RNI History 6

RNI - History (6)

Now that information about the unsavoury pirate war being fought off the coast of Holland had become public knowledge the Dutch Prime Minister announced on 27th May 1971 that legislation to ratify the Strasbourg Convention of 1965 and to outlaw offshore broadcasting stations would be brought before Parliament by the end of the year.

On RNI programming continued as normal while repairs to the Mebo II were carried out at sea. Throughout the spring and summer of 1971 the newly confident RNI consolidated and expanded its services on all fronts. A news service had been introduced on 10th April 1971 and, just before the bombing, the station had extended its Dutch and English language programmes by two hours each day. At the end of June 1971 a separate 'World Service' programme was launched on the shortwave transmitters between 7.00am and 3.00pm each Sunday. The financially lucrative Dutch service was again extended to 12 hours a day (6.00am-6.00pm) from 2nd August 1971 but at the expense of English language programme hours. Additionally from about this time the World Service was also extended from eight to eleven hours on Sundays.

The hearing against Bull Verweij, Norbert Jurgens and the three divers who had bombed the Mebo II was concluded on 21st September 1971 when all five men were found guilty and sentenced to one year in prison.

Drama of another kind affected RNI in November 1971. At 8.10am on 22nd November the Mebo II radioed that she was adrift after losing her anchor and all programmes from RNI stopped shortly afterwards as the vessel had entered Dutch territorial waters. Rescue services raced to the stricken ship and the salvage tug Smitbank put a line aboard the Mebo II and towed her back to an anchorage position in international waters. Broadcasts of RNI's programmes were able to resume at 4.30pm.

Towards the end of December 1971 RNI's Sunday World Service was abruptly discontinued, although a programme for radio fans - DXers - continued to be broadcast once a month on the shortwave frequency.

1972

In June 1972 the Dutch Service of RNI moved into new studios near Bussum in Holland. The new studio, which was the result of the commercial success of the Dutch language broadcasts contained extensive facilities for programme recording as well as commercial and jingle production.

On 30th September Radio Veronica implemented a change its frequency from 192m to 538m. A few seconds after 12.30pm when Radio Veronica vacated their old wavelength RNI opened a second service - RNI 2 - on 192m . The following day RNI 2 opened again at 6.00am, but the separate English language programme only lasted just over an hour then the regular RNI Dutch service was relayed in a parallel transmission. At 12noon the short-lived RNI 2 service left the air and was not heard again.

The RNI English Service did not come on the air as usual on 24th October 1972, being replaced with non-stop music and occasional announcements in Dutch. No explanation was given to listeners for the sudden absence of regular programmes, but it soon became known that the Dutch Service Director, Jon de Mol had sacked all the staff and discontinued the English language programmes because they attracted so little advertising revenue. The station's Swiss owners, Erwin Meister and Edwin Bollier, who had not been consulted, immediately reinstated the English staff, resulting in a return of RNI's English Service on 3rd November 1972, after an absence of 10 days.

1973

On 23rd February 1973 the Mebo II's anchor chain broke during a storm and transmissions on all frequencies were stopped as the radio ship had drifted inside Dutch territorial waters. Broadcasts recommenced the following day after the Mebo II had been towed back to her position and a new anchor chain fitted.

Adverse weather conditions caused much worse problems for all three radio ships off the coast of Holland on 2nd April 1973. A gale had been blowing all day which steadily increased in intensity until it reached hurricane force. The storm damaged RNI's transmitter masts and the station's signal deteriorated so severely that by 5.00pm it had to leave the air. It was not until the following afternoon that low power transmissions were able to start once again, but on medium wave and shortwave only. The FM aerial had been so severely damaged that transmissions in that waveband did not resume for over three weeks.