Thanks Chris, the Ross Jackal was 38 metres compared to the Ross Revenge 67 metres. Neptune, maybe it was an over-inflated charge for the Gates CB-510 turntables which were removed from Radio Nord's Stockholm studios in 1962, were put on board, and only reappeared in 1966 when converting the presenter studio (nearest the mess room) into an on-air studio. (Hope this doesn't get quoted as fact!) Previous Message Makes you wonder what assets Planet were getting from Atlanta when they bought them out for 52k at the end of 1965. Perhaps a downpayment on the 50 had been made. Previous Message As a matter of clarity the Mi Amigo remained in the ownership of the Americans until an unknown date sometime after March 1968 with everything, including staffing, maintenance, provisioning and rental, handled by Wijsmuller, probably from 1963. It is likely that the beneficiary of the sale in 1972 was the harbour authorities but I don't know that. By the way, what is the model boat in a glass case as a prize on the Radio Caroline web-page? It is certainly not the Ross Revenge, more like a random, generic, smaller (c 50 metre) 1950s Grimsby trawler. Dodgy towers interpretations too. Previous Message Even after Crawford's setback in 1962, if he had chosen to prepare the Mi Amigo somewhere other than Greenore in 1964 he may still have been first. The history of offshore radio might have taken a different turn because it would have had his more professional programming right from the start. His 6-track EPs included the first cover of a Beatles track in 1962, 'Love Me Do' by The Sparrows - John Carter and Ken Lewis who were later to form The Ivy League. His 6-track stopped producing cover records in September 1964, but then returned to the genre in 1968 with those highly successful 'Top Of The Pops' albums. Previous Message Allan Crawford should be credited for the first feasible plan to broadcast offshore radio anchored off the UK coast. Keith Martin says in his Pirate Radio Hall of Fame story: "Just down the road from Royalty House, in Dean Street (CNBC's headquarters), were the music empire headquarters of Allan Crawford, whose big hit record at the time was Wheels. What's the connection did I hear someone cry? Well, Allan had plans with the folks at CNBC to make music together. How CNBC became involved with Crawford was probably to do with their playing his copy-cat records, his cover versions of hits. Allan's singers and arrangers imitated the original sound of six future hit pop songs, as cleverly predicted by Crawford, and they were released on one 7” disc and sold for the price of a single 45 rpm record, a real bargain. But he couldn't get BBC air-play for them. Although CNBC did close down in early 1961, I believe it was the station that was the catalyst that brought about Radio Atlanta." As has been said the Mi Amigo, was anchored in the Thames Estuary in September 1962 ready for broadcasting when, reportedly, Crawford's planned Texan investors got cold feet due to the raid on Radio Mercur. Oliver Smedley said in the Sunday People November 1966 that he met Allan Crawford and Kitty Black shortly afterwards, helped them get more investors ending up with them finally acquiring the Mi Amigo a year later. Felixstowe and Offshore Radio's Facebook page published three press articles from November 1963 last year about Project Atlanta. Headlines: Pirate Radio Ship Off East Anglia? Project will be British answer to Radio Luxembourg they say. Planned to start in New Year. Front page headline story, Ipswich Evening Star with Extra Special above, November 13th 1963 Pirate Radio Plan, May Start in New Year off Harwich. East Anglian Daily Times, November 14th Pirate Radio Ship Plan Goes Ahead on Schedule, Vessel is Now Being Fitted Out, Ipswich Evening Star, November 14th All with quotes from Project Atlanta, expected to start in February. This led to a question in the House of Commons February 5th 1964. https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1964/feb/05/commercial-radio-programmes-ships In May 1964, same sitting as Ernest Bevins was reporting back on the technical report on jamming Caroline, he confirmed he'd known about Project Atlanta when the story broke in the press. https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1964-05-15/debates/664c5db3-bd7f-4efc-94a6-eff34bf97b35/RadioAtlanta Previous Message It definitely would have happened. It wasn’t Ronan’s original idea to bring offshore commercial radio to the UK. Had the Texan’s not messed around, Crawford would have been first. Previous Message Would offshore radio have ever happened in the UK, without Ronan?" Well yes, absolutely. Project Atlanta started by Alan Crawford in 62 with the purchase of the Radio Nord ship later named Mi Amigo would have come to air at some point and others would surely have followed. Previous Message It did rather wizz through the 1970s, but otherwise pretty good & interesting. I do wonder still,: "Would offshore radio have ever happened in the UK, without Ronan?" Something we will never know Previous Message Thanks for posting Mike Terry -- good interesting read . Kev Previous Message That article was first published on March 18th 2014. Link to that now comes up as error 404 and was quite often linked to in offshore radio forums/discussion threads. Original article still on Wayback Machine. Don't know if there have been any changes in the 2024 article other than changing 50th to 60th. Previous Message An interesting article written by Colin Morrison published today, 15 March. https://flashesandflames.com/2024/03/15/how-a-radio-ship-and-7-men-shook-up-britain-in-1964/ |