 244 metres, officially, constituted a free frequency and also lay close to the Radio One frequency, the owners of RNI assumed that the signal would not be jammed. But, this hope proved false, as the jamming transmitter in Rochester also changed frequency to block the new RNI signal.

RNI reacted by transmitting official protest spots on a regular base, taking a stance against the Labour Government of Harold Wilson. The very first I heard was voiced by Larry Tremaine, an American deejay who presented himself as "the gitour with the heather" on air:

The return of Radio Caroline. What the offshore radio listeners didn't know at that time, was that Meister and Bollier in the meantime had made a massive deal with Ronan O'Rahilly, the former director of Radio Caroline. The three men had agreed to interfere in the political campaigns of the General Election by opposing Labour. During the week before the General Election, RNI would be renamed into Radio Caroline. As the latter station, until its demise in March 1968, had been so popular with the young, the use of its name would have a better impact, they thought. The British government had reduced the voting age and so British youth from 18 years on now could vote for their favourite Party. The new young electorate, so Bollier, Meister and O'Rahilly thought, had to be made aware that it was the Labour Party that had made the MOB into the Marine Offences Act. Now, young people could show their liking for offshore radio by voting for the Conservatives. Initiating offshore radio's most political statement ever, real anti-propaganda for the Labour Party was put out on the air for a few days and Free Radio spots, again, were transmitted. To further their case, they even hired some double-deck buses, painted and pasted with slogans. In the streets of London a special double-deck bus, the Free Radio Election campaign bus, was featuring Free Radio slogans on as well as posters of Harold Wilson, clad as the Chinese communist Chairman Mao.

The Anti-Jamming Rally. Sunday, June 14th, 1970, saw another march, organised jointly by the Campaign for Independent Broadcasting (CIB) and the FRC (Free Radio Campaign), which went down into history as the "Anti-Jamming Rally." On Sunday, June 14th, 1970, this march was held in London with Hyde Park as its starting point and 10 Downing Street as its goal. During the whole event, Radio Caroline was transmitting a special report from the MEBO II to guide the crowd through the City of London. Over 10,000 people assembled in Hyde Park for the march. Next to Ronan O'Rahilly %mdash; who always showed up when news could be made and who also fronted the march to Downing Street — speakers at this Rally were the chairman of the CIB, Mr. David Prewitt, and also Martin Rosen (Press/Public Relations Officer), Ronan O’Rahilly and some others. Deejays Simon Dee, Roger Day and Mark Wesley also joined the march.

Harold Wilson, so it seemed, was not particularly pleased with this huge demonstration against his government and he decided to retaliate. Two days later, the British Prime Minister announced that he had given permission to use the most powerful transmitter (1,000 kW) at the transmitter plant in Droitwich to jam the RNI AM-signal. This transmitter was far more stronger than the earlier one used at the Rochester plant. By giving this permission, Wilson by the way went into illegality. He was not only jamming a broadcast from a ship in international waters, officially registered by a foreign country, but the jamming signal was also interfering with the signals of regional and local radio and television stations in large parts of the county Essex and some parts of the South East of England. Even the signal of BBC Radio One, the national pop channel, was hindered by interference in certain parts of the South East.

The Conservative deception. On June 18th, 1970, all kind of local and regional results were reported by Radio Caroline. At the end of the day, after most of the votes had been counted, it became clear that the Conservatives finally had beaten the Labour Party. Maybe the "Campaign for Independent Broadcasting" and the propaganda broadcasting of RNI / Radio Caroline had some real effects on the outcome. Now, after more than thirty years, the question is still being discussed. One thing, however, is sure. The greater London area, with its huge mass of new voters between the aged of 18 and 21 years, as well as the South Eastern regions of Britain in fact drew a bigger amount of votes for the Labour Party than in the years before. These particular regions had been among the core targets of the "Campaign for Independent Broadcasting," which indicates that the campaign not really did change the political preferences of young people.

The day after Election Day, Caroline's name was dropped again in favour of RNI and the owners hoped, after winning, the Conservatives would order to stop the jamming. It must have been a big deception that this did not happen. Additional jamming even was started on the 6210 kHz, the short wave frequency of RNI. Consultations were needed and a meeting was arranged with people of the Conservative Party. However, they were not prepared to stop the jamming in any way. Maybe they too were afraid of the potential political power of the media or, maybe, they were deterred by the contacts of the owners of RNI with the governments of rebellious countries like Biafra. Whatever the reason, having grown disappointed with the course of things, Meister and Bollier in the end decided to return their ship to the Dutch coast to see if the advertising market had improved in the meantime.

A young man from The Hague. Though the Fight for Free Radio clearly was lost in Great Britain for the moment, people elsewhere still were continuing. While Radio Veronica was busy distributing and collecting postcards for the "Veronica stays ..." campaign, some Dutch offshore radio fans were trying to organize the fanbase. Mobilise all Dutch and Belgian Free Radio fans, was the idea of a young lad from The Hague in 1971. To this end, he formed the ISFRA, the "International Society for the Promotion of Free Radio." Together with Hans Verbaan, who in those days lived in nearby Scheveningen and who was the chairman of the Dutch FRA and FRC branches, he wanted to make a front. By a written protest to the government, they wanted to make clear, that the ratification of the Treaty of Strasbourg would make it almost impossible for the Dutch offshore radio stations to continue their programming. This young man was also the driver of the car that in those days picked up the people of the RNI at their Naarden studio to bring them to the tender in Scheveningen harbour. He told a journalist:

Gerard van Dam made a remarkable appearance in the press in July 1971, just after the MV Fredericia and the MV Mi Amigo were sold. The buyer of MV Amigo was Van Dam himself, and he successfully tried to fool the press. Together with the Hans Verbaan, he did sent out a leaflet, revealing their plans with the ship as a temporary resort for nostalgic anoraks:

"After long talks with the owners of the former Radio Caroline South ship, the MV Mi Amigo, we have succeeded in making an agreement. For a short period of time, the ship will be kept away from the ship breakers yard. During the next few months, everyone will be enabled to visit the ship for as short a time as one day, or for as long a stay as is required. Food and accommodation on the ship are being arranged. Original studio guidance will come from a well-known deejay. In case the costs of ship are not being covered by the profits for next few months, the owner will carry out his original plans and scrap the ship. This fate has already befallen Radio Caroline North. So, make the most of this unique offer and use what possibly is your last change to visit the first and last outpost of the golden age of British Pirate Radio."

A German initiative. In Germany the Fight for Free Radio also led to the founding of an organisation and a magazine. Already in 1966, in Offenburg, a very young Frank Leonhardt grounded the "German Caroline Club" from which the Free Radio Campaign Germany (FRCG) was born in 1972. Next to Frank Leonhardt, in this respect the name of Ernst Wronna needs to be mentioned. Thart way both these youngsters became active in the FRA. In Germany also a "Nordsee Club" was active, housing at an address at the Krefelderstrasse 60 in Aachen. Living there was Wolfgang Meures, a young man who thought that there had never been a better radio station than RNI. He initiated his club and started writing down his love for the station in a series of leaflets. All the news about the station he could acquire, was mentioned in these bulletins. In issue number six, dated November 1971, however, he stated that he planned to stop publishing his leaflets. Instead, he said, he preferred to work together with other people in one organisation in the Fight for Free Radio. This signalled the merger of the "Nordsee Club" with the FRCG. The FRC Germany started a magazine Free Radio News, later to be renamed in Radio News — a beautiful magazine, appearing on a regular base for many years. The editors stopped publishing it in the 1980s, but in the 1990s, incidentally several issues appeared. An important mark of this German magazine, no doubt, was that they had a very talented photographer at their disposal, who liked to go out to take pictures of the offshore radio ships. With Radio City deejay Martin Stevens, this German photographer, Theo Dencker, still, counts as the best photographer of the offshore period.

Still, at the time, there were some people trying to get the station back in the air. They initiated the "Caroline Movement." Caroline-fans in Holland and England were asked to send in as many records and equipment as they could, so the station could restart on a professional base. Moreover, a few weeks after the event, a demonstration was held in London, organized to show support for Radio Caroline and for those members of the crew who had remained on board after the raid. On September 17th, 1989, over six hundred people were attending the demonstration, which started near Victoria Railroad Station at the Waterloo Bridge Road. From there on, the crowd moved to Westminster Bridge and House of Parliament. The march ended at Lambeth Pier. Here goods were donated to Caroline deejays, including food, records and vital spare parts. Since then, also a "Caroline Legal Fund" was created to collect the donations of the fans of the station. Even now, in 2003, donations are still coming in the fund. They are used to keep the former transmission vessel of Radio Caroline in good condition as a token of the "Fight For Free Radio."

No more offshore radio? Sure, this article does not mention each and every single action taken in the Fight for Free Radio. However, we have covered the most important moments of the fight till the final demise of offshore radio. Will offshore radio ever return? Answering this question, I can do no better than extensively quote Jan Sundermann, who wrote the next lines in Caroline Newsbeat a couple of months ago. Sundermann replied to an article titled "No more offshore radio stations from international waters," which was published in an earlier edition of the same magazine:

"Well, to hear Big L was impossible from that moment on and I tuned to Swinging Radio England; it changed my life completely. My music taste — everything. I needed a better radio and with that I found Radio City and others — that unbelievable summer of 1966. And Caroline was back from the MV Mi Amigo after it was in Zaandam harbour for maintenance, now with 50 kilowatts and on 1187 kHz, so we could hear that in Yorkshire. But the signal was not too strong. Soon, though Radio 270 began changing its music for the better and it became hip groovy and maybe even cool to listen to it again. Everybody else in the North East of Britain was tuned in to the new station. We had some nice guys there. For instance that crazy Aussie Neddy Noel Miller was becoming a household name that every one knew."

"After Radio 270 closed our "Commercial Radio Supporters Club" got more organised, running weekly disc nights in Hull, and we invited Radio 270 deejays along as guest presenters. They said that their pay for a nights work was better than their weekly Radio 270 wages! Rusty Allen, Alan West — then called Ross Randell — and Mike Baron were regulars, and we had Don Allen too, just a month after Radio Caroline closed down in March 1968. I still have tapes of them doing these CRSC club nights — being introduced by a very excited sounding Paul Rusling, aged 14 at that time! We could not afford Spangles Maldoon and Johnnie Walker as they were too expensive and wanted 40 Pounds, I think. Some of the Radio 270 staff joined our club, including Maurice Jeffrey, advertising Sales Manager, but it was to be some years before I became friends with the Proudfoot family who became involved in later Rusling radio adventures. We still talk of Radio 270. Ian Proudfoot was my age at that time. I once borrowed his bike when visiting the Radio 270 offices and he was the luckiest boy I can think of as he went with his Dad to Grimsby for the final fitting out and sailed with the ship out to Scarborough for the first broadcasts."

• Appendix 1: Leaflet for the United D.J.'s Appreciation Society
• Appendix 2: FRA-Leaflet: Free choice ... or monopoly?
• Appendix 3: FRA-Leaflet: The FRA General Election Campaign
• Appendix 4: FRA-Leaflet: Appeal to all members

• Chapman, Robert (1992), Selling the sixties. The pirates and pop music radio. London: Routledge, 1992.
• Council of Europe (1965), European agreement for the prevention of broadcasts transmitted from stations outside national territories. Strasbourg: Council of Europe, ETS No. 53 (22.I.1965).
• Elliot, Chris (1997), The Wonderful Radio London story, 1964-1967. The life and times of Big L. Frinton-on-sea: East Anglian Productions, 1997.
• Fuchs, Frank (1967), "Free Radio Rally." In: International Times, 1967, 14, London: Lovebooks Ltd.
• Harris, Paul (1977), Broadcasting from the high seas. The history of offshore radio in Europe, 1958-1976. Edinburgh: Paul Harris Publishing, 1977.
• Knot, Hans (1993), Radio Noordzee herinneringen. Groningen: Freewave Media Magazine, 1993.
• Knot, Hans (1996), Herinneringen aan Radio Veronica, 1972-1973. Amsterdam: Stichting Media Communicatie, 1996.
• Knot, Hans (2002), "Von der Galaxy zur MEBO 1 und von dort aus wieder zur MEBO II." In: Soundscapes, 2002, 5.
• Knot, Hans (ed.)(1989), Twenty-five years Radio Caroline memories. Groningen: Freewave Media Magazine; Benfleet: Monitor Magazine, 1989.
• Leonard, Mike (1996), From international waters. Sixty years of offshore broadcasting. Heswall: Forest Press, 1996.
• Out, Rob (1975), Veronica één jaar later. Een logboek van vijftien Veronica-jaren. Zeist: De beuk d'r in BV, 1975.
• Shofield, Barry (1969), FRA — Rise and fall of a misguided association. Nottingham, 1969.
• Skues, Keith (1994), Pop went the pirates. An illustrated history of Pirate Radio. Sheffield: Lamb's Meadow, 1994.
• Sundermann, Jan (2003), "No more offshore radio stations from international waters? A reply." In: Caroline Newsbeat, Quarterly Magazine of the Caroline Support Group Netherlands, June 2003, Harlingen: Caroline Nederland, 2003.

I remember I took my Beolit 1000 portable radio along to this protest. The police were puzzled and bemused (and all the protesters delighted) when hearing RNI booming out very clearly on FM.

Under the heading "The anti-jamming rally" you write about the relationship of the FRA and the CIB. The Hyde Park rally on 14th June 1970 was organised jointly by CIB and FRC (Free Radio Campaign) and was, as you know, heavily publicized by RNI. FRA took no direct part in organising this event. In case of interest I made a recording of some of the speeches made at the Hyde Park rally. Speakers included David Prewett (CIB hon chairman), Martin Rosen (hon press + public relations, and Ronan O'Rahilly: