Shiprocked

 Our Government are evil, lying, theiving corrupt bastards.

Could not agree with you more glow worm !

I don't know about you Simon but as I get older I get more not less angry about how we get shafted by various Governments. Seems to me sometimes we don't really live in a free country at all, it's just that in the West, the ruling, theiving, murderous war-mongering regimes are just more canny about fooling us that we do. Regards.
Giles.

Complete agreement again ! Far from representing the people – that is what they are supposed to do as an elected government , they follow their own agenda and tell us what we should, and should not think about things.

It seems to me gentlemen that this thread has all the elements as to why European offshore radio may not be finished yet...

Jim D. shorewayradio <(Address removed)> said:

It seems to me gentlemen that this thread has all the elements as to why
European offshore radio may not be finished yet...

Absolutely. All the reasons for why it is needed are in place. As discussed before though, governments have become much more hard line these days and i believe that an offshore radio station would be boarded at gunpoint and the crew arrested and the ship impounded within days , if not hours of it starting.International waters protection laws would not be a consideration to the style of government we have now.

It is a shame there is not a coherent group of those in favour of trying watery wireless again.
Let's face it, if there were a few thousand AM ship radio lovers then they would only need to put a few quid each into an offshore bank account and the views of some could be tested.

Regards
Eric

Hate to say this but I see no point in an offshore station, but most of all if some people on here feel that the Government will somehow feel threatened by an AM station that no one will listen to you are sadly mistaken. If you want to change Government policy it will be changed by the power of the Digital revolution

What would you be scared of most, a popular Internet campaign from file sharing gurus or a bunch of old anoraks playing progressive rock from the 70's on a little boat from the North Sea.

Kind of reminds me of the song Glory Days by Bruce Springsteen, try to keep up Gentlemen we are 2010

Steve

On 8 February 2010 11:44, Stephen Sullivan <(Address removed)> wrote:

What would you be scared of most, a popular Internet campaign from file
sharing gurus or a bunch of old anoraks playing progressive rock from
the 70's on a little boat from the North Sea.

Kind of reminds me of the song Glory Days by Bruce Springsteen, try to
keep up Gentlemen we are 2010

Have to say that I sadly agree here. While the romance of an offshore station would appeal to many who contribute to this site, including those who feel it would make no difference, I can't see how it would upset or even concern governments. And I doubt whether it'd have more than a few hundred listeners – and the station would stand for ....
what exactly?

The new fighting ground for freedom is the digital ground, the
internet and all that it offers. It's something that cannot be
regulated and crosses borders regardless of what governments say or
do. And it's accessible to anyone with the most humble computer.

This is where any new 'fights for freedom' will happen.

I agree entirely that AM radio is well past its sell by date and will not get a large audience like it used to. However, in the case of offshore radio i think that the fact that as far as a government is concerned , the platform is not important and any attempt to broadcast freely over a wide area would be seen as a threat. Taking a photograph of a policeman in parliament square is hardly threatening but if you're spotted doing so , you will be questioned and asked to stop doing it and possibly arrested. The point is that the government are complete control freaks these days.

 However, in the case of

offshore radio i think that the fact that as far as a government is
concerned , the platform is not important and any attempt to broadcast
freely over a wide area would be seen as a threat.

Yep! They certainly will....

 The point is that the government are complete control

freaks these days.

...especially of this much talked about 'digital revolution'....
The fact is that in times of desperation,disaffected people always seek out truth and honesty.As this financial crisis finally comes to a head in the next few weeks we may all have to face some very unpalatable truths and proponents of the digital revolution on here may hopefully start to see things differently.Meanwhile lets go back to 1978 with this one hit wonder from Jilted John: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN45OjB-cCU

So, you guys are all really saying the same as I was saying in my blog article on the Climate Change thing. ( http://tumblr.com/xjb640lyt ) NGOs, Advocacy organisations and sometimes even Governments (although they are rarely the ones in control of anything) are out of control with their fever of trying to take control.

Incidentally, you will note on my blog that Radio Caroline's Peter Moore has commented to say he is in agreement with me and is equally concerned by all the manipulating by the powers that want to control humanity.

Something needs to be done. Maybe an offshore radio station does have a role to play in getting the truth to the people. But, it wouldn't have a purpose if it was just there to play music. That would be pointless.

A ship full of excellent talking presenters. This is what we need. Well, apart from the fact that broadcasting on AM would be pointless – just look at the last RAJAR!

From: "Christopher England" <(Address removed)>

Incidentally, you will note on my blog that Radio Caroline's Peter Moore
has commented to say he is in agreement with me and is equally concerned
by all the manipulating by the powers that want to control humanity.

The Messiah and The Anti-Christ agree! Hell really has frozen over! :-)

Something needs to be done. Maybe an offshore radio station does have a
role to play in getting the truth to the people. But, it wouldn't have a
purpose if it was just there to play music. That would be pointless.

Yes I take your point on this. A music station would not cause the authorities any pain at all. A free thinking, unregulated talk station, now that would be dangerous, and would actually test the Broadcasting Act.

A ship full of excellent talking presenters. This is what we need. Well,
apart from the fact that broadcasting on AM would be pointless – just
look at the last RAJAR!

From a technical point of view, what platform could an offshore station broadcast on, apart from AM, to reach a mass audience! Not disagreeing with your point about AM, but looking for solutions.

I can't believe that you've just called Peter Moore the Anti-Christ. Uuuummm. I'm telling your mum of you.

From a technical point of view, what platform could an offshore station
broadcast on, apart from AM, to reach a mass audience! Not disagreeing with
your point about AM, but looking for solutions.

That's the Catch 22. My personal choice would be to avoid radio ships and invest in networks of FM relays throughout the country. Far cheaper and far more efficient at actually getting a real audience!

From: "Christopher England" <(Address removed)>

That's the Catch 22. My personal choice would be to avoid radio ships
and invest in networks of FM relays throughout the country. Far cheaper
and far more efficient at actually getting a real audience!

By this do you mean have a network of rigs on towerblocks in every major city?

Stay with this, I bumped into a couple of bus loads of folks the other day – all Brits on there way back to Blighty.
So, as you do, I said hello and then asked them how they got on in Slovakia with the suffix, what did they miss. So to cut a long story short, these 20–30 something didn't miss much (sorry Chris) as they had news headlines and radio via the iPhone apps on there phones. I then asked if that's how the UK was getting media now (well not in those words) and the over whelming reply was yes. Bit more blah blah and then some mocking of the one or two that had to share non multimedia phones.

Regards
Eric

Yes. Using the standard technology that modern day FM pirates use of just hooking into a discrete stream, then your new radio station can be anywhere. If you compare and contrast the figures for acquiring and equipping a boat and keeping it 'on station' at sea, then spending the same amount of money would get you far superior coverage on land by just having a massive network of relays/repeaters with an efficient team keeping them on the air.

Plus, if as part of your programming you ask for people to relay the station wherever possible, then you've got mass civil disobedience with urban freedom fighters helping the station stay on for longer. It would make far more sense to have this real alternative station talking about 'the truth' relayed by those nut-jobs that normally randomly relay Radio Caroline or tapes from decades ago of people just playing records, surely?

Real revolution from a real radio station.

Nice idea in principle. Problem is, t'internet is so fragmented as there are hundreds of thousands of stations mostly with miniscule audiences. I just can't see any critical mass of support developing via this medium in the short to medium term at least. With an offshore station however or even a network of FM tx's, you'd be more likely to pick up 'passers by' tuning across the bands. Stick it on somewhere between two much listened to stations like R5 and Tawk Spawt- (say 981khz) with a decent signal, grab your elusive 3rd world broadcast licence, you'd pick listeners without problem. Perhaps the web could be used to massively promote such a station.

Of course You'd immediately get the Govt. hastily passing ever more idiotic laws, such as making it illegal for people wearing shoes or pants to be on a radio ship. If the station were popular enough there'd be an outcry following any raid and the Govt. would look like the utter arses we all know they really are.

The news of the 89 raid on the Ross was conveniently 'buried' because of the Marchioness tragedy. I often wonder if Govt. pressure was put on the media to supress the Ross story even further- wouldn't surprise me one bit from the shower of shite running this country.

From: "glow worm 558" <(Address removed)>

grab your elusive 3rd world broadcast licence, you'd pick
listeners without problem.

Is this really a viable option?
Was it ever a possibility or a red herring thrown out by Ronan to keep the workers "on board" and not lose faith?

 Yes it is a viable option Ronan could have had a licence from a number of states if he had been prepared to pay for one and so could anyone else.

Unfortunatly Ronan wasn't offering hard cash but on air promotion for the country issuing the licence. They wern't interested in that they wanted the cash. Despite what other may have you believe the Uk authorities would not be able to board any radio ship with such a licence.