The diary 1987

Tales of the North Sea and roundabout, continued.

Caroline is working to improve it's signals on 558kHz, all the more important now that they have competition again from Laser Hot Hits. Radio Monique transmits in Dutch on 963 during the day which is then followed by religious broadcasting and then the rock service, Caroline Overdrive. There are rumours of a new pirate ship being readied in Spain which will probably broadcast country and western music. It's mid-winter though and the North Sea can be pretty rough! Now read on..

• January 1st Very subdued today, everyone is hung over! Dave James did the breakfast show followed by Mark Matthews. No Laser.

• January 2nd Mark Matthews, Dave James, Richard Jackson, Keith Lewis, Peter Phillips, news by Stuart Clark and Overdrive with John Tyler.

• January 8th Still no Laser. Caroline off for aerial maint 10am to 1-30pm.

• January 9th C. off for aerial maint, 9am tp 11-45am.

• January 10th Rumour control:- Laser's masts have both broken in storms and the TXs are probably damaged too! I wonder how the generators are!? (later note: one caught fire!) They also lost their anchorage the other night.

• January 13th Lots of snow, tobogganing on the Ross Revenge! New bloke 9pm to 1am, Rob Charles.

• January 14th Force 9 gales all day, everyone complaining.

• January 15th Caroline off at 8-20pm "work required on an aerial stay... not serious... back in an hour". Back at 9-05pm. 963 off at midnight, 558 still on.

• January 16th "Slightly less hostile North Sea" still rough though! Kevin Turner, Peter Phillips, Keith Lewis, Mark Matthews, Peter Phillips, Rob Charles, Mark Matthews on Overdrive. Early close for maint.

• January 17th Back on at 10am "Antenna maint complete".. seas slight.

• January 18th Rumour control:- Laser may have a single mast fitted and return in February.... Overdrive may be scrapped and replaced with a sponsored country music station! Aaargh!

• January 19th Seas are calm. Caroline seem to have a good selection of new releases. No Overdrive, 963 off after God spot.

• January 20th Lots of new people, Dave Ellis, Jamie King, Tricky Dicky or something.

• January 21st Dick Stains indeed! More oldies these days on 558. Modified format to fend off Laser, an improvement.

• January 22nd Puny signal, off frequency on 576 at about 7pm. Better by 11pm and netted. Hot Hits ID heard.

• January 23rd Laser a bit better today, but clobbered by interference. New jingles but no DJs.

• January 24th Voices of John Lewis, Andrew Turner and a yank on Laser doing "engineering tests", still down on Caroline.

• January 25th Laser still on weakly, off early in the evening... no point continuing. No Overdrive, just a blank carrier from end of the God squad.

• January 26th No Laser, no Overdrive. Calm seas.

• January 27th Laser weak, no Overdrive.

• January 28th No Laser, no Overdrive. Kevin Turner, Rob Charles, Richard Stains, Jamie King, Dave Ellis, Steve Clark on news.

• January 29th Laser testing.

• January 30th Laser on. Overdrive on midnight 'til 1am, no links, just music. Ended with a closing announcement by Dick Stains giving the address.

• February 2nd Laser official restart. Two DJs, Brandy Lee (female) and D.L. Bogart. It's about 4dB down on Caroline and useless after 4pm and before 7-30am. The German station is so loud on 576 that it must blot Laser out in London too.

• February 11th Possibly John rock-n-roll Anthony on Laser after 6pm but you'd have to be in Ramsgate to hear it properly! We reckon Laser's aerial is at 50 to 75ft high and they're running about 3kW.

• February 20th Rough seas, North Easterly winds.

• February 21st Laser off.

• February 25st Still no Laser. New news bloke, Steve Conway and a new DJ, Tim Shepherd on Caroline.

• March 1st Still no Laser, still no boggin' Overdrive! Mark Matthews is back, and another new bloke, Mark Warner, an Aussie.

• March 14th Update, not much to report, 558 consistent and 24hrs over the weekends. Laser off and on but always weak, some late night tests with John Lewis tonight..

• March 16th Dave James back on caroline, Richard Jackson is off to the USA.

• March 23rd Mark Matthews, Dave James, Mark Warner, Dave James, Tim Shepherd.

• March 27th Laser off. Caroline off 11pm or so, very rough.

• March 28th Caroline on first-thing then off at 8am, back by 10-30am. Still very rough.

• March 31st Still no Laser. Peter Phillips back on Caroline.

• April 5th Laser back on for the first time in weeks, still weak.D.L. Bogart is the jock.

• April 13th Two new blokes on Caroline, Mick Williams and David Foster. Kevin Turner is back and 558 is 24hrs. Laser is on and off like a yoyo these days.

• April 21st Laser off today.

• April 22nd 558 off at 10am for aerial work, back at about quarter-past then it tripped out at half-past. Just one blurt of signal heard about an hour later. 963 was on at 6pm when I checked (God spots). No Laser again.

• April 23rd No 558. No Laser. Monique as usual. 558 back around lunchtime.

• May 1st Still no Laser or Overdrive.

• May 4th The info-line says that 558 is to increase to 8kW when they get the parts, in a few weeks....... I've heard that before somewhere!

• May 24th Irish update: Energy on 103MHz is loud (in Southern Scotland), Sunshine is on 100.5 and 101.5, Q102 is on 102.1 and 103.5.

• May 27th Two new voices on 558, Andy Robbins and Jackie Lee (female Aussie).

• May 31st Info-line says that Laser has moved from its anchorage, possibly for work to be done.

• June 5th Rough weather.

• June 7th STILL rough weather, call this summer! Evidently Laser is off the Kent coast, there may be a new deal in the offing... stereo? It's not expected on air for a couple of months. Lots of double shifts to cover 24hrs on Caroline.

• June 10th Caroline and Monique off at 8am for "essential maintenance to take about six hours". Back at 5-55pm (nearly ten hours!) no difference in signals.

• June 11th They've moved position from the Knock Deep to 14 miles NNE of Ramsgate! That must've been why they were off yesterday.

• June 12th Tests on 963 all night "Overdrive" type music.

• June 13th And again, to test night-time reception from new position?

• June 14th No Overdrive. New people, Geoff Morris, Paul Graham. A Sunday newspaper said that Laser had been towed away.... byeee Laser! (later note, see 21st!)

• June 21st Not true says a SW station. Laser is still there, nearer Dunkerque for tendering purposes, and being sorted out with new masts etc.

• July 5th New crew on Caroline. Kevin Turner and John Tyler are back, a new bloke, David Baker has joined. Peter Phillips, Steve Conway, Geoff Morris and Paul Graham have all gone off.

• July 27th 558 and 963 both on pathetic low power today, they were OK last night.

• July 28th 558 back to normal, 963 still punk.

• August 23rd Slight improvement in strength on 558 these days.

• September 12th Caroline reported testing on 9950kHz and 6210 or 6205kHz short wave.

• September 14th Radio Finland on 963 is completely flattening Caroline at 10pm, they must have that 600kW TX going!.

• September 12th And at 8pm today.

• October 15th HURRICANE! Roofs blown off, trees down all over the South of England! 558 was on first-thing then off to tie some loose wires up, back at 0820. Quite a few TX trips during the morning, by lunchtime it was very bad. By 3pm they were more off than on! Closed down at 3pm for maint, back with a carrier at 8pm

• October 16th Normal service! Well done chaps...

• October 26th Report from North of Scotland; 558 audible from time to time during the evening, 963 very good early then clobbered by Finland.

• November 2nd The religious stuff is now completely clobbered by Finland and Monique suffers from about 3-30pm!

• November 8th Rumour control; Caroline are considering moving from 963 to 954 or 864 due to the Finnish interference.

• November 12th Good music on 558 these days, it's a good crew.

• November 14th No 558 or 963 today.

• November 15th MONIQUE ON 819! Quite good ground wave (similar to 963) poorer at sundown then improves later.

• November 16th 819 is much better than 963 over-all but they are 50Hz or so LF.

• November 22nd 819 very good after 10pm when Andorra goes off..

• November 24th Stormy seas, "The ship's making some peculiar noises" said somebody in the evening.

• November 25th No 558 or 963 all day. THE MAST HAS COLLAPSED!!! (according to the info-line).

• November 28th It's very quiet these days......

• November 30th 738 is back up to an audible strength and is calling itself Radio Nova again.

• December 5th Caroline back on dead-weak on 558 only, about 20dB down. Evidently they started yesterday afternoon but it's useless after 3-30pm.

• December 8th They are using a wire from the funnel to the front mast, can't be much more than 100ft or so!.

• December 10th Caroline say they're 24hr..... what's the point?.

• December 13th 1987Rumour city:- Possibly a power increase in a couple of days and maybe short wave by Christmas. Mast at each end of the ship will be used to re-instate the dual service. Laser may be ready to erect its' new masts by Christmas. The Nannelle organisation has offered help and poss the MV Sarah from the USA will come to replace the Ross for a while.

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