PEOPLE

The owners of RNI were two Swiss businessmen, Erwin Meister and Edwin Bollier - the combined initials of their surnames (MEister and BOllier) gave their electronics company its name -  MEBO Telecommunications AG.

Erwin Meister and Edwin Bollier had known each other from their school days and, after graduating from university, they went into business together beginning with the purchase of a car-radio patent. Among their other business interests they also owned the disco at the Nova Park Hotel  and the "High-Life Club" in Zurich. The two men were keen amateur radio enthusiasts and operated their own amateur broadcasting facility in Switzerland.

In 1968, they won a very lucrative contract to install a communications network for the International Red Cross between Europe and Eastern Nigeria to facilitate the aid operation during the war in Biafra,  making possible the largest humanitarian airlift since the Berlin blockade in 1948.

In the same year Meister and Bollier became involved in the technical side of a planned German offshore radio project, originally named Radio Gloria and later known as Radio Noordsee. Ultimately the project failed to materialise, but the two Swiss businessmen decided to pursue a plan of their own to launch an offshore radio station serving the whole of Europe from an anchorage in the North Sea.

         Back                                                                                                                    Next

Do you have any other memorabilia about RNI which we could add to this Special Exhibition?

If you do, and you are willing to allow the Museum to use it, please contact

orm@offshoreradiomuseum.co.uk

We look forward to hearing from you

Erwin Meister and Edwin Bollier

EXHIBITION INDEX

Introduction

The People

Before RNI

Press Reports

Pre-Launch

On the Air

Miscellaneous

     Back to

                                                                     Index