Thursday, 7 June 2007

Update thanks to a post on DS,

Press Release – June 7th 2007

The radio event of 2004 is back to become the radio event of 2007!

Award-winning Pirate BBC Essex became one of the world's favourite radio stations in April three years ago when it marked the 40th anniversary of the start of offshore radio in Britain.This August, Pirate BBC Essex returns to mark the 40th anniversary of the Marine Offences Act which set out to outlaw the offshore stations.

Already the legends of the Sixties pioneers of offshore radio have signed up to be part of the twenty-first century team of presenters to broadcast from the North Sea. They include Johnnie Walker, Emperor Rosko, Dave Cash and Keith Skues. Some presenters, such as Norman St John, John Kerr and newsreader Gord Cruse are flying in from around the world to be part of Pirate BBC Essex. Listeners will also hear Tom Edwards, Mike Ahern, Roger Day and Pete Brady, many of them working together for the first time in decades. They will be joining Ray Clark, Steve Scruton, Ian Wyatt and Tim Gillett from the 2004 Pirate BBC Essex line up.

Pirate BBC Essex will be based aboard the classic light vessel LV18, owned by the Pharos Trust and moored off Harwich. It was the last manned Trinity House light vessel.

"This is an ideal opportunity to raise the profile of our worthwhile local project to save the vessel for its home port of Harwich," said Tony O'Neil, Project Director and Trustee. He added, "Since Pirate BBC Essex 2004, volunteers have been busy restoring the exterior of the vessel as part of the final phase of restoration."

Pirate BBC Essex goes on air at 6am on Thursday 9 August, and in a parallel with what happened in 1967, is scheduled to go off air at 3pm on Tuesday 14 August. A tender vessel will ferry the team and crew out to the LV18 together with supplies.

"Ever since the last time in 2004, the requests from listeners to do it again have been non-stop," said Pirate BBC Essex Programmes Editor Tim Gillett. "We realise what we did then struck a chord with listeners and we're glad to be coming back, but this could be the last time."

Pirate BBC Essex was the idea of BBC Essex presenter Steve Scruton, who as a boy tuned in to Radio Caroline and Radio London. "It was my dream come true to see it happen in 2004," said Steve. "The early signs are this time it's likely to be even bigger."

Listeners are reported to have organised holidays from work to coincide with Pirate BBC Essex and many are preparing to drive up to Harwich to spot the LV18 from the shore.

"One of the memorable moments from 2004 was the flashing," said pirate legend Dave Cash. "It was great to see a row of cars parked up at Shotley opposite the boat and there we were chatting to them via flashing."

In 2004 Johnnie Walker recorded a message of support for Pirate BBC Essex which was broadcast twice. This time, he's part of the project and his presence is likely to lead to queues of people wanting to catch a glimpse of him.

A Pirate BBC Essex exhibition charting the history of British offshore radio will be mounted in the Harwich Ha'penny Pier office and will include rare artefacts. "We're also planning a little piece of Pirate BBC Essex memorabilia," said Pirate BBC Essex Technical Director and presenter Ian Wyatt.

Listeners will be able to tune in to Pirate BBC Essex across the world via computer at bbc.co.uk/essex as well as via the more traditional medium wave at 729, 765 and 1530. Listeners will also be able to email and text the station.

"We can promise fun and some great music from 1964 to 1967 including some gems not heard since the sixties," said Tim Gillett. "We'll be talking to listeners rather than at them."

Tim's been offered assistance in the project by the owners of the two top pirate radio websites –Jon Myer of the Pirate Radio Hall of Fame and Mary and Chris Payne of the Radio London website

In article <53...>, ... (Richard Sharpe) wrote:

"We can promise fun and some great music from 1964 to 1967
including some gems not heard since the sixties," said Tim Gillett.
"We'll be talking to listeners rather than at them."

Don't think I'd have agreed to that quote :-)
I mean surely it can be read – for the time of the pirate/anorak we'll be talking to listenrs then we'll go back to normal and talk at them.

Eric

Richard Sharpe <...> said:

Ted Finch <...> said:

Richard

New Ofcom list released on 4th June…still no mention.

Ted

Hi Ted yes i saw that very strange!!

This morning i rang the number for Red Sands Radio as shown on the Offshore Radio.de web site to try and clarify things,

All i got was a answer phone so i left a message for them to call me back,

If and when they do i will report back on here.

Regards Richard

There's a few problems to be overcome, like being given a decent AM frequency but it's definitely a go-er I'm told.

Ha ha ha. Us highly investigative specially trained types find out things don't we, eh?

I've just discovered who's registered as being behind twitter.com/radio279.

It's ok though, your secret's safe with me. I believe making such a site as the twitter.com/radio279 is called a 'double blind'. Very good.

I've also discovered who's behind twitter.com/279 and much to my surprise it's not me sunning myself in Malta right now. Hilarious.
—
* Christopher England just said that *

Quoting a previous Arthur G. R. Sutherland contribution:-

the media studies graduate
trained to toe the management line, who all sound the same, play
of the same playlist, and read liner cards, in short robots
broadcasting to robots neither of whom know any better because
they don't know the history.

No, you're wrong, sir. Whether they 'know' better or not is irrelevant. They are employed with a brief to do and say what you hear. They are not allowed to deviate. Their job is not to be innovative or creative. Their job is to read out the announcements in the style dictated to them, and not take a free rein.

I mean, right, if you were employed by somebody to paint their wall blue but you painted it red, they'd sack you, wouldn't they?

The bland emotionless robots are told to be that way, because somebody somewhere believes that that works as an inoffensive format that people will just leave on in the background, so they'll hear the adverts. Getting consumers to hear the adverts is what commercial radio is for, nothing else.

If we could get back to the situation of these happy times, where we
had D.J's with personality, who were trusted by management to build an
audience, treat it with respect, and give
it what it wanted, the way they wanted it.

Why do we need to 'go back' to such times? Surely those times have never left us. They are still here. This is what Radios 1 and 2, plus most pirate radio stations do today, and is why they have the far bigger audiences than the commercial sector.

Now the advertisers and the agencies have control of the output
down to what is said, or what is played and when, so they can place
their product the way they want to, and sod the audience.

So, no different from the days at sea when most songs played were part of payola deals, or (in the Major Minor case) were being released on labels owned by the operators. It was 'sod the audience' then too, surely?

—
* Christopher England just said that *

Quoting a previous Nicholas Mead contribution:-

An alternative view might be that there simply isn't
enough of that sort of DJ talent to go round and the
people simply don't exist for XFM etc to compete on
that level.

It could be economies of scale. As in, the cost of employing somebody talented compared to the returns available due to a 'lift' in audience numbers, just don't add up. Maybe, automation is the only viable option left for music radio these days?
—
* Christopher England just said that *

Quoting a previous Eric Wiltsher contribution:-

with regard to DJs I don't subscribe to the view there isn't enough
talent around. What might be the case is that the talent isn't being
coached to maximise that which it can achieve – that's up to stations to
decide.

I'd agree with this. Most folk I know in the commercial radio sector here in the UK have a very tight brief about what they CAN'T do. And, number one thing is they mustn't do anything that makes waves. Making waves gives the audience the opportunity to polarise (for or against the presenter). This can lead to a serious loss of an already hard to deliver audience. So, bland it is, and bland it has to be, otherwise the radio station stops being wallpaper.

That's why R1 and R2 do so well – they are broadcast radio stations.
There are shows on R2 that would be torture for me to listen to, whilst
others entertain me – Messrs Evans and Ross entertain me.

Couldn't have said it better (except for the bit about Ross and Evans: I can't take too much of either!)
—
* Christopher England just said that *