Radio 819 History 2

Radio 819 - History (2)

Unfortunately power on 819kHz was only about 5Kw and reception of the Dutch station's signal in its primary target areas of Holland and Belgium was not very satisfactory, so the Caroline Overnight Alternative Service was reintroduced on 819kHz in January 1989. During February 1989 Radio 819 (along with Radio Caroline) was off the air for various periods while a team of specialist aerial riggers constructed more new aerial masts on the Ross Revenge.

During mid and late February 1989 shortages amongst the Dutch staff on board the Ross Revenge once again led to many old Radio 819 taped programmes being repeated two, three or even four times, just to fill airtime hours and there were also many periods of continuous music without any announcements or news. This situation continued until the first week of March 1989 when a tender managed to deliver some more DJs and fresh supplies of programme material to the Ross Revenge and the news service was reintroduced from 6th March 1989.

A public opinion poll published at the end of April 1989 showed that the much troubled Radio 819 was not very popular in Holland, having a daily audience of only 25,000 listeners. In an effort to boost audience figures a new format was introduced from 5th June 1989 under the title "Holiday Radio 819".

Part of the reason for such low audience figures was the poor signal being put out on 819kHz. Throughout the summer of 1989 Radio 819 threatened to leave the Ross Revenge or even have the radio ship moved to a position off the Dutch/Belgian coast to improve signal quality until the new mast was completed. Other options reportedly considered by Radio 819 were to use other radio ships (either the Nannell or the Communicator), because twenty advertising contracts were reported to have been secured but could not be confirmed because of the poor signal. To try and improve this situation Radio Caroline engineers built and installed another completely new aerial system aboard the radio ship, although this work itself resulted in both stations frequently having to go off the air for short periods adding further to the loss of audience loyalty.

From early July 1989 DJs and crew on board the Ross Revenge began to suspect that the radio ship was under surveillance by the authorities once again. Although nothing was said over the air on either Radio Caroline or Radio 819.Then at the beginning of August 1989 there were rumours that some sort of direct action was being planned against the Ross Revenge, although on 16th August the Dutch authorities denied these stories, quoting the Court decision following the seizure of the Radio Paradijs ship, Magda Maria, eight years previously.

Despite this categoric statement, the very next day police raided twenty premises in Holland and seven in Belgium, all owned or occupied by people suspected of being associated with the three offshore radio stations based on the Ross Revenge. Police in Spain also interviewed ex-Radio Mi Amigo DJ Maurice Bokkenbroek, who operated the PO Box number in Playa de Aro on behalf of both Radio 819 and Caroline 558. A number of other people who worked for the offshore stations or Kroon Music Media in Holland were also interviewed and various documents and programme tapes were seized. Advertisers and sponsor's premises were visited by the authorities - Texas products, the main backer of Radio 819, had its office raided as did evangelist Johaan Maasbach and World Mission Radio, whose programmes were transmitted on the shortwave service from the Ross Revenge.

Meanwhile, in the North Sea on Thursday 17th August 1989 a British Coastguard vessel, Landward, circled the Ross Revenge a few times and then took up position close to the radio ship. Later a member of the crew asked permission to board the Ross Revenge, but this was refused. A Dutch official on the Landward then informed crew members on the radio ship that the Radio 819 organisation on land had been raided and all people associated with the station arrested, including DJs and advertisers. He also asked the crew of the Ross Revenge to close down their transmitters.

During the morning of Friday 18th August 1989 programmes on both Caroline 558 and Radio 819 continued as normal, but at 10.30am the pre-recorded "Coffee Time" programme on Radio 819 was interrupted and the record "Ring Ring" by Abba was played continuously for thirty minutes. This was a desperate coded message for the station's land-based office to contact the Ross Revenge.

The scheduled taped programme started at 11.00am and continued for an hour and twenty minutes then, without warning, the 819kHz transmitter went silent. After ten minutes Caroline 558 programmes were relayed on 819kHz and this simulcast arrangement continued for the remainder of the day.

Separate programmes commenced again on Radio 819 the following morning, Saturday 19th August 1989, but consisted largely of continuous music, although one or two of the scheduled taped programmes were broadcast.